A Mama's Fuel

Monday, March 25th, at 2:30 pm.
After a nice long play session in the living room, playing and banging with toys, crawling through tunnels, standing by tables, Olive crawls over and grabs her mama's pant leg. Her mama has been watching her from the couch while drinking warm coffee and texting various friends about how tired she is. Olive pulls herself up to stand, almost effortlessly, a skill she's practiced over and over. The afternoon sun is poaring in from the large windows surrounding the couch. Mama sets her coffee down on the table, and looks down at the infant at her feet. When did she grow to be this big? She thought as she pictured her nearly 6 pound newborn that she fell in love with nine short months ago.

Olive reaches both hands up towards her "uhh uhh" she whined. As she's scooped up in her mothers arms she lets out a "ahh da". Her mom, with a devilish smirk on her face, calls out "that's it! I'm going to eat that tummy!" She turns Olive on her side, raises her in the air and begins kissing her side "roar rah rah" she growls! Olive closes her eyes, and shrieks a high pitched shriek. Mom brings her down to a cradle hold and stares into those deep blue eyes, a gift given to Olive from her father. Mom looks down, smiles, and feels a burning warmth fill her chest. She leans down and kisses the chubby crease of her daughters neck. The enchanting smell if her daughters breath, laundry detergent, and pear purée fills her nostrils, like a fresh spring morning. She hears tender giggles as she closes her eyes, trying to take in everything about this moment.

Mom leans back on the couch and sits Olive on her belly. Olive grins and grabs her mom's glasses. "Oh no! Oh no! She's going to eat me!" her mom gasps. Olive climbs up her chest, pulling her glasses off, and leaving drops of drool on her already stained t-shirt. Olive squeezes her mama's face and shrieks and squeals as mama pretends to be "eaten".

Mama takes up her baby once more in her arms, cradling her close. She then takes one hand up in the air and wiggles it "He's coming to get you!" She says as the tickling hand starts to work his way towards Olive's belly, a familiar game that grandpa played with the mama, years ago. Olive bats her eyes quickly, bows her head, and pulls her body tight together, as if to hide from the tickle hands. She giggles and gasps with the hands land on her belly and tickle their way up her sides to her pits. Olive lets out a high pitched "ahhhhhhhhhhhh". They both giggle. Mama closes her eyes and soaks in this laughter. Taking in this moment with her next breath. It is at this moment that she is not thinking about how tired she is, how sore her back is, how stained her clothes are, or how long its been since her baby napped. It is this moment, the time before she starts worrying about everything, crying because her daughter still wont nap, and complaining of her back ache, that she is in now. This moment that stops time, stops worry, stops thoughts. It is her fuel.

These are the moments that are cherished. These simple, pure, short moments that make life beautiful.

Little Girl at Little Farm

Last week Olive took a little trip to Little Farm in Tilden Park. We had a little picnic, saw some farm animals, and played. She really liked the ducks and chickens! We saw a couple of ducks mating in the pond, but we thought we were witnessing a duck murdering another duck. We totally panicked! Rachel grabbed a rock and started yelling, and I ran to a nearby lady yelling "is this normal?!" We looked like total idiots, but I still laugh to this day. Olive loves reading books and learning the noises that animals make. It's so amazing watching her learn! Enjoy the pictures!

9 Months Already?

Whew! She's growing so fast these days, I can barely catch my breath! The other day we were out shopping with Auntie Erin, and I went to show her Olive's top two teeth, and saw TWO MORE TEETH! (Well, one that was in completely, and one half way in) When did this happen? Why didn't I see this? My immediate surprise was quickly followed by "ahhh, thats why she woke up screaming twice this week", then, followed by guilt for not being more observant. (It's always guilt in mama land)
This lovely story just supports my earlier comment about how fast she's growing. One day she can't do something, then, the next she's doing it, and then masters it. She's driven. She's more driven than I ever imagined. Somedays she's so excited for me to put her on the ground to play. It's almost like she knows she has things to work on, and needs to get to it.

This month She hasn't changed too much physically (besides a little more weight, a few more teeth, and  a little more hair), but socially and skill wise, she has exploded. Here is a brief list of things she is doing now.

She waves. She claps. She says "dada" TO dada. She understands some words: "doggie", "more", "water", "bath", "dada", and "no". She stands. She walks holding on to stuff. She stands without help for as long as 5 seconds. She looks for dropped objects. She will bend down and pick up objects while standing. She kisses. She gets really mad when you take something away. She pushes stuff away when she doesn't want it. She reaches for stuff and goes "uh uh uh" when she wants it. She tries using simple signs "more" and "all done".

She weighs over 19 pounds, and is 27 inches tall.

She LOVES to play with (near) other kids. The other day at Studio Grow (a super fun place) she climbed into a tunnel and out the other side. Amazing!

She hates the vacuum, the blender, and falling down on her face.

She loves chicken, black beans, and peaches.

She's so fun, and so exhausting at the same time!

Little Miss GO GO GO

I have a lot to say here....

What can I say but Olive is bursting with energy! Every single day she grows and learns, and it's about the coolest thing I've ever  witnessed. She LOVES people, so we do lots of social activities! Everyday it seems were meeting one friend or another in the park, downtown, or at their house. She loves being out and is like a sponge. She notices every sound, every cool light fixture, and every passerby who comments on how cute she is. Its such an amazing thing to get to experience the world again, through her eyes. I find myself looking around more, pointing out cool little things like elevator buttons or grass.   There is very little I love more than seeing her learn something for the first time. Learn how to do simple things like turn a book page, take off a sock, or climb OVER something. Shes learning fun concepts like... "when I move in the bath, this water moves too", or "when I drop something, mom can pick it up for me", or "when I shake this, it makes a cool sound". 

 Here are some pictures of Olive discovering the world. 

Here are some pictures of a picnic we had at Lake Merritt with our friends, Lilianna and Maria. She LOVED all the birds! She would squeal and kick and wave!

She picked this flower and tried to eat it.

 Here is her friend, Lilianna! Shes so cute! They are 2 days apart! We get asked all the time if they are twins! haha Also notice this vintage blanket.....

Play hard, sleep hard. Just... not during the day so much.

During all this fun, she caught a stomach bug. She spent a lot of time in THIS position.........

Olive's FIRST swing ride. She was kicking and thought it was great. 

Around the house "helping" mama fold laundry....

Around the house, learning a lesson about personal property....

 We went to Alcatraz with our super good friend, DJ. His other half, Carolee, was sick and couldn't join. We call them "Aunt Caroleejay", and Olive LOVES them. We had SUCH a great time! The weather was good, and Olive really paid attention and later, wrote an essay on the history of the island.

I told her, this is where babies go when they don't nap..

This is the face I gave her when she didn't believe me.

Love this picture. She really watches everything.

It was a great day!

Today we met our friends, Dalia, Rachel, Shana, and Jamilla, at a place called "Studio Grow" in Berkeley. At first I thought maybe Olive was too young, but she had a BLAST! She was everywhere! She love climbing on these padded shapes. She climbed up and down. She also played in the ball pit, which was so funny. She laid flat on her belly, and kicked and pumped her arms, while squealing! We went to music time, and she loved listening and watching the bigger kids! We will be going back, very soon.

Olive and Dalia as they both slapped their hands down on this mat. 

Could she be any cuter?

Playing "Peek-a-Boo"

Cruising from one to another.

Pure joy!

Here is Shana! Shes so sweet!  They had so much fun!

Here there are two ramps back to back, and she crawled up one side, and down the other! She was so proud!

What can I say. She's my littlest buddy. I am so obsessed and in love with her, and thankful for her everyday.  I really do realize how special this time is with her, and I am trying to cherish every second of it. 

Today, I got my first kiss. I sat and cried. Way better than my first boy kiss.