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!