It's been awhile...

I last posted for Olive's first birthday and here she is almost 16 months old!  It's funny when I am out in public and people ask how old she is, I've noticed it is beginning to take a little longer for them to do the mental math.  Anything under 12 months was easy for everyone, because they automatically knew she was less than a year old.  But over 12 months seems to throw people off, like they need a moment to figure out exactly what 15 months or 16 months means.

For Olive almost 16 months means being busy.  She is constantly on the move.  She love wide open spaces where she can run around, and she loves taking things apart.  Including unpacking the diaper bag, my purse, baskets of laundry etc.  Our living room also doubles as her playroom, and as soon as we clean up she interprets that as her cue to take everything out again.  Especially her books on the book shelf.  She is a reader.  She picks books up and brings them to whomever is closest, she hands them the book and then puts her arms up so they will lift her into their lap and read her the book.  If you are sitting on the floor she will just plop right down in your lap.  It doesn't matter how many times she has a heard a book she wants to hear them over and over again.  She will also sit and go through books on her own.  But she prefers to make us read them to her.  She has even learned to be more efficient and will stack up 4 books and bring them over to Mark or me, so she doesn't have to get down and get more books.  The other night at the dinner table Mark and I were reciting some of her favorite books to her, we have read them so many times we have them memorized.

This summer she has also become something of a fish.  She absolutely loves the water and being in the pool. The first week of June she was spoiled when we went to Fripp Island because they have a baby pool that is only about a foot and a half deep.  Once she as able to balance herself she could walk around the pool all she wanted and it even had a slide she would go down over and over again.  She loved being able to be in the water and touch the bottom and walk around without having to hold on to anyone.  Now, she's not a big fan of being in her float in the big pool, because she can't control where she is going or what is happening.  She is very independent and likes to do things for herself.  She is finally getting used to being in a big pool and having to be held, but she prefers "jumping" in the pool, and being pulled around the pool by her hands/arms.  She likes to kick and feel like she is the one controlling her movements.

Her other big discovery of the summer is horse racing.  It all started when we were watching the Kentucky Derby on tv.  When they first showed the horses she got really excited and was clapping at the tv.  Then during the actual race she saw Mark and I yelling and screaming at the tv.  Now our cable company picked up TVG the horse racing channel, and she will sit on your lap and watch the races, bouncing her self up and down shouting, "Go, Go, Go!"  She has even tried to "ride" Zinny (our very sweet cat) bouncing up and down on him while he lays on the ground.  The other day when I was tired of reading the same book for the 5th time that day, I asked if she wanted to see the horseys, she got really excited.  It took a minute for the tv to come on and she actually started to fuss because she wanted to watch it so badly.  Her grandparents tried taking her to the merry-go-round so she experience some riding for herself, but she freaked out.  When we go St. Louis at the end of July I want to take her to the track and see if she likes seeing the horses in person or not.  Maybe she will just prefer keeping them in the tv for now.

She is talking up a storm these days.  Her current favorite word is, "toot."  She will say it and then pass gas, she thinks she is hilarious.  She also loves making animal noises and her favorite books are the ones with animals in them so she can make the noises.  She says lots of different words and is in to mimicking the last word of any sentence Mark and I say, so we have to start being careful with our language.  The other day Mark said, "Oh my god." And of course Olive started saying, "god, god, god."  She went through a mini "mine" phase, and she still says mine from time to time, but it didn't last very long, and wasn't too bad.  She hasn't started putting sentences together yet, but I am sure the is just around the corner.

With Mimi at Fripp

Blowing kisses with her Titi Taco.

Partying with Aunt Jen.

Cousin Love.

Fun times with Aunt Stacy.

Olive scolding me when I told her not to put the baby wipe in her mouth.

Climbing up the frog slide in the baby pool.

Getting Uncle Eric to read to her.

Burger at Steak n Shake

Bubbles with Grandma.

A little apprehensive on the merry-go-round

The only thing cuter than one baby, is two babies.  Hanging with her pal Harlow.

Riding the dog like a little horse is not frowned upon in this establishment.

Bathing beauty.

In St. Louis over Spring Break.

Reading.

Strawberry hat!

Deep thoughts with Dada.

Haircut.

I love the expressions on Olive and Quinn's faces in this picture.

Sand is yummy!

Playing the piano with cousin Jordan.

Taking the trash out.

First time running in the sand on St. George Island for Ali's wedding.

Birthday Girl!

Last weekend was Olive's first birthday party, and then Wednesday was her actual birthday.  Olive's party was great.  It was a small gathering with my parents, Titi Taco, and a couple of my friends from work.  Mark cooked up a storm, and my parents were a big help getting the house cleaned, and we finally have pictures up on the walls.  It's like we actually live in a home.  The party was fantastic, and Olive was an adorable birthday girl.  I can't believe our baby is one.  She has changed and grown so much this year.  I really did not know it was possible to love anyone as much as I love her.  It seems like each phase she goes through is better than the one before it.  Right now she is so much fun, she is full of smiles and happy shrieks for anyone and everyone.  Along with her absolute joy for life, she is getting really sweet.  She is really into laying her head on people and snuggling.  She also loves smiling and waving at strangers when we are out in public.

When I look back at her development over the last year I am amazed.  I know that she had a pretty typical first year of life, but it's still awesome when you get to see and be a part of it on a daily basis.  I am so grateful for everything Olive has brought to our lives.  As much as the last year has been challenging, I really feel like I am happier, then I have ever been.  There is something about being a mom that makes me feel whole.  I love being a mom, especially Olive's mom.   

Loving her new wagon!

Birthday Girl!

New summer clothes!

Titi Taco helped Olive open her presents.

Thanks for coming to visit Gammie and Papa.

Aunt Michele sent Mega Blocks, Mark and I have a blast building things with them, and then Olive has a blast, destroying our buildings.

A Vegas Toddler

Over President's Day weekend we went to Las Vegas to visit Mark's parents. It ended up being exactly what we needed, a weekend away from our overly busy lives. Olive had a great time being showered with attention from Grandma, Grandpa, Paboo, Aunt Mary Ellen, cousin Taylor, and Cee Lo.

The first day we were there we went to visit the new house Bill and Teddie just bought. It is gorgeous, and I can't wait to go back once they are moved in and the weather is warmer to have Olive swim in the pool. She had a great time chasing golf balls around on the putting green.

After visiting the new house we went to the Hoover Dam. Unfortunately Olive was suffering from some jet lag combined with a little virus, and she fussed the whole time. We joked that if she ever wants to visit the Hoover Dam when she gets older we are going to tell her that she is not allowed to go, since clearly she hates the Hoover Dam.

Olive was a little sick our first couple of days. She just didn't seem to be feeling very good, and after her fussy Hoover Dam trip she took a long afternoon nap that turned into a long night's sleep. She was running a bit of a fever too. Luckily it only lasted around 24 hours, and she was back to her energetic self.

On Sunday we went down and walked the strip we were trying to show Olive some animals, but it turns out the MGM is moving the lions off site, and we were too late to see the animals at Sigfried and Roys. We did see a duck swimming in a fountain. I think Olive still had fun riding in the stroller and seeing all the people, and big buildings.

And then as we were getting ready to board our flight back to Atlanta there was Cee Lo Green on our flight. As we walked past him when we were boarding he said, "Hi Baby!" to Olive. So now they are BFF's.

Someone was not feeling well.  Luckily Granpa was there to snuggle with her.

First bubble bath, she wasn't sure what to do with the bubbles, so she started eating them.

Spending time outside with Grandma in the beautiful Vegas weather.

Drinking some water with her Paboo.

I wonder if she gets free meals?

She finally got to meet Aunt Mary Ellen.

She loves her Paboo.

First try with Birthday cake.  She wasn't sure what to do with it, and then each time she put it in her mouth she spit it out.

Bye bye Vegas.

11 months old on Valentine's Day

Small disclaimer: I

wrote this post yesterday, but did not have time to finish it. I don,t feel like going through and changing all the " todays" to yesterdays.
I can't believe Olive is 11 months old today. Time really does fly by. I was talking to one of the other moms at daycare today, her daughter is three months old. The woman was standing there holding this tiny 3 month old in her arms (literally tiny, the baby weighs as much at 3 months as Olive did when she was born) and I couldn't help but think about what a difference 8 months makes. She is the mother of this tiny baby, and I don't have a little baby anymore, I have a toddler.

I really do have a toddler. Before having a baby I thought of toddlers as older babies, but at Olive,s daycare they identify toddlers as babies that are just starting to walk or, "toddle.". If by definition a toddler is one who riddles, then Olive is a toddler. Two weeks ago Olive started to purposely stand on her own. Not just let go of whatever she was holding onto and balancing for a second or two; but going from sitting to standing without holding on to anything. The standing led directly to a couple of steps here and there. Now she can go about 10+ steps before she falls down. I of course love watching her walk. She walks with her hands in the air as if to say, " look no hands!".It is adorable.

Another recent development is her pointing. She is able to point her index finger at things, mostly she likes to point at the pages in books when we read each night at bedtime. She is also doing more babbling, doorways she is more of a talker than others. She also finally figured out how to tilt a bottle or cup when she is drinking out of it so she doesn't, have to be laying down to drink.

One of the biggest developments recently is her personality. She is such a ham, she loves active silly to get your attention and make you laugh. She is also a complete daredevil, climbing on and off of everything she can. She loves to shriek and growl, and thinks it is extra funny if you growl back at her. I am loving this stage of her development so much; I wish I could freeze time so we could stay here awhile.

Catch Up, and 10 MONTHS OLD!!!

I can't believe the last time I posted it was Halloween!  This post will be a lot of catch a multi-part post with lots of holiday catch up, and of course a 10 month update.

Thanksgiving
We spent Thanksgiving in St. Louis.  My dad actually flew to Atlanta the Friday before Thanksgiving, to help me with the drive to St. Louis (Mark flew in Wednesday night, and then Mark, Olive, and I drove home the weekend after Thanksgiving).  It's usually around an 8 and 1/2 hour drive, it took us 11 hours.  Olive managed to sleep for some of it, and we stopped more often than we normally would, and when we stopped we stopped for longer periods of time.  We even ended up finding a nature preserve on the Kentucky/Illinois border where we stopped for an hour, and put down a tarp so Olive could crawl around.

The St. Louis visit was great.  We managed to get to see a lot of people, and still have a relaxing visit.  Thanksgiving dinner at my Aunt Christy's was wonderful, the whole family was there and we had a great time.  Then on Friday morning we had our first Christmas (we had 3 Christmases this year) which was a lot of fun.

One of the tough parts of our St. Louis trip was that Olive was not sleeping well.  The day we got there her third tooth on the bottom started coming in, and I figured that was why she wasn't sleeping well.  Then on Thursday night she bumped her head, and was winding up to start screaming and crying, as she threw her head back I saw something white towards the back of her mouth.  After I got her calmed down I stuck my finger in her mouth and sure enough both of her top molars were coming in at the same time.  So it turned out she had three teeth coming in all at the same time while we were there.

Olive playing with Papa when we stopped at the nature preserve.

Sleeping cousins, that is Olive's cousin Quinn on the right.

On Thanksgiving Day hanging out with John; Olive is actually wearing a dress!

Very excited to be finally meeting TJ for the first time, or maybe she is excited for the dog...

First Christmas, and first play kitchen.  She loves this thing, Mark and I have memorized all the songs it sings, because she plays them over and over, and over, and over, and over, and over.

Out to breakfast before we hit the road to go back to Atlanta.

Bye, bye Gammie and Papa.

9 months old
At 9 months old Olive was a crawling machine.  She was getting into any and everything she could get her hands on.  She started "dancing" somewhere between 8 and 9 months.  She would mover her body up and down when she heard music.  Also, during 8 and months peek-a-boo became her favorite game to play.  It was awesome for me, because any time someone would play peek-a-boo with her she would have the biggest smile on her face, so any time I wanted to take her picture I could get her to smile.  Around this time she got better about her separation anxiety.  She still will fuss a little bit sometimes when I am around and someone else holds her, but she gets over it a lot faster, and is happy to got to pretty much anyone.

Actually at 9 months old is when we took Olive to meet Santa.  We waited in line at Lenox Mall for about an hour, and I was amazed at how happy and easy going she was about waiting.  When it was her turn to go up and sit on his lap, I walked up with her in my arms.  He was sitting in a big green chair, Olive looked down at him from my arms and reached her arms out to go to him.  We got some great shots of her as she smiled away while she sat in his lap.

Apparently that day she was feeling extra friendly because we decided to go to California Pizza Kitchen for lunch, and as I was walking through the restaurant to take Olive to go change her diaper, a nice older lady stopped me and commented on how cute and happy Olive was.  As I stood there talking to the lady, Olive reached out to her and let the lady hold her.  Afterwards I thought maybe I should have stopped her, but the lady seemed nice, and Olive wanted to go to her.      

Baby in a beer box.

Naked girl!

She likes being in boxes almost as much as the cats do.

 

Star Wars hoodie with matching t-shirt underneath.  It was superhero day at school, and this was what Mark and I could agree on.

Playing with her toys.

With her new BFF.

Christmas
We spent Christmas in Albany with Mark's family.  The night before we left, we had our second Christmas with just our little three person family here in Atlanta, so we wouldn't have to take all of the presents with us when we traveled.

Christmas in Albany was great.  Olive got to spend lots of time with Mark's side of the family, and she was spoiled silly with Christmas gifts.  She was happily passed around from person to person, and managed to charm everyone.  Hearing everyone say what a happy and easygoing baby she is was music to this Mama's ears.

Also while we were in Albany, I had my first night away from Olive.  Mark surprised me for Christmas with tickets to see Book of Mormon on Broadway, reservations to dinner at Babbo, and a hotel room for the night in NYC.  Finding out Christmas day, that the next night was going to be my first night away from Olive was a little overwhelming, but I knew she would be in good hands with Mark's parents and his sister.  Plus Mark managed to sneak the breast pump into one of our bags when we left Atlanta, so I did not have to deal with the discomfort of not nursing for 24 hours.

It was hard to be away from Olive for that long, and I was ecstatic to see her when we got back, but it was definitely worth it, and Mark and I had great time.  Book of Mormon was excellent, dinner was delicious, and my first uninterrupted night of sleep in a year felt fantastic.

Sleeping on the airplane on the way to Albany.  It was her third time flying and of her six flights, only 2 have been sort of bad.  On the way home from Albany I ended up feeding her all the cheerios she could eat to keep her for crying.

Christmas morning with cousin Brandon.

Christmas dinner, cheerios, cheese, and broccoli with kale puree.

Fun times with cousins!

Four generations, Paboo, Grandma, Dada, and Olive.

Our little family on Christmas night.

10 months
Olive turned ten months old yesterday and I really can't believe how quickly time goes.  I feel like we are on a crash course with her first birthday, and I am trying to slam on the brakes.  It's all going by way too fast.  At her 9 month well visit Olive was 29 inches long and a little over 18lbs.  She is long and lean, and it makes her look older, because she is built more like a toddler than a chubby baby.  She is walking around holding on to things, and hasn't really attempted to take any steps on her own yet.  But she love walking around if someone is holding her hands.  She can climb up and down the stairs now, and since she figured out how to climb down the stairs by swinging one of her legs down until her foot touches the stair below it, and then swinging the other leg down she is now convinced that is the way to get off of anything, no matter how high it is, and almost fell off the bed twice yesterday.  I had a nice 3 or so week reprieve where she had figured out not to crawl head first off of the bed, but now I have to worry about her falling off again now that she thinks she can climb down.

She is very inquisitive, she likes to climb on things and inspect things.  I put her first pair of feety pjs with the non skid feet bottoms on her the other day, and she sat looking and touching the bottom of the feet for a good five minutes.  Just checking them out.  She likes to investigate things on her own.  She got tons of new toys for Christmas, and when she would first get the toy she wouldn't be that interested in it, but once we got home, and she could pull out the toys on her own and play with them without anyone showing her what each toy does and how to do it; then she would play with it and figure it out for herself.  

She is "talking" more.  She says Dada, Mama, Hi/Hey (it's basically an h sound), Gaga, Baba, Papa, and sometimes Ka (which I think is cat).  Usually she just babbles all those sounds, but occasionally she seems to truly identify me as Mama, and Mark as Dada.

She is a dancing fool.  At first she would just kind of bounce up and down, but now if she is standing up holding on to something she will full on shake her butt.  If she is sitting down she twists from side to side.  The best part is she will pick out music from random places.  Like when we were in NY and went out to dinner at Cheesecake Factory, it was loud, and you could barely hear the music, and all of a sudden she started dancing in her high chair.  Or when she is playing in the living room and we have the TV on and a commercial will start singing (her favorite is the new Pizza Hut one) or the theme song for TV show will start playing (she likes Big Bang Theory) she will stop what she is doing and start dancing.  

She is happy most of the time.  Smiling and laughing a lot.  I love her laugh.  It is this perfect baby giggle, and when she does it she opens her mouth so you can see 8 of her teeth.

Her fourth tooth on the bottom finally came in around Christmas and she now has 10 teeth.  She is eating more finger foods, and especially likes eating off of my plate.  She gets very angry if I don't share with her.  I'm trying to get her to understand how to take bites of things rather than shove everything in her mouth.  Mark still makes all her baby food and he is figuring out healthy transitional foods for her.

She continues to put everything in her mouth, and likes to chew on all sorts of things.  She really likes the bottom of water bottles, and cardboard for chewing.

She is so much fun to be with that going back to work after Winter Break was very difficult for me.  I think it might have even been harder, then when she started daycare.  I love being around her so much at this age, and getting to feel like I am really interacting with her.  Nights when I have to work late I miss her like crazy.  There is no better feeling in the world than when I get home from work, scoop her up in my arms and she hugs on me and loves on me.

Like I said, it is all going by too fast, and if I could freeze time and we could spend a year with her at this stage I would.  I am already counting down the days until summer break when I can spend every day with her.

Showing off those teeth while she is tickled by Mommy.

Sleeping on Grandma, Olive got her first flu bug a week ago, and then passed it on to Mark and me; we were lucky Grandma and Grandpa were in town to help out.