Fearless

Today I took Olive to this toddler romp room down at the YMCA. Its intended for ages 9mo-2.5 yrs. The room was packed full of tots and parents, large soft play structures, tunnels, slides... ect.. Olive seemed a little young for it, but she wasn't! She went bonkers crawling on, around, and through everything! She watched the big kids, and then did what they did. She stood and pushed a toy car that her friend, Lili, was sitting in! She loved it!

Towards the end of the time, they pulled out a parachute for the kids to play on and under. For those of you who dont know what this is, its a very large, colorful, round, tent-material thing that kids go bananas over. The leader told all the kids to sit in the middle, and the adults to grab the ends. I thought "no way. This will be terrifying to Olive!" So I held her, and we held on to the outside. She started squirming and insisted that she go on too. I looked over, and the other "babies" were too scared to go on there, and I think when I put her down I might have gotten some weird judgy looks from the other moms, but I thought... "lets see...."

This is just a picture of the activity- not of this actual event.

So I put her down in the middle with all these big kids, and the sides came up and the adults started walking in a circle to some dumb song. the big kids kinda sat there, watching. I would think this would be really scary for any 10 month old... Olive, on the other hand, thought this was the most amazing thing ever! She immediately starting crawling in the direction of rotation, climbing it higher to the edges. She was SO excited! All the parents started laughing, and she became the star of the show. The parents were all looking around like, who is this kid, where is her mom? I ran over to where she was, she looked at me, smiled, and kept on climbing. Totally fearless. When I finally grabbed her, one of the moms said to me, "wow, shes really brave!" Yep. Thats my girl.



 Its funny because I am so proud of her fun, bold, fearless personality, but at the same time, I kinda wish she would maybe check in with me a little bit before running off into a brand new environment crowded with strangers. Maybe have a little fear of the unknown? This is Olive though and I love every single thing about her. She is amazing. I can be that proud mom on the sidelines rooting her on in whatever she wants to do. I can be there when she falls. I am really good at kissing boo- boo's.

Ten Month Beauty

I spent the morning buying new 12 month clothes, and decided to spend nap time going through and organizing Olive's old clothing. I sat on the ground, surrounded by piles and piles of tiny little onsies and footie PJ's, and found myself doing some strange things. First, I actually smelled the newborn clothes, hoping to smell that smell again. Not there. Then, I found myself picking up certain clothes and talking to myself explaining when she wore this. "She wore this the first time she met her grandma". "She wore this when she was sick", "She wore this when I held her for the first time". Finally, I was surprised at how teary I got remembering these times. They are all gone. My tiny tiny little newborn that smelled like chicken pot-pie has become a beautiful, strong, intelligent  amazing, funny little 10 month old, that smells more like detergent and fruit puree.

I guess I'm feeling nostalgic because last night I was laying in bed watching old videos of her when she still grunted like a puppy and still had crossed eyes. I remember her then, like it was yesterday. Holding her was easy because she only weighed six pounds. Changing her diaper was so easy and fun. I could take all day, and she wouldnt mind. Now, holding her hurts my arm and back because she weighs 22 pounds, and changing her diaper has become an olympic sport. It feels like Im trying to put pants on an octopus. 

I constantly compare how she was to how she is now, not to say that she was better at any one phase, but to just compare how different she is. Each phase has its easy parts and its hard parts. Back then, changing the diaper was easy, but sleep was hard. I will take the sleep, thank you very much. 

I just am amazed at how quickly these changes happen. Everyday it seems she's doing something new and amazing. What is she up to these days? OH, she's very verbal these days. I watch her just playing on the ground, and she carries on full lengthy conversations with herself. Her babbling is quite impressive, and sometimes i hear things that sound like real words. I have hear her say the following words "dada" (of course), doggie, "ok", "ticky- ticky" (which is what i say when i tickle her), yum, "oh no", "ma", "baba", "la- la- la"... thats about it, besides "all done". Her little voice is so sweet!! 

Physically she has just chubbied out! She used to be the smallest in her play group, but now she seems so chubby!! I know its normal, and she will have a tall growth spurt and be thinner again. She is so physically active! She loves to stand and squat. She is very strong and balanced, and now doesn't really fall over much unless she's tired. She is now "cruising" much more on stuff, and is the fastest crawler I have ever seen. She drinks out of a straw- sippy cup. She loves almond milk, beans, asparagus, blueberries, and turkey. She drinks a LOT of water. 

She has now phased out the morning nap and is napping one big nap in the middle of the day, which is amazing to me! I LOVE it! Now, we can plan stuff in the mornings, and the afternoons! Plus, I get this 2 hour (plus...) nap in the middle of the day!!! I never thought I would say it, but one nap is the best!! I dont feel like I spend all day trying to nap her anymore. Love Love Love. 

Ok, enough rambling. On with some pictures!

"Firsts" this month:

Bubbles, peanut butter, dancing, pointing to somrthings "eye", looking under things and inside things, sand, WORD: "tickle" and "eye".

Easter Baby

Happy spring and Easter to you all!

We love springtime here (Except my stinking allergies), and I love taking my little chubs out in the sunshine! (sunscreen of course) We have been on several park picnics, trips to the petting zoo, and just walking around town doing some shopping. She hasn't realised yet how totally awesome grass is, but she's warming up to it. For now, I enjoy that it is displeasing enough that it keeps her within arms distance. She has really grown socially the past couple weeks, and I just cant get enough of her happy, social, personality! Yesterday we were playing and she sees a 20 month old little boy, and just crawled right up to him, waved, and said "hi"!!! I kid you not. I know, I have become THAT mom that thinks her baby is a super genius, but.... she is, and I am that kind of mom. She pretty social though, saying hi to strangers and giggling at doggies.

While Im in the bragging mood.... she also said "all done" the other day ( I swear, and it was the correct context) I have been trying to teach her sign language for important things for when shes eating, like "all done" and "more", but when shes finished eating she raises her hands and says "all done"- so much for that sign language...Shes only done this a couple times, but its enough to think shes a super baby. ;)

What else is she doing these days?.... standing! She loves standing and letting go. She can do it for a good 15 seconds or so now, which is so cute to watch because she gets so excited. She also has discovered how to make this click click noise with her tongue (like the noise of horse hoofs clicking on the ground), and its sooo cute. Also, she has discovered the concepts of under, inside, and through. She looks under carpets and furniture, looking for hidden toys. She looks inside bags and boxes to discover hazzardous items... She looks through things like toliet paper rolls. Its so cute to watch. Also, she's discovered how to turn pages of books. This is so cute to watch. She just enjoys sitting on the ground and turning and turning the pages. Sometimes the book is upside down, other times she turns 5 pages at once, but she's really figured it out. Sadly, our favorite pop-up book, Dog, has become the first causality  She really had a blast tearing it completely apart. Now I know, pop-up books are for fun adult-supervised reading time.... Oh well, she had a fun time doing it.

Can you tell I am proud of her? 

We tried yet again to switch her off this crazy expensive lactose free formula, and yet, another failure. I guess she's just going to continue to be sensitive to the dairy. Makes me wonder about what we will do at a year when they are "supposed" to stop formula and start cows milk. I guess I'll start looking at alternatives. Any ideas?

She just had a major growth spurt and was eating like a pig, and sleeping like... well, a baby. She gained ONE POUND in one week. Easy for me to do, but when your only 20 pounds, thats a huge spurt! She now fits her 12 month clothes, and I just bought her a perfectly fitting jumper today that was 12-18 months. Where did my BABY go?

OK back to Easter. We got her a little basket with some fun things in it. She was THRILLED!!! She loved it and still prefers those toys over her old ones. I loved seeing her face when I gave it to her. I thought, man, this is the good stuff.