We just got home yesterday from Christmas at the Barragans'. Olive got lots of gifts and had a fun time with all the boxes and wrapping paper. She dazzled everyone with her gibberish and cute mannerisms and walking all over the place. It was a fun time.

Olive and Bohdan Kadletz at Chris' work party.

On Santa's lap, and thrilled about it.

In her Christmas dress.

Christmas morning

10 months

I just put Olive down for the night. I've gotten into a bad habit of putting her down with a bottle. I started doing it because I noticed how much easier she went down with one. And things have been so insane lately - we just moved, getting ready for Christmas, traveling a bit - so I haven't wanted to try and right it yet. We will though. I'm reading a fantastic book right now. It's called Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child. It's very enlightening, and I'm only into the first 2 chapters. Chris seems to be Olive's favorite thing lately. She gets very excited when he comes home from work. And tonight he's in Henderson so I think she can sense his absence. She pointed to a picture of him and cuddled his pillow. Cute. A little while ago she was rummaging through my Sunday bag when she got to the Holy Temple pamphlet she looked at the picture of the Salt Lake temple on the front, and then flipped it over and looked at the Hawaii temple on the back. She did that over and over and over. And then she pointed to the Salt Lake temple and started talking her little gibberish that she often does. I loved watching that whole process. We took her to see Santa on Saturday. She cried. It was funny and I'm glad we got it immortalized with a picture. She's been fun to watch with all the Christmas excitement going on. Seeing her look at lights and decorations and dancing to music. She loves music! I definitely think she has an exceptional affinity for it. Tonight she discovered how fun The Office theme song is. It was on TV a few times in a row, and each time the song played she stopped what she was doing to dance and enjoy it. Her latest trick is putting her tiny fingers together when we sing The Itsy Bitsy Spider. I think that's pretty remarkable. She's taking more steps but still not walking consistently. She's still a great eater. In fact she's pretty demanding that we share any and all food with her. She's showing a bit more attitude and feistiness lately, but still such a delight to everyone around. Especially us.

Olive is clapping her hands, waving, and even giving 5 sometimes. She has taken a few steps here and there, but still hangs on to things in order to get around. She still loves music, always lights up and starts dancing as soon as she hears it. She continues to be very vocal, it often sounds like she's saying lots of words even though it's just nonsense. We took her to the pet store the other day and she flinched and stiffened up when we got her near any animals. She's a great eater. She loves to slurp spaghetti noodles. She continues to be such a delight everywhere we go. People seriously can't get enough of her. And she's such a little ham. We love her so good.

I noticed that Olive's fourth tooth is poking through. So, now she has 2 on the bottom in the front, one middle left front tooth, and then an eye tooth on the top right. It's kinda funny looking.

She had her first diaper rash last week. The doctor said teething is somehow related to having more acidy poops so that's probably why. She was pretty sad about it but not for very long. We were really proactive about keeping her in clean diapers and putting on plenty of cream. And it went away pretty fast.

Olive continues to be very vocal and expressive. As Chris says, she seems really inquisitive about what we're doing. And although she doesn't have words, we do communicate a lot with each other.

She kinda took a couple steps the other night. Emphasis on kinda because it wasn't totally the real thing. But I believe she's so close. It'll happen any time. I don't know if I'm in a terrible hurry for that. I love my girl so much!

It's been a while since I've updated Olive's journal, and my mental list is overflowing. Let's see, for starters Halloween was fun. I made her an olive costume. For those who didn't know her name we had to do a little explaining, but she looked adorable. We took her to the trunk-or-treat at church, and after about an hour of that she was pooped, so we came home. She did get to enjoy a little Milky Way and a Tootsie Pop before the events were over though. We put her on the swings for the first time a few weeks ago. And I've done it with her twice since then, and she just loves it. She laughs and smiles the entire time. It's wonderful. I started taking her to Sunshine Soup at the library. It's this little exercise/learning class, and it's really cute. The only thing is that it's right during her morning naptime, so she isn't exactly at her best. But she really loves anything social, so she has a good time. I've also been taking her to the nursery at the gym, and to play group at church. Seriously, she's such a little social butterfly. Today at the post office she had everyone in line laughing at her. She does a lot of fake laughing and scrunching her nose, and gets tons of attention through that. Chris says she goes out of her way to do that, and it's totally true. She's just beginning to make kissing and waving gestures, but I'm not entirely sure she knows what she's doing yet so I don't know if it counts. She's always been so dexterous. Sometimes she just gets lost in watching her hands twirl and move. Oh, and when she gets frustrated she makes really stiff karate hands and grunts. I'm not a huge fan of that one, but I gotta admit it's cute. She immediately starts dancing when there's music, or even just when we hum or sing. She bops up and down, and she sways side to side and she turns her head. It's adorable. She's into everything -- crawling all over, or scaling the walls to get from one place to another -- and she pulls stuff out like crazy. She loves to pull the laundry out of the baskets or dishes out of the cupboards. And she loves to boing the doorstops. Lately I've been facing her high chair out the window, and she watches the birds and grunts at them. She'll eat anything we give her, which I'm glad about. Graham crackers are her favorite though. She's doing a lot of talking -- not making any words yet but I think she'd really love to. She does say mama a lot, but I don't know if she relates the word to me yet, so again I don't know if it counts. A few weeks ago she started playing peek-a-boo with Chris. She stood behind the coffee table, bent down so her face was hidden, and then popped up and laughed. She did that over and over. And now she does it all the time. I have no idea how it occurred to her to do that, but I love it. She stands for several seconds without holding on to anything, but then realizes it and lets herself down. I'm not in a huge hurry for her to walk anyway. She's already into tons of stuff as it is! It's so neat to watch my girl grow and learn and progress. In some ways she just isn't my tiny baby anymore. She finished nursing about a month ago; that's bittersweet. I'm so proud of her. She really is a light to people, just leaves a trail of delight everywhere we go. I hope she continues to have that kind of influence on others. I love her so much!

Olive is 9 months old. I guess this means she's been alive outside of me as long as she was inside of me. She's 27.5 inches long and 18.11 lbs. Average in size, but the doctor said she's advanced socially and with her motor skills. She got 2 shots, one of which was the H1N1 vaccine. As usual, she handled everything really well and earned herself a chocolate shake. She has been pretty fussy since the appointment though, and this picture is the best one I could get with her growth sticker. In other news, she's going to have a little sister...

9 months

Olive's personality is coming out more and more these days. So far it seems like she's funny and stubborn. See what I mean?

She's been doing this a lot lately. I marvel at how she got the idea to do it in the first place, and at how she remembers to do it over again each day.

When she doesn't like something, she makes these stiff little karate hands and she grunts. I'm scared of this possibly being an indication of how she'll react to being told no throughout her life. Yikes!

Olive tooted big and loud earlier tonight (she's always quite a little tooter). Chris looked at her and said, "Did you just toot?" And she immediately came back with a mumble that sounded exactly like, "Yeah!" We laughed!

Olive is a treat tonight. We're at Chris' parents' house. She walked with a push toy a few minutes ago for several feet. That was cool to watch. We took her and Anna to the park this afternoon. Olive got to try out a swing for the first time, and liked it. She's a little wary of the dogs. She makes weird panicked grunts when they come near her. It's funny. She's been doing her same head shaking when music comes on, but she's added a little rocky thrusty move that's hilarious to watch. She was uncharacteristically fussy for a while so I put her down. She fell asleep but then woke up kind of frantically crying, so I went in to look at her and she had thrown up. I felt so bad for my girl. We got her cleaned up and then Chris gave her a blessing. A couple hours later she was in good spirits again. My sweet girl. Yesterday I had a heart-gushing moment which would probably seem silly to anyone besides me. She crawled over to Anna's tricycle and put her hands on the handle bars, and then she threaded the streamers through her tiny fingers over and over again. I loved watching it. She's growing and changing so much. She's such a doll. I'm crazy about her.

Couple of things to note:

Olive's been scrunching her nose up and giving really cheesy smiles lately. It's funny.

For a while, she'd start fussing once she got herself to a standing position because she couldn't figure out how to get back down to her bottom. Now she's up and down and all over the place with no problem. She even climbed a couple stairs at Jenny's house last week. She can't go down stairs yet, but it's close.

She really seems to love music. She shakes her head every time she hears it, and she even bends her knees sometimes.

She's nearly done nursing. It makes me feel a little sad but she's being such a good eater with everything we give her. She'll be just fine.

We bought some of those plug cover things and put them all over the house. It's probably a little overdue. She gets around so much! Yesterday I thought Chris had her and he thought I had her and we couldn't find her for a minute. She ended up being at the bottom of her closet.

She continues to be just such a happy pleasant girl. She was a total delight to all the Utah people last week. I'm crazy about her!

8 months

Tonight we went to dinner at this restaurant in Bullhead. We sat next to a table of 2 elderly couples and they loved Olive. One of the men in particular couldn't get enough of her. He kept commenting on how sweet she was. And he said he doesn't remember meeting a sweeter baby. He told us we must be good parents because of how happy and social she is. As they were leaving he told her to keep being a sweet girl, and he seemed genuinely disappointed to be leaving her. She was so delightful and endearing to them - smiling and giggling and stuff. She really warms people's hearts wherever we go. I hope she continues to have that kind of effect on people. We went to the high school football game after dinner, and that was fun. We got pretty tired and left early. Olive was so sleepy. After the hour drive home I nursed her and put her in her bed. She didn't even fuss or cry, she just went right to sleep. Sweet girl. Chris and I are so proud of her.

Olive's been making little kissy noises with her cute tiny mouth. We do it back to her and say "kiss," trying to teach her the word. She smiles when we do it back to her.

One of my favorite things is when Olive's eating - whether nursing or from a bottle - she holds her hands in really dainty ways and either taps or rub whatever's within reach. I love it. I hope I don't forget it.

We've noticed that Olive responds to music like crazy lately. Whether it's the Gummy Bear song or something on TV or a silly song we sing to her, she starts shaking her head and wiggling her little body. Very cute.

Also, she's been making a D sound for a long time now. She'll say dadada all the time. But I guess it doesn't count as her first word until she knows what it means. Right?

Olive got her first 2 teeth today! They just barely started poking through. She's had a rough day because of it, but we're taking good care of her. She's getting so big!

Couple quick things worth nothing --

• Laurie said that when we were at her ward a couple weeks ago she literally had 10 or 11 people come up and say what a pretty baby Olive is. One lady told us directly, she went on and on. My pretty girl!
• Olive is doing a great job sleeping in her own bed. We started doing it a week ago. She cries for a short while when we first put her down, but then goes to sleep. She seems to prefer sleeping on her tummy. The first 3 nights she slept for like 12 hours without interruption. The other nights she has woken up a couple times, but all in all she's doing great!
• She got shocked on a power cord today. She's fine and everything but Chris and I aren't used to how much she gets around and gets into things. Gotta be more on top of that!

Olive is sleeping in her own room now. I moved the Pack 'n Play there yesterday and she seems to be doing just fine with it. We're on night #2. I, on the other hand, couldn't sleep last night and will likely be awake a lot tonight. I kept wondering if I wasn't hearing her wake up. We don't have a baby monitor. I guess that'd be a good investment. She's right by us though and I heard her today when she woke up from her nap. I'm just a little bit paranoid.

She's still shaking her head no a lot. It's cute.

She's crawling all over and has even gotten herself from the living room up the step into the kitchen.

She does a lot of motorboat and spitting sounds. I think the motorboat is really cute.

She's been fake crying/fussing a lot lately. We're trying not to respond too much when she does it so that she doesn't think that's how she gets stuff. It's tough sometimes thought because she makes this high-pitched desperate cry sound and I honestly love hearing it!

There have been a couple times in the last day or two where she's really let me cuddle her without wanting to squirm away. I even did a little nose rub with her and she giggled. That was glorious to me.

Speaking of glorious, here are the nicknames we've given her so far: Glorious or Glor, Wonderful, Goodny, Olla Olla Olla, Bubbas, Tiny Speck, Sugadebelle...

We love our girl!

Here are a few recent videos of Olive.

She loves bathtime:

Papa had her laughing so hard:

And although she definitely prefers standing up, she has started crawling:

7 months

We finally got to bless Olive. I had a lady in town make her a sweet little dress out of my wedding dress. She was lovely. There were actually 3 babies who got blessed, and Olive was first. They announced her name as Oliver at first, so that was funny. Chris had Dad and Mike Pionke and the bishopric and stake president in the circle with him. It was wonderful and sweet. Chris gave a sweet blessing, and then Olive grabbed the microphone and said a few words herself. I guess that's the risk you run blessing a 7 month-old. After it was over, Chris lifted her for the congregation to see and she let out this laugh-yell thing that she loves to do. The bishopric member who was conducting made a comment about how vocal she is. Funny girl. It was sweet and special, and it meant so much to us having so many family and friends there for it. 

As usual, Craig came through with some great pictures. We are lucky ducks to have him around.

Olive's blessing --

• I present this child to Thee
• give you a blessing to go with you through life
• bless you with understanding of love that Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ have for you, and that your parents have for you
• your mother loves you
• your father looks to you as a source of peace in the household and as a source of strength to uphold his Priesthood
• [at this point Olive grabbed the microphone and yelled into it] bless you with a continued enthusiasm for life
• bless you to know the doctrines of the gospel and feel the spirit
• bless you to receive the full blessings of the temple

Olive seems to be exploding with progress lately. She had been scooting around a bunch, and then actually started crawling yesterday. She pulled herself up to stand for the first time about a month ago, and now she wants to stand all the time. She eats most anything I give her. I'm so ready for her to get teeth so we can give her more stuff. She's funny and feisty and very vocal. Mom always laughs when we're on the phone - she says Olive always has something to say. I feel like Mom really gets her personality, and that is wonderful to me especially since she's so far away. Laurie observed that Olive knows when there's a party going on and she does not want to miss anything. Yes, I think she's very social. She started shaking her head no. Not really to communicate but I think she just realized she could do that and thinks it's funny or something. She has a very expressive face. I think it's like Chris. She slaps whatever her hand is on or near. Chris has been telling her no a lot lately and we think she's starting to get it and not like it. She's a very pretty baby, and such a delight to me. I love her!

Olive's doing great. I took her to her 6-month checkup today, and the NP said she's perfect.

 
We started her on vegetables a few days ago, and it's fun to watch her experience new tastes and textures.
The NP said her bottom teeth are about to poke through. I'm excited and a little scared for that. She's getting up on her hands and knees and rocking back and forth, so we think she'll start crawling any second. Our camera got ruined in the Arizona heat a couple of weeks ago, but Craig is letting us use one of his cameras. It's waaaaay nicer than the one we were using before! So it's been fun taking pictures of Olive with a nice camera. Her personality cracks us up. We think she's pretty witty, but then again how couldn't she be with us as her parents?

6 months

I can't imagine what it's going to be like having 2 babies. Olive is the best thing in the world to me, and I can't imagine loving anyone as much as I love her! I'm sure there are a million tiny details I haven't written about because of my lapses in writing, but some of the bigger things lately are:

• She's sitting up really well. She loves to sit up and play with toys in front of her.
• She's starting to get up on her knees when she's on her belly. So I think crawling isn't too far away.
• She's eating more cereal and even these little dissolvable snack things. I'm going to start vegetables this week too. I have to start feeding more solids and less breast milk so as to get ready for the next baby.
• She's way more coordinated these days and can grab and hold things. She twirls her hands around and continues to be very dexterous with her hands. I love that about her.
• She chomps her mouth open and shut. And she purses her lips together and spits lots of tiny bubbles out.
• She's way vocal and laughs a ton. I think she's going to be a funny girl.
• She has started sitting in a high chair too. She's still a little small, but it's working alright. Rosemary gave us Anna's high chair so we didn't have to buy one. That was nice.
• I'm having a hard time figuring out the best way to put her to bed every night. I really feel at a loss on that one. But all in all she continues to be such a delight. She's the greatest thing ever. We seriously almost salivate over how great she is.

5 months

Olive is making lots of mmm and mumm sounds. Wonderful!

We took Olive to the doctor on Thursday for her 4-month checkup. She's just under 16 pounds (which is what Chris had guessed; he's so in tune) and 25 inches long. They kept saying how perfect she is, and that was really gratifying for me. She got 3 shots, after which she and I both cried. I hate that! But she definitely earned herself a chocolate shake.

In other news, the doctor said we could try out some rice cereal if we wanted to. My thought all along has been to just follow Olive's lead - if she seems interested in something I'll help her along, but if not I won't force it. We gave her some rice cereal the evening of her doctor appointment and she took to it really fast. She figured out the spoon right away, and she seems to really enjoy the cereal. Guess she was ready!

She's been reciprocating affection - puts her arms around my neck when I lay next to her, touches my face a lot, nuzzles her face in my neck.

We love our pretty girl!

4 months, with Josh

First time we left Olive with a babysitter! We went to see Phantom of the Opera and we left her with Amber. That was a little hard on me. I cried a bit, but Chris pulled the car over as soon as we left her and we said a prayer. After that I did miss her but I was able to relax and enjoy the show and Chris.

Some things that Olive's been doing lately -- getting better hand-eye coordination, putting things in her mouth more, hanging on to things with her hands (including my hair), grabbing her toes, smiling and laughing a ton...

Spent Memorial Day weekend in Utah. Highlights -- Dane told Olive, "I like you forever." Shane was adorable with her, holding her a ton and loving on her. I finally said, "Let me know when it gets old," and he said, "It will never get old."

Olive has been able to get her little hands up to her eyes and she rubs them when she's sleepy. It's adorable. And I'm amazed that she has that coordination now. If she doesn't have anything to hug to her face as she's falling asleep she puts her arms over her eyes. So cute.

Olive has been reaching for stuff and grabbing stuff lately. And when I lay her on her back she rolls to her side and arches her back. I guess it's not going to be long before she rolls completely over. When we lay her on her tummy she arches her back and lifts her head and legs, and pretty much hates it. Amber let us borrow their Exersaucer and Olive likes it a lot. So, she's growing and progressing and getting bigger. It's fun to watch but sad for me too.

3 months

Lately I'm noticing that she's always kinda looking for me. It's so gratifying that I'm the thing she wants most.

I discovered that Olive likes to cuddle a blanket or my hand to her face as she's falling asleep. It's quite sweet. She tries to suck her right hand a lot but doesn't quite have the coordination down. I wonder if she'll end up sucking the same way I did when I was little. This morning I watched her wake up, and then a while later I watched her as she fell asleep for a nap. It was wonderful.

April 13, 2009

I can't be sure, but I think Olive discovered her toes the other day. She seemed to stare at them quietly for a long time. It was neat.

April 9, 2009

Something to remember -- when she's just waking up she always stretches her arms above her head with her hands in fists and then gives a little shake shake, shake shake. We die every time she does it. So cute!!

April 8, 2009

Olive had her 2-month checkup and she weighs 12.8 pounds now, and the doctor said she's healthy healthy healthy. They gave us this cute sticker telling how she's grown; I thought that was really cute. When they gave her her shots, her eyes got big and then she burst into tears. That part kinda broke my heart, and I'll admit I got a little teary-eyed. She cried for a while afterward. She finally fell asleep but kept whimpering as if to say, "Yeah, I might be asleep but I'm still unhappy about this." She did a good job though and definitely earned herself a chocolate shake.

April 4, 2010

2 months, with Cody Wilson

March 30, 2009

I love the little songs Chris comes up with for Olive, so I quick grabbed the camera last night. Then of course Maeby had to make an appearance. She doesn't like that Chris has 3 girls to attend to rather than just her.



I love my little family.

March 26, 2009

Lacey got this dress for Olive. She's been dying to be big enough to wear it and show off her bottom. Such a material girl. Why does my daughter already have a better wardrobe than I do?

March 25, 2009

There's a wonderful consignment shop in Palatine that I used to frequent when I still lived there. My dad and the girls went to Chicago around Christmastime and made a stop. They found this adorable little Ralph Lauren jogging suit and shirt. The tag says 9M...my girl isn't quite 2M...should I be worried?

March 20, 2009

Chris had to spend the night in Henderson so I thought we'd send him some love; she lights up for him.

My friend Sarah sent this shirt for Olive. Love it!

Chris has been having to go up to Henderson about once a week for an overnight and tonight's one of those, so Olive and I are having a girls' night. Hence the painted toes. It's not our favorite thing going a day or two a week without seeing Chris, especially since it is our favorite thing hearing the garage door open up everyday when he's all done with work.

Olive is more and more responsive and interactive. Today she watched intently and even grinned when I talked to her. At one point I was clicking my tongue at her and she watched my mouth the whole time. It's neat to observe the little ways she's progressing.

Olive has a cold. It's seriously the cutest but saddest thing in the world. She has a tiny cough, she'll do like 10 sneezes at a time, and her sniffles are adorable. Her pediatrician said to get some Little Noses, so we did that. She gets so mad every time I squirt it up her nose, but it makes using the aspirator really productive. I can't believe what we've pulled out of her tiny button nose! Anyway, it all breaks my heart. Isn't there anything else I can do for her!?

I can't believe how much time we don't have these days. Once we get the unpacking done and the new parent thing down, I'm sure we'll blog some more. But until then, here's a few pictures...

our girl

Olive's cousin Rosalie (Jimmy & Alisha's #5) 
was born one week after her.

Chris got Olive this little onesie for Valentine's Day. 
 He did some sweet stuff for me too. Such a lover.

3 very sleepy girls

Chris loves wearing the Baby Bjorn; such a proud dad.

This is after Olive's first bath - 
she was kinda mad. 
 She's always really expressive 
with her tiny hands.

sleeping with Dad

Olive has 2 cousins on Chris' side - Anna and Gabriel. 
 Here are the three brown-eyed Irish kids together. 
 Chris' parents supplied the shirts; 
they're such cute proud grandparents.

We went to the Cubs-White Sox spring training game 
with John and Anna. 
 Olive got lots of attention in her Cubbies getup.