Year One

A Year

Month 1: Eats, Sleeps, Poops.

Month 2: Started smiling

Month 3- Sleeping through the night!

Month 4- Started Rolling!

Month 5- first solids

Month 6: Sitting up

Month 7: Crawling, pulling up, clapping, waving

Month 8: Standing

Month 9: Loves to play!

Month 10: Cruising

Month 11: Walking!

Month 12

First Steps

So far in Olive's 11 months and 12 days there have been a lot of firsts. Each one was even more amazing than the last. Rolling, crawling, sitting, laughing, and speaking all were amazing to see. Today I saw the first steps of this little lady. I am so proud of her and all the growing and learning she does everyday. She was standing by the coffee table (kinda grumpy) and reached out for me to come get her- I was about 1-2 feet away sitting on the couch. I looked at her, and said "well, come on then!" and reached out my hands. Faster than I could even process she took two steps and fell into my arms. Did that just happen?! I think it happened even faster than she knew too. Who knows if she will do it again anytime soon!

Here are some random pictures I took this week.

Olive petting a baby goat at "Little Farm"

Drinking from a straw at Benihanas

Olive in a dress and handknit cardigan and booties. Thank you Sandy K!

Holy Heaven! She's Eleven!

Eleven Months Already?!

Whew! This year is happening so fast. She is growing into such a little toddler! Everyday I am amazed by whatever new thing she is doing. How does she learn this? When did she figure that out?

List of new "skills"
She waves to everyone and everything and says the clearest, cutest, "hi"! She barks when she sees or hears a dog. Every animal is a dog. She hugs her dolly. She says "mmmm" when she wants your food, or when you give her food. She puts stuff into stuff, then pulls that stuff back out... repeat.

She says "apple", "dog", "bath", and "I do!" She can pick out several toys that you name. She will hand me things if i ask her to (sometimes). She giggles, shrieks, and crawls away when i say "Im going to GET YOU!" She tries to feed me. She can point to a nose, eyes, hair, tounge, teeth, and ear. She lifts her shirt up to show you her belly button.

She climbs stairs. She stands well, bends over to pick stuff up, and re-stands. All without holding on to anything. Shes an expert cruiser. She opens cabinets. She climbs on everything she can. She loves pulling stuff out of containers. She loves dancing to music. She loves remotes, cell phones, and anything electronic. She hates diaper changes, getting in her car seat, and getting things taken away from her.

Now Im planning her first birthday. It's all unreal how fast this year has gone. I love her more than it is imaginable, and I am thankful everyday for her. She is my heart.

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. 

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.