Personality Plus

Oh man, you guys. Olivia is so awesome. Her little personality is coming out in full force. Except it's not little. She is a sweet, curious, goofy, determined little beauty who knows exactly what she wants!
She will scream if you take her toy away, laugh if you do anything remotely silly, eat her feet if you take her socks off, and she will undoubtedly do something new and amazing every single day.

She started two new things today: Firsr of all - this is really exiting so brace yourself - I walked into daycare at lunchtime and she was...on her hands and knees rocking back and forth!! Where the heck did she learn that and when? The little booger is going to be crawling before we know it. I first of all freaked out and clapped and giggled and made a big to-do about it. Then I scooped her up and told her how proud I am of her and " good job, big girl..." And then I asked her why she doesn't want to be mommy's little baby. She is trying to grow up too stinkin' fast!
The next thing is hilarious to see. We think she is imitating us talking. It's too hard to explain, so watch this video. There is no sound and that is appropriate because she isn't making any sound when she does this :)

HERE'S SOME NEW PICS OF LIBBY LOU - - See how she has become so much more expressive at the end of the month?!!

Oh What Fun

We're back!

What a fun couple of weekends we have had lately. Last weekend my little sister Katie was in town!! Me, her and my mom went wedding dress shopping and it was a blast - she found a very beautiful dress and it only took what, like, 7 hours! Not bad :) It was a super-fun weekend hanging with the girls.

My dad came down and spent the day with Olivia while we shopped - what a good G-Pa, huh?!
He did a great job, and Olivia prooved that she is going to be his girl...She hadn't pooped in 2 days, so she was soooo due for a good one. But guess what? She waited until 45 minutes after we got home that night to let it go! She wasn't going to put her G-Pa through that mess, I guess. Little stinker!

Josh spent the weekend in Minneapolis with my bros watching the opening weekend of March Madness Tournament. Who knows what all went on up there, but it sounds like they had a ton of fun and they are planning to repeat the weekend annually.

This weekend was just us - Me, Josha and Libby. We have been having so much fun just the three of us. Olivia has been just crazy! She's been talking pretty much non-stop... in bed, at the table, in her carseat, at small group, the grocery store - seriously - non-stop! I am sure she is going to be a little chatterbox - she already is:) She has been a ball of entertainment all weekend.

I don't know if I told you about the little mesh food thingys I got her, but we got one out this weekend and put a piece of banana in it. Holy cow she mowed down on the thing! There's a video below of the event. We are enjoying her company more and more every day as she continues to learn. She is inquisitive about everything. Sounds, sights, textures and tastes. Her senses are in full force right now. It is just awesome to watch her figure it all out.

Her sleeping is on the mend, too. I have come to the conclusion that her naps are pertinent to her nighttime slumber. There was a little span of time where I was making the girls at daycare limit her nappies because I thought she was sleeping too much during the day - but I realize now that that was pretty dum-dum of me. She still needs 12-16 hours of sleep in a 24 hour period. So anyway - we are all sleeping a lot more the past few nights which is really really great :)

We started her on veggies this week, too. Carrots were her first and she loves them. We steamed them and then pureed them in the chopper we bought from uncle Nic. She had those every night this week and now it's time for something new. Avacado is up next - I don't know how good they taste, but they are full of lots of essential fats and nutrients. And they don't require anything except some good old mashing. We will let you know how she likes it.

That's it for today - hoping you're all having a great weekend!

Will We Ever Sleep Again?

I pretty much have only talked about the goodness of our baby Olivia so far; mostly because she is pretty much full of goodness! Here's a little story about our life the past 8 days...

Last Friday, March 4th Olivia had her 4 month checkup and shots like I told you earlier. She was a bit fussy that night and I was up more than normal comforting her and feeding her and giving her everything she needed. All fine and good, right? Not really. Ever since that night she has only had one good night of sleep and that means I have only had one good night of sleep and Josh has only had one good night of sleep. She seems to be waking every two hours - just like when she was a little tiny baby baby. I try to let her fuss herself back to sleep instead of getting up but then the fussing turns into a full blown screaming session. So that hasn't really worked out :)

For the most part, she has been great during the day - she is happy and playful and talkative and the happy girl she has always been. She has had some bits of fiestiness but overall she's been pretty good.

Grandma Sandy and Grandpa Den were here this weekend to see her which was a lot of fun- it's been a while since we've seen them! Josh and I had small group for church on Saturday afternoon, so Libbs stayed with Gram and Gramps. She wasn't too joyous of a baby while we were gone and I felt terrible about that. I wasn't sure what was wrong with her, so I fed her (that's usally the problem, or if not the problem it satifies her).

This morning she was being a little crunchy - that's daddy's word for grouchy...he doesn't like to say his pretty little girl is a grouch, so crunchy it is :) - I wasn't quite sure what she needed because she had a full belly so I went to the second method of choice:for a happy Oliva: the bath! I got rid of her baby bathtub - she is getting too tall for it so I laid a towel down in the sink and put a couple inches of water in the sink and laid her on the towel. We played in the bath for 10 minutes or so and then I gave her a bedtime massage and let her roll around naked on the floor for almost a half an hour. She was very happy during all of this. But then got crunchified again.

This afternoon she had a hissy fit for some reason we couldn't figure out. She had just finished eating, so she wasn't hungry, so didn't want to play or sleep or cuddle and she had a clean diaper on. Finally her smart daddy suggested a little OraJel that I picked up last week. It was a miracle! Apparently that was the issue - her gummers hurt. DUH - Why didn't I think of that?!

We have been wondering about her teething lately, hence why I even bought the Orajel. So Grandma Sandy if you're reading this - sorry I didn't figure that out sooner and have some of that out for you! But you handled her wonderfully without it :)

We are now hoping that with this new-found friend, we can give her some if she wakes up in the middle of the night and we can all have a good night's sleep...we will see!!!

I really hope my dad wasn't right when he told Josh today that maybe Olivia had us spoiled the past 4 months by being such an easy baby...I want to keep being spoiled!

Red cheeks...A sign of teething?

Nappy Time

Yummy Cereal

Ready to Crawl?

Super Cool

Me and Grandma :)

Daddy's little Hawkeye

Sittin' All by Myself (Excuse my mom...she just woke up)

We don't like to brag...

No. Seriously. We don't like to brag. But we do like to talk about how awesome Olivia is. Without bragging.

We had Libby's 4 month appointment on Friday. She is healthy as can be (besides the stupid cold that it seems she will have forever as long as she is in daycare and it's cold outside). Her stats are as follows:
13 lbs 10oz. 24-3/4" long and her head is 40.3cm around. That puts her in the 75th percentile for height and the 50th for weight; She is tall and thin. Josh and I were both a little surprised by that. We thought for sure she was at least a little chunky!

As far as her development, the doctors were very impressed with her. We were told that we have our hands full because she is doing things that most babies don't start doing until 6 months or later! Dr. Kelly said Olivia will be crawling by 6 months - oh my - we need to baby-proof the house! I told Doc that I have thought that she was ahead of what is "normal" but I didn't like to say anything because maybe I just don't know what is normal or maybe I had that "my baby rocks" syndrome. But she assured us that Libby is "very advanced." So that made us feel good...that must mean we are doing something right....right? Or most likely it is just her little go-getter personality!!!

You might be wondering what these things are that make the doctors say this. I think we have talked about most of them. She rolls over both ways, she reaches out and grabs everything she can,  she gets her knees up under herself and frog kicks, scooting herself around, and she pushes herself up on her hands and can turn her whole body to look around. If she could put  the last two things together she would be on her hands and knees ready to crawl ! She is an active little girl, that is for sure!

So everything went really well at her checkup. She got her 2nd set of shots, which she still handled pretty well. She did run a little fever with this set, but by Saturday afternoon she was good to go.

Grammy and G-Pa Hopp came down and spent the day with her on Friday  so that was nice that she could stay home and rest and get lots of love and attention :) Everyone needs a little TLC after getting stabbed in the legs! I know she wasn't her usual self because of the shots, but I think they still had fun. They taught her a new trick, too - it's so cute - Here's a video of it!

Another video and a few new pics for ya....

Time Flys When You're Havin' Fun!

So I realize it's been almost a month. A MONTH!!! That means Miss Olivia is 4 months old today:) Happy birthday baby girl!
There is so much to tell - this month has been one full of smiles, new sounds, new moves and lots and lots of learning. And of course - tons of fun!

The smiles are becoming more frequent and she not only smiles back, but she smiles first. She smiles at toys, at herself in the mirror, at mommy and daddy and sometimes she smiles at nothing - she just feels like smiling :)

Last month, she was cooing sweet "hooooos" and "ahhhhs". This months she is grunting and screaming and squealing.

As far as the new moves go, she is on a roll - literally! On February 10 she figured out how to get to her tummy from her back. And she hasn't quit yet. She rolls over almost instanly if you put her on her back. She even sleeps on her tummy in bed now. And Katie and Mike got to witness a first with us just last night when she figured out how to roll back to her back :) So now she can roll a full rotation.

She is starting to scoot, although we're not sure it's intentional. She can get her knees up underneath of her and then she kicks like a frog and makes some pretty good headway. We are sure she will be crawling within a month; two at the most! She is also loving the bounce, so our next purchase will be a Johnny Jump Up. Can't wait for that!

We started her on rice cereal and she's getting really good with the spoon. At first she just wanted to suck on it like she sucks on everything (even the bars of her crib) but she will open her mouth now and "chew" on the cereal. She seriously sucks and chews on everything. Her hands, blankets, toys, our faces and hands, my collarbone...everything!

We gave her her first bites of food including carrots, banana, mashed potatoes and ice cream. Of course, these weren't really "bites." They were just a teeny little taste. She loved all of it except the carrots - those hit her lap faster than they went in :)

First taste of Ice Cream

She loves pulling hair and pinching faces. She slobbers and pukes and poops and makes all kinds of messes. She wakes up to eat every 2 hours at night and wears a full load of laundry or two a week. All of these things sound like and are a lot of work. But you know what? They are all pieces to the puzzle that makes Olivia and I wouldn't trade or change one single thing about our little nugget.  She is perfect and beautiful and the most joyous little girl we could ever have. We are blessed!

It really is amazing to watch her grow and learn. There is so much more that has happened and developed in the past month, but I can't write about them all. I will do better at keeping up and then I can go into more of the wonder of her.

I hope you are all doing well! Talk to you soon!!!

Enoying Naked Time!

Just plain Cute

Look at me - I can hold my own bottle

Bib from Gramma Nae

My First Big BOO-BOO







Growing Events

We have had quite the week here at home. Daddy was gone most of the week for work and we missed him terribly!  I'm not sure if I've ever told you, but I am scared to stay home alone and now that I have our baby to protect, it's even more nerve-wrecking! We got through it, though - thanks to the locks on the doors, the booby traps we set and the fact that I was so tired I couldn't even stay awake long enough to hear the scary sounds of the night or think about the robbers I'm always so sure are coming when I'm home alone!

I made sure to tell my husband how very much I appreciate everything he does. I don't think I ever take it for granted, but it sure brings it to light just how much he does with Olivia. He dresses her in the morning, he takes the dogs out, he gets her milk for the day out of the freezer and he tells me it's 6:30 and I need to get going. He really does so much to make the morning go smoothly. He's a great daddy and husband; probably the best there is!

So on with the "growing" events:
On Wednesday Libbs laughed for the first time! And the second time! It was during lunch at daycare and I gave her a rasperry on her belly. It was such an awesome sound to hear - I only wish I could get her to do it again, but it appears she forgot how! I suppose she will figure it out again and be doing plenty of it in no time :)

On Saturday she did what she always does and decided she was going to be upset unless I let her sit at the dinner table with us. So we had an idear - we got the high chair out and she actually sat at the table with us instead of on my lap! It was a big-girl moment...

Olivia has now learned that her hands can go in her mouth, and therefore anything that goes in her hand can go in her mouth! She reaches out and grabs the dangly toys in her gym and chews them, she pulls blankets up to her mouth and chews on them, she grabs our fingers and chews on them...Basically she chews on anything she can get ahold of!!
I think she's gonna cut a tooth here in the near future. The telling signs - she gnaws on everything and she slobbers slobbers slobbers all over herself. She can even blow slobbery bubbles which is very cute :)

And look how much this little girl has changed in the last 3 months. I know she has gotten bigger, but look at her features. She doesn't even look like the same baby...it's amazing how different her little face looks.
My mom sent me some pictures of me when I was a baby and it really amazed me how much she actually resembles me - She doesn't look like me - just resembles. I think it's the nose ! What do you think?

Uncle Tom came by for a visit!

I still love the MIRROR!

Still love it!

Big Girl at the Table

Chillin' with Daddy

See how different I look?



My baby pics



Great Aunt Cindy - I finally fit!

This cute little pink dress is from Great Aunt Cindy....She has finally filled out enough to wear it :) She was the prettiest girl in church today!