Olivia's first Christmas

I can't believe that Christmas has come and gone, this year is just flying by!  We spent Olivia's first Christmas at my parent's house in Spicewood aka The Compound.  On Christmas Eve, I packed up the car and the mouse and headed out to my parents about midday.  Mike joined us about 6pm and we settled in for the weekend.  We spent the next two days eating, relaxing, laughing, eating, playing with Olivia and opening a few presents.  It was cold at night so each evening, Dad had a warm fire going that absolutely fascinated Olivia.  It was great to escape from the hustle and bustle for a while and just spend time with family.  I took over 100 pictures but will not bore you with all of them so here are the good ones:

Auntie Nina, you better give me my Mr. Rabby!

Mom got Olivia a pink Christmas tree

Just hanging out with my Mommy and my Auntie Nina

Yup, that's Olivia's pack n play in Mom's closet.  We thought that it would be nice and quiet in there for her, turned out that she didn't like sleeping ANYWHERE at Granny and Paw Paw's house.

Oh you know that my Mommy had to dress me up in a Christmas day outfit!

And it had a decorative butt flap

My Mommy is soooo funny.  That's tissue paper BTW

This thing is pretty . . .

Olivia got 2 very sentimental presents.  Paw Paw gave her a signed baseball from his childhood and Granny gave her my gold baby bangle

I love my Oh Plah, it went right in my mouth!

The best Christmas present ever

Should have seen this one coming

Little help here please

Such pretty girls

Mommy thought I needed some fresh air and because it was so cold she decided to bundle me up.  You really think that socks over pants with feet are really necessary?

Oh man, this again??

Um, hello!

Christmas makes me sleepy

Wordless Wednesday

4 months

Olivia was 4 months old on the 16th, I just can't believe where the time has gone!  Here are some stats and fun facts about Olivia:

• Weighs 15lbs and 2oz - in the 75th percentile!  My big, healthy baby!
• Is 25inces long - also in the 75th percentile!  We are really hoping for some of Daddy's height.
• Her head is in the 75th percentile as well but we have no idea what that means except that she's well balanced :-)
• She has mild acid reflux
• We just switched over to Soy formula to help with the reflux and knock on wood, it seems to be helping
• She eats about 26oz of formula a day, 3-4oz at a time
• She definitely knows what her bottle looks like
• We've gotten really good at burping and it doesn't take long after a meal to get a good one out of her
• "I throw my baba at you!" is one of her favorite things to do when she's done eating
• Her only medication is Axid (for the reflux)
• We sure do HATE tummy time but Olivia can hold herself up on her arms and is so close to rolling over
• She loves her Bumbo and likes to move around the house with us and "help" with the housework
• Her favorite toys are Mr. Rabbi (her rabbit blanket), Elaphiny (a blue toy that lives on her changing table that looks like a cross between an elephant and a weiner dog), and a wrist rattle - she mostly likes throwing that one
• There are 2 new pacis in her life, both green, big girl pacis and she is really digging them after a time where she was turning her nose up at her paci.
• EVERYTHING goes in her mouth
• She has discovered 2 strange objects at the end of her legs and stares at them wondering what they are and how she can get them in her mouth
• She smiles all the time and thinks we are SO funny
• She loves looking at herself in the mirror
• We're starting to hear laughs but still waiting on the first big belly laugh
• She can blow raspberries -thanks Nana
• She has started sticking her tongue out at us - we think she's teething already
• Her favorite songs are "Monkeys sitting in a tree", "Roll Over", and "Speckled Frogs"
• Favorite books are "Where is my Mommy" and the baby animal book where you can feel different textures
• She wears footie jammies and a sleep sack to bed
• She sleeps with one arm over her eyes - drama queen
• Olivia takes 3-4 30 minute naps a day in her pack n play or her swing
• We are working on getting her back on a good sleep schedule now that we are getting the reflux under control.  She wasn't sleeping well but now sleeps 7-9 hours a night again!
• She holds on to Mommy and Daddy for dear life especially when she is tired
• We are going through a little bit of early stranger anxiety but only in small groups.  When there are a lot of people around, she is a ham!
• She does yoga (and "fart yoga") every day
• Thankfully, she doesn't mind having her diaper or her clothes changed
• She is the funniest, smartest, strongest, healthiest, happiest baby we could ask for and our love for her is immeasurable

I stick my tongue out at you!

Too cool for school

You guys are so funny!

I stick my tongue out at you . . . again.

No pictures!  No pictures please!

Mommy is going to pay for this one.

Holding my own baba like a big girl!  She threw it on the floor shortly after this picture was taken.

I. HATE. TUMMY TIME.  But that Miles kid is pretty funny.

Wordless Wednesday

Play date with Miles

I got a text this morning at 7:41am "U awake this am".  I was and only a mommy with a baby would know that another mommy with a baby would be up at that time on a Sunday morning when the rest of the world is sleeping in.  Angie and Rex both had to work this morning and asked us to watch Miles, their 9 month old, for a few hours.  Now I must admit that I have been a little gun shy offering to watch anyone elses baby and Olivia mouse.  When I envision that situation, I see 2 babies crying at the same time, 2 babies being hungry at the same time and one Mommy freaking out.  Mike was here this morning to help (which turned out to be good because poor Olivia had a very painful belly for a few minutes and was extremely unhappy) so I said yes.  About 45 minutes later, Olivia's friend Miles had arrived and made a beeline for the cat's water and food bowls.  Upon arriving at a new house, it's like babies just know where the pet's bowls are, a sixth sense if you will.  Miles is a great baby to watch.  He's super smiley and laid back.  He's crawling like a mad man and pulling himself up on things.  He's not too interested in Olivia yet because she doesn't play with him but she'll get there and they'll live happily ever after :-)

Olivia checking Miles out from across the living room.

Uh oh, here he comes!

Mommy?

Hey, you're kinda funny.

I love you Olivia!

Awww, I love you too Miles!!

All this playing wore me out.

Me too.  Thanks for lending me your blanket Olivia.

BONUS MATERIAL

Miles is kind of a slobbery kid what with those teeth coming in and he didn't have a bib so . . .

Nana and Papa

Nana and Papa have been gone for a couple of weeks now but I'm just now catching up with the blog.  It's amazing how much LESS time you have without 2 extra sets of hands around.  Sorry it's a long one but there is lots to say . . .

I came home from the hospital after surgery on November 5th and that was the day that Mike's parents, Bill and Pat, arrived . . . thank God.  They had already scheduled a trip to come and meet their favorite (only) granddaughter but were able to come a little earlier than planned to help out.  They drive down and therefore could stay as long as we needed them / they wanted to which ended up being almost a month.  Now let me pause and say that I have AWESOME in-laws.  I don't have an over baring Mother in law who tells me how to run my house and makes me want to pull my hair out or a grouchy Father in law that tells inappropriate jokes at inappropriate times and yes, I do know people who do.  My in-laws are kind and funny, generous and loving, level headed and thoughtful and without their love, help, and support, my road to recovery would have been a lot harder on us.  Pat made it her mission to make sure that I was well fed with "healing" food to help me get better.  I will say that there is something to be said about eating 3 healthy meals a day - I lost 3 lbs while she was here which is huge considering I have been fighting with the last little bit of baby weight that just will not go away AND I couldn't work out for many weeks.  She even did the unthinkable - taught me how to cook a few things!!  I know, many of you don't believe it which is why we took a picture although I can't find it :-)  Bill took on house projects for us that we (Mike) just haven't bee able to get around to - putting dimmers on a couple of our light switches, rounding some corners on the baby's toy chest.  But the biggest project of them all was designing a shelving unit to go in our garage to organize all the stuff that people keep in garages.  It took him and Mike several days of hard work but they have made a world of difference.  And then there was Olivia.  I could talk forever about how special it was to see them interact with her, teach her things, and love on her.  The took her to Walmart every day, no seriously, EVERY day that they were here.  We have a Walmart just to the side of our neighborhood and there is a path so you can walk in between the houses right in to the parking lot.  Very convenient but I'm glad I don't live over there :-)  Anyway, Olivia never missed a shift at Walmart - she was a greeter, thanks to Nana and Papa.  There was "The Olivia Saga", the constant dialogue that she would have with Bill who we dubbed "The Burper Extraordinaire"!  He could get Olivia to burp immediately, sometimes she would just have to look at him and she would burp!  There was daily yoga and tummy time.  We learned new songs like "Roll Over" and my favorite one about monkeys in trees teasing alligators.  I came home from work one day and she had learned how to blow raspberries.  It was so much fun to watch her develop and grow.  It was little things too, like helping us figure out when her belly hurt her and thinking to put her towel in the microwave so that it was warm when she got out of her bath, just things that grandparents know.  We loved having Nana and Papa here and we hated to see them go.  Olivia and I were walking the other day and I saw a very nice house in our neighborhood for sale.  I took a picture of it with my phone and sent it Pat, hint, hint.  Here are some (a lot) pictures of their stay . . .

First day.  Look, me and Nana match!

Our center piece at lunch time.

Sporting my game day gear.

Ok, this Nana person, she can stay.  She gives me milk.

Nana had some help trying to burp me . . .

 . . . but I probably let a good one out for Papa.

Nana took this picture of my and my Mommy snoozing.

Right around this time Olivia started really holding onto things.

Nana, how come you didn't stop them from putting this ridiculous ballerina outfit on me??

Back from a trip to Walmart.

Me and Papa, we're HUGE Bears fans!

Papa is a HUGE Whitesox fan and he gave me this outfit.  Daddy was not too happy to see this, he's a Cubs fan.

Probably milk drunk.

Olivia fell asleep like this at the dining room table on Thanksgiving.

Look at this great tummy time I'm doing on the couch!

My Mommy was sad to leave me when she had to go back to work so Nana and Papa would send pictures of me from Nana's phone.

Pat and Bill - thank you so much for everything!!  We love you!!