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.