A chip off the old block

Recently, I've discovered some characteristics and qualities about Olivia... that are JUST LIKE HER DAD.

For one she has a incredible memory. We read her a book twice, and she's got it memorized. She'll then read it back to us. Not verbatim of course, but you get the jist of what it's about.

For Christmas... Olivia got a box set of DR Seuss board books. It's SO adorable to hear her "read" those.

James does have a REALLY good memory. He told me he has memories as far back at 2 yrs old. He also as a child had every disney song memorized (after only watching them a few times) and when we were dating he did GREAT at reciting scriptures.

The second thing that Olivia does that is JUST like James is... if she likes something... she CAN NOT GET enough.

If you know James, you know this is true. For instance. If we are watching a movie, and there is a funny joke James ever since he was little (and still to this very day) has to rewind and watch it over and over and over again. The same with Olivia.

There is a page in Hop on Pop that she just loves. It's the one that Pat sits on cats, hats, bats, and has a picture of him almost sitting on a cactus. Olivia LOVES cactuses! We taught her that if you touch it, it will poke you and hurt. So this is how Olivia reads the book:

"Cup, Pup"

"Bed, Bed"

"See, Bee"

"No Pat NO!!!!!!!" "Don't sit on that" "Cactus! Ouch that hurt!"

You then try to turn the page and she wont have it. She then repeats that page over and over and over again. Reading and adding her own commentary to it.

Finally after maybe 10 times. Shell reluctantly turn the page.

We get to the last page "Ask me tomorrow, not today" and are just about to close it when of course we have to turn back to the Cactus page to look at it and repeat it all over again.

Sometimes you may think it's annoying, but it just shows she is passionate. Just like her Dad. Which I think is what is going to make them both very successful.

She's hyper and a climber LIKE HER DAD! Susan told me that one day she found James on a bookcase when he was about Olivia's age.

Olivia loves climbing on top the kitchen table, the kitchen counters, the bed, her slide, her rocking horse, and anything else she sees.

These are just a few of the similarities I have noticed between the two loves of my life.

I've had a lot of time to think about them and I keep thinking of the phrase everyone told me when I was pregnant. That having a child will "cement" us together.

At the time I was kind of put off by that statement. It kind of felt like they were saying that if we had children it would make it more difficult to get a divorce or something.  Not that I want a divorce period, but it just felt like they were saying like LOVE between two people might not be enough.

I've come to realise though, that's not what it means. At least not to me.

Having a child is like falling in love all over again. You count down the minutes until you get to see them. Your happier with them around. It makes everything okay... even during hard times, because you have them.

I know that's how I feel about Olivia, but it's also how I feel about James. Its made me take a deeper look at his roots and why he is the way he is.. and I love those things about both of them.

They are my everything!