Olivia's Tricks

Here they are in order of appearance:
1. The Turkey
2. The Chicken
3. The Puppy
4. The Wolf
And top it all of with Olivia walking!
Listen closely...sometimes the animals are hard to hear!!

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You know you have a baby when...

No matter where you are you notice all the tiny things on the floor that they could pick up and put in their mouth.
You should see the floor in my office, it's in desperate need of a vaccum!

The Great Wean

Well, my post today was supposed to be an AWESOME video of Olivia...but it wouldn't load. So I'll try again tomorrow.

Instead, shall be the story of the great wean. There once was a girl named Olivia, whose Dad said "we can't name her Olivia, it rhymes with Bolivia!" Okay enough with the rhymes, but that's what Ryan really did say when I proclaimed my love for her name! :)

Seriously though. Olivia will turn 11 months old next week! I can hardly believe it. It is getting close to be time to be done with the boobies. As much as I have loved nursing, I am READY to be done. Someone sucking on your boobs several times every day can be exhausting. Really exhuasting. About a month ago I was afraid that she would never be done nursing, but over the last month we have managed to eliminate 2 of her 4 remaining boob fests. She now only nurses twice a day! Yea! Her remaining fests are early morning (STILL) and bed time. Bed time I think we will be able to eliminate no problem, but the early morning feeding I think may pose some problems.

Some history. Olivia has "slept through the night" since she was 7 weeks old. (Clinically speaking, sleeping through the night is 6 hours straight). We have certainly been blessed! From 7 to 13 weeks, Olivia would go 9 to 10 hours at night without nursing. It was wonderful.... At 13 weeks, she started being ready to go to bed earlier--between 7 and 8 every night--so she started waking up an hour earlier in the morning to eat--between 4 and 5. Thus has been her schedule since 13 weeks. So now it is habit, and STRONG habit! I've tried just putting her back to sleep with the nuk, sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't...and when it does it's only for about an hour or so. This is going to be a tough habit to break..."crying it out" at 5 am doesn't work so much when she's not quite so tired!!

Here are my questions:

1. Should I eliminate the bedtime nurse first or keep it until after the early morning nurse is done?
(This poses several different problem scenarios: If I eliminate it, will she then wake up earlier...if I don't eliminate bedtime nursing first, after the early morning feeding is done and I work to eliminate the nighttime feeding, will she then start waking up early again?? So many problems, so little time...)

2. Did anyone have the problem of having to eliminate an early morning nurse, or were everyones babes already sleeping ALL the way through the night at this point? (And if they were, don't rub it in too much...salt in the wound...)

3. Am I worrying too much? They say they will just be done when they are ready...I've trusted this so far and it's worked...but this early morning feeding has got me going insane!!

What to do? I need some advice from you mommies! Thanks!!

Sweet Oli

cribz

I think a beaver crawls in Olivia's bed with her during the night.

Amazing Babies

Every week Olivia and I attend an ECFE class called Amazing Babies. It has been so much fun to go to class with her, watch her play and grow with her friends. I took some pictures from our last class we had...they are so cute! Enjoy!

Welcome our newest arrival...

NO! I'm not pregnant. Don't even think about that!!

For those of you who don't know, and just to remind those of you who do, my husband is an avid hunter. AVID just may be an understatement. He loves archery hunting for deer. He and his buddy, Sam, even make hunting videos. Serious hunting videos. Of course, since he is such a wonderful hunter, he loves to proudly to display his trophies. Oh the trophies. So, here is a picture of our newest arrival:

And here's our basement...

Don't they look pretty with my curtains? (And no my basement is not usually so messy, we've had company.)

Sickie

My little Oli got sick yesterday. :( Poor baby. She threw up twice and had a fever of 101. That is her highest yet, and boy did she feel it. She just layed on me all evening.

And last night was not pretty. You Mommy's know how it goes without details. At least there was no puke during the night.

We're going to the Dr. this afternoon to see how her ears are doing. I have a sneaking suspicion they are at least related to this whole thing.

More catch up...

Here's a picture from Olivia's dedication...like Florida, also took place in November! :)

And just a cute picture...

More from Florida

I know these pictures are like 2 months late...but they are cute! I just got them from my mom and I thought you would enjoy seeing Olivia swimming in the pool in Florida. She just loved swimming!! Ryan and I are hoping to take her to open swim sometime soon; it's just SO fun to see her in the water!

Deceptively Delicious

I recently bought Jessica Seinfeld's book Deceptively Delicious and I am loving it! I must admit, I have not used any of the recipes yet...I just haven't had time; however, I love the ideas.! I was a bit skeptical at first--I mean, shouldn't kids just learn to eat their vegetables the old fashioned way? That's what I had to do!! (And it wasn't easy--ask my folks!) But I got to thinking, why not just incorporate these recipes into Olivia's diet while still encouraging her to eat her veggies the "other" way! (Duh, right?)

We are having company the next two weekends, but I am hoping after that to have some time to make up some purees to have on hand and try out a few of the recipes. I'm excited!!

Livi's Aunties

Baby shower: Jan '07

In case you didn't know, I am an only child. This leaves poor Livi Auntless and Uncleless on my side of the family. (And cousinless...you know my side will be the one she won't want to go to for holidays! Although, Grammi & Grampy are pretty fun!) Livi does have one pretty terrific Aunt Jenelle (Ry's sister)...but she is even luckier! She has so many FAKE Aunties, she doesn't know what to do with them all!

Above is a picture from my wonderful baby shower last January. I was so appreciative to all of my friends & family who were able to attend and celebrate my little O...even before we knew who she was!

I just love all of my best girlfriends, and I am so thankful that they all want to be Olivia's Aunties! You are all so wonderful and I am so excited for Olivia to be able to get to know all of you better as she gets older! You all better be ready for "Days out with Aunties"! :)

Turkeys & Chickens

I love animal noises! And I love them even more now that my little bug says them on command!! I am going to try and capture them on video today so that you can enjoy them as much as I do...
Until then, just imagine how cute she must sound when she makes her turkey and chicken sounds. Gobble gobble, cluck cluck!

A date with Da-u

Tonight I am going down to the cities for a bridal shower for Ryan's cousin's fiancee at Fabulous Ferns restaurant. The shower is at 6:30 and I decided that since it was so close to Olivia's bedtime that I would leave her at home with Ryan. This will be the FIRST time that I have left her with him at night to go and do something FUN!* Usually he watches her while I am at work or running to the grocery store, something like that. When I do go and do something fun, it is usually with Ry and we leave her with Grammy & Grampy. It will be a first, a much needed first, and I am really looking forward to it!

By the way, Olivia started calling Ry "Da-u" today--pretty darn cute. She was standing by the window while he was getting ready to go, and she looked over, waved, and said "Da-u". What a little sweetie!

*New Year's Resolutions!!

Baby Livi

Today as I was checking my email, I looked over at my little girl playing all by herself (with the DVD's--hours of entertainment!), and I couldn't help but think about how fast this year is going. She is already 10 months old!! I can hardly believe that in less than 2 months, my little baby Livi will be a year old. These pictures seem like they were so long ago, and yet just yesterday at the same time. She looks so different now!

Goat cheese & Asparagus

Yes, goat cheese and asparagus. Two of the many foods that Olivia enjoys. Silly little thing. She LOVES to eat...ANYTHING. Well, almost anything. There is one food that my silly little girl won't eat.

What is it, you ask? Liver? Sardines? Anchovies? Fish? (note: those are all things I have never eaten, well except fish, and I would imagine are incredibly disgusting) I haven't actually tried any of those things, so perhaps she wouldn't eat them either. But, Olivia won't eat MAC & CHEESE. She literally gags when she gets a noodle even close to her lips.

Who's kid is she? Certainly not mine, the Queen of Mac & Cheese. Who doesn't like mac & cheese? Silly girl.

Housework update...

First, do you really care? Probably not... but I feel good about it so I'm sharing.

During nap time today I have gotten done: 3 loads of laundry (one started before nap), put away clothes, payed bills, and picked up the living room, basement, and our bedroom. Phew...

I've become a boring blogger...I promise to spice things up a bit with my next post. :)

Too much time...

No, no, no...I have not found the secret key to being a wife, mom, and working part-time so that I have too much time! Sorry to all those wishing and hoping out there (myself included!). On the contrary, I have been spending too much time wishing and worrying about getting things done. I spend time worrying and being frustrated about getting it all done and then wishing that someone would do it all for me. In fact, I spend SO much time in all this, that I don't get anything done! Fancy that.

Today Grampy is coming over to watch Ms. O for a bit so I can get caught up. Thanks Grampy! Maybe this time (I think I say this everytime I get caught up) it will last, I will become motivated to really keep things caught up. Maybe....

By the way, check out this website for some tips on how to keep up. I'm thinking about trying it!

And she's off!

This weekend Olivia started taking steps! She began going "between people" taking 3-4 steps and by yesterday she was going 11-12 steps! Holy Moly!

So I went to work this morning and said,"Olivia's almost walking!" And described what she had been doing. All my coworkers (12 or so) around the table said, "No! She IS walking?"

Really??? Is that really considered walking???

Maybe I'm just in denial.

Uncle Owen

He's home! Ryan's brother, Aaron (affectionately called Owen), flew in from Sweden last night. Aaron is currently serving a 2 year missionary stint at an International Church in Sweden (click here). He left last January, prior to Olivia being born, and has not had a trip home since. So it was so exciting last night that they finally got to meet!

Ryan went down to the airport with his parents, brother, and of course, Olivia, to meet Aaron. She loved him instantly. There was lots of "face-patting" and "nose-grabbing"...sure signs of love and affection. La Vonne (aka Ryan's Mom, aka Mucka*) took pictures which I will post when I get them.

This weekend we will be heading up to the North Country to celebrate Christmas with Ryan's family. We waited until Aaron was home to celebrate, and we are sure looking forward to it. It is wonderful to have him home--even if just for a short time.

*Mucka is what the grandbabies call La Vonne. It originated with Morgan (the eldest) who was unable to say Grandma. It stuck. And it makes for funny looks with La Vonne is out in public with the kiddos yelling "Mucka!!" :)

Resolutions??

I am not big on making New Year's Resolutions. That's not true. I do make them....every year. I just don't usually follow through on them for very long. Probably because they usually involve eating less and working out more, and who seriously does those things? Not me!

So, this year I did a lot of thinking about what I really want for this next year. I want to be a great mom.
I want to be a great wife.
I want to be more productive at home.
I want to have a LOT OF FUN!!

Thus my resolutions:
1. Be the best that I can be*.
2. Have something prepared for dinner every night and sit down as a family together to eat.
3. Do one thing fun, JUST FOR ME, every month**.

*Note that this is open ended, because sometimes I probably can't be as great as other times.
**I will hopefully be having fun all the time, but I will set aside something fun (this probably means without Olivia) at least once. For example: In Januaury I am going to a gymnastics meet with Bridgit, without Olivia! FUN!!

Wonderful.

We have had the MOST wonderful 4 days. Ryan, Olivia, and I have spent almost every mintue together and have just had a blast. It was so much fun to just relax, spend time together, and celebrate the new year. This quality time was just what I have been needing lately. It makes me so thankful that I have such a wonderful husband who loves me and Olivia so much. I can't imagine doing this without him and I am eternally grateful.

By the way--Olivia popped another tooth through sometime while we were busy paying attention to her ear infection. Perhaps another part of the no-nap culprit. She's back on the nap wagon now...hopefully it lasts!! :)