Ho Ho Holidays

Christmas came and went and with it came Olive's first cold. About a week before Christmas she suddenly stopped sleeping through the night and started waking up every few hours. She wasnt exhibiting any sick symptoms yet, so of course I panicked. My precious sleep.... its gone... I had visions of months and months of struggling to get to her to sleep again, and having to let her "cry it out". After 3 nights of this I really started panicking. I was reading online, calling the Dr, and talking to every mother out there looking for answers. Growth spurt? Teething? And the scariest... she has learned to manipulate me..? Turns out. She was sick. ..Then I got sick. ..Then Adam got sick...

I swear, in my 32 years of life I have never experienced anything like it. The week of sickness was perhaps  absolutely the hardest week of my life. Multiple times a day I had horrible thoughts about running out the door, screaming, killing some small animal, and jumping in front of a car. I came to the conclusion that I really couldn't do it, but I had no other choice. No one else could do it for me (and Adam)... She needed us, and we needed rest, but we didn't matter. It was almost like what I imagine running a marathon would be like. Your pushed beyond what you can actually do, and then do even more. I swear, after that I want to put Olive inside of a bubble and keep all germs away. I'm really not kidding. We somehow got threw it thanks to Wallace teamwork, earplugs, antibiotics (ear infection...), and lots of tears and hysterically desperate prayers at 4 am ... oh... moving on.

On actual Christmas, Olive was starting to feel better, but still not good. She was good enough to open presents though. She loved the paper and the ribbons. I was surprised by how much she liked opening presents. She got some good stuff..

We went down to Aptos to visit Adam's parents a few days later. More presents! She had a great time and enjoyed showing grandma and grandpa Wallace how cute she is.

Whats she into these days? EVERYTHING. She is scooting, rolling, turning, sitting, and crawling backwards, so she can pretty much get wherever she wants. Shes getting up on her hands and knees and rocking back and forth. She's hitting everything to hear the noises it all makes. She splashes in the bath and giggles. She's interactive and loves grabbing daddy's beard.

 Yeah, heart melt.


 Adam made this amazingly wonderful Christmas card. I got them all printed up, envelopes ready to address... but, just couldn't get it together to send them, SO enjoy it please :)

Olive hanging her first ornament

Happy New Year! 2012 was the most exciting year of my life. My life will never be the same, and being a parent is better than I ever imagined. Harder than I imagined at times, but sweeter as well.  I look forward to the next year. Watching Olive grow and learn. This year she will walk, and talk. Amazing.