Post Christmas Play Date

(Psst...don't miss my post down below...I posted twice in one day! Crazy

Michael & Marci came over for a play date yesterday. Here's some of the cute pics:

Olivia showing Michael how to be naughty and play with diapers
(I know, she looks a little drunk)..."What, Mom? We're not doing anything wrong! Really!"
I just noticed Michael is copping a feel too...naughty boy... It's one of two, you decide:

"Gimme!" OR

"I love you!"

They must have thought I was crazy...

So I took Olivia to the Dr. today because I thought she had an ear infection. Why you ask? Well, if you remember back (Signs & Symptoms) Olivia does not show the classic signs of an ear infection. I've had to get creative with my diagnoses.

I told the Dr., "Well, she has been eating a TON and she is crabby when she wakes up from her naps...so I think she has an ear infection." She tried not to laugh at me, but I could tell she thought I was a little wacky. I explained O's history and I think she thought I was a little less wacky. But then she checked O's ears...SURE ENOUGH! She's got an ear infection. It is in the same ear as before, so it may be residual...but here goes another round of antibiotics.

Poor little Oli! On another note...I think I may be psychic.

O's First Christmas

What a joy it was to celebrate Olivia's first Christmas! She was such a little trooper through all of hte hustle and bustle...traveling to different places, all the presents, and attention. It was a busy few days for Miss O! But boy oh boy, did she love Christmas!

Christmas Eve we spent with family friends of my side of the family for dinner and then went to Ryan's Mom's side for presents. Like Ryan said on the way home," it is so much fun to see other people enjoy her as much as we do!". I second that!

Christmas day was spent at our house with my family. We had brunch and then spent the afternoon opening presents. It was a wonderful time and Olivia loved playing with all of her new toys! That evening we also went over to the Thompson's for a bit to crash their Christmas party. O was exhausted, but loved playing with her cousins. I'll post pics later, but...

Here's a clip of O's new favorite toy:

Ho Ho Healthy!

Okay...before I jinx the family (because I usually do by blogging..) let me just say that WE ARE HEALTHY! Hooray! And Olivia is napping...in her crib! Without a fight! For the 2nd time in 9 days.

Merry Christmas to you and yours! Enjoy the holiday season. Eat lots, be merry, and hopefully get a little R & R! May blessings, Ehlan, Ryan, & Olivia

I don't even know what day of Christmas we are on anymore...

Well, I tried the days of Christmas thing, and I did pretty good...till we got sick anyway!

Last night before we went to bed, my mom called to say my Dad had gotten sick. Poor Grampy who took such good care of his little O and Bug caught our germies. Sorry Grampy! Ryan and I have company this weekend; his hunting buddy Brandon, so after Grammi called I thougth I better do some more disinfecting. As we were talking up stairs, Ryan said to Brandon, "Don't worry, I haven't gotten sick!". Famous last words. I dont' think I even have to tell you who was up sick half the night last night.

So the disinfecting begins all over again. I'm off to get my 2 Clorox sprays, wipes, and then to Target to buy Lysol and TP.

Sigh.

I've learned an important lesson:

When you have a sick baby, you throw out all of your rules about sleeping and eating.
I sure hope they are easy to get back!

Thank Goodness for Daddys

This afternoon when Ry got home from work he had to run a few errands. He knew I needed a break, so he took Miss O with him. I have now been home alone for 2 1/2 hours, and I am thoroughly enjoying myself. Even though most of my time was spent picking up, cleaning, and doing laundry to catch up from working & being sick this week, I have managed to spend some time online and watching Oprah too.

Pray that Miss O is recovered tonight! I'm not ready for more puke now that I've done the laundry!!

On the 6th & 7th days of Christmas...

Olivia and I spent our days bowing before the porcelin throne. Well, Olivia didn't ever make it to the throne, she puked in stead in her bed and all over Mommy. But I made it to the thone--an amazing 7 times yesterday. Oh feel the Christmas joy! :)

I seem to be fully recovered today, but Olivia, after being fine most of the day yesterday started throwing up again during the night. She just had diarrhea (ish), but has not thrown up now since 4 am. I'm hoping we're on the road to recovery.

Let's see...something Christmas related--I spend most of my days now trying to keep Olivia out of the tree and the presents! Silly lady! She's pretty good at listening, but they are so much fun to get into!!

frustrating morning.

The last few days Olivia has not wanted to nap by herself. She has been napping by herself consistently since she was like 2 months old. I don't know if it is her teeth bothering her or what, but she will fall asleep and then wake up as soon as I lay her down and won't go back to sleep.

Last night she slept great, 12 hours total! An hour after she woke up, she was totally ready for her nap. Usually she goes 2 hours at least, but she was exhausted! She fell asleep right away, but woke up of course when I laid her down. UGH. So I thought, okay, I'm getting tough, you are crying it out. After 45 min. (not of her crying that long, but off and on), I gave in. I know, I know, it's not going to help...but seriously. She was not going to sleep. So we cuddled on the couch for a bit and watched a few minutes of Sesame Street. Finally she went to sleep and laid down. So we started the process at 8:45...now it's 10:30. How annoying!!

When we have times like this, I always try to figure out what went wrong. Did I start the nap process too early? Should I have just let her cry until she finally fell asleep? I just don't know... Hopefully she will take a good long nap now...

On the 5th Day of Christmas...

My mom helped me wrap all of my presents! Thanks Mom! Seeing all of the presents always makes me excited for Christmas to arrive so I can enjoy watching everyone's faces while they open their presents.

I love giving gifts, especially to children! Their reactions are so genuine. I love that when they really don't care for something, you can totally tell! But it's okay, because they're kids! :) They haven't learned to fake it yet. And really, isn't being genuine and honest more important anyway?

On the 4th day of Christmas...

We got to visit old friends up in Grand Rapids. We spent time at Sarah & Dave's, and Olivia got to play with Sofie and Annika. They had such a blast playing; we hardly knew there were 3 kids there they played so well! Visiting old friends around the holidays always makes me reminisce. Seeing Sarah made me think about how I always had to call my B.F.F.O.I.K.Y.A, Bridgit, every Christmas as soon as we got done opening presents to find out what she got, and of course share about all of my goodies. Being kids, we were always disappointed that we couldn't get together that day to play with our new presents!!

On the 3rd Day of Christmas...

I got all of my Christmas shopping done!

Sorry I'm late, we were up north all weekend!

On the 2nd Day of Christmas...

(Note: This entry is multi-purpose due to the admiration of my fashion vixen quality in the previous post)

(Back to the tune of the 12 days of Christmas)...Olivia asked me, "What are my friends getting for Christmas?"
We have had so much fun getting Olivia some Christmas presents this year. We have really held ourselves back being that we could buy EVERYTHING for her! But a: she won't know, b: she'll have more fun with the paper, and c: we certainly can't afford that!
Here's a list of Olivia's presents from Mom & Dad this year:
1. Sled!!
2. Busy Box
3. Books
4. Olivia the pig Christmas doll

What are you getting your munchkins for Christmas this year?

PART 2: Fashion VixenSince you all adored my coat so much, I thought you would appreciate my matching purse.



On a final note, life doesn't get much better than this! Bath time with Daddy last night...

On the 1st Day of Christmas....

my true love cut for me, our baby's first Christmas tree!!

Okay, we didn't really get the tree today; however, I saved the post for my first Christmas entry! (If you don't know what I'm doing, see the side bar, and join in!!) Sunday we went to AMP Christmas trees just up the road from our little hamlet, Bradford, for our annual Christmas tree cutting ceremony. This year was extra special since it was Olivia's first Christmas. Somehow though, it wasn't quite as magical as I thought it would be!

First Olivia hollered about her mittens; then the tree trunk was frozen and Ry had a heck of a time cutting it down. It took much longer than necessary and he ended up with frozen knees from kneeling in the snow. To top it off, we couldn't get the camera to work for a few minutes so by the time we finally got to take my picture with Olivia, I was a little crabby. Can you tell?

Turned out quite nice though!

nice try

Well, at least my plan was an attempt! I was successful in cleaning the whole house on Sunday, with the help of my wonderful husband! However, none of Mondays tasks got done and I am afraid I won't be able to catch up with yesterdays and todays.

You know what? OH WELL! :)

P.O.A.

Since I am still lacking motivation, I have decided that it is time to implement a plan of action. Behind every good plan of action is desire, right? So here is my desire:
I desire to feel proud about having accomplished something. Even if it is just a clean house!!
I figure if I can keep my house clean every week, that is definately something to be proud of!

The plan: Clean the house, top to bottom on Sunday. (This will require help from the hubby)
Create a daily chore list to help keep on top of things:
Monday: Pick up, dishes (the dreaded dishes)
Tuesday: Vaccum, laundry, dust (I don't work Tuesdays= more time!)
Wednesday: dreaded dishes, pick up, put clothes away
Thursday: Bathrooms
Friday: Kitchen floor, dreaded dishes
Saturday: Anything I didn't get done earlier, vaccum, dishes
Sunday: R & R (and probably some laundry!)

Wish me luck! Oh- I almost forgot! My excitement of the week! Yesterday I bought a pair of $75 Lucky jeans for $30...and they were a size smaller! Hot dog!
P.S. Check out my 12 Days of Christmas note on the side bar!

Motivation

I'm lacking any motivation to accomplish anything around the house this week. It's getting bad. I'd appreciate any motivating comments. :)

Signs & Symptoms

Here are some signs of ear infections:
1. Fever
2. Fussiness
3. Pulling on ear
4. Pain sucking
5. Uncomfortable lying down, or lying on the side of the infected ear
6. Runny nose/cold symptoms

Does Olivia have any of those symptoms? No! Does she have an ear infection? Yes!

So I took Olivia in for her 9 month, well baby check-up today and Dr. Berry looked in her ear and said, "She has a horrible ear infection!". I said, "No, you're joking!" He wasn't joking. She has been totally fine the last couple of days, and I had no idea. So of course I felt bad right away that I hadn't noticed, but I'm over that now. Now I am just concerned for future ear infections that I won't notice they are there and they will get terrible.

Anyhow, Dr. Berry also said she looks like she's doing great!
Stats:
27 1/4" long
weighed 16 lbs. 3 oz.

She's only in the 10th percentile for weight; but he's not concerned about her. He was impressed at her crawling skills and that she's cruising already. Yeah Olivia!

First Word!

Olivia has said her first word! She is "discriminately" saying "Ma Ma"!!!!!
Yeah Olivia!

Florida or Bust

So, the wireless in the hotel didn't work. That part was a bust! The rest of the trip was a blast. It was a wonderful getaway! Thanks to Grammy for inviting us to her Literacy conference for blind & visually impaired people! Here's a brief synopsis:

Thursday: Travel to Florida; Olivia did great! We sat next to a great guy on the plane named B.J. who works for Nascar. He was so friendly and he talked with my mom and I and played with Olivia during the full 3 hour flight. It was so nice to sit by someone who wasn't critical of having a babe on the plane! It was a 75 degree difference from MN to FL that day! :) Got to the resort, had lunch/supper...Olivia was exhausted. I put her to bed at 7:15 and she passed out. However, she woke up again at 8:15...and then was up until 11. I tried everything! It was hard being in the room and me not being able to go anywhere. Poor little girl was just beat!

Friday: O woke up EARLY...just overtired still! She was in a pretty good mood though. We went and at breakfast in the hotel restaurant...by that time it was naptime again! She took 4 naps on Friday! After nap #3 we hit the pool...finally! Olivia LOVED it! She had a blast swimming in the little kiddie pool and in the big pool with Mom.

Saturday: A more normal day for O's schedule. :) More pool time!! Went to my mom's presentation--although we didn't get to listen to much of it! Busy little O... Had a BBQ buffet that night at the conference--good food! O went to bed early; I was able to finish the book I had brought with so that was nice!

Sunday: Had breakfast with Mom, packed up, nap time, POOL TIME! Checkout and lunch...more POOL TIME! :) Headed to the airport. They had a great play area for kids that Olivia just loved! O was a bit demanding on the flight home, needed to be entertained constantly...she was so tired. We got home late last night. It was crazy to see the snow!! 80 in FL, 11 in MN when we got home. Brrrr!

I can't wait for Ry to come home from work this afternoon so he can spend some time with her! We missed Daddy! :) Here's a couple of pics; my mom has more on her camera so I'll post more when I get them!

Grammi & O on the plane
Sunset on the beach
Look Mom, Sand!
Hangin' at the pool