Olivia and June

I'll forewarn you. This segment will bore you if you have no interest in my kids. But for the friends and family who follow them, I wanted to provide an update.

The Mrs. and I have two daughters. Our three-year-old, we'll call Olivia. Our younger daughter, who we'll call June, is exactly 15 months younger than Olivia. She'll celebrate her second birthday next month. Aside from their gender, they are about as opposite as you could imagine. Olivia has a head full of curly blonde hair. June has straight brown hair. Olivia is rather clingy. June is quite independent. Olivia is very cautious. June has no fear. Olivia gets a lot of boo-boo's and needs each one thoroughly attended to by me or the Mrs. (preferably the Mrs., in Olivia's mind). June is a hoss. Olivia has always been small for her age, consistently scoring in the 10th percentile in height and weight. June has always been big for her age, consistently scoring in the 90th percentile in height and weight. They are nearly the same size, despite being 15 months apart in age. And the examples could go on and on.

They are the best of friends, though. After awakening, each of them immediately starts searching for or asking about the other. They play together all the time, they look out for each other, and especially as June's vocabulary explodes, they converse with each other. They dislike being apart from each other for very long. That's not to say that there aren't the typical sister spats, raw nerves, and sharing disputes, but for the most part, they love being around each other.

So let's start with Olivia. If you've ever read any of the "Olivia" stories by Ian Falconer, then you know our Olivia, because those two are identical. I suppose it's encouraging, though, that Falconer could create such a popular character as Olivia the Pig in the world of children's stories. I imagine the books are popular because Olivia the Pig is such a universally familiar character for parents of three-year-olds. Most parents can say, "My child is just like Olivia!" As can we. Which means our Olivia is normal.

Olivia was a very high-maintenance baby, which was probably learned behavior to a large extent since she is our first child, so we agonize over every little thing. But now she's becoming a lot more self-sufficient and able to do things on her own, so that's quite the relief to me and the Mrs. She does, however, come into our bedroom every night at some point and sleep with us for at least half the night. Well, she sleeps. The Mrs. and I get the crap beaten out of us by Olivia as she tosses and turns and kicks and flings her limbs wildly all night long. Nothing quite like taking a heel to the eye socket when you're in a dead sleep. It's a real joy.

Olivia can easily dress herself (although her ability to match clothing leaves something to be desired), and she's virtually completely potty-trained. Potty training her was actually pretty easy. She caught on quickly, thanks to her interest in wearing panties and her strong dislike of wet clothing. She's even been wearing panties, instead of a diaper, to bed for the past couple of months, and I can count her accidents on one hand.

She is in constant motion, especially since she started taking gymnastics classes a few months ago. She absolutely loves gymnastics. And now everything in the house is hung on, jumped from, and balanced on. She's pretty athletic, running with a fair amount of speed, kicking a ball with no problems, jumping like a kangaroo, and even throwing a ball with some mustard on it. Like her daddy, though, she can throw the ball hard, but accuracy isn't her forte. She got a scooter for her third birthday that she likes to buzz around the house on, and she's almost got the leg length now to attempt riding her tiny little bicycle with training wheels and her pedal-powered '55 Chevy.

Olivia is real big into Disney Princesses--Cinderella, Belle, Sleeping Beauty, Jasmine, and Snow White, with Cinderella being her favorite--and she loves to dress up. She has a number of princess dresses that she changes in and out of several times a day. She likes to draw and color, and she loves to play with any of the 75 billion or so dollies that she has all over the house in varying sizes and abilities. She's quite good at role-playing with her dollies. Nothing like seeing and hearing your daily life being acted out by a three-year-old with her dollies! (Daddy Dolly seems to yell a lot for some reason.)

She loves to do things herself. Unless she wants attention, and then she can't do a thing by herself. But when she's not turning into the Green-Eyed Monster because her sister is getting attention, she likes to brush her own teeth, climb into her car seat and mostly strap herself in, and drink from a "big girl cup" (one without a lid or straw).

Her vocabulary is enormous. Understanding her is no problem. In the rare occasions when we can't figure out what she's talking about, she can describe what she's talking about in a different way, so we can understand what she meant. She also uses her vocabulary to smart-mouth me and the Mrs., declare her intentions to do the exact opposite of what we've just told her, and express her dismay at landing in Time Out for the 17th time today.

She's a smart kid, and she has a good soul. She's a good big sister, too. She keeps an eye on June, and recently came to her defense when another girl landed on June while they were all jumping on a bed. It was totally inadvertent by the other girl, but it was still nice to see Olivia come to the aid of her sister.

June's most noticeable progress lately has been that her vocabulary is absolutely exploding. She can form rudimentary sentences, and she can respond to a lot of questions. Many times, she can verbalize what she wants, or at least get close enough to it that between me, the Mrs., and Olivia, we can usually figure out what June is after. You can ask her "yes" or "no" questions, and most of the time, you'll get an accurate answer from her.

She's also starting to learn animals and what sounds they make. We pass three cow pastures on our way to daycare each morning. "Cow" was one of the first animals she learned. Everything was a cow to her. Cows were cows. Dogs were cows. Horses were cows. Sheep were cows. She's been getting better at differentiating animals now (although dogs are now "horses" to her), but she's still partial to cows. So a few weeks ago, we were driving by one of the pastures, and the cows were out. I pointed them out to her, and she yelled "COW!" with glee. I asked her what sound a cow makes, and Olivia piped in with, "Moooo!" And for some reason, Olivia added a raspberry at the end of the "Moooo", which is apparently top-shelf humor for a two-year-old. June thought that was HYSTERICAL. Olivia, egged on by a receptive audience, then spent the next 5 miles or so saying, "Mooooo! PBTHBTHBTH!" over and over and over and over again as June howled in laughter until she could hardly catch her breath. And now, every morning, at each of the three pastures, they both break into "Moooo! PBTHBTHBTH!" as we pass the cows. Who knew that cows spit? I sure didn't. But Olivia and June knew.

There are times when June would follow Olivia to the ends of the Earth, mimicking everything Olivia says and does, but there are other times when she disappears into one of the bedrooms and quietly plays with whatever toys are in that room. She can play quietly by herself for quite some time.

Her running is getting a little more under control than it was in the earlier stages of her two-legged travels. She's cute when she runs. She hunches her shoulders up and bends her elbows, keeping her hands at chest level, like some sort of tiny Tyrannosaurus Rex. A pigeon-toed T-Rex to be exact. And a couple weeks ago, she started jumping. Now when the girls jump on our bed, June can pretty well hold her own with Olivia.

June is a tank. Most times, when she wipes out or hits her head or skins her knee or whatever, she doesn't act fazed at all. If she cries, you know she's REALLY hurt. But the crying is very brief. The kid can tolerate pain! She wiped out on the front porch a week or so ago and went elbow first into the concrete. Took a big chunk of skin off her elbow. She cried. For about 15 seconds. And then it was back to business as usual. That night, we thought it would be prudent to clean the scrape out with some hydrogen peroxide--the stuff that bubbles up like crazy when it meets dirt and germs, and the stuff that burns like crazy as it disinfects. We were prepared for June to come out of her skin when we poured it on her skinned elbow. June just looked in wonderment at the bubbles forming on her elbow. Didn't even flinch. After the bubbles subsided, we poured a second dose on. Same reaction, except she shot us a quick look like, "Is that all you got? That's the best you can do?" She may have a future as a cage fighter.

Unlike Olivia, who bounces out of bed in the morning, eager to tackle the world, June is an absolute grouch in the morning. Try to kiss her, and she jerks her head away with a disgusted grunt. She wants her bottle of milk, her blueberry waffle, and her cartoons for about an hour. Don't talk to her. Don't touch her. Don't get in the way of the TV. After about an hour, though, she snaps out of it, and she's a happy little girl.

June eats what we eat, for the most part, except that she's allergic to a number of things, most notably milk and eggs. So she drinks soy milk, eats soy yogurt, and we watch the ingredients on anything else we give her to eat. She absolutely loves fruit. The aforementioned gluten-free blueberry waffles are another favorite. Meats are fine. Vegetables are fine. Finding gluten-free margarine isn't difficult. We've found a couple different kinds of bread that don't contain milk or eggs. We've figured out how to make muffins with Sprite instead of milk and eggs. We've learned that french fries at Wendy's do not contain milk, but McDonald's fries do. So there really isn't much she misses out on. We just have to watch what she eats, make some minor changes in what and where we eat, and she's fine.

So that's the latest with the girls. With Olivia in the Terrible Threes and June in the Terrible Twos, we have our moments when the Mrs. or I have to walk away and take a breather for a minute. But for the most part, Olivia and June are really good kids. They're both smart, funny, cute, and healthy. You can't ask for anything more.