The Unsurly

11 months old / first steps!

2010-11-08T19:23:00.002-05:00

She's one month away from being a year old -- I don't believe it. Someone has some serious party planning to do!

And to celebrate her new status as an 11-month-old, miss Audrey took a few steps on her own today. The bad: it was for the babysitter. When the husband told me, I burst into tears, causing him to say, "Uh ... I guess I shouldn't have told you?" But then she stood up and took a couple of shuffle-y steps toward me with a big grin on her face, and I decided it didn't really matter that much. I won't lie, though -- I was already struggling with some going-back-to-work guilt and that didn't make things any easier.

Audrey is such a ham -- she loves to laugh and dance, and she's just really ... jolly, as friends call her ... most of the time. I can't wait to see how she and her big sister interact when she's a little older.

long time no blog

2010-11-05T20:14:00.002-04:00

First order of business: Halloween!

Olivia and Audrey are pictured with the newest member of our extended family, their adorable candy corn cousin, Mr. T.

I think Halloween sort of blew Olivia's mind. My favorite quote from her was: "I go to the house ... and they give me CANDY?!" She was really, really into it.

She wanted to go home after a few houses so she could eat her candy. Not wanting to deal with a crazed toddler on a sugar high, we gave her a few minutes with a sucker and had her put it away for the next day.

Some random cute Olivia-isms:

-- Enthusiastically exclaiming, "Soor!" (sure) when you ask if she wants to do something
-- Saying a d instead of j: SkippyJon Jones is SkippyDon Dones

Audrey will get her own post in a couple of days, when she turns 11 MONTHS old!

way behind on posting

2010-10-17T09:28:00.005-04:00

Audrey turned 10 months old on 10/7!

she:

is getting one of her top front teeth
can stand up without holding onto anything
is cruising all over the place
says dada, mama, and kitty (kih-TAY!)

Olivia is just a few months away from her third birthday, unbelievably.

she:

absolutely loves her preschool class
talks even more, if you can believe that ;)
says jump like dump and chocolate milk as tok-lat milk, which is adorable
can be moody, but so so sweet.

And me? I got a job offer I couldn't refuse and went back to work full time. I miss the girls terribly during the day, but they seem to be handling things really well. I'll try to get some new photos uploaded soon of my sweeties.

first baby sign

2010-09-24T07:03:00.002-04:00

Audrey did her usual 11 p.m. wake up last night (this girl just refuses to sleep through the night, like, ever), and when I went to get her out of her crib, she was opening and closing her hand like this:

milk sign

It was so cute! I haven't done a ton of signs with her so far, but I think I'll step it up now that I know she's learning them.

She's also standing up every chance she gets, and more importantly, has mastered how to get down from standing (which means I don't have to rescue her every 5 minutes all night long when she wakes up to practice her newfound skills). She says an excited hard k sound when she sees the cats, just like Olivia did, is starting to learn to clap her hands, and also knows what I mean when I tell her to dance, kick her legs, and pat her belly. She'll sit on the hardwoods and use her legs to spin herself in circles, then laughs when she gets dizzy. As her speech therapist recently said, she's a seriously cool kid. :)

Suddenly, waking up at 6:30 a.m. is her new thing ... which I really wouldn't mind if I wasn't up with her at midnight and then from 3-4 a.m. But I keep trying to tell myself that she won't be sleeping like this forever -- her first birthday is less than three months away, which seems absolutely insane!

big girl goes to school

2010-09-18T08:38:00.005-04:00

Olivia started preschool last week. I, of course, was terrified -- how would she do? Would she cry? Would I cry? We talked it up a lot, but then I'd hear her crying in her crib at bedtime:
"Mama! Please! Pleeeeease don't leave me at schoooooool!"

So I was understandably nervous. For her first day, I was scheduled to volunteer in the classroom. She did fine, but I thought maybe it was because I was there. Tuesday was her first drop-off day, and we talked a lot about how I'd give her a hug, leave, and then come back after a while. We got to school that day and waited outside the classroom until the teacher opened the door. O looked a little wary, especially because there were a few kids crying in the hall. When that door opened, though, she started pushing me toward the door, saying, "Hurry up, mama!" I was only there for a few minutes when she asked me if I was leaving and if she could have a hug. I'll admit that I sat in the car down the street from her school for the full two hours, sipping coffee, reading a book and missing her a little bit, not wanting to be too far away.

Today, we got to school and she clapped with excitement when we pulled into the parking lot. I hadn't even been in her classroom for 2 minutes when she TOLD me to leave. "Mama! You go bye-bye now! See ya!" When I picked her up, one of the moms told me that Olivia is one of the most social kids in the class. When there was a lull in conversation during snack time, Olivia said, "Hey! Let's talk about our friends! What are our friends' names?"

a conversation with Olivia

2010-09-12T18:31:00.002-04:00

It lasted for what seemed like forever.The phone rang, so I muted the song I was playing for her to answer it. She started whining:

O: bumcontrol!

me: what? what's bum control?

O: I said, bunnkinstrol.

me: (giving up on my phone conversation) Um, Olivia? I'm sorry, but I don't know what you're saying. Can you show me?

O (exasperated, louder): BUMCONTROL!

me: uh ...

O: bumcontrol?

me: does something hurt?

O: NO! i said, bunnkinstroll.

me: what is that? can you show me?

O: look at the computer and see.

me: Oh, it's on the computer? Is it a game?

O: Silly mommy! It's not a game!

me: a song?

O: yes! I SAID: bunnkinsroll.

me: bunkinsroll? a song? how does it go?

O: (hums an inaudible melody)

me: (finally figuring it out) Jenny Jenkins?

O: YES! bunnkinsroll jenny jenkins!

The song I had been playing before the phone rang was Jenny Jenkins by Lisa Loeb ... but I always change one of the lyrics to "roll, buddy bumkins roll" (we occasionally call Audrey buddy bumkins for some reason). She's always been so verbal and understandable that it was really puzzling and frustrating for us both for me to not know what she was talking about!

9 months old

2010-09-07T22:34:00.000-04:00

Audrey is 9 months old!

She has two teeth that finally came through ...

and, just like her sister, she has a fun little silly face that she makes when you ask her to. :)

brief hiatus

2010-09-07T22:26:00.000-04:00

I've been slacking on updating the blog, but need to get cracking! This week is a big one -- Audrey turned 9 months old on the 7th, and Olivia has her first day of preschool tomorrow.

Another update and pictures soon ...

pulling the plug on the paci

2010-08-12T23:17:00.002-04:00

I'm full of dread over this. We should have really done it long ago -- before she was super attached, before she had it so long that it started giving her an overbite, before she could remember that her mean mommy took away her most favorite thing in the world. Alas, we did not, so here we are.

We've determined tomorrow night is go time. We'll both be around all weekend, so I can spend as much time comforting her / helping her sleep as I need to. Dan will have to help with overnights, as miss Audrey is still waking up every few hours. Everyone tells me she'll have a few bad nights and naptimes and then it'll be a thing of the past.

I've been talking up the paci fairy, the idea of her sending her pacis to babies who don't have any, and telling her what a big girl she is, but I think it's still going to seriously suck. I've offered her a trip to the toy store to pick out something new -- anything she wants, even -- but I'm not sure she gets the concept. Last week, I told her that she could have M+Ms if she went on the big girl potty. She walked in, sat on the potty chair for 1.2 seconds, then came over with her hand outstretched, saying, "Mommy, I'm ready for my M+Ms now!" Those two year olds are so darn literal!

8 months / 2.5 years!

2010-08-07T21:59:00.003-04:00

Olivia turned 2.5 and Audrey turned 8 months old today!

Olivia, as she likes to say, is "VERRRRRY busy" lately -- her imagination amazes me. She's always doing things to entertain her baby sis, a favorite being sniffing her toes and then yelling, "P.U.!" Such a lady. ;P

She had another tooth incident during the week that was nearly identical to the one last November: running ---> tripping in kitchen ---> tooth, meet tile floor. She'd just been to the dentist the day before for her 6-month cleaning and was very brave ("I just cried a little bit!"), but her bravery waned slightly in the face of a second visit in a week. She did fine, amusing the whole office by stating that she wanted THREE silly bands AND A DUCK TOO! as her prize at the end. We go back in a couple of weeks to have the previously-restored tooth re-restored. Poor OE.

Audrey has been having a big couple of weeks: learning to sit up on her own, working on honing her crawling skills, showing the first signs of her two bottom teeth peeking through (finally!), saying dada and mama, and just today, pulling herself to standing while holding onto a toy. I wish I'd been quick enough with the camera, because the look on her face as she stood there was something like, "Hey wow look at this cool thing I did hey mom look I'm standing up OH MY GOD HOW DID I GET LIKE THIS AND HOW DO I GET DOWN?!"

We went to a picnic for families of kids with hearing loss today, and everyone was absolutely gaga over her tiny pink hearing aid. Some of the older kids who had hearing aids themselves came over to see it, and it was really great to see these kids, some of them with profound loss in both ears, even, doing just fine. She starts speech therapy next week, which I'm really excited about!

solo sitting up

2010-07-30T14:07:00.002-04:00

Two nights this week, I've woken up (at Audrey's request, natch) and found her sitting up in her crib, sort of like, "Oh, hey! What's up, mom?" I still haven't seen her do it live, but suspect that this newfound skill of hers along with her recent scooching development may have something to do with her sleep getting even worse. Oof. Good thing she's cute!

nearly mobile!

2010-07-26T13:29:00.003-04:00

I think this might count as officially crawling. I just watched Audrey scooch her way across her playmat, onto the hardwoods, turn around and go all the way back again. She also made a beeline for my laptop that was on the floor, as well as a couple of Olivia's toys that she shouldn't have.

Two mobile kids? Hold me!

you know you go to McDonald's too much when ...

2010-07-17T12:53:00.003-04:00

... your almost-2.5-year-old has the following conversation with someone in your family:

Olivia [to brother-in-law]: Let's go to McDonald's to get a happy meal for you! Produces two different Happy Meal toys, procured during two stops during our 2-day, 13-plus-hour car trip, to share with him

brother-in-law [ever the good sport with Miss O]: Ok, great!

O: Let's get some chicken nuggets.

BIL: That sounds good.

O: Then we eat some apple dippers.

BIL: I like apples.

O: And maybe get a small french fry?

[at this point, I'm doubled over with laughter in the kitchen -- such attention to detail, specifying the size of fries. Though I suppose I should be glad she didn't say something about large or super-size options -- I have been on Weight Watchers, after all.]

BIL: What will I have to drink with my happy meal?

O: a diet coke!

Note to people reading who may be aghast at the notion that I serve my toddler diet coke -- I do not! I do, however, allow her to eat nebulous blobs of chicken that may contain an ingredient similar to that in Silly Putty -- they're sadly one of the maybe 10 foods that she'll eat right now -- but she gets milk with her anti-foaming agents.

7 months old!

2010-07-07T20:40:00.003-04:00

Our sweet baby Audrey/Oggie is 7 months old today!

She is such a sweet little chunk of chub. Check out her jolly demeanor:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DuTrWxj129w

Editing to add that she's been saying "mama" for a couple of weeks now. According to the baby books, they can say mama and dada indiscriminately at 6-7 months, so it's not that surprising ... but it is super heart-melty when she turns and says it when I walk into the room. Sweet Ogg.

Audrey's timeline

2010-07-05T23:37:00.006-04:00

I had to get this together for a hearing loss advocacy group that's helping me fight to have speech therapy added for Audrey -- it was declined due to her age and because she hasn't been diagnosed with a delay -- so I thought I'd post it here. A little keepsake, if you will. Maybe another overwhelmed mom with a newborn who has just been diagnosed with hearing loss will stumble across this via Google and it'll help somehow ...

This timeline doesn't include every single one of her audiology appointments, and I don't have our meetings with the parent advisor from the advocacy group listed, either. And I wonder why I've felt so busy.

12/7/2009 – Audrey born

12/9/2009 – told upon leaving hospital that she failed her hearing screening twice (didn’t know about first test); were given pamphlet for First Steps

12/17/2009 – First Steps intake appointment

1/8/2010 – 1 month old; ABR at St. Vincent

1/13/2010 – ENT appointment

1/20/2010 – CT scan (advised by audiologist and ENT) at St. Vincent under general anesthesia

1/29/2010 – First Steps evaluation

2/2/2010 – pediatric opthalmologist appointment

2/11/2010 – First Steps IFSP meeting

2/17/2010 – hearing aid evaluation/fitting appointment with audiologist

3/4/2010 – first meeting with parent advisor

3/11/2010 – pick up hearing aid (just a few days past 3-month birthday)

3/18/2010 – parent advisor meeting

3/25/2010 – audiologist

4/8/2010 – another audiologist appointment

4/8/2010 – parent advisor meeting

4/22/2010 – parent advisor meeting

4/29/2010 – audiologist … again!

5/3/2010 – decide parent advisor isn’t good fit due to insistence upon heavy sign language use; call First Steps to terminate advisor. Request new parent advisor and to add speech services to IFSP at that time

5/13/2010 – you guessed it: audiologist

6/9/2010 – 6-month audiology booth test

6/29/2010 – receive paperwork to add new parent advisor to IFSP

6/30/2010 – request for speech services declined

100% pure toddler

2010-06-22T23:27:00.004-04:00

I took Olivia to get her hair cut today, something she's been dreading pretty much since the day she last got her hair cut over a year ago. I started talking it up a week ago, explaining all the steps: first, she'd go into the salon and meet Yvette (who also cuts my hair). Then she'd sit in a special big-girl chair that goes up and down. Yvette might spray a little water on her hair, and then she'd use scissors to cut it, and it wouldn't hurt at all. And the best part -- that when her haircut was done, she would get a sucker and a sticker.

She talked about all the steps in the car on the way over, even cheerily adding, "And then we be all done and I get lollipop, sticker AND a balloon!" She did fine walking into the salon and greeting Yvette and my sister, who graciously agreed to swing by and wrangle Audrey so I could give O my full attention.

But then she got in the chair and the tears and "NOOOOOO!"s began. We decided she should sit on my lap so it would be less scary. Yvette busted out a sucker for her and explained that people love to get their hair cut. Then, in a moment of brilliance, she suggested that maybe she should cut mommy's bangs first and then Olivia could have her turn. "NO!" she interjected through her tears. "It's MY TURN!"

If you ever had any doubt about her nearly-two-and-a-half-ness, you need look no further for proof!

scariest parenting moment ever

2010-06-13T09:35:00.004-04:00

We were in the Starbucks drive-through on Friday and I heard Audrey making a gagging noise as I pulled up to the window. I thought maybe she was spitting up, but she whimpered in a weird way, so I flung my door open as the barista was trying to hand me my drink and opened hers to check on her. She seemed ok ... she had a wet chin like she'd just spit up, so I got back in the car, got my drink, and started driving. Then I heard the gagging noise again and something just didn't seem right, so I looked for a parking space -- there weren't any at Starbucks, so I sped to the next parking lot over and screeched to a halt.

I got out and unbuckled her from her seat, and it definitely seemed like she was choking on something, but I didn't know what -- she didn't have any toys in the seat or anything like that. I thought maybe she'd spit up, aspirated it and couldn't catch her breath, but I turned her over my knee and started hitting her on the back because I was sort of at a loss for what else to do. I flipped her over and noticed that her lips and feet were sort of turning blue, but she was still whining and conscious, just getting more limp. Gah. My heart is racing just typing this.

When I saw the blue lips, I grabbed my phone and tried to call 911. But first, I accidentally hit redial on one of my friends, then a freelance client who lives in CA -- stupid easy-to-redial iPhone + shaking hands! I vaguely remember a women in her car one parking lot over staring at me -- I wondered briefly if she thought I was losing my temper with the baby or something. I just kept pounding her on the back, and she finally coughed up a bunch of foamy saliva all over me and the ground.

She didn't cry, but the awful gagging/choking noises and the strange whimpering had stopped and I could hear her breathing clearly, so I told the 911 dispatcher I thought everything was ok. She told me the paramedics were almost to us and to just stay where we were. While I was standing there in a daze, I looked down by my feet and noticed a folded up pink band-aid. Then what happened hit me -- when she had her shots on Monday, one of her band-aids came off when I was putting her in the car and got stuck to the seat back. I meant to take it off and forgot, and then didn't even notice it when I put her in the car. I guess she kicked it off the seat and somehow managed to get it in her mouth. To say I feel like mother of the year is an understatement. :(

The paramedics were so nice -- Audrey charmed them with her babbling and grinning like nothing happened, and flashed a super huge grin at the very cute EMT. I called the pediatrician's office when I got home, and they said as long as she could eat without an issue, she didn't need to be seen. The nurse said, "Great job, mom -- you did the right thing!" But I don't feel like I can take any credit for it ... the right thing would have been to have gotten that band-aid out of the car when it happened.

The most important thing is that she's ok. Me? Not so much. I keep flashing back to it, remembering how I kept saying, "Audrey Audrey Audrey!" and telling Olivia to be quiet so I could think. My dreams the last two nights have been filled with topics even the most novice dream analyst could figure out: planes crashing before my eyes, horrible car accidents, Audrey choking on grapes, toys, plastic bags, you name it. And there was the dream about Bret Michaels hitting on me, which ... who knows about that one.

Olivia keeps saying things like, "Audrey coughing and the am-ba-wance came!" She pretended to choke while she was eating and told me to call the ambulance (not funny mere hours after The Incident, but pretty hilarious now!), and says "Mama hit Oggie's back and the red firetruck came!" -- that line will surely be the one she yells at top volume the next time we're at the store. ;)

6 months!

2010-06-08T14:57:00.003-04:00

She's starting to sleep for several hours at a time now -- last night, she was only up once, but it was from 3-5 a.m. Baby steps. She rolls from back to belly and belly to back, and is starting to get the hang of sitting up, though she's still super wobbly.

At her ped appointment today, she weighed 15 pounds 8 ounces (45th percentile) and was 26" long (60th percentile). She's definitely more of a chunk than her big sister was at this age, at least from looking at her chunka chunka thighs.

She has 6-month testing at the audiologist tomorrow, which I'm a little nervous about for really no reason. I know I'll be holding her in the testing booth, and that she'll be wearing her hearing aid and will have her other ear plugged for the test, but other than that, I'm not sure how it'll all work. More on that tomorrow.

crocodile roll

2010-06-02T22:51:00.002-04:00

Audrey can apparently now roll herself over and over and over to get somewhere. How do I know this, you ask? I haven't yet witnessed it personally, but I put her on her playmat this afternoon, went in the kitchen to get a drink, and came out and she'd rolled herself partially under the entertainment center. Thankfully, the Wii Fit board kept her from going all the way under. I'll take that mother of the year trophy now!

We joined the summer reading program at the library today. Olivia got a card with her name on it, and she'll get points for every book I read to her. Right now she's loving "If You Take a Mouse to School" and "Please Baby Please." Audrey and I also got cards, but I'm thinking neither of us will be doing much reading right now. ;)

Olivia cracks me up lately -- she says some of the cutest and funniest things. Tonight when I was getting her ready for bed and hugged her, she said, "Once upon a time, mama gave OE a big hug! Once upon a time, OE gave mama a big kiss!" Sweet, right? While changing her dirty diaper, she proclaimed that it was full of "walrus pebbles." I think she must have gotten that from daddy.

And last -- but definitely not least -- Audrey only woke up once last night for a bottle. Thank you, baby sleep gods! I apologize for cursing your name repeatedly over the last 5.5 months.

sibling rivalry already

2010-05-26T18:56:00.002-04:00

Olivia had her first major encounter with someone who completely ignored her in favor of her little sis. We were at Target, OE in the cart, Oggie in the bjorn. An older woman walked by and started loudly oooooohing and aaaaaaaahing over Mr. Ogg. She even went so far as to squeeze her leg chub (which is plentiful). This woman went on and on and on about how cute Audrey is: those eyes! those dimples! that CHUB! Olivia sat there totally silent -- if you know her, you know how rare that is -- and gaped at this woman. I could tell she was probably thinking, "Really, lady?" She finally did turn to O and tell her she was cute, and she replied, "Yep." I had to laugh.

So we're sitting here eating dinner (well, I'm eating; she's eyeing her food with distaste and begging to get down). I break out paper and a marker for her as a stall tactic. She starts writing and says, "I'm making a naughty list!" [note: this is from a Dora Christmas episode we last watched in December, not some parenting threat I'm busting out. Though now that I think of it ...] She finds a piece of scrap paper with a picture of a baby on it, starts scribbling on his face, and says, "Look! That's baby Audrey on the naughty list!" I asked her what Audrey did to get on the list: "She talks like a baby." Watch out, Audrey -- this probably won't be the first time Olivia throws you under the bus.

a few Olivia-isms

2010-05-24T08:59:00.000-04:00

Just have to jot these down before I forget.

"poop my face" = what everyone else in the world calls a zerbert.

"I so sweaty from the birthday party/park/car!"

"Say!" -- as in, "Say! Have you seen my piggy?"

never enough time

2010-05-12T09:43:00.003-04:00

I felt like I was so busy when Olivia was a baby -- I laugh now at all that free time I had. Oh, free time ... how I miss you.

I've obviously been bad about keeping up with this blog. Hopefully sweet Audrey won't think this is out of any sort of imagined 2nd child syndrome. I find her just as adorable and brilliant and fabulous as Olivia, but with two kiddos now clamoring for my attention nonstop, plus trying to freelance here and there ... it's just difficult.

My goal for the week -- hmm, maybe next week -- is to get my photos uploaded and caught up on here ... Audrey's 5-month birthday was on May 7th, and I got a shot of the two girls together for Mother's Day as well.

[editor's note: 5.5 hour has elapsed since I began typing this post.]

A quick rundown on recent events:

I ran the entire Talk Walk Run 5K for Hear Indiana! It took me 39:06 to do it, but the course was hilly and I'd only trained at a slow pace on a treadmill. I'm contemplating a 5-mile race in early June, and I've already signed up for the 500 Festival mini marathon in May 2011. I was also the top fundraiser for the event, bringing in $1800. Another guy got a big chunk of donations at the last minute, so technically I came in second, but the director had to cut off the fundraising at some point. Thanks to everyone who donated, and my great family and friends for all the support. A special shout-out to Uncle Na-Na, who ran with me and kept me motivated (and from trying to speed up during the flat patches).
Audrey is still not sleeping much better. This pains me. ;)
I've had a pretty steady stream of freelance work lately. This is both good ($$, mental stimulation beyond repeated viewings of Elmo's Potty Time) and bad (difficult to work when your children refuse bedtime). Grammy has been wonderful about helping out when she can, which is much appreciated.
I just enrolled Olivia in a pre-pre-preschool. It's 2 days a week for 2 hours each time, and is obviously play-based. It's a co-op, too, so I'll get a chance to be in the classroom with her once or twice a month. Mainly, I'm hoping that this will help her get more comfortable around other kids.
The girls ;) got me a really cute card for Mother's Day and a gift certificate to my favorite pedicure spot. It was a nice day. Now I need to figure out how to top last year's awesome Father's Day Kindle gift. I'm thinking I won't attempt another baseball game like last year, though.

It's 9:00. Parents, do you know where your children are?

2010-05-03T21:17:00.007-04:00

#1 just fell asleep, despite skipping her nap today (I sense an alarming trend there);

#2 is still wide awake after a 30-minute cat nap at 7pm. Last night she was still kicking at 10:30.

Have I mentioned I'm on a deadline for a huge freelance project?

Dear universe:

I surrender! Here's my white flag. I apologize profusely for ... well, whatever it was I did in my previous life to get such crappy sleepers in the international baby lottery. Are these moms whose newborns sleep through the night at 6 weeks old paying you off? Because I want to get in on that racket. It's been almost five months. Five. Long. Months. Please, universe ... can you call off the dogs already? Surely it's quite entertaining, giving me a bad sleeper for my first kid and then an equally bad sleeper for the second when the world is full of "your second will be so much easier" adages. I'm tired. So tired that even 4 straight hours -- no, make that 3! -- of sleep sounds positively delightful. Can you transfer this house's bad-sleeping juju to a vapid celebrity who can afford a night nanny or two? Maybe one of those Kardashian girls? That'd be swell.

love,
me (the girl with the permanent dark circles who yawns a lot)

plodding along

2010-04-26T16:09:00.003-04:00

I had typed up a long, whiny post the other day about how hard it is to stay at home with two kids, but eh ... no one wants to read my overly indulgent self pitying. :P

Audrey still isn't sleeping more than 2 hours at a time at night, making me wonder just how bad I was in a previous life. She's sleeping in her crib more these days, and took naps for both grammy and daddy today. She's cute as can be, though -- rolling over, smiling and chatting a bunch. She loves looking at her hands and grabbing her toes, even managing to stick some in her mouth this week. She doesn't seem to mind when I put in her hearing aid, and her face lights up when she hears the little intro song it plays when it starts up.

Olivia is enjoying spring so far, making use of her sandbox and water table as much as possible. Her speech is still off the charts, and she's becoming very funny. Last night, she requested that D read her a One Step Ahead catalog before bed. She said, "We NEEEEED to go to the store to get a new trike for OE!" She also requested a trampoline, a playhouse, and the more reasonably priced "hippo head" (which we actually can't use because our tub spout isn't shaped like that). I think we probably need to stay out of Toys R Us for a while ...

no schedule, no sanity

2010-04-18T15:43:00.002-04:00

I should know better. And I actually DO know better, but I apparently temporarily lost my mind. On Wednesday, we were invited to a 6:30 p.m. birthday dinner for a friend's 2-year-old. Olivia normally goes to bed around 7:30 these days, but we said what the hell and decided to not only go to the party, but to let her have cake and ice cream at 8pm and to not get home until after 9pm. She passed out pretty quickly after being put in her crib despite seeming crazy wired, but woke up really early the next morning and had bad/short naps for days.

And then last night, another friend invited us over for an impromptu cookout at 6pm. We were excited to have actual plans on a weekend night and again cast aside our good judgment. Olivia was so wound up from the two dogs there and all the attention from everyone that she wouldn't even touch the mac and cheese I made for her at home to bring along -- and her taste of my hot dog didn't go over so well. We got home around 9pm and she went right to sleep, but woke up at 7am SUPER grumpy -- like, crying and asking to go back to bed at 10:30. I'm hoping that we can get her into bed at 7 tonight with minimal drama.

Audrey doesn't really have much of a schedule yet, despite my best attempts at creating one for her, but even she's been rocked by our recent nighttime socializing. She wouldn't sleep in her crib last night, so I ended up plunking her in the swing out of desperation and crashing on the couch. She was up every 2 hours all night long, and then stayed up from 9am until 2pm today, when I finally gave up on trying to rock/bounce/shush her to sleep and popped her in the carseat for a little trip around town.

Note to self: do not deviate from the schedule under any circumstances!

4-month stats

2010-04-13T15:42:00.000-04:00

Audrey's 4-month checkup stats!

weight: 13 pounds 12 ounces (60th percentile)

length: 25" (75th percentile)

head circumference: 41.5 cm. The ped didn't write down a percentile for this ... I suspect because her noggin is giant. :P

4 months old

2010-04-09T09:19:00.006-04:00

How does the saying go? Time flies when you're ... not sleeping?

Oh, the humanity of a photo shoot

Someone was not at all pleased about having to share her cupcake.

houston, we have a crib sleeper!

2010-04-05T21:54:00.002-04:00

It's not the coveted sleeping through the night milestone, but who cares? I'll take it! Audrey slept for 3 straight hours in her crib last night -- the first time she's ever actually done any sleeping in it.

I was able to get her down for naps in there all day today, and she's been sleeping upstairs for about 2 hours now. Thank you, baby sleep gods!!!

breaking news!

2010-03-26T13:39:00.001-04:00

Audrey rolled over -- and twice, so I know it's not a fluke! Not quite as early as her sister, but still pretty close. Stay tuned for video evidence.

a big week

2010-03-26T11:14:00.008-04:00

Some good news: thanks to some seriously awesome and generous friends/family, I've been able to raise a little over $1000 for Hear Indiana! If you want to donate, you can do so at my page: http://talkwalkrun.kintera.org/jogforogg

Some not so good: Yesterday we were at the audiologist, and I told her that I'd signed up. She's tall, super thin and fit, and she made a face when I mentioned it. She said something like, "Oh. Wow. Yeah ... I ran that last year, and it was REALLY hard. It's all hills." Hills, you say? This does not sound promising. I went back to the 5k website and noticed they describe the course as "challenging" and "hilly." Is it too late to revert from couch-to-5k to just the couch portion?!

The audiologist retubed Audrey's hearing aid, and it fits SO much better now. Instead of flying over the top of her ear at the slightest movement, it stays where it's supposed to. I think I'll be much more compliant with having her wear it if I'm not having to adjust it every minute.

Audrey found her feet this week, started working on blowing raspberries, and is making a ton of new sounds - she's very chatty. I'm not sure if it has anything to do with her hearing aid or not. They can't do additional testing until she's 6 months old, so we'll just have to observe and see how she does.

Olivia seems to be teething despite supposedly already having her 2-year molars -- lots of drooling/chewing on things, plus a bonus dose of whining for good measure. Tylenol seems to be helping, so hopefully it'll pass quickly. She seems so grown up to me lately. Her sentences are getting even more complex, and she can climb up the slide in the backyard by herself and has also started jumping. She's still a baby in some ways, though: loves her paci and blanket, wants to be rocked every night before bed. I don't mind.

jog for ogg!

2010-03-22T16:03:00.004-04:00

I recently started the Couch to 5K program -- more to force myself back into the gym and try to rid my body of this stubborn baby weight than anything else. I wasn't really planning to attempt an actual 5K, but then my brother-in-law heard about the Talk Walk Run 5K in Indianapolis. Proceeds go to Hear Indiana, an organization that provides services to children with hearing loss. Since that topic is near and dear to my heart these days, I decided to go for it. The worst that can happen is that I'll get picked up by the straggler wagon. :P

If you're reading this and want to sponsor me, go to:

http://talkwalkrun.kintera.org/jogforogg

Don't feel obligated, of course, but I'd be thrilled with even $5. Donations are tax deductible!

3 months old!

2010-03-07T17:08:00.003-05:00

Audrey is 3 months old today! I was going to post and whine about our horrible sleep issues and how tired I am, but I'll save that for tomorrow. ;)

Audrey's ear

2010-02-27T15:01:00.002-05:00

I haven't really felt much like writing about it until now ... I think I needed a little time to process everything.

Short story: Audrey has a mild-moderate hearing loss in her right ear -- which is called unilateral sensorineural hearing loss -- due to a Mondini malformation. Basically, a normal cochlea should have 2.5 turns, and hers only has 2.

Longer story: She failed two hearing screenings in the hospital before we were sent home. We were momentarily upset until the nursing staff and many friends/family told us that she probably just had fluid in her ears from birth and that we shouldn't worry about it. She did need lots of suctioning when born, so we told ourselves it was a non-issue.

We were put in touch with First Steps, which is Indiana's version of the early intervention program that every state has, and scheduled an appointment at a local hospital with an audiologist when she was around 3 weeks old. There she had an auditory brainstem response (ABR) test done, which is actually kind of cool. Electrodes are placed on each side of the forehead and behind each ear and then sounds at various levels are played into the ear via a little earbud. The brainwaves tell the audiologist whether the sounds are being heard or not. I sat and held Audrey as the test was conducted and tried to interpret the brainwaves on the screen for myself. I noticed that the audiologist was doing a bit of sighing and clicking at one point and started to get worried. Sure enough, the test showed that she does indeed have a hearing loss in her right ear (but the left ear was fine). She can hear up to 50 decibels in the right -- normal conversation would be at about 50 db -- but nothing below that. I was given a book titled "workbook for parents of children who are newly identified as hard of hearing" and tried not to cry until I got in the car and called my husband. Hard of hearing. I knew it could be worse, of course, but no one wants their newborn baby to have anything wrong with them.

The audiologist said she strongly recommended that Audrey be fit for a hearing aid so that she didn't suffer from any speech delays. That didn't go over very well with me at the time -- all I could picture was a big, clunky device that would make her a prime target for teasing by her peers in school. She also suggested that we take her to an ENT for follow-up, which we did.

The ENT told us that there are several syndromes, all very serious and some even life threatening, that accompany Mondini malformation in children. After reviewing Audrey's bloodwork from her hospital newborn screening, he told us she didn't appear to have any of those problems. Obviously, that was a relief. The ENT told us we should have a CT scan done so that we could rule out a couple of different anatomical things, one being large vestibular canals that could result in instant and permanent hearing loss in both ears should she ever have a head injury. He also mentioned having her checked out by a pediatric opthalmologist, because kids with hearing loss can also often have eye problems as well.

So about a week later, I found myself back at the hospital with Audrey, this time in the outpatient surgery department. She was going to have to be sedated with general anesthesia, because apparently you have to be entirely still for a head CT or they'd have to keep starting over. My husband stayed home from work that morning to watch Olivia, so I had to deal with it all on my own -- the screaming, hungry baby who wailed the entire way to the hospital because she was hungry (no food 4 hours prior to test due to anesthesia), and the worst part, watching her be sedated via a tiny pink little gas mask that I later learned was scented like cherries. The anesthesiologist assured me that yes, the way she was breathing was normal and that she was already under even though her eyes were open. He asked me if I wanted to kiss her, and I was like, "Well, yeah!" And then it hit me -- he wanted me to leave the room. I think that was my hardest moment as a parent so far: walking out of the room pushing the empty stroller with her car seat attached and turning around to see my tiny baby in her pink and brown striped PJs on this huge table with an even bigger CT machine nearby. A wonderful volunteer distracted me with a friendly stream of chatter as he walked me to the waiting room desk, where I checked in and was given a pager. I realized in my fog that it was the same waiting room where I sat and waited while my mom was having her knee surgery several years ago.

I was thankfully only away from her for about 15-20 minutes, just enough time to scarf down a bagel, call my husband, and call my mom. A nurse came to take me to the recovery room, and I was relieved to see that she was the only one there (aka, no adults coming out of anesthesia and vomiting everywhere). I held her for a few minutes while giving her a bottle of pedialyte, and then they wheeled us -- me on the bed holding Audrey, like we were in some sort of hospital parade -- to another room where we waited for a nurse to take out her IV. I expected her to be pretty out of it for the rest of the day, but she handled it like a champ, napping only briefly in the car on the way home and then getting back to her normal schedule pretty much immediately. Anesthesia is one of my biggest fears, so I was so happy that she came through it ok and with no side effects.

The ENT called about a week later and told me about the Mondini malformation diagnosis. She doesn't have the large vestibular canals, so we don't have to worry about keeping her out of sports. And he said that while he can't predict the future, he doesn't think we need to worry about her hearing getting worse in that ear. Fairly good news all around, and I was happy that we at least had a reason for the hearing loss -- we were told that most of the time, the CT doesn't show anything and you're just left to wonder.

The pediatric opthalmologist was great and said she looks perfect; we go back when she's around 1 for another check and then he said he won't need to see her again if all looks good.

Now we're in the process of getting her hearing aid. The First Steps program pays for all things hearing related until she's 3, which will be a big help. Hearing aids can cost over $1000, and insurance doesn't cover any part of them (which I find ridiculous). She'll be wearing a behind-the-ear (BTE) style that will connect to a plastic piece that will go in her ear. I was told we could pick any color we wanted for the ear mold, but I went with clear with pink glitter to match the baby pink metallic BTE piece. It's actually pretty tiny and cute as far as these things go ... and you can be sure that I'll be posting pictures of her modeling it as soon as it comes in sometime in mid-March. The ear molds need to be custom fit, and the audiologist said that sometimes the kids will outgrow them between the fitting -- where they squeeze pink goo into the ear and let it harden a bit, somewhat like how they do dental impressions -- and when they come back from the lab about 2 weeks later. We'll also be working with a treatment team that includes a parent advisor who has a background in childhood/deaf education and will help us keep an eye out for any speech delays that might occur as a result of her hearing loss. Hopefully that won't be a problem, but you never know.

meet mr. ogg

2010-02-20T13:26:00.003-05:00

Audrey is a baby of many nicknames. We started out calling her Oggie, because that's how Olivia pronounced her name when we first picked it. Then she called her Ah-Dee, and now she can pronounce her name properly. But the nicknames have stuck around.

In the sleepless, slap-happy, delirious newborn days, we started calling her Oggmeister or Oggmeister 3000. Olivia heard the "ogg" and "meister" parts and switched them in her head, so she was calling her Mr. Ogg. As in, "Oh no! I hear Mr. Ogg crying downstairs!" We found it so hilarious that we've started calling her Mr. Ogg now as well.

So our dear Audrey may not ever learn her real name. She's:

ah-dee
oggie
mr. ogg
oggmeister
butter bean
butter biscuit (I have no idea how these last two started)
peanut
peanuttiest

You should see the looks we get in public when we refer to our kids as OE and Oggie/Mr. Ogg.

2-year and 2-month appointments

2010-02-20T13:15:00.002-05:00

We had the pleasure (hahahahaha) of taking Olivia and Audrey to the pediatrician at the same time for their 2-year and 2-month checkups on 2/8. They'll probably have a few overlapping appointments because they were both born on the 7th (Olivia in February and Audrey in December).

Audrey handled it all like a champ, even smiling through some of her appointment. Olivia, on the other hand? When we were still in the car and turned onto the street where the ped's office is located, I heard a shaky, "Mama? Mama?" from the back seat. As we neared the building, she became much louder and demanded to "go home now! No doctor!"

The crying started as we pulled into the parking lot and continued in the waiting room. The receptionist said, "She's two? Just wait - it sometimes is even worse at three!" Oh, good! Something to look forward to!

Audrey was 10 pounds 2 ounces (40th percentile) and 22.5" long (50th percentile). Her head measured 39 cm, which, according to this growth percentile calculator, is above the 95th percentile. We apparently make thin kids with giant heads!

Olivia weighed in at 26 pounds 11 ounces (50th percentile) and is 36" tall (93rd percentile, which I think is the lowest she's been for this stat so far).

They both got shots. Olivia cried harder while the doctor looked in her ears than she did for the vaccines. Sitting on the scale? An exercise in torture. Poor girl. She seems fairly traumatized by the visit, too, because for the last few nights she's been crying "no doctor! no doctor!" after we put her to bed. :(

retrospective

2010-02-08T10:31:00.017-05:00

It's hard to believe, but miss Olivia turned two yesterday! We had an eventful weekend, with a big snow the night before her much-anticipated Dora party (causing most guests to cancel - but we still had a wonderful time with the group who did come) and the Superbowl on her birthday, which the Colts sadly lost. I have a feeling her sleep schedule is going to be off for days ... she woke up at 6:30 this morning, which I don't think she's done since she was a baby.

Happy birthday, sweet girl!

funny girl

2010-02-04T09:10:00.004-05:00

Olivia has only been up for about 20 minutes this morning, but she's cracking me up already.

While standing in crib: "Mama, penguin jammies keep OE warm and toasty!"

After telling her it might snow this weekend: "Oooooooh! OE having a DORA PARTY! Blow out da candles!"

Telling her that she'll get to have a birthday cupcake: "Mmm! Cupcake very tasty!"

Here's a quick video of her talking about her Dora party. I also managed to get her to say her nicknames for Audrey (baby Oggie, Mr. Ogg):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8z7VH0UQ-dM

some days are better than others.

2010-02-03T12:23:00.004-05:00

Today hasn't fallen into the better category so far. It's just past noon, and:

We're all still in our pajamas.
Olivia discovered how to turn the knobs on the gas stove (note to self: get some childproof covers ASAP before she burns house down)
Audrey is having a bit of a fussy day, probably compounded by the horrible night's sleep we both got last night. Recliner sofa is great to sit in ... to sleep on? Not so much.

I need to go to the grocery store, but after the Great Target Solo Run Fiasco from a couple weeks ago, I'm too gunshy. Besides, how exactly does one go about shopping when their cart is filled to the brim with kids and there's nowhere to put the food? I took my mom on a trip to Target last week, which was insanely helpful. Sadly, I don't think she wants to be my shopping assistant every day of the week. ;) I'll consider the day an accomplishment if I can get myself dressed and both kids into the car to drive to the ATM to deposit a couple of checks.

the big barf theory

2010-01-31T14:54:00.000-05:00

We hit two unpleasant milestones in one day: the first scary choking-on-food incident, followed by the first toddler barf. Sure, she spit up as a baby, and I remember her gagging on her breakfast the day of her first birthday and puking, but that didn't quite match up to this.

Olivia had a dentist appointment, and I promised her a stop at Dunkin' Donuts on the way home for a bagel. I also got us some Munchkins and let her have one in the car. She was eating another at the table when she got quiet. This girl doesn't get quiet ... like, ever. I looked at her and her facial expression was one I hadn't seen before. She made a little gagging face and I realized that she probably stuffed the entire donut hole into her mouth at once. I'm embarrassed to admit that I wasn't quite up on my toddler choking protocol -- I know what to do with infants, but I couldn't remember back to the infant CPR class I took before Olivia was born.

I grabbed her out of her chair and whacked her on the back a couple of times (note to anyone reading this: I've since learned that you're supposed to do the Heimlich on older children). I asked her if she was ok and she didn't answer. My terror level shot up even higher at that point, because like I said, she doesn't ever stop talking. I swept her mouth with my finger and couldn't feel anything, so I whacked her on the back while asking her to talk to me. She croaked, "Talk talk" in a pathetic, quiet voice ... and then proceeded to hurl all over the kitchen floor. Strangely and thankfully, she seemed entirely unfazed by the ordeal. I helped her rinse her mouth out in the bathroom and then she asked to watch TV. Typical Olivia.

Have I mentioned how I feel about vomiting? Emetophobic would be a good way to describe me. It ranks up there in my top five fears, maybe even above general anesthesia and bees. If someone merely mentions that their stomach hurts or lets out more than one sigh that I interpret as the pre-puke style breathing, it's enough to send me into a panic. So you can imagine how well I did with this. I'll spare you the details, but I survived. And I became even more thankful for my new Hoover Floormate. ;)

smile (7 weeks)

2010-01-29T22:52:00.003-05:00

[* smile obtained by grinning like a maniac and saying such things as "wubba nub nub!" in a loud and high-pitched voice]

ah-day ---> ok

2010-01-28T12:55:00.005-05:00

Olivia seems to be getting more and more grown up every day. She's always been a big talker, but she's expanding her vocabulary and some of her cute mispronunciations are starting to fade away. "Ah-day" for "ok" is one of them. And instead of always saying her name as OE, she'll sometimes say it as Oh-wee-ah. Thankfully, she still says dah-der-roo for kangeroo, which is probably my favorite word of hers. Editing to add that wick-wick is now music. She's growing up too fast!

Olivia has a follow-up dentist appointment tomorrow and has been saying "no dentist" every night when I brush her teeth. Yes, that will be a lot of fun. And her 2-year-old well baby visit next week on the same day as Audrey's 2-month checkup (and first vaccinations - ugh). That should be interesting. Shall we take bets on who will start crying first? ;)

6 weeks old!

2010-01-19T14:08:00.008-05:00

Can you tell I'm almost never on my laptop these days? If only blogger made an iphone app ... ;)

You can see her giant cephalohematoma -- which has thankfully gone away -- in the 2- and 3-week photos. It was quite the enormous goose egg, causing everyone to ask if she was a forceps/vacuum delivery (she wasn't).

Here's proud big sister Olivia with Audrey. She's doing so well with her and doesn't seem super jealous (so far). When Audrey cries, Olivia enjoys saying, "Wah! Wah! Wah!" in a totally monotone voice. I haven't had a chance to get a video of it yet, because, you know, when one is screaming and the other is faux-crying, I'm generally sweating and twitchy and don't think to reach for the Flip camcorder. But it's pretty funny.

We're doing really well overall! I wish I had more time to post here -- I still need to post Audrey's birth story, for instance -- but hopefully that will change at some point.

1 month old already

2010-01-07T14:15:00.002-05:00

That whole "time flies" thing is really true. I'm not sure where the past month went! The newborn phase this time around doesn't seem as acutely exhausting -- probably because I've already lived (suffered? :P) through the Big Life Change from an adult able to do whatever I pleased whenever I pleased to someone living with a tiny, squalling dictator who is unable to do things like take showers without a lot of planning. But getting online other than to quickly check email on my phone proves to be difficult most days. I know it'll get better as she gets older, so I'm trying to enjoy the needs-to-be-held-nonstop phase we're in now.

Audrey had her 1-month appointment today. She went from 7 pounds 9 ounces at birth (and then 7 pounds 1 ounce at discharge from the hospital and 6 pounds 6 ounces two days later) to 8 pounds 3 ounces. She's 21 1/4" long (was 18 3/4" at birth) and her head circumference is 37 cm. According to the babycenter.com percentile calculator, that means:

Length = in percentile 25
Weight = between percentile 10 and 25
Head Circumference = above percentile 95

Unlike Olivia, who has consistently been in the 95th-98th percentile for height since birth, we have a little shorty on our hands. Apparently with a big noggin to boot. It's so hard not to compare the two of them.

Speaking of Olivia, she's 23 months old today! Preparation for her big second birthday bash has begun. I asked her what she wanted to do for her birthday -- not imagining she would have an opinion -- and her reply was "Have a Dora party!" I didn't think I'd have to worry about a character/theme party so soon, but a Dora party she shall have.

Pictures to come. Really. Soon (hopefully).

we're alive ...

2009-12-23T18:48:00.003-05:00

... I just don't have a lot of time on the computer these days. :)

Back after the holidays with pictures and details about life with two!

Audrey Jane is here!

2009-12-11T19:59:00.000-05:00

Audrey Jane
born 12/7/2009
5:01 p.m.
7 pounds 9 ounces
18 3/4"

Pictures and more details to come!

new teeth

2009-11-29T22:46:00.006-05:00

Olivia had her big dentist appointment today. I almost cancelled it at the last minute, because the pediatric dentist's policy is not to allow parents in the back while they're doing lengthy treatments and I thought it would be way too traumatic for Olivia. I'd been dreading it for weeks.

As it turned out, it was mostly traumatic --- for me. She said "mama!" a couple of times when the dental assistant came out to get her, and apparently cried for a couple of minutes, but then settled down and was a total trooper for the rest of her appointment (which lasted almost 2 hours). They cleaned her teeth, applied a sealant, and then covered the teeth with plastic veneers to protect them from decay and make them look more like her teeth did pre-ceramic tile accident.

The dentist and her assistants talked about ice cream a lot during the appointment, and Olivia's reaction was always, "mmmm!" or "num num!" each time they mentioned it. (They gave us a coupon for a free ice cream cup at Chik-Fil-A that we redeemed on the way home.) She also apparently told them that we already had our Christmas tree up and that the lights were blue. She may have been thinking about helping me put up the outdoor lights over the weekend, though who knows!

They gave her a stuffed bear wearing an "I love my dentist" shirt, and she carried it around for most of the day. The only thing she says about her appointment is that the dentist looked at her teeth and that they're clean and shiny. So ... lifetime trauma averted, I think.

Before:

After:

seriously slacking - 36 weeks

2009-11-16T13:18:00.005-05:00

I'm 36 weeks pregnant today, which means 4 weeks left (if I'm lucky). I alternate between wanting to get it over with already and wanting to keep this kid in forever so nothing changes. I've become accustomed to not being able to bend over and breathe at the same time, to the unpredictable, sharp stabbing pains that occasionally shoot from my back to my hip down my leg, causing me to suddenly lurch forward like the Hunchback of Notre Dame. This random pain doesn't care if I'm at home, trying to carry a 25-pound toddler up the stairs, or merely strolling around at Target minding my own business.

What I'm no longer accustomed to is an hour of straight sleep being considered a luxury. All the various discomforts of recovering from a 40-week gestational process in which a human being ... you know, comes out of your body. The profuse sweating that ensues upon hearing a tiny little baby screaming and screaming for no reason. Thinking that your breast pump talks to you.

These days, I wake up around 3am with a strange desire to go downstairs and vacuum the kitchen floor. I often worry about how we're going to permanently ruin Olivia's life and how she's still just a baby and needs our attention.

But I'm sure that just like I did with Olivia, I'll muddle through somehow. I'll get used to not sleeping again, though hopefully it won't be a year-long stretch this time around. I'll wear the dark undereye circles as badges of honor. If nothing else, maybe people will take pity and come over bearing coffee.

miscellaneous cuteness

2009-11-14T23:16:00.000-05:00

Just jotting these down so I don't forget:

"I hear wick-wick!" (music)

da-der-roo = kangaroo

makey da play-doh (makey da brown rabbit, makey da chicken eggs, makey da pink OE)

bite of water

_______ very tasty! (most recently, I was in the shower and heard her saying, "Mmm! Ice cream cone very tasty! Num num!" When I peeked around the shower curtain, I saw her with a (closed) jar of Mentholatum in her mouth. Ack.)

soooooo many birds!

daddy pick it up now

21 months old: first time out

2009-11-13T08:32:00.001-05:00

I need to start by saying that Olivia is officially 21 months old as of 11/7! I missed taking pictures last weekend, even. Along those lines, I can sort of tell that she's inching closer to being 2 years old these days. Case in point:

She had her very first (and surely not even close to the last) time out on Monday. I gave her a bowl of mac and cheese with a few peas mixed in -- this girl has GOT to learn to eat veggies! -- and after a few bites, she promptly started throwing her food everywhere: against the garage door, into her play area in the dining room, and even managed to get some from the dining room into the kitchen. I asked her to stop, I counted to three ... and she kept doing it. And laughing. And then smacked my hands away when I tried to remove the bowl of offending food. Yeah, Mommy don't play that.

I told her she was going to have a time out because we don't throw our food and it's bad manners. I turned her booster chair facing the door, set the microwave timer for a minute, and waited.

There was an acknowledgement of the wrongdoing: "Noooooooo throwing food. Noooooo."

Then the anger phase set in: "DOWN NOW! DOWN! NOW!" she screamed in a voice that sounded straight out of a scene from The Exorcist.

And finally, our first spousal disagreement about discipline. He thought I was being too hard on her and that she didn't know why she was in time out. I told him 1 minute in a chair wasn't going to kill her, and besides, maybe it was ME who needed a time out.

Halloween photos

2009-10-31T23:20:00.000-04:00

always an adventure

2009-10-29T08:45:00.001-04:00

We took Olivia along with us while we went shopping for a new bed. She was trying very hard to be patient and doing a good job of it for a 20-month-old, but was starting to come a bit unwound: it was close to dinner time, she'd been in her stroller for a while, and she hadn't napped that day. Yeah, our bad for even attempting a shopping excursion on a day like that.

We let her out of the stroller to run around a bit, but there's really only so much you can do to keep a toddler from climbing on all the furniture (with sticky fingers, of course) or smearing all the glass coffee tables, so we had to pick her up and hold her. The furniture salesperson sees me trying to hold my super-wiggly child and comes over to chat. It went a little something like this:

saleswoman: Hi, Olivia! What are you doing?

Olivia [ramming finger up nose and grinning]: I PICKING MY NOSE!!!

In true Olivia style, this was said at top volume, and I don't doubt that most of the store heard her jubilant exclamation. Several people nearby chortled; one customer walking past our area stopped and bent over at the waist laughing. Yep, that's my kid!

fall fun

2009-10-28T09:11:00.005-04:00

pictures

2009-10-10T12:02:00.004-04:00

Saying cheese (you can kind of see the chipped tooth here):

10/7/2009, 20 months old:

Her first attempt at sitting in her "OE big girl chair." The high chair, constantly in our way and the cause of a million stubbed toes, has been banished to the basement.

Who is this big girl?

20 months old (two days late)

2009-10-09T15:48:00.003-04:00

Olivia is 20 months old! She was a dainty 24 pounds 4 ounces (40th percentile) for weight at her well-baby checkup this week, and half an inch shy of three feet tall -- 35.5" (98th percentile). I bought her some Old Navy jeans in 18-24 month size, and they fall right off. It's no wonder: they're meant for kids 33-36" tall, but also 27-34 pounds.

I have cute photos to post, but Blogger isn't cooperating. More to come ...

hip-hop baby

2009-10-02T12:04:00.003-04:00

In an effort to wean her from the need to listen to Baby Signing Time songs (disclaimer: LOVE BST -- those DVDs are seriously fabulous!) in the car, I started a rotation of songs I could tolerate. Of those, Olivia has latched on to two that she wants to hear constantly:

"Single Ladies" -- Beyonce (surely you've seen the "Single Babies" viral video on YouTube ...)

"Gold Digger" -- Originally Kanye West's, but Olivia prefers the version from Glee instead.

So now instead of hearing the plaintive wails of "Baby Time? Peeeese? Baby Time NOW!" I'm treated to requests/commands to hear "Dingle Lay-Lees? DINGLE LAY-LEEEEEEEEEEEES!" or "Goh Diggle!" from my little backseat DJ.

tooth trauma

2009-09-24T12:31:00.000-04:00

It's taken me nearly a week to recover from *my* trauma enough to finally post about it.

On Sunday evening, right after dinner, I got Olivia out of her high chair and was right behind her when she fell. It happened so quickly that I didn't have time to reach out and catch her (oh, the guilt!) and she didn't have time to try to catch herself with her hands. Face met ceramic tile. There was the telltale moment of silence where you know that either they're totally fine or screaming is about to ensue in 3 ... 2 ... 1 ... Ah yes, there it is.

I picked her up and she was holding her mouth. When she moved her hand, I saw the blood. A lot of it. At that point, I was doing a decent job of remaining calm when I noticed something white on her lip. A piece of her tooth. Her front tooth.

Hello freakout.

The pediatric dentist she saw once for her checkup was out of town for a week, so I called their emergency backup dentist from a different practice. I think the call went something like:

surly: Hi, Dr. Phillips. My daughter is a patient of Dr. Carol's, but she's out of town. A few minutes ago she ... she [voice shaking] fell ... on the tile [embarrasing crying begins]

dentist: Oh, please don't cry! It's ok. Can you tell me what happened?

surly: [crying worse from hearing sympathetic voice on phone] Her tooth! [deep breath to attempt to compose self]

I believe I said something about being pregnant/hormonal/crazy and told her I was going to put my husband on the phone. Look up "calm under pressure" in an encyclopedia and you'll see my photo, folks.

Long story short, we took her in the next day. X-rays showed that the roots seem to be fine, but she has a 2nd-degree fracture of one front tooth, exposing the pulp, and chipped the enamel off the other front tooth. We go back in 6 weeks to have her rechecked and discuss possible restoration of the tooth so she doesn't get cavities. I just assumed they'd pull a baby tooth, but apparently they like them to stay in as long as possible to serve as a placeholder for the adult teeth.

She's a trooper and really hasn't complained at all about it, other than when she whacked her face with her baby doll and caused the bleeding to start up again right after we'd gotten it under control the first time. I haven't been able to get a pic of the snaggletooth yet, but will of course keep trying.

scary things

2009-09-13T19:57:00.002-04:00

There must be a lot to be afraid of when you're 19 months old. Olivia continues to proclaim lots of things to be scary ("Oooooh, that's-a scarrrrrreeeeee!). Among them:

* a purple and green polka dot elephant toy. We should probably just put it away, because it apparently haunts her toybox and she hates when we even open the lid.

* having her diaper changed when the changing pad cover is in the wash. Tears and everything.

* green beans. She'll eat the pureed stuff (yuck), but put a whole one on her tray? Terrifying!

* putting toys away. We asked her to put her toys away before bed. Her reply? "No toys away. That's-a scarrrrreeee!"

I think she might be playing us.

19 months old!

2009-09-07T20:48:00.003-04:00

Our big girl! These are from earlier in the weekend on my birthday and today. Truly, how did she get to be so big?

mid wave

hamming it up during dinner

She met some new friends at the park today: Oggie, aka Audrey, and Ah-duh-wan, aka Allison. They liked her bucket and shovel, and she shared graciously (as graciously as a toddler can share, anyway). Ah-duh-wan set a bad example by shoveling handfuls of pebbles into her mouth; Olivia attempted to follow suit but only briefly sucked on a pinecone instead.

I keep meaning to post something separate about Baby #2, but always end up forgetting. So, an update: I'm 26 weeks today. Baby is a girl, healthy as far as all the available Testing for Very Elderly Pregnant Ladies can tell (triple screen, level 2 ultrasound) and is so far without a name. I'm in serious denial that she'll be here before the end of the year, which will also cut about 15 days from my usual "only X shopping days until Christmas" panic.

I also have some serious guilt already about how I'm surely ruining Olivia's life as she knows it ... and mine. She finally sleeps through the night after a miserably long year of little sleep and then we go and do this? I just keep reminding myself that I have a sister who I adore and can't imagine life without, and any therapy I've needed in my lifetime has had nothing to do with her. ;)

words and phrases

2009-09-04T09:49:00.003-04:00

I wanted to jot these down while I was thinking of them. Her vocabulary is changing every day -- it's wild how one day she pronounces something one way, and the next morning she can actually say the word. This age is so much fun. :)

uppy-down = upside down

ba-ba-boo = peek-a-boo, said in a really high-pitched voice

uht = elephant (this one is extra funny to me, because she says iguana and lawnmower and other words just fine)

ah-deh-poos = octopus. Probably my my favorite word of hers right now.

She used to say bagel in the cutest way: bab-eeeel, sort of with a French accent. Now she just says bagel.

OK is still ah-dey.

airplane recently went from meh-mayne to ah-plenne.

She just looked at the squirrel hanging off the birdfeeder and yelled, "Get down, squirrel!" And this morning when I asked her if she remembered her new schoolbus toy we bought her yesterday, she said, "Ohhhhhhhhhh! New kool-bus! Et, daddy!" (Et is how she says thanks; she always accompanies it with the baby sign.)

She likes to look at ants on the ground, but doesn't touch and instead looks at me seriously and says, "Ants alone!" When I reply that yes, it's nice to leave ants alone, she follows that up with "Bees alone!" Oh yeah. Not going to argue her on that one at all. The less bug touching, the better.

If I tell her that we're going somewhere in the car, she replies, "Mama Starbucks!" I don't know whether to be embarrassed, proud, or both. She's already succumb to the branding, I guess.

In an attempt to wean her from having to constantly hear Baby Signing Time songs in the car (while fabulous, and I'd recommend the DVDs to anyone, I started to feel like if I heard those songs one more time, blood might gush from my ears), we began hyping up music we like by exuberantly saying "yeah," "uhh!" and "woo hoo" during those songs. Now she does it unprompted -- and let me tell you, listening to your 18-month-old uh-huh and yeah along to a Jay-Z song makes the heart proud. :P

catching up

2009-08-30T09:38:00.005-04:00

I've been sick for over a week with a cold and have been EXTRA slacky about updating lately. On the plus side, freelance work is picking back up and I passed all the testing and training to become a kgb_ agent, so I've been really busy on top of the my normal pregnant mom chasing a toddler tiredness. :P

Just a few quick things while I feed her breakfast of dah-doze (Cheerios) and dix (Kix).

-- she had her first haircut a couple of weeks ago to remove her glorious rat tail. I thought I might cry, but the crying was all her. She did not enjoy it one bit. They gave me the little tail to take home in a tiny ziploc. Bye-bye, mullet!

-- we went to the zoo the other day, and she's still talking about the animals she saw. She seems to have been most impressed by the polar bear, who she says played peek-a-boo with her.

Olivia-isms that are cracking us up lately:

-- when something scares her, she turns into a guy from a Prego commercial, doing her best Italian accent: "Oooooh, that's-a scaaaarrryyyy!"

-- she has a little ram toy that she calls "I the ram." She asks us what I the ram says, and also puts her Diego figure on top of him and says "Diego riding the ram!" I think I the ram came from me singing "I'm the ram" to the tune of "I'm the map" from Dora. She loves her little people animal set and knows all of the animals, even the iguana (eye-na-na), jaguar, vulture, zebra, and she knows the difference between the rhino and the hippo, both of which look pretty similar to me! While I think her pronunciation is really good for a toddler her age (almost 19 months), she calls and elephant an "ut."

I'm sure there's more, but Miss O, or O.E., as she still calls herself, demands to get down and play. Off we go!

one toddler, two days, zero naps.

2009-08-16T17:18:00.002-04:00

We just got home from a quick overnight trip to Lexington to visit our cousins and their two girls. The trip was great (thank you, portable DVD player!), but our timing was a little off -- we arrived Saturday around naptime and were silly enough to think that she'd go down for her nap in a new house with new playmates and two very exciting dogs. I put her in her pack n' play and went in about 10 minutes later to find that she'd reached the package of wipes on the dresser and filled the PNP with over half of them. I gave up trying to force a nap at that point.

We left before noon today, thinking she might sleep in the car. Again, silly us! We got home at 3:00 and by 5pm, poor Olivia was a mess. Yawning, rubbing her eyes, crying at everything, pulling her hair. I picked her up to console her and she was conked out on my shoulder within 20 seconds. It's going to make for a long night for us, but she's in her crib sleeping right now. It seemed mean and entirely unpleasant for all to try to keep her up until her usual 7pm bedtime.

Maybe she'll be so tired from two days of no napping that she'll sleep through the night? Ha!

18 months old

2009-08-07T09:37:00.000-04:00

She's a year and a half old! Unbelievable. I look at her baby pictures and then at her, and it's amazing to me that she's grown into such a little person so quickly.

On 8/7/2009:

And what she does when you ask her to make her "silly face." This expression is also combined with a funny "Ooooooooooooh!" sound for maximum comedic effect. She's a little ham -- wonder where she gets it.

stack 'em up!

2009-08-05T08:45:00.003-04:00

Olivia learned a new trick -- stacking up little containers of Parkay -- in a restaurant in North Carolina.

uploading ...

2009-08-01T13:51:00.001-04:00

Hi everybody! My mom has been a total slacker and still hasn't uploaded photos from our beach vacation. She promised she's going to work on it this weekend, so stay tuned!

back from the beach

2009-07-20T09:30:00.003-04:00

Just a quick post to say that we survived a 14-hour drive to North Carolina and back with a rear-facing toddler in tow.

Olivia had a blast at the beach -- she loved the sand, the ocean, and especially having a built-in adoring audience of Grammy, Grampy, Auntie Rar-Rah and Uncle Na-Na around the clock.

I haven't had a chance to upload photos yet, as I'm still unpacking bags and vacuuming up the sand that seems to be everywhere, but I'll do it soon. My big ultrasound is today at 2 p.m., so I'll try to get those photos scanned and uploaded later as well.

More to come!

17 months old

2009-07-08T13:36:00.002-04:00

I can't believe how grown up Olivia is! Over a year and a half old now ... it's so hard to remember her as a tiny, helpless baby now that she has such a developed personality.

She learns something new every day, and she never fails to make me laugh. That's not to say that she's not a handful at times: I'll go ahead and confess to crying out of frustration at dinner last night after she flung the scrambled egg I made for her on the floor and then at me. The kid just won't eat unless it's yogurt/crackers/ some fruit or her new favorite Veggie Booty ("ba-booey").

She's still obsessed with her owies and points them out (though they've long healed) to me and anyone else who will listen several times a day:

O: mama! Owwwwwies.
me: you have an owie?
O: hurt!
me: where does it hurt?
O: leg.
me: oh, your leg?
O: knee!
me: and your knee?
O: eye too!
me: your eye too?
O: Ohhhhhh noooooooo, owies!

Her BFF is our cat Antoy, or Duh-Doy as she likes to call her. We never imagined Antoy could be so patient. She was far from a fan of babies/kids before (and for a while after) Olivia arrived, but now she'll sit and let her try to touch her nose, "pet" her using her toys, and have various foods and sippy cups shoved in her face. I did see Antoy give her a little swat on the head last week -- Antoy was on the bed and Olivia was bothering her nonstop: "Hi Duh-Doy! Duh-Doy, EAT! Hi Duh-Doy! Duh-Doy tail!" O turned the other way for a second and Antoy reached out and gave her a little pat, no claws. Just enough to say, "Lady, it's time to get this 3-foot beast out of my face for a bit." Olivia also loves Nugget/Nuh-Nut, but Nuh-Nut is not really a fan. She pretty much hides during her waking hours.

Since I filmed her counting to 10 video, she's improved -- she can say all the numbers, but skips 7. She still loves to spell her name, and likes watching us write words and draw pictures on her magna doodle.

catching up

2009-07-03T14:16:00.004-04:00

Olivia had her first dentist visit this past week. She cried (not a shocker), but seemed to get over the trauma fairly quickly, especially once the dentist gave her a rubber duck. The best part was that she doesn't have any cavities despite her nighttime bottle habit going on a bit too long.

She likes to say her name now, which she pronounces "oh-eeeeee." I find it adorable.

She continues to pick up new words every day, and some of her existing words are morphing into better versions: Elmo has changed from Mo to Mel-Mo, and Dora was Dee but is now Dorrrr-ah. And she's continuing to try out sentences. This morning she said, "Oh nooooo! Baby all wet!"

She's not loving restaurant dining these days -- just ask my family after a particularly feisty experience at PF Chang's this weekend -- but is otherwise a pretty funny, happy kid. I think we'll keep her.

a quick cute thing

2009-06-23T12:38:00.002-04:00

Olivia has the cutest new thing she's doing lately. When she wants something, she'll say this:

"mooooore nana? ah-dey!" translation: more banana? ok!

It's like she's asking and answering her own question. Hilarious.

She's also been known to say "More ba-booey (Veggie Booty, her new fave snack)? Ah-dey!" and "Baby (Baby Signing Time, either the songs in the car or the DVD)? Ah-dey!"

baseball or bust: bust

2009-06-21T19:22:00.008-04:00

When I heard that Dan's favorite MLB team, the Cincinnati Reds, were playing on Father's Day, I knew what his present was going to be. He's been talking about wanting to go to a game for a long time -- pretty much since Olivia was born -- and I thought FD would be a perfect day for him to take her to her first major league game. I photoshopped a Reds hat onto a picture of O, wrote a cheesy poem about the game, printed it out and stuck it in an SQL Server study book of his that I wrapped up. You should have seen the confusion on his face when he opened it. "SQL Server? Wha--? Uh ... I already have this." Heh.

Through a great connection from a friend (thanks, J!), we were able to get all-inclusive club seats -- we're talking unlimited (oh yeah!) hot dogs, pizza, hamburgers, nachos, fountain drinks, and even pasta with breadsticks or stir fry -- in the shade (a must when you have a baby or are as fair as yours truly) for a steal. The drive is only 2 hours and was pretty much a piece of cake, except that O didn't nap as planned on the way there. Strike one. Actually, make that strike two: strike one would be that she basically refused to eat breakfast, so she was off her game from the start.

It was a bit of hike from the parking garage to the ballpark, but once we got there it was easy to pick up our tickets and find the suites. When we first arrived, I thought maybe we were in the wrong place. It was air conditioned! And did I mention the all-you-can-eat food? Our seats were just a few rows down from the a/c food paradise, so we went and sat down to check them out. No one else was in our row, and we were right on the aisle. Perfect! Except that Olivia was NOT impressed.

Our view:

Olivia's reaction to our view:

I like to call this photo, "Meh." Approximately 1.2 seconds after this photo was taken, all hell broke loose. She commenced with flailing and screaming the likes of which I have never seen before, along with her world-famous sudden limp arm maneuver (SLAM) I may have mentioned previously. Walking with her down the row only served to make her more angry, as I wouldn't let go of her hand so she could fling herself on the sticky ground, eat discarded peanut shells, or catapult herself over the chairs and tumble down the rows below us. I'm SO mean.

I decided it was a good time to let Dan watch a little baseball, so off we went to explore the a/c suite. Translation: I was hungry. I grabbed a hot dog for us to share (Olivia's verdict: meh) and managed to keep her on my lap for most of the time it took me to scarf it down. Then she wanted to run around. The problem was that she had taken off her shoes during Tantrum 1.0 in our seats, so we had to go retrieve them. Enter tantrum 2.0. This was a full upgrade tantrum, you see. Not just mere whining, but eardrum-bursting screaming and actual tears. I felt people beginning to stare.

We went back in the suite, but between carrying the diaper bag and my camera bag and trying to hold her very unwilling-to-be-held hand, I was having a rough time. Enter something I swore I would never use until I had a child: the harness. This:

Mean as it looks, it's actually pretty useful for helping to steer your teetering toddler. But wow, I couldn't believe the stares I was getting. Two of the hot dog vendors were alternating between whispers and staring at us, so I sort of laughed and told them hey, I used to think these were crazy, but you have to do what you have to do (translation: quit staring and serve up some hot dogs, ladies). They said they were debating this issue; one was pro-harness, the other, con. Whatever. I didn't have time to get into it, because Miss O was on the go.

I tried to placate her with a piece of pizza. After one bite, she kicked her foot up on the table, somehow managed to flip the pizza off the plate cheese-side down on the table, then use her sauce-covered shoe to kick me in several places while screaming and trying to get off my lap. She resisted my efforts to clean us both up. The crying escalated and seemed to echo in the suite. People at tables all around us were staring -- only a few faces were sympathetic. I tried reasoning with her. Begging. Bribing with her favorite snacks. No dice. So I did what any normal, calm, level-headed parent would do in that situation.

I cried.

I managed to keep the tears at bay as I gathered up our stuff while barely managing to hold Olivia's arm as she flung herself to the ground dramatically. We walked around and looked out the windows at the boats on the river, and her crying (as well as my desire to fling myself to the ground and sob) slowly started to diminish. Then I saw Dan come in, and I lost it. He was coming in from outside to say that we should probably head home, bless him. That was without knowing that he'd just missed the upgrade to Tantrum 3.0. He was happy he got to see a couple of innings and got a hot dog. I was happy that he was happy, though the disappointment in my big fun surprise not go as planned still stings a little. I guess no one ever said that having kids is fun all of the time. :P

To sum it up:

Tickets: $40
Garage parking: $12

Hours driven: 4

Innings viewed: 3

Free food consumed: 2 hot dogs, 1 order nachos, 1 coke, 1 water, 1 bag peanuts, 1 bite cheese pizza

Tears shed: many

Still, according to Dan, having Olivia conk out on his shoulder as we fled the ballpark for our car was priceless.

evil, wonderful TV

2009-06-19T08:28:00.007-04:00

This has been a big week for Olivia -- big because I've allowed her to watch more television than she's probably seen in her entire lifetime thus far.

I went to bed "early" (10:30 p.m.) Monday night with a headache and feeling strangely exhausted. Sometime around 3 a.m. I woke up and noticed that I had a stabbing headache -- the kind where it hurts to move your eyes in any direction and like a small ice pick may have somehow become lodged in your forehead. Tuesday morning brought more of the same, with bonus nausea, sweating and dizziness. I hadn't felt this bad with both pregnancies combined. Something was seriously amiss.

The morning routine of changing O's diaper, carrying her downstairs and putting her in her high chair felt like Herculean tasks. Her breakfast yogurt was overly fragrant and caused me to cover my neck in cold, wet paper towels in the hopes of taming some of the nausea. The normally adorable sounds of her beating on her high chair tray and jibber-jabbering endlessly were causing my brain to ache and my vision to blur. She just wouldn't stop talking, and she doesn't just talk to herself. She says one word over and over, at increasing volume, until you repeat back the word she's saying. I wasn't up for it that morning.

Enter TV. Normally I save it for emergencies, particularly fussy/restless days, or for when I need to clip her nails without hysterics. The Baby Signing Time series absolutely mesmerizes her, and she does learn from it. But lately, we (read: me) have become reeeeeeally tired of the songs, as well as of Miss O's insistence that we play the songs in the car (which she "suggests" with loud shrieks of "Baby? Baby! Baby! BABY! BAY-BEEEEEEE!" over and over and over until we comply). So over the last week or so, I've been trying to wean her from the DVDs so that we don't lose our sanity during an upcoming road trip.

But on this day, I broke into the arsenal. I didn't feel well enough to care. All four DVDs of Baby Signing Time were played. Several episodes of Jack's Big Music Show were screened for her viewing pleasure as well. During this time, I was horizontal on the couch, moaning and watching my temperature creep up into the 100s. My mom came by with Sprite and McDonald's biscuits, and Olivia barely acknowledged her presence. She was in the zone.

I just hope she didn't lose too many IQ points during her day with the evil, wonderful television.

shiner

2009-06-17T10:48:00.005-04:00

I knew it would happen eventually. See her left eyelid? The photos I took don't accurately convey the redness or puffiness of the injury, but in true Olivia style, she doesn't seem to notice.

The culprit?

Apparently the guitar on the Fisher Price Little Superstar Jammin' Band (got all that?) not only plays some mean licks, but also gives you a good licking should you happen to, say, stumble on a pile of books on the floor and then fall on top of it ... with your eye.

Speaking of injuries, Olivia is obsessed with "ouch" and "owie" lately. She fell a few weeks ago and scraped her knee, and even after it healed is still pointing to it, saying "ouch!" and then doing the sign for hurt. She also likes to point out other people's owies as well: "mama owie! awwwwwww."

1, 2, 3, 9, i

2009-06-12T20:44:00.002-04:00

Olivia has started counting a little, which she probably picked up from me using "1-2-3" as a countdown for picking her up, tickling her belly, or whatever. But when you ask her to count and start at one, she'll follow with twoooooo, fweeeee, niiiiiiine, and then sometimes throw in a jubilant "i!" at the end. It's pretty hilarious. She still likes to spell her name, but she still won't say the L.

She also just started using two-word sentences today out of the blue. Stuff like "Elmo diaper," "nice baby," and "bye-bye TV." Oh, and this is slightly embarrassing to admit, but we went through a drive-thru this morning and she said, "EAT!" Oops.

16 months!

2009-06-08T22:24:00.004-04:00

Actually, it was yesterday and bad mom that I am, I forgot to come on and post about it.

Olivia had her 16-month well-baby visit today. As I predicted, she was not happy about it. The "oh noooooo"s started as soon as we were lead into the examining room, and tears began the moment Dr. Jim walked in. Thankfully, he's pretty unfazed by her flailing/screaming/tears/hysterics. She thankfully skipped the guttural screaming that occurred the last time she was there -- I thought her head might spin around at any moment.

She only gained a pound since her 1-year checkup, so she weighed in at 22 pounds 8 ounces (40th percentile), but she's still going strong in the vertical growth department, measuring 34" (98th percentile). Two inches short of three feet tall at 16 months old ... pretty impressive, but not surprising given some of the serious height on my dad's side of the family.

Once she calmed down, Olivia proudly spelled her name for Dr. Jim, and he declared it "Very impressive. No, wait -- that would be very impressive for a 2-year-old." He noticed how verbal she is and said that she seems to be ahead of the curve for her language skills. That was about it.

She got two vaccines, one in each leg, and wasn't a big fan of that either. I was probably more traumatized than she was, really. We stopped at Burger King on the way home so I could get some comforting fries and a frozen Coke for me, and some tasty mac and cheese and apple slices for Miss O. And no, I didn't share my ruh-ryes. :)

a new word to add to the list

2009-06-05T11:43:00.002-04:00

word #69 on the "Olivia's Words" spreadsheet I've been keeping: french fry.

Yeah. I shouldn't be surprised that she knows this word, but it still caught me a little off guard. I had a craving for Arby's and grabbed some curly fries with my roast beef. She's never seen curly fries before, yet when I sat down to eat (cutting up a healthy apple for her), she started yelling: "ruh-rye! ruh-rye! ruh-ryeeeeeeeeee!" I gave in and let her have a small bite -- now she says, "Noooooooooo" in her cute little semi-question way when I try to give her apple, then resumes her ruh-rye chant.

Like mother, like daughter ...

too funny not to share

2009-05-26T14:09:00.004-04:00

The quality isn't the best -- it's an iPhone photo of a library book, but I think you'll get the gist of it. With props to Harvey Karp, MD and his book "Happiest Toddler on the Block," I present to you concrete, scientific evidence behind the reason for my exhaustion:
If you can't read the legend, it says "Seven clocked minutes of nursery school behavior at different ages." See the upper right-hand box that's circled? Yeah. That's the trajectory of a mere SEVEN MINUTES in the life of an 18-month-old. I was reading in bed when I came across this graphic and laughed (silently, of course, so as not to wake Olivia) until I had tears streaming down my face. It's so true. I would love to strap a little GPS on her so I could see her (probably very similar to the above graphic, if not even more madcap) path at the end of the day.

it's getting harder to blog ...

2009-05-22T13:45:00.004-04:00

... with a toddler running all over the place. I remember the days of typing on my laptop while a tiny 9-pound Olivia snoozed on my chest. These days, I'm lucky if she gets a nap in, period. She's go go go all the time, which I hear is normal for this age. ;)

I've been trying to get her outside more, but given her hatred of having sunscreen applied, we're usually limited to a quick after-dinner sandbox visit. I have to admit that her sandbox makes me a little twitchy: between her trying to sample some of the grainy goodness and flinging it in the air so it coats her hair, eyelashes, and every square inch of her skin, it's just such a mess. Who knew I could be OCD about messes?

I think all of my readers know this already, but I'm pregnant (due date: 12/15/2009). First trimester fatigue + toddler = pure survival mode, so part of the reason for my scarce blogging as of late is because I usually tumble into bed the minute Olivia hits her crib for a nap. The second trimester is just around the corner, so I'm hoping that once that milestone hits I'll be feeling a bit more like myself, taking more photos again, etc.

If you haven't checked it out yet, watch Olivia spell her name. Pretty darn good for a 15-month-old if I do say so myself! Here are a few pictures of her playing in her sandbox (Daddy's idea) this week.

where oh where did my sweet girl go?

2009-05-07T08:17:00.006-04:00

Can the terrible twos arrive at 15 months? siiiiiiiiigh. We've hit a bit of a rough patch lately with our darling Miss Olivia.

She's learned that she has a lot of very strong opinions about things in her life:

diaper changes = bad
riding in wagon = awesome
evil parents removing her from said wagon = very, very bad
bathtime = awesome
evil parents removing her from bathtub = injustice of all injustices
splashing in the cat bowl = rocks!
mean mommy taking cat bowl away = fuh-huh-reakout time

And so on and so forth. Thus my posting hiatus. I've been slightly exhausted by the hysterics and haven't wanted to post until I could muster up a little humor first.

But at least she's still cute, and I know you want photos, so here you go!

her new sweet ride:

first bath in the big tub without her inflatable duck baby tub -- she LOVED it. Splash city.

off to the races

2009-04-22T20:43:00.005-04:00

Olivia is walking about 98% of the time now, and she seems to be quite tickled by her newfound skills. She often squeals/shrieks when she walks, sometimes pumping alternating fists in the air, reveling in her sheer magnificence. It's pretty hilarious, if I do say so myself -- this kid is spunky. She occasionally breaks into a brisk walk/run, usually when she's headed for something she knows is verboten. You should be able to see the latest video of her practicing her strut using the video link on the left side.

So, I broke down and joined a moms' group about a month ago. While there, you leave your kids in their childcare room so you can -- gasp! -- have uninterrupted, adult conversation without having to shoo grabby hands away from your food, jump up and chase your offspring who is inevitably teetering toward something perilous, or give a brief seminar on No, We Don't Pick Our Noses In Public; It's Gross. Olivia does not like being left in the childcare room, as you can imagine. All of the ladies in there are sweet as pie, but apparently 14 months is prime separation anxiety time and she doesn't care how nice they are -- she does NOT want to be there. I end up practically jogging down the hall, fingers in ears, la-la-la-ing to myself so I don't have to hear the plaintive wails of "Maaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa-ma! MAMA!" (translation: "Get your fool ass back here, woman!")

As you can imagine, between Gymboree and the childcare room (a.k.a. Places Babies Can Put Filthy Toys In Their Mouths For Fun), Miss Olivia has had quite the streak of colds for the last month. She handles it like a champ, but is still not a fan of having her nose wiped. The blue hospital-issue bulb sucker thingy? Yeah, that's a no go. So out of sheer desperation, enter the Nosefrida.

Uh, yeah. I'm (sadly) serious. I mocked this very device last year on a message board. I picture the scenario playing out like this:

Mom: Hey, baby! You know what would be super fun? I'm going to put a HOSE in my MOUTH and use it to suck your boogers out! Are you ready?

baby: Uh, lady? This seems like a very bad idea for many reasons.

Mom: Here we go!

baby: *throws arms up in surrender, mouth agape with terror*

Here's the rub: the thing is actually recommended by her pediatrician, so I'm going to give it a go. The website assures me that no baby boogs will even make it up into the hose, never mind my mouth, so we shall see (it's on order -- you know I'll be updating with results if I can ever get up the courage to use it).

The Nosefrida is probably second on my list of Creepiest Baby Products Ever. Coming in at #1 is the Zaky:

See how that baby is sleeping with his eyes slightly cracked open? I would too if two giant, limbless, 1970s-pantyhose-nude bean bag hands were hovering over my cranium and butt.

the maternal instinct kicks in early

2009-04-07T16:40:00.003-04:00

And yeah, that is a bottle. I'm a wimp, you see. A wimp whose child's cries of "BA-BA! BAAAAA! BAAAAAAAAAA!" could be used as a Waco-style audio torture method should I ever choose to hole myself up in a house and refuse to come out. Ba-ba will go bye-bye ... soon.

a few days shy of 14 months old ...

2009-04-04T19:43:00.001-04:00

She's finally getting the hang of this walking thing!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hYH0di_5LDU

She also learned how to raise her hands above her head and yell "TA DAAAA!" when she's proud of herself about something. If only adults could do that without looking odd ...

the month in review

2009-03-31T08:31:00.011-04:00

Olivia had a busy month -- so busy that I was a bit of a slacker at uploading. So in photo-essay form, here's what the fabulous Miss O has been up to:

she suffered through the indignities of a ponytail

got stuck in a box

swiped my car keys and attempted to flee the scene

gave Up Up Elmo a much-deserved smackdown

"helped" by cleaning out the pantry

honed her artistic prowess

and most importantly, learned the finer points of relaxation from dad

supposedly no more

2009-03-23T16:25:00.002-04:00

I just saw her take a few steps! She would have been able to keep going, but she stepped on her Charley Harper puzzle and decided that was enough.

supposedly walking

2009-03-21T11:22:00.000-04:00

We're finally all over our Gymboree- or playdate-acquired colds, thankfully. I think it lasted the longest for poor Olivia, but you'd never know (other than the insane quantity of ... um ... output from such a tiny nose) that she was sick. For the most part, she was in a good mood as usual. And she's slept through the night for 4 days in a row now, which makes me very happy.

I've had a bit of freelance work lately, which means that daddy plays with her in the living room while I'm at the dining room table working. I can't tell you the number of times in the last week that he's claimed that Olivia has taken several steps on her own. As soon as I run in there, she plops on the floor and starts back up with the take-a-knee scoot she's mastered. Yesterday we had dinner with friends at their place, and while I was upstairs chatting, Olivia allegedly took 10 steps on her own while down in the basement with the dad and his son. She also -- and again, I'm going to say allegedly, because I won't believe it until I see it! -- stood up on her own without holding onto anything, and then did it again this morning. My husband described it as sort of a downward-facing dog for babies. So while she's way behind my mom friends with babies her age, maybe she actually will walk eventually. ;) Now if we can just get her off her beloved ba-ba and purees ...

In other news, we're thinking about enrolling her in a mom's day out program in the fall. If my freelance continues to be as busy as it has been, I need some daytime hours other than her unreliable naps in which to work. It would be two days a week from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m., and it would be much less expensive than hiring a sitter to come to the house. The program is NAYEC accredited and looks really great. I sent a small deposit in to hold the space for now, and I'll have until August to figure out if I can really go through with it. I have a lot of guilt even thinking about it. I feel like because I chose to stay home with her, I should be responsible for her care 24/7 (which I know is irrational), she'll get sick, I'll get sick ... So we'll see.

conquering germophobia one playdate at a time

2009-03-14T00:02:00.002-04:00

This week -- spurred by near insanity brought on by cabin fever -- we went to a Gymboree class on Tuesday and had a playdate with a friend and her son on Wednesday. I was proud of myself for not getting (too) twitchy when she put a ball to her mouth at Gymboree or when she chewed on some toys during the playdate.

But today Olivia has a runny nose, and now I too am sniffling/sneezing and have that nagging tickle in my throat that means a bad cold is on the way. I'm trying to convince myself that this is a good thing: she needs to be exposed to things to build her immune system, and I don't want her to be sick nonstop in preschool and kindergarten, but ugh. I'm a wimp and a sick baby is the saddest thing ever. It sort of makes me want to hunker down in the house a la Howard Hughes surrounded with vats of hand sanitizer and face masks.

new words

2009-03-02T18:00:00.006-05:00

I just had to pop on and jot these down -- this is basically my baby book, after all!

shoe ("dooooo") -- she also picked up the baby sign for this

boot ("booooo" or "bot")

boo -- as in peekaboo, usually said from her carseat when she sees me in the mirror

more ("moe") -- accompanied by the sign

bye-bye -- she's been doing this for a week or two, but with more regularity now, and also says it when she sees us putting on our coats, when people leave our house, or when we leave somewhere

please ("peeeees") -- she also does her version of the baby sign of this one

bath ("baaaah")

moose ("moo" or "muh")

moo -- what she says when she sees a cow or a gallon of milk

kitty -- ("tee")

balloon -- ("boon")

no -- ("nuh nuh nuh nuh nuh") -- frequently uttered when she's doing something she shouldn't be, like moving toward a power cord or reaching for daddy's receiver

I think there are probably more -- "moe" :p -- but they're not coming to mind right now. I'll update this if I think of others.

added 3/18:

mouse -- "mouw"

bee

magazines -- "mee mee"

mail

socks -- "docks"

she's also repeating everything, which is funny:

come see me -- "mee mee"

mailman -- "may mannn"

vomit.

2009-02-25T12:49:00.008-05:00

Puking. Hurling. Blowing chunks. Soul coughing. Praying to the porcelain gods. Shouting groceries. Whistling beef. (I have to give Google credit for those last two.)

I hate it. I hate thinking about it, hearing it, seeing it, smelling it, doing it. I know no one enjoys throwing up, but I have a special kind of fear of it. I can probably count on two hands the number of times I've done it since I've been old enough to remember. I can also remember many, many times where I probably should have just thrown up and gotten it over with, but instead chose to live with days of nausea instead. There's actually a term for it: emetophobia. Fear of blowing chunks. Or something like that.

Yesterday, Olivia did it twice. She choked on her afternoon snack and sent a horrid concoction of milk, goldfish crackers, banana and rice cake everywhere. I managed to not totally flip out as I stripped her clothes off and left them in a heap on the high chair tray for my poor husband to clean up later. She's been sort of iffy with eating much of anything lately, and picked at dinner. I gave her a bottle at bedtime, then she wanted more, and then around 9:30pm she was yelling "BA-BA!" from her crib, so I gave her a little more milk. Big mistake.

Around 10pm she woke up and I could see on the baby monitor that she was just sort of sitting in her crib, not really moving. If you know Olivia at all, not really moving is not really her style. Her head was slumping forward occasionally, almost like she was asleep sitting up. Again, totally unlike her. Dan thought I should just leave her alone because she wasn't crying, but I had a weird feeling and went to check on her. Yeah, you already know where this is going. The poor thing had puked all over her jammies and was just sitting there sort of shivering. Saddest sight ever. I think she just must have had too much milk, because she seemed totally fine after we changed her out of her wet PJs and remade the crib. She didn't end up going back to sleep until after midnight, but thankfully at least slept through the night. Phew.

Breakfast and lunch were uneventful today, so I'm just going to go with "random fluke" instead of "Terror alert: High. Stomach virus in house. Commence freakout."

not quite walking, but it's a start

2009-02-21T13:45:00.002-05:00

She stood up and pushed her little wagon while walking yesterday -- it's the first time she's even attempted to do anything like that, and she even managed to take a couple of laps across the kitchen.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LUt6AhGAc24

words

2009-02-19T09:00:00.000-05:00

Still no walking, but she seems to be adding a few new words per week. As my mom said to someone who was giving her a hard time when I hadn't walked yet, she's an intellectual, not a jock.

She said her first sentence last week: "Hi kitty." (Though kitty usually sounds a lot more like the hard k sound, or sometimes just a t sound.) This week she also started saying "Hi daddy," and now waves while saying "bye!" Her favorite word is still "hi" by a very large margin, probably because of all the attention it gets her when we're out. If she says hi to someone and they don't hear her, she raises her voice and tries again. I've even had her shout it at people across a parking garage. Oh my ... how did I get such a social child?

She also still loves to say bird, bear, and baby (bayyyyy-BEEE!). I think her word for magazines is mimi, and lately she tries to imitate things I'm saying, like beep beep or knock knock. She gets this hilarious grin on her face when she does it---I really need to get it on video.

She also picked up the sign for dog today, and is doing car and banana since I last posted about it. I'm really glad I overcame my all-or-nothing complex and got the Baby Signing Time videos. If you're in the market, I can't recommend them enough!

winter blahs

2009-02-18T21:45:00.003-05:00

I'm not sure if it's just February (a.k.a. the novelty of winter has worn off, yet spring is too far away to think much about yet) blahs, the typical let-down feeling I get after a big thing I've planned for has passed, or what, but I'm in a bit of a slump this week.

I'm trying to self-analyze so I can get out of this mood. My usual pick-me-ups haven't been working: goofing off online, reading trashy celeb gossip mags, eating chocolate ... even shopping at Target. Something is seriously amiss.

So, I've realized that it's bugging me that I have to take Olivia's bottles away now that she's a year old. I've been trying to transition to giving her a sippy cup, but someone isn't thrilled with that plan of action. It's completely my fault for not breaking the bottle/rocking to sleep combo sooner, but after months of very little sleep I've sort of felt entitled to do whatever works for a while. But now I'm annoyed that I have to switch up a routine that's been working just fine. Maybe I'll just pull a Katie Holmes and let Olivia keep her bottles until she's four. Ha!

She also isn't really digging the whole milk thing, and doesn't seem crazy about solid foods other than a few select purees. I joke that I'm going to end up going to school with her to spoon feed her pureed pears in the cafeteria, but I do worry that she's not getting enough to eat and/or that she should be eating more finger foods by now.

I guess in a nutshell, it's that I don't enjoy when I feel like I don't know what I'm doing ... and I feel that way a lot lately.

One happy thing in the midst of all this gloom is that she's finally saying mama! I think she started doing it last week, and I must say that it's the best thing ever. She's been up about 5 times since I put her to bed at 7:30 (ugh), but each time I've gone in to check on her she's pointed at me and said "MAMA!" like she hadn't seen me for days. So sweet. Things like that make the bad days a lot better.

storm photos

2009-02-13T14:13:00.007-05:00

We spent all day yesterday dealing with a tree service, trying to get the street and our neighbors' driveway unblocked so they could get their cars out of the garage. $800 and a lot of annoyances later (we won't be using that company again), the tree went from this:

(see the upstairs window on the left side of the house? That's Olivia's room. We were sitting across the room from where that sloped wall is, but her crib is pushed right up against where that tree would have fallen.)

to this:

We still have some work cut out for us---chopping up the remaining pieces of the trunk and offloading the wood, plus repairing the neighbors' grass where the tree made a huge dent in their lawn. Dan already replaced their mailbox today. It's been a huge hassle, but I'm trying to keep it in perspective. It could have been much, much worse.

1-year appointment

2009-02-11T22:16:00.002-05:00

Olivia had her (very traumatic) 1-year appointment today. In addition to the usual tortures of being measured and weighed and having her ears looked at, she also got three shots and her finger stuck to check her hemoglobin. I've witnessed her getting upset before, but wow---she was in full-on screaming mode today: red face, sweating, tears gushing from her eyes, the whole works. She actually was more upset by the weighing and measuring and ear checking than she was by the needles. At one point, I thought maybe she'd broken a blood vessel in her eye from all her hysterics. It was really sad to watch, but Dr. Jim said it's totally normal for kids her age to react that way. Can you imagine your days filled with kids who are crying and terrified of you? Maybe that nice salary offsets those unpleasantries. Anyway, the stats!

length: 31.5" (I thought it was closer to 32", but she was pretty squirmy) - 97th percentile
weight: 21 pounds 8 ounces - 50th percentile

I didn't see the head circumference on her chart this time, but he said that her head is pretty normally sized ... not too small or too big. (Ahem - Pesto, are you reading this? ;)

I also got the go-ahead to switch her over to whole milk, and was told we have a month to get her off bottles. It breaks my heart a little to take away her beloved ba-ba, partially because I can't imagine snuggling in the rocker with her blanket and a sippy, but also because she's so cute when she crawls over to my leg, pulls on my pants, and shouts, "BA-BA!" excitedly.

In other news, while I was rocking Olivia tonight, I heard a wind gust and a boom that shook the house a little. I assumed it was thunder. When I came downstairs, I asked Dan if we should move Olivia's crib to the other side of the room in case it got windier and the giant tree out front fell. He assured me there was no reason to worry. Well, there wasn't---because that boom I heard was the tree in the front yard falling over. I'll post pictures tomorrow, but it came up by the roots and fell across our neighbor's driveway. Unreal. I'm still sort of shaking thinking about the what-ifs.

Happy birthday, Olivia Kate!

2009-02-07T00:01:00.002-05:00

Sweet miss Olivia, it's your birthday!

At this time last year, I was in bed, unable to sleep. Truth be told, I think I was also crying a little. I was to report to the hospital at 6 a.m. to be induced -- you were stubborn and cozy in there and didn't seem to be showing signs of wanting to come out on your own. I didn't want to go to a hospital. I was under the assumption that childbirth might possibly be the Worst Thing Ever and thought that if I could be the first woman to remain pregnant forever, I'd gladly sign up. I was sad that I would no longer be carrying around a little friend with me wherever I went. I knew I'd miss your crazy nighttime kicking and all-day-long hiccups.

I was also just plain petrified. Petrified about some big stuff, like that I wouldn't have any idea how to take care of you or that I'd be a lousy mom, but also about some silly stuff, like fearing I'd never get to go out to eat again. When I was nearing my due date, everything became a "last." Last dinner out. Last movie in a theater. Last night as a childless married couple. I worried that maybe your dad and I hadn't traveled enough, or that perhaps we should have spent more time being selfish (your dad assured me that as people in their mid-30s, we'd had plenty of time to be selfish).

As it turns out, I was wrong about a lot of things. Having you was -- after the epidural, anyway! -- exhilarating. Though I no longer had a built-in little friend, I had something even better: a tiny sweet bundle that I could hold in my arms. It's true that your dad and I had a lot of "lasts" before you were born, but now we have so many firsts to look forward to. Something is a first for you every day, and we get to go along for the ride. We somehow figured out how to care for you, with lots of help from grandma and books and even that first-night-home call to the hospital to find out why you were crying. Answer: have you tried giving her more food? Yeah, we were rookies in every sense of the word. And I laugh now, thinking that we'd never eat out again. I think you may have been in more restaurants in your first three months of life than I'd been to in a year. One of these days, daddy and I will get brave and travel somewhere with you. Maybe.

Though I jokingly called it "A day of indignities" after some of the things that happened during labor and delivery, February 7, 2008 was by far the best day of my life. I'm so happy you're my daughter and that I get to watch you learn and grow. I love seeing the world through your eyes -- how you point and grin at birds and squirrels and have been fascinated by butterflies even when you were only a few months old; that you hear an airplane and look toward the sky expectantly, as if it's one of the most exciting things ever.

I am so lucky, and I love you so much.

this too shall pass ...

2009-02-05T20:19:00.002-05:00

... but it doesn't mean it isn't frustrating anyway. I'm sure you can probably guess: teething, sleep disruptions. Last night looked like:

7:30 - bed
8:30 - awake
9:00 - asleep
2:30 - awake
3:00 - asleep
3:30 - awake
3:45 - asleep
4:15 - awake

Not the worst night we've had by any stretch of the imagination, but after several weeks of her either sleeping through the night or only getting up once, last night ... well ... sucked.

I just spent the better part of an hour trying to get her to sleep. She was nearly asleep in my arms when I dared plunk her in her crib without her being fully conked out. I did this for two reasons: 1) I know she needs to learn to fall asleep on her own eventually; and 2) I was starving and wanted to come downstairs and eat. Silly me! But she's asleep now, and I'm hoping she stays that way -- dare I say all night long? -- because I have a lot to accomplish for her birthday festivities on Saturday.

True to form when I decide to entertain in some capacity, I'm rocking my typical modus operandi: overthinking everything, feeling overwhelmed, and simultaneously procrastinating. Darn this perfectionism complex of mine! Tonight I'm going to attempt to get the 250+ photos I had printed into an album (fighting the urge to make it absolutely perfect by writing the dates on the back of each photo and making sure the photos are in the album in exact chronological order) and to burn a DVD of her greatest hits to play on the TV during the party (fighting my desire to get fancy and learn video editing software tonight in order to accomplish this).

She's so cute, though, saying bayyyyy-BEEEE! excitedly whenever she sees her photo. And I hate to admit it, but it's pretty funny that she grins and says DA-DA! when I ask her to say mommy. What girl doesn't adore her daddy, after all?

1 week from today

2009-01-31T10:33:00.002-05:00

I can't believe her birthday is next Saturday. Everyone always said the time flies, but I didn't really buy into it. But it really feels like just I blinked, and bam---I have a one-year-old toddler on my hands.

<------There are some new videos linked at the left: one of her favorite activity, stair climbing; and one of her dancing to her Fridge DJ ("Where the tunes are tight and the music is right!" Yes, it really does say that). She's a little ham. She did a very lengthy and entertaining Fridge DJ dance for our friends Laura and Jerry who came over last night, and gave some seriously flirty eyes to Jerry. Is it too early to start dreading the teen years? ;)

wondering where my good sleeper went

2009-01-26T08:14:00.002-05:00

I never thought I'd call Olivia a good sleeper, but she actually has been for the last few weeks (except the night when my sister and brother-in-law babysat - she was so keyed up that she wouldn't go to bed until I wrestled her into submission around 11:30 p.m.). Her normal schedule is to go to bed between 7 and 8 p.m., maybe do her weird waking up thing 30 minutes to an hour after going to sleep, sleeping through the night , and then not getting up until 9 a.m. unless I wake her earlier. Last night looked like this:

8:00 - bed
11:00 - wakes up babbling and laughing
11:15 - the crying begins
11:20 - drinks a bottle
11:30 - wide awake
midnight - wide awake
12:30 - wide awake
1:00 - wide awake

See where I'm going with this? At 1:15 she started looking somewhat sleepy, so I put her in her crib and crawled into bed, praying that she would stay asleep. Then she woke up at 6:58 a.m. Oooooooof.

And one of the cats hurled up their breakfast on O's play mat. Ugh. Nothing like cleaning up barf before breakfast.

In other Olivia news, lately when I ask her to say mommy, she grins and yells, "DA DA!" Stinker. The tooth to the left of her left front tooth finally broke through, and her fourth bottom tooth finally showed up (so much for that oh-so-helpful woman telling me it was never going to come in if it hadn't by now). Hopefully that's it for the teething for a while ... but what's causing the sleep disturbance?

more signs

2009-01-19T23:54:00.002-05:00

So in addition to "more," Olivia now does the sign for "all done" and just did "milk" for the first time today! It's so much fun watching her do these things, and it's pretty amazing to me how quickly she picks up on them when I'm so inconsistent with doing them. I'm trying to teach her the sign for cracker next -- right now she just signs more or points and grunts when she sees them. That works too!

She also does the sign for more when I'm singing to her and she wants me to start over, when we're playing and she wants to repeat something, or when I'm reading her a book and we finish it. It's adorable.

She can tell us what a fish says (opening and closing her mouth) and what an elephant says (keeping her lips together and blowing, although sound doesn't always come out). Occasionally she'll say mmmmmmmm for what a cow says, but other times she says "buh," her favorite word. Today we were reading "Good Night Gorilla," and she surprised me by pointing to the elephant in the book and making the sound. She can point out things in books when you ask her to show you where they are -- stuff like bear, chick, strawberry, dog, cat, and even guinea pig.

She's getting better at standing and doing it for longer periods of time, but she still doesn't show any interest in walking. Which is actually fine with me, because I have a feeling that once she starts walking, she won't be content to ride in shopping carts or strollers.

I think that's all the new stuff I have for now ... preparation for her birthday is in full swing. I'm second guessing the dress I chose for her, though, and have ordered a new contender. You'll just have to wait and see what she wears for her big day. ;)

baptism

2009-01-19T23:34:00.008-05:00

Olivia's baptism was Sunday. She skipped her morning nap and was a bit squirmy and fussy through the whole thing. At the end, I realized I was sweaty from my baby-wrangling efforts.

She didn't like the water:
But made a decent recovery:
She was fascinated by the candle:
And afterward, in a pretty good mood and hanging out with Fr. Mike:
My sister hosted an awesome lunch at her house afterward for all of us -- homemade minestrone and chicken salad on croissants, plus an apple bundt cake with ice cream. Mmmm. It was a nice day despite the nap-skipping. ;)

I didn't get many photos of her in her cute dress, so I put it back on her today:

And a close-up, just because she's cute. :)

teething, signing, puking

2009-01-10T20:17:00.006-05:00

The title of this post pretty much sums up Olivia's day. :p

Teething: it looks like the two teeth on either side of her front teeth are making their way in. Still no sign of a fourth tooth on the bottom yet, but hopefully it'll show up eventually. I actually had someone at Target tell me that teeth are supposed to come through in pairs, and if the tooth to the right of her two bottom center teeth hasn't already come in, she probably won't get a tooth there. Uhhh ... thanks, lady? I think the asymmetry is pretty adorable.

Signing: After getting the awesome Baby Signing Time DVD and doing a few signs for a couple of weeks, Olivia did her first sign this weekend! She must take after me, because she was eating and did the sign for "more." ;) At first I thought it was a fluke, but she did it again when Dan came home and has been doing it all weekend. She's also pretty good at the point-lean-and-grunt method of getting what she wants, which is how I realized she wanted another graham cracker tonight. I'm trying to get her signing on video, so hopefully I'll have something to upload soon.

Puking: Is it horribly mean and unsympathetic to say that I'm really glad I wasn't home when it happened? I was at Carter's checking out their clearance (and also eyeing the crazily cute spring stuff), and when I got home, Olivia was wearing a new outfit and sucking on her pacifier (which she rarely does other than at bedtime). Dan says, "We had ... a little incident." Apparently he gave her some apple cinnamon oatmeal to start off her dinner, then moved right into this really stinky jarred cheese/broccoli/carrots concoction by Gerber. She had eaten some the other day without incident (although the smell of the stuff was making *me* want to hurl), but apparently the abrupt switch from sweet to ... that ... was too much to bear. Major gagging ensued, followed by what was described as a volcanic spew. Ack. Not really sorry I missed that! Anyway, she didn't seem bothered by what happened at all, and she ate a pretty good second dinner before bed.

Here she is in her Indiana University sweatsuit (which Dan's parents bought for her for Christmas, though neither of us attended college there), pre-vomit:

Oh, and if you haven't already, check out the video to the left (the thumbnail has a Christmas tree in it) -- she's standing up like crazy these days. Does this mean she'll be walking by her birthday next month? Stay tuned!

11 months old

2009-01-07T20:50:00.005-05:00

Olivia rang in her 11 month birthday by having a sort of fussy day, one where she whined at Starbucks, all the way through Target, and a lot at home. Such a lovely sound, that whining. ;) I think she's probably teething again, because she's figured out how to unvelcro the custom crib rail covers my mom made (after the first crib-chewing incident in November) and gnaw on the wood underneath.

Hopefully I've foiled her for good this time -- I wrapped an ace bandage around the crib rail, covered it back up with the crib rail covers, and then safety pinned the covers (note to mom: don't worry, I put them somewhere where she can't get to them).

So she was definitely in no mood to have me throw a dress and tights on her to take her picture today.

Maybe if I turn on the waterworks, she'll leave me alone.

Really? The tears didn't convince you to call this thing off?

Ok, in exchange for the duck, I'll give you a half smile.

happy new year!

2009-01-02T11:45:00.002-05:00

I'm just checking in quickly while I upload all of our holiday photos and videos -- I'll be back later with pictures and links to YouTube.

Christmas was hectic, but great. We drove to Dan's hometown for Christmas with his dad's side of the family for a few hours, then went to his parents' house to open gifts. We drove back to Indianapolis around 8 p.m. Christmas Eve night, thinking Olivia would sleep in the car. That was a no-go, so we had to listen to the Magical Baby-Calming Car CD for the entire 2-hour trip (note to self: find a few more Magical Baby-Calming Car CDs before road trip to North Carolina in July, lest we go insane).

We opened gifts at home on Christmas Day, then went to my parents' house for dinner that afternoon. The Sunday after Christmas, we went to my parents' again for yummy dinner #2 and presents with my sister and her husband, who had been out east with his family on Christmas.

Olivia's schedule is still working its way back to normal. She had been going down for the night at 7 p.m. with little fuss, but is now fighting it until at least 8:30. And most nights she's getting up at least once; last night, it was twice. But as a wise friend told me, just wait a few days and things will change. Keep your fingers crossed.

New Year's Eve was low key, just like we like it. Thankfully, Olivia was not up at midnight to ring in the new year with us. ;)