Baby doll

Well, Kyle and I both came down with a terrible 24-hour stomach flu.  Thankfully, Kyle was on the mend by the time I came down with it, so we were able to trade off parenting duties.  But I have to say, Olivia is a pretty good little person to have around when you are sick.  Of course, being a toddler she has tons of energy and lots of needs and wants throughout the day, which is exhausting no matter what.  (And there is no way I would have been able to take care of her on my own the first day I was sick.)  But after being sick herself just recently, she does seem to have gained an understanding of what it means to be sick and how you should behave around a sick person.  When I was sick, she would say things like, "Mommy so tired." "Wanna snuggle with mommy." "Mommy need a drink."  She even brought me my Gatorade without spilling it, without me asking her to (in a glass that a toddler has no business carrying around the living room).

She was willing to watch a little too much Elmo when I was resting on the couch.  I noticed she even has some of the lines memorized.  At one point she said, "Elmo needs to get a grip!" right before an Elmo bat came on the screen and sure enough said, "Elmo needs to get a grip!"  That was my cue that it was time to turn it off.

She is able to play quietly by herself for at least half an hour with a few toys.  Today, when I was feeling better, I took a video of her playing.  It is kinda long at over 3 minutes, but I wanted to show how she will keep playing with the same toy over and over, practicing the same routine without getting tired of it.  She keeps rocking the dolly "a little bit longer."  Of course, that is the same thing she asks me to do for her every night. "Mommy, Rock me a little bit longer!"  It's pretty funny that she filled the bed with lots of small finger puppets and toys before putting the baby in there.  Also, I love how she rubs the doll's back just like I do for her.   I know this is a normal part of toddler development, but it is amazing to me how a little girl who seems to have been my newborn baby just yesterday, is already practicing her own mommying skills.  She needs to work on putting the baby in the bed a little more gently though.;)

Tonight as I was rocking her to sleep, Livy gave me a big hug and asked, "Mommy sick?" I told her, "No, mommy is all better now."  This reminds me of a prayer that Livy said after she got over her ear infection.  I don't think I ever mentioned it in the blog, but one day after we had started the antibiotics, when I was changing her diaper, I told her that tomorrow she could go back to school because she was all better.  She folded her little hands right there on the changer and said,  "Thank God all better now." There are no words to describe the feeling this gave me, which is probably why I never mentioned it before.