A Milestone

I knew this day would be coming soon.

I went in Olivia's room to get her up and she was NOT laying down or on her tummy!!!

Jerry and Olivia

gotta love them!

Olivia's Tummy Pic

Aunt Erin is 18 weeks pregnant today ... whoop whoop! To celebrate, Olivia decided to show off her 8 Month Old Tummy :)

Hey...

what you lookin' at?

Playing

New Routines

Aaaahh...I love it when our routine changes and it works out well!!

Olivia was having a hard time getting to sleep last week, so I started to think that maybe we needed to drop the third nap. We've been decreasing the amount of her formula and increasing the amount of solids. I'm trying to find more solids that will work with her very gummy mouth :) We have so much more free time in our day with only the two naps...whoop whoop!

Here's a sample day:
8:00 - wake eat breakfast - cereal/oatmeal and 4 oz bottle
8:30 - play
10:00 - nap
11:30/12:00 - wake
12:30ish - lunch - solids (veggies and fruit) and 4 oz bottle
1:00 play
2:00 - nap
3:30/4:00 - wake and snack (puffs or Cheerios with water)
5:00/5:30 - dinner - solids (veggies and fruit) and 4 oz bottle
7:30/8:00 - 6 oz bottle and bed

Using Your Head!

she can only get to her knees...but it's pretty darn cute :)

School Starts...

for lots of people...but not for me. For the first time since I started kindergarten, I am not headed to school. It's definitely bittersweet. I miss teaching, the classroom, the students, the other teachers and staff, the sense of accomplishment, the stickers, googling random children thoughts, using green lotion to cure all ailments, seeing the "I get it" light flash on, our routines, reading stories, being silly and having people think you are amazing because of it, kiddos loving to play my games and not realize how much they are learning...etc, etc, etc.

However, I recognize that will still be available for me in a couple years. And I am so grateful to have this opportunity to be home with my family!!!

To kick off the school year, I got out our blocks and knew that Olivia would love to see them crash down. So we used the letters in her name to create towers and buildings, and I was right! There was nothing more appealing than the groups of cubes....not even the ringing cell phone or the flashing laptop :)

Story Time

Olivia enjoys books, however would much prefer to put them in her mouth than look at pictures. We like to tell ourselves that she's giving the various characters kisses...but in reality she just wants to get it in her mouth :)

Saturday Morning

...sitting at starbucks.

Wanna Smile?

it's a paper plate :)

Great Friends

Today, Aubrey picked out Olivia's outfit so she would match them :) I remember those days...wanting to wear the same colors or shirt as my current BFF....

School starts for the girls on Monday. Aubrey will be going to Preschool and Taylor is headed to Kindergarten (oh my)!!! We'll definitely miss hanging out with them all the time.

Cherries

Our Engagement Day

Yup...it happened 8 years ago today. I asked Tim if he remembered...his response? "Of course you would remember, it was the best day of your life!" Does that mean he didn't remember?!?!

LOL - that's my funny man!

I flew up to Newport, RI where Tim was stationed in the Navy... "going to school". It was a Saturday and we decided to go out to eat somewhere in town. Beforehand we discussed about walking around in a park.

Everything was sooo normal.

We drove through town to a new park Tim wanted to show me...it was a beautiful day. I mentioned it was a wedding day. A perfectly beautiful wedding day (coincidence?). And then we pass a Bridal Party going into a church (hello sign #1). Not 100 yards further down the road we see a bunch of girls going out for a Bachelorette Night (sign #2).

Tim parks the car and we start walking to this beautiful gazebo. As we get closer, I start to notice flowers on the columns of the gazebo. And I stated..."I bet someone had a wedding here! See, I told you it was a wedding day." I ask Tim if we can walk up there...and he says of course...duh!

Then as we are walking up the steps, Tim pulls down one of the bouquets of flowers. And I get mad at him. What is he doing taking down those flowers!?!? His reply? "These are for you."

I didn't get it.

He pulled me into the center and got down on one knee...said a lot of stuff that I don't remember. Then he opened the box and asked me to marry him. What do I say?????

"Is it from the Diamond Cellar?"

Ugh...Andrea....not the question to ask!

We hugged...kissed...cried, called lots of people and had a very nice dinner at The Red Parrot where we had a perfect little corner table overlooking the town. My hand did not stop shaking for the whole rest of the weekend.

When we got home his roommate Rey and (now wife) Ellyn showed us the pictures they took to capture that evening. Tim also explained to me how he had flown to Ohio a couple weeks before to meet my grandparents for the first time and pick out my ring...from the Diamond Cellar.

I'm a lucky girl...and eight years later soooo happy.

I love you.

What Will She BEE???

For Halloween??

Finally

I think this post is now due...Olivia's spitting up has decreased. Is it gone??? Heavens NO! But, there are hours where she can go without a bib and I can almost also predict when it's going to happen. There are still days that we both go through multiple outfits, however we go longer stretches between those moments. YEAH! We stopped giving her meds for her acid reflux about three weeks ago and she's tolerated it well.

We took this picture in June...this is what she looked like when she got up from her nap. LOL

Snacks

Jerry is learning to love snack time. He waits...by the highchair for any extras. He's even learned to sneak his head under the tray to get some that haven't yet made it to the floor.

Olivia is getting better at feeding herself. She understands the motions, but it's really hard to release the food in your mouth...especially when you are just happy to have it in your hand :)

Sad

sometimes you just gotta cry...

and then put your thumb in your mouth...

and it will all be alright :)

8 Months

Happy 8th Month Birthday Olivia!!!

For some reason, I've been anticipating this month for awhile. When she turned 6 months, I was thinking about how it's getting closer to 8 months...I'm not exactly sure what happens during the 8th month that has made it such a milestone for me, but now it's officially here.

In the last month
Olivia...

*learned to give kisses

*starting consistently holding her own bottle (but does not tilt it)

*loves to jump in her jumper

*can move legs in walking motion if her hands are held

*wears 3-6 and 6 month clothes

*still wears size 2 diapers

*turns on her mobile

*loves to play with laptops (mine and hers)

*creeps much faster

*can go from sitting to creeping

*giggles if tickled

*rode a carousel

*still has no teeth

*enjoyed a visit from Grana and Grampa

*has made /d/, /g/, /b/ consonant sounds

*had a bad stomach bug for 5 days :(

and since I'm always looking for a reason to celebrate...
today is also Erin's HALF BIRTHDAY....whoop whoop!

Happy!

Hhumm...

This week I've walked into O's room four different times...only to find the mobile on :) Someone has figured out how to make the animals move in a circle to the sound of a heartbeat.

MuWah!

Olivia gives kisses :)

What Happens...

...when you roll over holding onto a sheet???

silly baby

Back to School

Tim starts school on Monday with a full week of classes and then will begin his every other Friday/Saturday routine. So to help start him off on the right foot, I threw him a surprise "back-to-school" party. Tim received some very helpful school supplies and will probably be the most stylish student in his class :)

It was a great night, with lots of sangria, and a very spirited game of Pictionary.

Thank you to everyone who came...it was a blast!

A Pink Polka-Dot Chair

We have amazing friends. Justin, Tiffini, Taylor and Aubrey gave Olivia a SUPER SWEET 6 month birthday present. She has her own personalized pink polka-dot chair!! I can already tell this chair is going to be a blast, not to mention it's uber cute. And when I see my "baby" in it...she is looking sooo grown up!!

Thank You Thank You Thank You

August 6, 2008

One year ago we had our 20 week ultrasound. She had her hands near her face a lot and we probably should have known she would be a thumb-sucker :) I was finally getting a little belly on me and I was sooo exited for it to keep growing... haha...how different I would feel in 15 more weeks :)

Our Game

Olivia seems to enjoy our "aaahh" game.

Rice University

Today we went downtown to visit Rice. It was nice to be back on a campus, although in a couple weeks, I'm wondering if Tim will be singing a different tune?.?.?.? Afterwards we went out and enjoyed a meal at Dolce Vita (a pizzeria). Olivia was quite the diva all night. She probably ate a total of two pizza crusts and flirted with all the servers as they worked nearby.

Wine

No...she doesn't actually drink it...but LOVES the glass :)

Toys!

Grana and Grampa bought Miss O some new toys today! She got her first set of legos. These are the big legos called duplos. And she also received a pink toy laptop (since she likes ours so much). She loves to close the lid to the laptop and discovered that the bag for the legos makes a great noise.

Ha - notice the immediate hands protecting our baby from the plastic bag :)