Olivia started talking even more than before and we understand more and more. During the Christmas holiday, she was busy meeting loads of people, chasing cats in the yard and when there was snow we finally rode the wooden sled. The best of all was to shovel snow, then we couldn’t get her inside. And we tried to sleep and rest as much as possible. Your browser does not support the video tag.
We ended this summer with a trip to Italy. This time we were in one camping park near to Venice. On the way there we passed the Alps through many tunnels and after each tunnel Olivia said: “more”. The park was like a big village with lots of trees, nicely groomed and clean. There already were less people in tents and caravans, but the camping homes were quite busy. There were mostly families with children.
We strengthen our immunity. I feel like one of us is always sick. Nevertheless, we enjoyed the hot summer days in the pool on the balcony, when it didn’t rain we were on the playground or otherwise we played at home. Olivia likes watering our plants on the balcony and she ate all our white currants (not to mention how much currants she ate at grandparents). Right now she is making another mental jump in her life and she learns to manage her emotions.
I’ve already been working for two weeks and it’s quite a nice change. Time with my colleagues flies away so fast in the morning and in the afternoon I enjoy Olivia and I try to concentrate only on her. In the morning she runs to children in her class laughing. Currently, she takes great delight in building towers from Lego building blocks, she likes reading books and last time I found her with a TV control in her hand pretending to be on the phone.
This week we were at home just the two of us. Olivia is getting used to sleeping in the nursery and I have the whole morning just for myself after a long time. In the afternoon, we practically are still outside. We take a moment to shovel sand into the bucket and the remaining time we’re trying to climb on everything around. Olivia became a great helper at home. She likes to be involved in everything I do - washing the dishes, stirring while cooking, wiping her highchair after eating, hanging bib on a radiator, water the flowers, vacuuming, sweeping, unloading things from the dishwasher.
I started going to the nursery with Olivia two weeks ago and I’m still excited about this place and the people working there. They follow Montessori principles, children are in the group regardless of age (so they are like siblings, the bigger ones have to be careful not to hurt the smaller ones who are watching them with an open mouth) and can move freely in the building visiting other children.
Olivia decided to start walking. Although she already took her first steps some days ago, yesterday she stood up without our motivation and went. Today she went on practising and now she is able to walk longer distance. And in last weeks, she grew up so much that I had to sort through her clothes and she is now big enough for her little quad and so she rides it cheerfully.
Last year was great, but it’s a pity that it has passed so quickly. Among other things, we attended two interesting courses with Olivia starting when she was about four months old. One of them (here called PEKiP) was based on the idea of the Czech child psychologist Dr. Jaroslav Koch, who dealt with sensory and motor stimulation of children under one year. The main idea was that while we moms were talking about everything related to our babies watching them carefully, our children played naked.
One year ago our Olivia was born. It’s hard to believe that she was so small when I’m looking at her now. She already measures 75cm and weighs nearly 9.3kg. She always smiles and gives us hugs and kisses. Every morning, she gets up at six, we take her to our bed so I can breastfeed her, then she gives us a kiss, sits down, shows “done” with her hands and then points her finger at the door and says “ta” which means wake up, we’re going to play.
Again, we enjoy a common month of parental leave. I must say that it’s great because we have just right amount of energy for our little rascal. Olivia climbed down the stairs for the first time. It took her quite a long time, but we duly praised her for that and she smiled like sunshine. She learned to slip the wooden rings on a stick and she likes to take toys out of the box and then again put them back.