My baby is TWO!

Olivia's stats:
Weight: 26 lbs (50%)
Height 34 inches (50%)

I just can't believe my baby is TWO! Olivia Jane's gone from a baby to a very independent gal.. she thinks she's four like Eli. She is all girl with a wee touch of tom-boy thrown in. She loves to wear dresses, and is a huge fan of shoes, bows, and jewelry. She especially likes her pink rain boots and thinks they need to be worn daily. Olivia can get dirty and is a fan of the mud and sand. One of her favorite things to do is dump the dog water out or fill her watering cup up from the dog bowl and dump it on the herb garden. As soon as the low spot gets any water mud she likes to run and jump in the mud until her feet and legs are completely covered.

She is very observant and you can't fool her at all. Eli will try to sneak marshmallows and she knows every time. When I get dressed for work on Tuesday and Thursday she asks, "Mommy work?" and when I tell her 'yes' she immediately starts pouting. She doesn't like me to leave her.... ever! She likes to hold my hand when we go places or ride in her stroller.. with Eli it was useless to even bring a stroller because he wouldn't ride in it and you could forget Eli ever wanting to hold my hand!

She has her 'people' and if you are one of them you get the sweetest hugs and kisses! When she wakes up in the morning and wants me to come get her out of her crib, (she did fall out once but is still in the crib.. for right now) she wraps those little arms around my neck so hard and hugs and hugs. I never want to let go! She is very attached to her pink silky blanket and paci for sleeping.. I'm going to have to take the paci soon but I am dreading it because I don't want to mess up the sleep! She is such a good sleeper...she sleeps around 12 hours at night and a good 3 hours or so mid-day after lunch. We read books and then she tells me she's ready to go to bed and lays down and goes right to sleep. I'm super thankful for my sleep, it's one of those things I don't do good without.

She's a great eater and not very picky.. yet. I hope she doesn't go through that picky stage. She likes salad, broccoli and green beans BUT, she definitely has a 'sweet tooth'. She will lick every last drop of sweets which I try to limit. We went to the greenhouse on Mother's Day and I bought the kids popcicles. Eli ate about 3 bites of his and he was finished.. however Olivia, ate the entire thing and then was chewing the stick! Her favorite foods are eggs, oatmeal, bananas, peanut butter, crackers and of course ice cream and cake.

Development wise she's doing excellent. She aced her Ages and Stages at the pediatrician and he was very impressed with her language skills. She is very smart and grasps concepts super fast. She can count past 10, sing several songs, is using 3 plus word sentences, knows all her colors, and tries to spell her name. We've been hearing aid-less for almost 3 weeks now and I can tell a difference in her speech. She is leaving off more sounds on words and her speech is much less intelligible. We are going to have to do make up work when those hearing aids get back.  See 2 posts below for the story of her feeding her hearing aids to the dog!


Olivia,
You are a joy and a delight to our family. I find myself just staring at you and smiling at your cuteness. When you grin up at me with that huge smile and little dimple I just melt. I love you more every single day and I'm so thankful God gave you to me! Your Daddy already says he's in trouble and I don't think he's ever raised his voice at you. Your big brother Isaac, loves kissing your cheeks and ticking you, and Eli thinks you're the best playmate ever. 

Love, 
Mommy

Sleepy girl

Birthday breakfast

Olivia and the hat

Super hero Livi

Olivia's 18 months old

Miss Olivia Jane turned 18 months old this past week. She weighs 23 lbs and is 31 1/2  inches tall (50% percentile for both). I was holding her today cradled in my arms and I thought about how she's so small compared to her brothers at that age. Eli was almost 30 lbs at 18 months and several inches taller and Isaac was a big baby as well. She is still wearing size 3 diapers and is in 12-18 month size clothes. I'm letting her bangs grow out so right now they are below her eyes when it isn't pulled back. I love watching her little personality develop- she definitely lets you know what she wants.

What can Olivia do now?


Olivia is on the go everywhere, climbs up and off things with ease, and tries to jump (she doesn't get off the ground but she says "jump" and makes an effort to squat and come back up). She especially likes stairs and inclines and thinks it's great fun to go up and down one hundred times. She will go down our stairs holding the rail but I still like to stay close by her in case she falls. I haven't put a gate at the bottom of our stairs and most of the time she leaves them alone... exceptions are if someone she wants goes up. With Eli I had to barricade everything. I also don't have cabinet locks... She has 2 kitchen cabinets she knows are hers to play in and the rest are Mommys'. Occasionally she will try to get into one of mine but really minds well when I tell her no.

She is a great eater and isn't very picky at all. Her favorite foods are oatmeal, spaghetti, bread, fruit and peanut butter. She definitely has a sweet tooth and loves anything with sugar- which we limit! She does pretty well with a fork and spoon as well.

Olivia absolutely loves her pink silky blanket and has become unbearably attached to her pacifier. When she was a little baby she didn't even like the paci and would barely take it at bedtime. I don't know why she decided she wants it but she asks for that thing continuously. I'm going to have to suck it up and take it away before long.  She is a great sleeper which I am soooo thankful for. The older I get the more I need my sleep! That's one thing that keeps me from wanting #4... sleep! She goes to bed around 8:30 and sleeps until around 8 the next morning. At bedtime we read a few books, take her 'ears' out and then turn off the light. She will say "bed" when she wants me to lay her down in her crib to go to sleep.

She was all interested in the potty a while back and went for about a month pee peeing in the potty before her bath. Lately she's decided she's not very interested in it so I haven't pushed anything. She does love her bath and fights with Eli over who's turn it is to drink the cold water from the spigot.

Language? Oh yes.. she's a verbal little thing. We are well over 100 words now and she's starting to combine words together. This afternoon she was suppose to be napping and I heard "Mama, Mama". I went in her room and she said, "Poo Poo".  As I changed her she said, "stinky, dirty diaper" and then said "up" and "down" as she lifted her little legs up and down. She knows clothing items, body parts including: hair, eyes, eyebrow, teeth, nose, mouth, ears, head, belly, knee, hands, toes, feet. When you count she will say the next number up to 10. She loves books and asks to 'read' all the time. She follows directions very well and right now I'm working on getting her to find two critical elements. Sometimes she will only pick the last item she hears so we are working on increasing her auditory memory skills. She's also working on speech babble for auditory memory as well. I will give her a pair of nonsense sounds to repeat such as "meebow" and she has to repeat. She will usually get first part but not always the second. As far as speech she is using all developmental speech sounds. She will even put /s/ in words such as 'horsie" so I know she's hearing it! We went to Asheville to have new ear molds made and ordered pink with gold sparkles this time. She does great keeping them in except when she is tired. If she gets sleepy those things are first to go and if I don't catch her in time she pulls the mold from the tubing. I now have a set of thin tweezers I carry in my pocket book for putting the tubing back in. She begs to get in the car to watch her "moomie" (movie) I think because with her FM system she hears it so well.

I always imagined being a boy mom... but it's so fun having a daughter and amazing to see the differences between boys and girls. Olivia loves shoes, bracelets, necklaces, baby dolls, and having her nails painted. She asks to wear her 'bows' and wants to prance around in her boots. She can sit and watch me put on makeup (on the rarity when I do) as long as I let her. Her favorite show right now is Sophia the 1st. I was such a tom boy when I was a little girl I think it's funny that she is so girly.

Olivia, we are so blessed to have you in our lives and can't imagine it any other way. You have us all wrapped around your little finger and when you grin with those dimples we just melt. I love you my sweet girl!  Love, Mommy

                                         Here's a little clip of Olivia reading her favorite book

Livi is 15 months

Olivia is such a joy and sweet heart. Here are some things she can do!

• She thinks she's a big girl and loves to try to keep up with the boys.  
• She's walking and climbing everywhere. She loves to climb steps when I let her and will go down them holding onto the rail and my hand. 
• She sleeps in her crib for around 12 hours at night and takes a 2-3 hour nap in the afternoon. She was a trooper while we were on vacation and had no trouble sleeping in her pack and play.
• She did much better on the car ride than I anticipated. Lots of snacks, books and toys were employed to help the journey.
• Her favorite foods are spaghetti, any kind of fruit, cheese, oatmeal and boiled eggs. 
• She's been in size 3 diapers for months and still wearing 12-18 month clothes. 
• She weighs 22 lbs (50%) and is 31 inches (50%)
• She can point to her hair, eyes, nose, mouth, teeth, ears and belly and can follow directions such as "Go get your baby and bring it to Daddy". 
• She is doing great leaving her 'hearing computers' in.. except while we were on vacation and for a few days after we got back.
• I took her bottle shortly after she turned one and she did fine. She still has her paci for naps and bedtime and loves her pink silky blanket. 

Here is her current list of words she uses spontaneously (without me prompting her): 

1. Mama
2. Daddy
3. Eli
4. Isaac
5. Brother
6. Nana
7. Papa
8. Pawpaw
9. Allie
10. Day 
11. Nanny
12. Diaper
13. Socks
14. Moo
15. Dog
16. Woof woof
17. quack
18. chick
19. bock bock
20. eyes
21. nose
22. mouth
23. belly
24. hot
25. dirty
26. kiss
27. up
28. down
29. out
30. stop
31. no 
32. sit
33. bye bye
34. hey
35. hello
36. eat
37. bite bite
38. cracker
39. more
40. ut oh
41. bottle
42. ball
43. water
44. baby
45. book
46. thank you
47. that

Honestly there are probably more that I'm not thinking of right now. 

Olivia's 12 months- oh yea that's O-N-E

Here is our last 'sticker' picture. Sniff sniff. 

Yep, that's me.. I'm ONE

I'll chew this finger and think about smiling

Don't get me Mommy!

Mommy's sweet girl!




Olivia is officially one. She weighs 20 lbs (50%) and is 28 1/2 inches long (25%). She is wearing 12 month clothes, size 3 diapers and size 3 shoes. Her hair is growing and I just love putting big bows on her head. I still think of myself as a boy-mom but I'm quickly learning how to be a girl-mom! This child has a plethora of dresses and pink. I'm such a sucker for those smocked dresses.

She is now weaned and on whole milk. She has always loved a sippy cup but when I put milk in there she spits it right out. However, today she took milk from a cup like a champ- maybe our days of bottles will be gone soon. I saw all my pumping stuff and medela bottles in the cabinet earlier today and made a mental note to pack it away. She eats mostly table food with a few 'squeezies' thrown in there for convenience sake.

Olivia's top two molars are partially through and she has cut another upper tooth beside her top tooth.. so that makes 7 so far.

She is standing without holding on to anything and will squat and come back up as well. If I hold one hand she will take steps and walk beside me. She also loves to push her walker around the house. She seems to become more interested in walking by the day.

She sleeps from 8:00pm to 8:00 am -give or take 30 min or so.. depends on when we get to bed. With baseball games our nights have been getting longer. She usually takes a morning and an afternoon nap as well.

Her new words this week are: cracker, up, more, out. She will use all these spontaneously without me giving her the model. 'Cracker' has become the new favorite in the car.. she starts saying 'cracker, cracker'. When she wants me to pick her up she reaches her arms toward me and says "up".. and pops that /p/ sound on the end.

Olivia Jane, you add so much sunshine to our lives. Your brothers absolutely adore you and they will be your fiercest protectors I'm sure. You have Daddy wrapped around your finger and I'm constantly amazed at your determination to learn new words. We love you!

Olivia is 11 months!

Okay so you've seen my posts where I have interchanged "Livi" and "Livie" and it's because I'm trying to figure out how I like it spelled better. Suggestions??

So Olivia is 11 months... I'm guessing she is about 20 lbs right now. I don't know for sure because she hasn't been weighed lately. She wears size 12 month clothes, size 3 diapers and size 3 shoes. My friend Amber, who is a mommy of two girls, told me that when her girls outgrew their dresses she would use them as a shirt. Today Olivia wore one of her 3 month size dresses from last summer as a shirt with a pair of leggings! I'm going to try and see if we can re-cycle any other cute outfits from last summer as well.

Our sweet girl is not yet walking... really she is showing no interest in walking. She will crawl, pull up and cruise around on the furniture. Occasionally she will walk if you hold her hands but usually she just  collapses in a pile on the floor. I suppose she will walk when she is ready.. I'm really in no hurry.

She is eating mostly table food, and some baby food. She still likes the squeezie packages that you squirt in your mouth...they are so handy for going out to dinner as well. She is nursing in the morning and before bed.. I am supplementing with a bottle or two of formula.  She isn't getting much breast-milk  because my nursing days are about over. That last stomach bug sucked every bit of milk out for two days and though my milk returned, my supply has been pretty low. I really wanted to keep nursing until she was 18 months, but I just don't think it's going to happen.

Most of the time Olivia sleeps great. I usually rock her for a few minutes and then lay her down with her pink silky blanket and paci and she goes right to sleep in her crib. She goes down around 8pm and sleeps until 7:30 am. She takes a morning nap and and afternoon nap as well. This mama is such a happier person with sleep!

Super cute things Olivia can do: When you say "How big is Olivia?" she will raise her arms and approximate "so big". When you tell her to blow kisses she will say "mmm wahh" and blow you a kiss.  She knows where her bows go and will try to put them in her hair. She loves to pull her hearing aids out and will hand them to me. One day she tried to stuff one back towards her ear.. I really think she was trying to put it back in. She is doing great with her speech and language and is making all sorts of sounds, babbling and saying WORDS!! Here is a list of the words she can say.. I'm so proud of her!

She says:
dada
mama
bye bye
papa
hey
dog
woof woof
bite bite
hello
thank you
diaper
ball

Happy 3rd Birthday Eli

Newborn Eli

Newborn Eli

                                   

1 year old

2 years old

2 years old

March 20th 2010 my biggest baby, at 8 lbs 7 oz entered this world. You can read about his birth here. We named him Eli instead of Seth because he was such a big boy with massive hands and feet. He has turned from my chunky cuddly baby to a wild happy 3 year old.

Eli is super sweet and loves to give compliments. He tells Olivia how much he loves her several times a day and absolutely adores his Papa. Eli's favorite things involve motors... four-wheelers, tractors, and lawnmowers. He wants to play outside all day and enjoys riding his cars and tricycle. Wrestling in the floor with Isaac or 'swording' (nerf swords) with Daddy and Isaac ranks up there as well. To be such a wild and outgoing fella he has a gentle heart and melts mine all the time. When he puts his hand in mine or says " I wuv you Mommy" I can't help but smile.

Some of his favorite foods are blueberries, strawberries, bologna, and edemame. He used to eat anything you put in front of him but he's getting a bit more picky as he gets older. His favorite books are "Little Blue Truck", "Good night Moon", "Harold and the Purple Crayon",  and "Two Little Trains". He can completely recite "Little Blue Truck" and it's super cute. I need to try to video it. His absolute favorite thing to watch on TV is Mickey Mouse, though, sometimes he wants to watch a movie and that is usually Walle or Nemo. He likes to play the ipad, our phones, type on the computer and navigates them all with ease. Luckily for my sake he still takes a good afternoon nap.. usually around 2ish for a couple hours. He can dress himself when he wants to, however, frequently fusses and wants me to help him. He brushes his own teeth (I do a follow up though), and uses the potty independently. We recently started soccer and he is very excited about it. Eli has known his colors, shapes and letters for a while. He can count objects without assistance to 11 and can rote count to 20 independently. He can keep going with a little prompting. He can also write his first name with me giving verbal directions. He has done great at pre-school and hasn't been in trouble... yet! I'm a bit surprised because he's very full steam ahead at home. Eli needs to work on listening to Mommy and Daddy. He is doing better but he gets in trouble frequently for this one. The other day he said, "I have to obey Mommy." I said, "Yes you do."

Eli,  you crack me up and bring a smile to my face every single day! The cute little things you say and your sweet little personality make me happy and I'm proud to be your Mom. You are so full of energy and keep me on my toes. I never have to worry about being bored when you are around. Mommy, Daddy, Isaac and Olivia love you so very much!


Eli's interview on his 3rd birthday:



1. What is your favorite color? Blue
2. What is your favorite toy? My tractor
3. What is your favorite fruit? Strawberries
4. What is your favorite tv show? Mickey Mouse
5. What is your favorite thing to eat for lunch? bologna
6. What is your favorite outfit? My tractor shirt
7. What is your favorite game? Mickey mouse on the iPad
8. What is your favorite snack? bananas
9. What is your favorite animal? Chicken
10. What is your favorite song? Old McDonald had a Farm
11. What is your favorite book? Little Blue Truck
12. Who is your best friend? You (talking about his mama!)
13. What is your favorite cereal? My cereal (which is Honey Nut Cherrios)
14. What is your favorite thing to do outside? Ride my blue truck and tractor
15. What is your favorite drink? Coke (which he NEVER ever gets so I don't know where that answer came from!)
16. What is your favorite holiday? Christmas
17. What do you like to take to bed with you at night? My toys and blue blanket
18. What is your favorite thing to eat for breakfast? Milk
19. What do you want for dinner on your birthday? Poles (Napoles- the Mexican restaurant)
20. What do you want to be when you grow up? He wouldn't answer this one.. I think he was finished with my 20 questions :)

Little-Big hands

In a few days these little hands will never be two again. Diapers are gone, pacifiers are gone. He no longer lets me rock him to bed and is about to outgrow saying "hold you Mommy".  My two year old is almost three and with that comes so much fun. It is bittersweet watching him grow.

We are snuggling in bed as he puts my wedding ring on his finger and back on mine. My mind can't help but think of how big these hands will be someday. He has had huge hands since birth and even now they are bigger than the other kids' hands in in his class. I think of who will be the lucky girl that that my boy puts a wedding ring on. Even though it is hard to think about him growing into a man, I already pray for his future wife.

Lil' Miss is 10 months

Olivia Jane is 10 months old. What can Olivia do now?

She is crawling, cruising on furniture and can squat to pick up toys and pop back up again. She will walk steps if you hold her hands. She loves paper and can destroy it very quickly. Everything goes in her mouth. As hard as I work to keep our floors clean she still finds things.. the most common is our rug fuzz. I did pull a bug out of her mouth the other day... Josh didn't think it was but I definitely saw a torso and wings.

She loves to eat table food. She eats spaghetti, chicken, bread, pancakes, green beans.. really anything that I can tear into small pieces. She will eat fruit baby food and the little squeezie pouches as well. She's perfected her pincher grasp but if it's something especially yummy, like Tupulo Honey's biscuits, the girl will double fist. She nurses about 4 x day and usually has 1 bottle of formula. I haven't even felt guilty at all about the bottle of formula. Two scoops, 4 oz of water and ta-da. The ole pump hasn't been used since the newborn days. No stockpile of milk here.

Sleep? YES! My lovely daughter is sleeping around 12 hours at night without waking up. I have no idea what switch flipped.. maybe the good Lord knew I was going to hit my breaking point. She's been in her room for several weeks and has been sleeping great. We didn't do any sleep training.. no cry it out... anything. I. have. no. clue. All I know is that I am thankful because I seriously dreaded going to bed.

Olivia is still wearing her 'hearing computers' during the day. She still wants to pull them out and I put them in LOTS. I can do it blindfolded with one hand. I've tried toupee tape (the store looked at me funny when I bought this), Halo hearing headband, and pilot cap and there is not really a great solution. The toupee tape may work on bald men but it's no match for Olivia. She can still pull those hearing aids right off. The halo headband scratches her neck with the velcro (she was squalling in the car and I didn't realize what was wrong until we stopped and I saw her neck was red)... talk about horrible parent guilt. The pilot cap works okay.. it just makes her head hot. I'm hoping she will just decide to stop messing with them.

We love you sweet girl!

Olivia Jane wearing her Matilda Jane dress

She can crawl up stairs!

Sticker pictures are very hard to do now

Staring out the window

She loves books!

Here is a link to Eli's 10 month post. He was already walking.. that boy has been a fire ball since early on. 

Olivia is 8 months

I'm guessing Olivia's around 18 lbs because she has been 17 lbs at 7 months, 16 at 6 months, 15 at five months and so on. She is in 6-12 month clothes and 9 month sleepers. Size 3 diapers still fit really well. We've tried a month supply of diapers from the Honest company and I like them. At first I wasn't sure because we had two leaks but I think it was because she was in between sizes. I like the diapers because they have less chemicals than normal diapers, are more biodegradable, not too costly, the company donates diapers to those in need, they deliver to your door step, and they have pretty designs :) I would love to use cloth diapers but that would be unrealistic for me. I do good to get the clothes washed for this crew. I probably should be doing laundry right now instead of blogging because Josh is out of white undershirts and I have a huge pile of clothes. 

What can Livi do now?  She is able to solider crawl all over the house, stand while holding on to things, and wave 'hey'... it's really cute.. not a dainty princess wave but a whole arm wave. She is also trying to say hey "eey", and will say "dada", "ma",  and I've heard 'bu' when playing with the ball. She loves to imitate growing noises and will imitate some vowel sounds back. We've been working on choosing  between the airplane (Ahhh) and the Bus (buh, buh, buh) for her learning to listen sounds. She is nursing less frequently and eating more solid food. She has figured out the sippy cup and can drink from a straw. The girl loves food.. especially table food. She picks finger foods up with her finger and thumb or sometimes uses the whole hand to cram food in her little mouth.  We need a dog to get the left overs because she sure makes a mess.  It was harder to take these pictures than before because Miss Squirm-a-lot decided she wanted to grab the light on her nightstand and didn't want to sit for the picture. As you can see most of the pictures are of her squirming away. 

I'm not going to hold still for this picture.

Mommy is a sucker for cute little baby dresses

I'm crawling outta here folks!

"Really Mom!" "Another picture?"

Watching Eli take a bath... notice the Pilot cap which she's been wearing to keep from eating her hearing aids.

http://www.allisonfamilylife.blogspot.com/2010/12/8-months.html

Here is the link to Eli's 8 month stats. He was already cruising one handed. Oh well. I'm doing much better now having patience and letting this one meet her milestones when she meets them. Isaac and Eli met milestones pretty much the same and this little princess has her own way of doing things.

7 months

I am 7 months old and I am such a happy girl. I'm really a good girl most of the time. Lately I have not wanted my Mommy out of my sight and I cry if she walks away from me. Of course when I cry she comes and picks me up and then I give her a big smile and she totes me around wherever she goes. I can sit pretty good now and I am learning how to crawl. I especially like to go get Eli's cars.. they taste so good (it's probably the dirt). Mommy always takes them from me and Eli says "No bite Baby". I don't know why they say that to me all the time. "No bite, no bite". I can't chew on anything fun.

Mommy and Eli like to feed me Puffs and those things are GOOD! I'm really good at putting them in my mouth. I still don't like those nasty pureed green beans that Mommy feeds me but she gave me the real thing last night and I ate a whole plate of green beans. I don't have any teeth yet... Eli wants to buy me some when we go to the grocery store but Mommy says you can't buy teeth there. I wish I would get some teeth so they would give me more table food!

Mommy says I am doing better keeping my hearing computers in. I don't take them out quite as much as I was doing but I still really like to chew on them and I scream loudly when she takes them out of my mouth. Daddy and Mommy both call me Banshee sometimes. I think it's because I have a high pitched squeal and can scream really loud. I don't mind it too much because I know they love me!

The crawl

 Here is Olivia's new crawl.. It's not technically a crawl but she can maneuver across the floor pretty fast.

Livi is 6 months

6 months old

Weight: 16 lbs 11 oz (50%)

Height: 26 1/4 inches (50-75%)

Head: 50% 

Olivia's half birthday fell during the NC AG Bell Hearing Conference, so I had to wait until we got home to snap her 'sticker' picture. Here are her new and improved updates: She has tried all the baby food fruits and vegetables and likes everything except green beans; her favorite is bananas. The little tyke actually gagged and threw up when she tried green beans. I can't say I blame her; baby food green beans leave much to be desired. Maybe I will try some homemade ones. I had all these good intentions on making all her baby food... yea that's not happened. We just recently tried puffs (broke in half) and she did great. She just started chewing and never gagged. My boys always gagged at first and didn't have the chewing concept down so fast. 

Motor wise Olivia is sitting longer by herself. She must be part alligator because the girl can roll all over the floor. I will put her on her blanket and she will be across the floor when I go back over there. She likes to be on her belly and loves to lay on her blanket and chew her toys. Everything goes in the mouth. Sophie the giraffe is one of her favorite chew toys; it really is the world's best teething toy. 

Sleep. Well, Olivia is co-sleeping with her mama. She likes the Tempur-pedic and she likes her milkies (I know she doesn't need to eat 3x's a night but hey it puts her right back to sleep).  Poor Daddy got booted out to the guest room. Actually he willingly went because he said he needed to sleep so he could go to work. We won't get into this discussion because I surely can't grab a nap whenever I want since Mr. Eli would burn the house down if he was left unmanned. Honestly, I don't mind.. it gives Livi and I more room. I am completely spoiling her and I know I will have to undo the months of spoiling sometime soon but I just can't make myself do it. I said previously in my blog that I would put her in her room around four months... and nope.. didn't happen! I am probably holding her too much, carrying her around too much and kissing her too much but I'm okay with that-- for now!

What are you doing Mom?

Now I will smile!

I'm a happy girl

I wanna chew this rabbit



Here is Eli's 6 month post to compare 

Olivia Jane is 5 months old

Lil' Miss is growing like a weed. We moved into 9 month sleepers this week. It's probably from all these mid night feedings lately. Eli or Isaac one brought home the crud and little Livi caught it. She ran a fever and has been snotty and congested. I could tell her little throat was hurting from the drainage so I've just been letting her nurse as much as she wanted through the night... Yea it's going to be fun to break this pattern. Why is it they can learn a bad pattern in 1 night but good sleep patterns take forever! The first night every time I laid her down she got choked so I inclined my bed and held the sweet baby all night. I honestly didn't mind because she just cuddled on my chest and her wee little hands touched my face... It's a wonder she has a face left I've kissed it so much!

What can Livi do now?? Well She is sitting briefly unsupported, rolling all directions and can even get off her play mat in the floor. She has started rice cereal and had homemade applesauce so far and continues to nurse every 3-4 hours during the day. She lights up when you smile and talk to her. She loves to take a bath and to have her diaper changed...the girl just likes to be nakie.. who can blame her!

Isaac was smiling at me!

I'm a bubble guppy.. see that drool!

"Can I bite this Mom?"

Sweet smiles

Happy 5 months Olivia Jane

I am so enjoying this time, even on weeks like this when the whole house has been sick and I can add up on one hand the hours of sleep I have had. When Isaac was a baby I was young, in college, and didn't have the time to just stop and enjoy every minute. Even though I spent so much one on one time with him I was always anticipating the next stage. With Eli I had to go back to work and  I am so blessed and thankful his grandparents were able to keep him, but I wasn't at home to get all those sweet snuggles during the day. Plus Eli didn't stay a baby long. He sat early, crawled early, walked early and my baby was gone. He is still a handful of energy! 

So my goal is to try to really soak in these precious days. Soon she will be crawling out of my arms and won't let me hold and rock her and I know it happens all to quickly. I feel like I am always cleaning, picking up, doing laundry and I know it has to be done but sometimes I put cleaning before playing with the kids. Because I have therapy coming into my home I don't want it to be a mess but I'm sure our therapist isn't going to know if my upstairs bathrooms are dirty.  Right now my house is a mess but I'm trying not to care. I am learning that I don't have to clean my floors 24-7 (they just get dirty again 5 minutes later), and those dirty dishes will wait. This quote is appropriate for this week!