Happy 1st birthday Olivia!

I have been terrible about blogging for Livvy. There are simply not enough hours in the day. But, seeing as how today is a very special day, I figured I better make the time! Last year on this day, at 12:26pm, Olivia was born! Knowing Olivia as I do now, I can see why I had to have an emergency C-section with her...stubborn! It's her way or the highway most of the time. She has such a little temper, but she is so much fun too. Her laughs come easy, and she does it all the time. Ava is great at making her smile and laugh. She tickles her and chases her. Olivia began walking last month, and she is pretty good at it now. We are working on learning parts of her body like belly and toes. She loves to poke at our ears, eyes, and teeth. When I ask her "where's mommy's eyes?" she will poke my eye and go "Ah." Her teeth are coming in all over the place. She has 3 top teeth, 2 bottom, and a molar is popping out on the bottom. Now that she is 1, we are going to work on weening her from the bottle. That is going to be a challenge, and I have to do some homework on here to see how I did it with Ava. It seemed so easy with Ava, but I don't think Olivia will be as easy. She loves her bottle, and she's still not real good with a sippy cup. She tends to let it spill out of her mouth and dribble all over. I can't wait to have all those bottle gone, and not have to buy formula anymore! That will be some money saved. We just bought her a new front-facing car seat the other day, and today was her first time riding in it. She looked very comfortable.
For her birthday, we went to my parent's house to have a belated Christmas dinner and party. Grampy, Grandma Kate, Wally, Joey, Rebecca, Peggy and Jimmy were there. We made cupcakes for the party, and Olivia got to eat one. She made a big mess but everyone thought that she was quite reserved for a baby. One bad thing that happened was that she got stung by a yellow jacket at their house. She was walking barefoot on their porch, I was watching her, and suddenly she bent down and started crying really hard. I went out and picked her up and held her and she was struggling and wouldn't stop squirming and crying. I was looking all over her wondering what was wrong, and then I saw the bee. The stinger came out of the bottom of her foot. I felt so bad, we put baking soda on the sting and Brent got her some baby Advil. I was very nervous that she might be allergic, but she didn't have any reaction. After 30 minutes or so, she was back to walking around like it never happened. Ava has never been stung, and I am terrified of bees.
It is late now, and tomorrow is Monday, so we all go back to school and work. I left my camera at my parent's so I can't post pics yet, but will do soon.

Angelisa

The other day Ava told me that we have been saying her name wrong. She told me she wanted to change her name to Angelisa. I told her that she could when she turned 30.

Olivia said Mama today. And I know she meant it, and I know she was talking about me. I was so happy. It was after work, and I walked into the playroom. She saw me and started crawling over and while she was on her way she said mama and everyone heard it.

We went on a camping trip to Lion Country Safari last weekend, and it wasn't the best. Olivia didn't handle the change in routine very well. She didn't want to sleep. I was up with her at all hours of the night/morning. Very glad to be home.

Olivia 8 months

Olivia turned 8 months on September 2nd. She is on the verge of crawling. She gets up on all fours and will push herself around, but she doesn't go very far before flopping back on her belly. Sometimes I will put her down in her room and a minute later when I walk back in, she will be across the room. She manages to get what she wants one way or the other. She is pulling herself up in her crib too. Today I put her down for a nap and when I peeked in her door, she was standing up and just talking to herself. It is very cute. She is so strong! She will grab my necl or my hair and pull so hard! That's how she gives "kisses." Pulling your face to hers and biting your cheek. She has 2 bottom teeth and it hurts when she does it! No top teeth yet but I think they are on the way.

We are still having some eating issues, where she doesn't want babyfood. She is just so into her bottle. She does okay for breakfast & lunch but dinner is usually a struggle. I usually have to give her the whole bottle first, and then give her th baby food. Otherwise she just cries. Last week she came down with diarrhea really bad, and I ended up having to put her on soy formula for a while. There were 3 mornings in a row that I woke up to a horrible mess. Lot's of laundry needed to be done. I took her the the doctor to make sure she wasn't dehydrated, and they said she was fine. The nurse thought she may have come down with a little bug and the milk in the formula was irritating her stomach. It was a mess because I had to try 2 different formulas before finding one that Olivia would drink. I can't wait to go back to her normal stuff. I haven't given her much finger food. I am terrified of choking. I have given her puffs a few times, and today I gave her a teething biscuit, which is a mess. She seemed to enjoy it though. She takes an interest in what Brent and I are eating, so I think she will be ready for more soon.

Olivia Laughing 4.30.10

Ava makes Olivia laugh by hopping around her room. We discovered this by accident when Ava was doing hopscoth outside. We had never heard Olivia laugh before.

Ramblings...

In the car the other day, Ava and I had this conversation:

Ava: "Mommy, when I grow up and get married, I want to marry Daddy too."
Me: "Well, you can't really do that Ava. You meet someone else to get married to."
Ava: "But I don't want to find someone else to love!"

She is such a Daddy's girl, to the point where I sometimes feel excluded. When she was 2 it was all about Mommy, but now it is Daddy Daddy Daddy! I think this continues indefinitely. He is still doing the fire school thing, so he isn't around much, which I think is the main reason for it. Mommy is like the couch - just something that is there all the time. Not very exciting. But when Daddy is home after work it's a treat and tickle time and shoulder rides and FUN.

I laid in bed awake last night thinking of all these good things to write about, but now when I sit down at the computer I go blank.

One thing is for sure - Ava will do just about anything to get my attention. It is me, her and Olivia all the time, and if I take 5 minutes to sit on the computer or even go to the bathroom - sure enough, she finds me. This morning I was on the computer typing a letter and she comes in - "I'm hungry." I reminded her that she had JUST eaten a whole bowl of cereal. "I'm thirsty." Okay, I get her a drink, then go back to typing. "Mommy, the dishwasher is leaking." I get up and take a look at the dishwasher - no leak. "Ava, where did you hear a leak?" "I don't know." She is such a bundle of energy and TALKING. It is non-stop. She is wearing me out more than the baby is. As I type that very sentence, she came in and began rubbing her head on my arm, like a cat. This is not an attention-starved child.

So, speaking of baby, she is sleeping right now, which is very nice. I don't dare talk about her night-time sleep, because it seems that every time I do, I jinx myself. She could go 6 nights in a row sleeping through the night, but I tell someone about it and sure enough - that night I am up at 4am. She is a good baby. She had her 2 month check up on Wednesday and she is doing great. She weighed in at13.2 lbs and I think she grew an inch and a quarter. I didn't get all the percentile info. She had to get shots too, which went ok. It was just like Ava - happy as can be, then cried her head off as they gave her the 3 shots, and then calmed down quickly after. Ava had her 4 year check up too, and she was a very brave girl. No shots, but they had to prick her finger for blood. She weighs 36.5 lbs and is 40 3/4" tall. She had a huge growth spurt between last year and this year. She is tall and thin.