Father's Day 2012

For Dan's first Father's Day Olive and I made him a coffee mug. It has pictures of just the two of them from the day she was born up until maybe she was 6.5 months old. It reads Papa and Olive. :) He loves it.

I captured these pics of Olive for Dan. It was hard work trying to get her to pose with these letters. I just love the way it turned out! I love her expression and how she is holding the "D" in the 3rd pic.

I wish I had thought about doing a MOM pic for Mother's Day. There's always next year. :)

Just a sweet moment between Papa and Olive.

She never does this. :)

Melts my heart.

Happy Father's Day to a wonderful Dad.

We all love you!

What Olive has been up to

Olive has been a busy little girl.

She took a dip for the first time in Nana and Poh Poh's pool.

She started waving a few weeks ago.

Olive waves

And when she was tired of waving she shooed me away. LOL

No more waving

She has been chatting up a storm.

She is moving backwards on her play mat, but not crawling yet.

She copies Mama.

Olive mimics Mama

She enjoys a good book every now and then. :)

And she still makes time to enjoy horseback riding. :)

Happy 7 months, Olive!

Age: 7 months

Weight:   19.5 lbs. (84th percentile)

Height:   ~27 1/4 inches (71st percentile)
Clothing: sizes 6, 9, 12 months & 18 month swim suit. 

Head circumference:  17.5 inches (82nd percentile)

Sleeping: There are nights where she wakes up in the middle of the night and there was one night where she reverted to being a newborn and woke up 3 times in one night.  It used to be easy to fall asleep with her on the glider, but now that she is moving a lot in her crib when she is asleep in my arms she still moves a lot and I don't sleep.  

Eating habits: Nursing. Sometimes she has milk from a bottle when I'm away or I have to go out and about.  I can't NIP because she is so distracted these days and will quickly throw that nursing cover up. She is eating solids once a day. She has enjoyed most foods, except for bananas.  :)

Favorite activity: She loves the tags on any clothing or toy. She also loves the buckles and straps on her super seat, RNP and changing station. She enjoys talking, screaming, laughing, listening to music, playing with her rattles and making loud noises.  She tends to stroke her hair while nursing.

Cutest Moment of the Month:  Making funny faces when trying new foods & just the look of excitement when she knows she is about to eat. Also, learned how to do "tope" with mama and a few others.  "Tope" is a very soft head butt.  

Milestones: 

Sits without support, may lean forward on both hands

Bears full weight on feet

Bounces when held in standing position

Bears weight on one hand when lying on stomach

Transfers objects from one hand to another

Bangs objects on surfaces

Able to fixate on small objects

Responds to name

Awareness of depth and space begin

Has taste preferences

"Talks" when others are talking

Firsts: Stayed with her Nana & PohPoh for the 1st time for 2 hours while Mama and Daddy celebrated their anniversary! She learned "tope" and she sat in a swing at the park.

Updates: She is now starting to sit without support.  She catches herself when she feels like she is falling backwards.  She has not begun to crawl yet, but she "inch worms" it. :) I think her legs are strong enough, but her upper body hasn't caught up.  There is still plenty of time. There is no rush because I hear that once they are off on their own, that's it.  They are then all over the place and into everything. :)  She does prefer to stand and it looks at times like she wants to pull herself up on the ottoman. She has been teething since she was 2 months old and there are still no teeth in her mouth.  Again, no rush.  I'm not looking forward to her possibly biting me while nursing. She already tends to teeth on my nipple. Ow! 

Can an infant have tantrums? Mine definitely seems to. Once again it has become hard to get anything done around the house when we're by ourselves (sometimes even bathe) without her screaming her head off.  She is still an amazing and fun little girl.  Watching her grow and change and learn new things is so exciting.  Her laugh is contagious.  She is so ticklish around her neck, feet, ribs and inner thighs. 

Happy Sweet 16 to "the other two"!

It's hard to believe my first babies are 16 today.

I remember that day like it was yesterday.  

It was a school day. I had missed the 1st pup's arrival, but I watched as Sissy came into this world.  I left for school and my mom paged me (haha beepers) throughout the day to let me know that pup #3, 4, and 5 had made their arrival.  :)  Unfortunately, pup #1 (Sweetie) did not make it.  There were still 4 amazing little pups that I named: Sissy, Peanut Jr., Flower & Baby Dan (believe it or not I actually didn't name him).

After 8 weeks, maybe even longer, we had to part with 2 of the 4 pups.  

I was so upset, but later understood that we couldn't keep them all.

Thankfully I was able to keep 2 of them and I think I picked the right 2.  :)

I believe that having them helped to prepare me for the responsibility of being a mommy to Olive.  Some days these 2 geriatric pups drive us absolutely crazy, but we still love them with all of our hearts and couldn't imagine our lives without them. 

Mother's Day 2012

This year was my 1st official Mother's Day!

Last year my little Olive berry was in my belly and this year she was in my arms. I loved it!

We had a wonderful day.

We spent the day with my mama.

I'm looking forward to many more Mother's Days spent with my little girl. I'm especially looking forward to those little handmade gifts. :)

Happy 6 months, Olive!

Age: 6 months

Weight:  18 lbs. 10 oz. (91st percentile)

Height:  27 inches (89th percentile)
Clothing: sizes 6, 9, and 12 months.

Head circumference: 17 inches (71st percentile)

Sleeping: She is still sleeping through the night. She flips onto her tummy in the middle of the night. She started getting her arms stuck in the slats and was having a hard time flipping over so we now have a breathable bumper. Problem solved.

Eating habits: Nursing, Expressed milk & solids!

Favorite activity: Going on walks and looking at everything, especially the leaves.  Being held by mommy, turning the pages of a book or magazine, talking, listening to music.

Cutest Moment of the Month:  Mama and Olive laughing together, smiling as her siblings walk by, petting her siblings, letting my dad play with her and hold her without crying, giving kisses & smiling every time she sees an owl.  

Milestones:
Chewing and biting occur
When on stomach can lift chest and part of stomach off the surface bearing weight on hands
Lifts head when pulled to a sitting position
Rolls from back to stomach
Bears majority of weight when being held in a standing position
Grasps and controls small objects
Holds bottle
Grabs feet and pulls to mouth
Adjusts body to see an object
Turns head from side to side and then looks up or down
Prefers more complex visual stimuli
Says one syllable sounds like "ma", "mu", "da", and "di"
Recognizes parents

Firsts:

Bath with mama, road trip to the farm, first back to tummy and tummy to back, began sitting unassisted, first drink out of sippy cup & big glass and first solids!
Updates:
Olive continues to amaze us. She is so smart and keeps us smiling and laughing at the things she does.  She has discovered her hair and ours.  She likes to grab mine when I least expect it and has begun to tug on her own while she is nursing.  She is starting to suck on her thumb. Uh-oh.  There are still no teeth.  And I'm totally okay with that because I'm a little concerned with her biting while nursing.  :D  She started solids a few weeks ago and she seems to like everything she has tried.  We switched the type of rice we were using and now she likes brown jasmine rice for her cereal.  She likes playing with the buckles on her super seat, high chair and rock and play.  We always joke that she is trying to figure out a way to get out of the seats.  She likes rubbing or tossing around her burp cloth while she nurses.  She is sitting unassisted now.  She has been moving around in her crib at night and on her play mat during the day.  There have been many early mornings where I have to move the camera to see where she has moved.  It won't be long until she is moving all over the place.  Time to baby proof the house!


And it's time to start planning a birthday party!!!

Big kiss from Olive

There is nothing better than a kiss from my girl.
Olive's kisses

Liv eats

On Easter Sunday, at 5 months, 2 weeks & 2 days Olive started solids!
She was ready. She has been ready for a few weeks now, but we were planning to travel so I didn't want to start her while away from home.

And I also introduced her to the sippy cup with just an ounce of water. She has been leaning in with her mouth wide open when I drink out of a glass and she started reaching out for my glass. She really liked it.

Her first meal was pears and she LOVED them. I had read that starting babies with a sweet fruit may be a good start because breast milk is so sweet. I have to say it was a great choice. I baked the pear, pureed it in her baby bullet and mixed them with some breast milk.

"Mmmm!"

Here's a video of her eating pears:

Olive eats pears

The next food we introduced was brown rice cereal. Yeah she didn't care for that too much and I don't blame her.

Assuming pears were coming, "Pears!"

"Um, mama this is not pears."

"I guess it isn't so bad."

And here's a video of her eating cereal...

Olive eats cereal

Next up: sweet potatoes!

I just love introducing our girl to new foods! This is just the beginning of her foodie adventures.  :)

Liv laughs

This is just a short video of my baby girl's laugh.  It's my favorite sound and it never gets old.  

Olive's First Easter!

We had a wonderful Easter.  Easter is much more fun when you have a little bunny of your own. :) Liv got gifts from her grandparents, aunt, family friends and of course her mama and papa.  This year her Easter basket from us was filled with items to get her started on solids. Oh yeah, she started solids on Easter! A post about that coming soon.

Liv trying to get into her Poh Poh's peeps.  :)

I can't wait until next year when she gets to enjoy her 1st egg hunt!