"Squishy"

From the first minutes of Olivia's life, she has always been out sweet and cuddly baby. She is just so loving and peaceful.  When we got her home to her siblings, she continued to love being held and squished (we call hugs, squishes). So, within the first month of her life, she got the nickname of "Squishy" because she loved to be squished so much. The kids would all say, "I want to squish Olivia" and "Come give me a squish" because Olivia was so cuddly and loved squishing. To this day, we still call her our little Squishy. 

Olivia turned 5 this week. I cannot believe that she is 5 years old. I had the option to put her in kindergarden this year, or keep her in school another year- Her preschool teachers told me that she was most definitely ready for kindergarden this year. They said she is the most advanced child in the class (Olivia is really smart... a little TOO smart sometimes), she can read and knows her letters and sounds and is a whiz with numbers, the girl is already adding and subtracting really well. So, even though they said she was ready, and Olivia wanted to go as well, I just couldn't do it. She seems so little to me. It doesn't feel like she should be in kindergarden, yet.  We did make it a matter of prayer and really tried to make the best decision for her, and Travis and I just felt strongly that she should be home with us for another year. So, this year we started out Olivia in preschool, and she loves it. Her best friend, Kim, is in preschool with her and every day she looked forward to it. Then one day, we hired a nanny to come live with us from Virginia- Olivia decided right then and there that she would never go back to preschool. She wanted to stay home with mom and nanny. So, now she stays home with me and I love it. I know why we were so prompted to keep her out of kindergarden, it's so that I can have this extra year with her at home. It has been so much fun to have her here!! We do a lot of fun activities together and I think that this time together is helping us both. I still have a little anxiety about sending her next year, but really it is 9 months away, so maybe I will be used to the idea of sending my baby to school by then.

Olivia's favorite color is blue. She wants blue EVERYTHING. If I get her something not blue, she will say "I like this, but I would like it more if it were blue".  

Olivia loves to sing. She wanted a guitar for her birthday, so I got her a blue guitar. I love to listen to her strumming away and singing. Her older siblings all play the guitar and they have been very sweet to go and play the guitar and sing with her while she strums along on her guitar. It is very cute. I am excited to put her in guitar lessons when she is old enough.

Olivia has so much personality. She is super spunky and very creative. She loves being a big sister, she often helps with Max or hold Annie so we can get things done. She will play outside with Max for hours or just sit and read to Annie while I am doing other things. She is a light in our home. A big, shiny, LOUD and beautiful light in our lives and we love her so much!!

Happy 5th birthday, Squishy!!