Boating in Novembehttp://3.bp.blogspot.com/_-FbrYP2DYIg/TOujGXAginI/AAAAAAAAAQo/jQ1dgoF6CUU/s1600/Nov%2B22%2B007.JPGr

Well as crazy as it sounds we went out on the boat Monday with my parents. It was 82 degrees out and beautiful. It has been a few weeks since Olivia has been out on the boat and she was itching to get on the water, OK maybe her Dad and I were itching. The ride was perfect, the purr of the engine mixed with the splashing of waves; someone needs to turn that into a sound machine.

When we got to the beach, Olivia started playing in the sand. Who knew how quick the sand found its way to her mouth. She loves digging and playing in the sand, the only problem now is that she is all sandy and the water is burrrrr cold. Jonathan dipped her feet in the water and she didn't seem to care. She just wanted to walk, walk, walk all over the place.

Little Miss Bumble Bee

We only had one trick-or-treater this year, our cute little bumble bee. It took us forever to pick out a costume but we finally picked the bumble bee and I'm glad we did because Oli looked so cute. We started the day with carving a jack-o-lantern. We tried to get Oli to touch the pumpkin goo inside and she wanted nothing to do with it. Shawntel found a recipe for holiday spice roasted pumpkin seeds and it turned out great. All those years of getting rid of the insides. After we cleaned up we put Oli in her bee costume and went up to see Grandma at work. She didn't mind the wings but I think that the hat must have been annoying because she wasn't happy until it was off. After a few pictures we went home and watched the Buccaneers take care of business. That night we lit up the pumpkin and waited for trick-or-treaters and didn't get one. More candy for us . I can't wait for next year I think we have a new favorite holiday.

8 months old water baby

Well it is official we will never leave the state of Florida. Olivia loves the water. She doesn't care if it is her little blue pool or the Gulf, as long as it is warm. We took the "Ho Hum" out yesterday. What an awesome boat Jonathan's parent have, the only problem is the name.... it should be the Olivia Morgan; it is only right, that she have a boat named after her in Englewood and Jacksonville. She is definitely a bikini girl.

Well Oli is a proud owner of two bottom teeth. They made their appearance and don't seem to bother her very much. She likes to use them on a pop sickle that her and her Grandpa share. She is chewing an her teething toy in the back, so maybe a molar is trying to push up.

Olivia is still army crawling around, she will occasionally get up onto her knees for a step or two, but she finds army crawling a more effective means of moving. She is pulling herself to her knees a lot and every now and then to her feet. It scares me half to death because I am afraid that she is going to fall and bump her head, but when she does fall, she laughs and continue playing.

We are getting Olivia's winter garden ready. Hopefully we have better luck with our winter garden than we did with our spring one. We are going to plant green beans (Oli's favorite), mustard greens and tomatoes.

New addition......

Well we knew it was going to come eventually but never realized how excited we would be that it has finally proven to be true........ OLI HAS A TOOTH! Her first tooth made its debut Wednesday afternoon on daddy's watch. It is starting to poke through on her lower gum line. This may be the end of breastfeeding. Olivia doesn't seem to really be bothered too much by it and we are hoping that it continues not to be a tyrant.

Speaking of firsts, Oli sat up on her own. She was lying next to daddy on the floor on her back. She rolled over and proceeded to put her knees up underneath herself and pushed to a sitting position right in front of daddy. You would of thought she did a magic trick by the way daddy was screaming in delight. The next morning we heard her laughing and carrying on in her bedroom to find her sitting up in her crib waiting on us to get the day going.

It still amazes me that she is already 7 1/2 months old, but what really amazes me is what she is capable of. I always thought that babies were babies until they hit 1 year old then they formed a personality and were fun to be around. I can definitely admit that babies are fun from 6 weeks on (Oli started sleeping through the night!). Olivia has such a great personality and seems to be a social butterfly when we take her into stores. We are enjoying her so much cannot wait to see what the future brings.

Our little army crawler

Olivia is growing so fast. She will be 7 months old on Sunday. She is army crawling everywhere. We will be baby proofing this weekend. I was making breakfast this morning and put her in her play room so I could watch her, and when I turned around she was under my feet in the kitchen. Maybe I will have to put a baby gate on my baby proofing list.

Olivia was in her first parade last Monday. She was soo amped up meeting all of Jonathan's co-workers that by the time we put her into the stroller and started moving, she was falling asleep. I thought she was going to wake up due to all the sirens from the fire truck, but they did not phase her a bit. She was sound asleep by Dearborn Street.

It is getting harder and harder to write these blogs because she doesn't sleep very long....... until later!

Wow she is a little person!

I don't know who likes bananas more, Jonathan or Oli!

I cannot believe my little baby is getting so big, so fast. Jonathan and I had to rearrange our office, get rid of my big desk, to turn it into Olivia's playroom. After a days worth of playing with toys in the living room, you could not even walk in there. Now she has a designated area just for her and it makes clean up so easy! Oli loves her new room, especially with all of her toys being out at once. I have been brushing up on my book "What to expect the first year" and realize that we are truely lucky we are with Olivia. Not only does she keep us laughing all day, she is the world's best eater. She loves everything from green beans to carrots and especially the fruits. We are onto the stage 2 and the fun flavors begin, berry bananas with apples. We had to find a new feeding schedule to get her on a breakfast, lunch, dinner with snacks routine. I cannot wait for her to eat breakfast with us. Olivia is hitting all her milestones, she is sitting good and standing with the assistance of something for balance. She is starting to lunge towards things she wants instead of rolling to them. This weekend is our football fantasy draft so Olivia will start to learn what lunatics her parents are for football. She will be dressed in her Bucs outfit ready to draft every position Bucs, ok I lied.....I want to win the fantasy league! GO BUCS!

Bedazzled

Yesterday Oli got her ears pierced and I think it was harder on Shawntel than it was Oli. We went in an hour before our appointment and they lubed her lobes up with a numbing cream. I'm sure Oli thought it was weird to pop in to the pediatrician's and not get a shot, weighed, or probed. So we had an hour to kill before Oli's big piercing appointment so we did some clothes shopping. When we walked into the Dr's office they started in with the taking off clothes, weighing and poking. Then we went back to one of the rooms and they broke out the "Ear Piercing Kit". We knew that because it said so in big letters right on the side of the box. It's a good thing Oli can't read yet and it sucks that Shawntel can because her eyes got big and it looked like the she got hit with the hippy hippy shakes. They put a dot on each one of her ears and opened the two piercing tools. Oli had no idea and the nurse snuck in and hit her with the first one. We expected her to start whaling but she didn't even realize that she had been bedazzled. The nurse swapped tools and grabbed Oli's head and hit her with the second. Her left ear must not have been as numb as the right because her bottom lip poked way out but she didn't cry. They look so good, now maybe the weird guy at the grocery store will figure out that Oli is a she and not a he.

Pay back time

Nine years ago I worked for Home Depot and I remember pretty vividly this lady and her daughter coming in to do some shopping. I didn't pay much attention to them when they came in. The Mom was maybe late twenties and the little girl was maybe a year old or younger. Some time had passed and I heard some commotion and looked up and there they go right back out of the store with some swiftness. That sweet little girl pooed all over the place and was grabbing it and then grabbing at her mom. It was gross and of course I laughed in fact I cracked up. Pay back is a bitch. We've been trying new foods with Oli for the past couple of weeks, we think her favorite might be sweet potatoes. Although yesterday she had bananas and she liked em alright but her stomach may not have been ready for the nanners. We were sitting on the floor playing catch with the dogs and Oli was having a blast. I started to smell something a little funky and knew that I drew the poo card for the day. when I stood up it was everywhere. On me, the rug, the jumperoo, and up and down Oli. I have no idea how it got all over the back of her head. That is X-files stuff. It took a while to get everything squared away and cleaned up and all I could think about was that mother and her little girl that I laughed at. I'm hoping that that was my payback but, I realize that if this was indeed my payback that I got off easy. I mean she was in public.

This past weekend was filled with a lot of firsts for Olivia. She got to meet her Aunt Mar and cousin Wade. She got her first umbrella stroller. First trip on the boat and first time in the pool.

We picked up Mar and Wade on Friday and of course went straight to BabysRUs. Aunt Mar bought her a beautiful dress and I finally got her an umbrella stroller. The umbrella strollers are so convient for running into stores so I opened it up and started using it in the store. We also found a pink TB Rays hat but we won't tell dad.

On Saturday morning we started to get ready for Olivia's first boat ride. We had to pack our Mary Poppins bag full of just in cases and stopped by Walmart to get her a new life jacket. We finally got to the boat around 5 and met up with Grandma, Grandpa, Aunt Mar, Wade, Grammy Becky and Kenny. Olivia was not fond of her life jacket, but was ok with it once the wind started blowing in her hair. Daddy put her toes in Sky Alley and life in Englewood truely began. We all had such a great time. Olivia got so tuckered out from all the excitement, or too many Yinglings, she took a 1/2 hour power nap on the beach. After the boating trip we took Olivia in the pool. She loved the pool and she is trying to convience her daddy or grandma to hurry up and put a pool in at the house.

We had such a great weekend and was sad to see Aunt Mar leave. The only thing keeping Olivia going this week is knowing that she will be swimming this weekend if the Tropical Storm Bonnie stays away.

5 months old!! Already!!!

five months ago Shanwtel and I were sitting in the hospital waiting for Oli's arrival and now here we are watching her roll around, scream and puke up 2 ounces of every 6 ounce bottle we give her. Maybe I should try the old "no activity for 45 minutes after eating", which I always thought that that was an excuse for adults to have one more cold beverage in peace before having to make sure I don't run out in traffic or put my fingers into a light socket. After Oli eats she is ready to jump right down and start running wide open, if she could I think she would. Instead I burp her and we lay down on the floor with the tummy time mat and she rolls every where puking here and puking there. I can't wait for her to be able to use her jumperoo. We've been putting her in it with something under her feet but she stands there as to say now what. I did put her in yesterday and still had to use the booster but she kicked around and played with the toys on it, so now she just needs to stretch. We started feeding her rice cereal in the evening time and she makes the craziest faces if I leave a chunk and she eats it. I make the same face when I eat a pancake that has flour pockets in it, yuck. When we're done the cereal seems to find its way into her hair, nose, clothes and all over the tray. We're getting better though. I fed her yesterday and I guess I wasn't moving fast enough for her so she started to slurp up what was spilled on the tray. Shawntel gives her an extra spoon to hold on to while she's eating so she doesn't grab at her spoon she says it works pretty good.

Grocery shopping with Oli...

Today Oli and I went grocery shopping for the week just like we've done since we've had to go back to work. She must have thought that it was boring when we first started this routine a few months ago because she would sleep the whole time we were cruising the aisles. People would stop and say hello and take a peek at her but she missed all their compliments. A couple of weeks ago she happened to stay awake for all three grocery stops and she was able to smile and say hello to everyone and she loved it so much that she doesn't sleep anymore. She's even made a few close friends at the produce store. When we walk into the joint some of the ladies that work there come up and tickle her feet, she loves it.



I got to thinking today that my parking lot procedure has changed since Oli has started hanging out with me. What I mean is that when I used to pull into the parking lot I'd start looking for the closest parking space and anybody that is potentially leaving. I've only done it a few times but I've even stalked people leaving the store and followed them to their car and waited for them to load up and leave. Well, now I pull in thinking, Oli weighs 13 pounds and some change and the car seat weighs a couple extra pounds and walking with her from the car to the store, even if it is front row parking feels like I'm carrying small sack concrete, where is the closest shopping cart? Sometimes I'll pull into the lot and there will be no carts, damn those bag boys for being good employees. So I will pass up a front row for a spot in the back but near a grocery cart. It won't be long and we'll be able to take her out of the car seat and put her in the buggy.

1st Daddy's day

For Father's day, Olivia and I made Jonathan a scrapbook of pictures of Olivia and him from birth until now. I made her help me and would only work on it if she was sitting next to me helping me. (I think he loved it!) Olivia was so excited to give it to him. I am not sure how we will top that next year. LOL.

That afternoon we were on our way to Stuart, Florida for the Police and Fire Games. This was Olivia's first hotel stay. When we got there we met up with some friends and went out to dinner. Olivia was a social butterfly interacting with everyone and enjoying the attention she was getting. She got a little fussy around 9PM but a little food in her belly ended that. She sleeped great at the hotel and we had to wake her up for breakfast. She enjoyed the weight lifting competition and couldn't fall asleep beacuse of all the noise. She finally got comfy on my legs and fell asleep for a good hour. She woke up just in time to see Daddy get his PR in the benchpress.

She had fun being a little jet setter but it wore her out so today she is catching up on her zzzzzzzzzzz's!

Busy weekend

On Friday night, I had my 10 year high school reunion;

so Olivia got to spend the evening with Grandma. We packed up all of her stuff, I never realized what it took to get a baby ready to stay at Grandma's house for a few hours would take me so long to gather her belongings, but we did it and dropped her off. When we picked up Olivia around midnight she was fast asleep and we found out that she is going to be a singing super star. Grandma got her on video singing country songs, of course she will not repeat it for us. We packed her back up and took her home. I thought she would be wide awake when we got home, but she didn't even ask us how our evening went, she hit her bed and was fast asleep until the morning. Jonathan had to work the next day, leaving me with Olivia and a tummy ache from my lack of experience in the drinking department. Not drinking in over a year, I have become a cheap date. Thank goodness Olivia was just as tired and we took a 2 hour nap together and we both woke up refreshed.

Olivia's 4 month check-up

Last week Olivia had her 4 month check-up; wow is she getting big fast. She weighed in at 13 pounds exactly; putting on just under 3 lbs since her 2 month check up. She is still our little lollipop because she is in the upper percentile for her head and length but in the low percentile for her weight. She has made the 2foot mark, making her length growth total over 5 inches in 4 months. At this rate she will be as tall as me in just over 30 months. WOW! She is getting such a great personalality. She is giggling at everything, especially her Daddy. We made her 6 month appointment already and she will be getting her ears pierced on August 16th. We will bring her in a few hours early to get her ears numbed by the doctor then come back and get them pierced. Olivia isn't scared but I am. I cannot handle the shots, I don't know how I will handle an object going through her ear. Thank goodness Daddy will be there.

No oil in sight

I'm just getting home after working two days in a row yuck yuck but, it's over with and I'm back hanging out with Oli. Yup just Oli, the three of us will hang out again in two weekends. Can't wait, but we were able to get out to the beach to see the sun set and let Oli put her tootsies in the sand and water for the first time the day before I left for work. It was an awesome sun set, there were no clouds in sight and no oil either. We got to the beach about 45 minutes before the sun went down and threw out a blanket to keep the sand off of us but Oli soon found out that when you go to the beach sand will inevitably get everywhere. I think she likes the sand though because when we put her feet down in it she gave us a funny smile and then started digging away with her toes. She's hooked. We think maybe she'll just be a sun bather though because we then dunked her feet into the salt water and the reaction wasn't the same. As soon as her toes hit the water her lip simultaneously stuck way out and she started crying. Yikes. So back to the sand we went. While we were sitting there a mother walked by with her two little girls one was a year and the other four years. The little four year old saw Oli and started talking to her and making funny faces and Oli was cracking up. Can't wait to do that again. when I got home this morning I swear that Oli was an inch taller and a totally different little girl. She's growing so fast.

Oli's big adventure

Two days ago Oli and I went to pick up a new boat. Well maybe not new there's a lot of work that has to be done before the wind is blowing in Oli's hair. Thank goodness her Grandma has a boat and is ready to take her out because she'll be riding in it before she'll be riding in ours. We had to drive on the way down to Cape Coral to pick it up. So I pumped Oli full of milk and gathered our things and we were out the door. Just like I thought she slept the whole way down. So when we got into Cape Coral the guy selling the boat directed me right to his house and my plan was to leave Oli in the truck with the AC running. Oh I forget, we brought Grandmas trailer with us because this boat didn't have one. I've never put a boat onto a trailer but it sounds easy enough, maybe it will take thirty minutes right. Wrong!!! Two hours later I was paying the guy and leaving with the boat on the trailer. Olivia was pissed I guess being in her shoes I would have been mad too. When I left the guys house I pulled to the side of the road and fed Oli bottle #2. I've never seen her drink a bottle that fast, I felt terrible. I promised her I wouldn't do that again. Her reply was, cool Dad I still love you. I hope that's what she said. Once we got home we did a little tummy time and hung out until Mom got home but then we were off again to the boat ramp to get this boat to back off the trailer a little to make it easier to pull the trailer and leave the boat sitting on blocks. So by now I think Oli absolutely hates this big ugly thing on the side of our house. When she and her friends are tubing and skiing on the back she'll have a change of heart.

Today Oli surprised herself and me. She was sitting in her bouncer seat and I was shaking a rattle in her face and she reached up and grabbed it. She moved very slow and watched her hand all the way to the rattle and I think she was amazed when she was holding it. At any rate she's getting so big. Shawntel and I won't need to worry about hurricane supplies this season if we get hit we'll survive off of Oli's thighs they are getting pretty meaty.

Wow how time flies by.

Olivia, the doggies and I went for our daily walk today

and all I could think about was the past 3 months and how much Olivia has changed. I cannot believe that she is rolling over from belly to back. She loves lying on her belling up on her elbows, if that makes sense. She is giggling and talking which just cracks me up. I think she thinks that I can actually understand her. Jonathan started to walk her in the Bob without the car seat to give her more air and she looks like she is about to jump out of an airplane with her parachute on. She loves her walks even though it is humid as all get up, the doggies love it too getting out of the house. They are actually starting to lose some weight. Roxy pulls us along and Jazzy serves as our anchor. The past few days Oli is trying to sit up on her own. She gets her head going up and her torso is trying to follow but just not quiet yet. When I gave her, her bath last night she was actually helpful in lifting her chin up so I could wash underneath. I never realized how much fun having a child was going to be. Sure the first month was crazy with sleeplessness but now she is sleeping every night from 9pm to 5:30am when I wake her up to eat breakfast. We are enjoying her so much and cannot wait for her to go out onto the boat for the first time, hopefully in the next few months.