sleep, glorious sleep!

Olivia went to bed at 11pm last night (which was way too late, but we had an overstimulating day of attending her cousin's birthday party and lots of attention from the in-laws, plus a too-late-in-the-day nap in the car on the way home) and didn't wake up until 6:15 a.m. SEVEN HOURS! I woke Dan up when I heard her, saying, "Do you see what time it is?!" He just grunted and went back to sleep. ;)

I was thinking she'd be up for the day, but when I picked her up she put her head on my shoulder -- which my active girl never does unless she's zonked -- then sucked down her bottle and conked back out again until 8:45 a.m. I know I need to get her on a better/earlier waking schedule so that she'll go to bed earlier, but it was a cool morning and my warm bed was calling. I'm a bad/lazy mom, what can I say? Ha! Anyway, I can only hope that an earlier bedtime and true sleeping through the night is just around the corner. At nearly 8 months old, I think it's about time ... but I'm not getting my hopes up just yet.

We're going to take her to a pumpkin patch in the next couple of weeks to get our pumpkins, see some farm animals, and maybe go on a hayride. I think she'll really enjoy all of it. I love how aware she is of everything. This morning she pointed to a chipmunk on the porch and did her little "what's that?" noise: "Uh? Uh?" So funny.

And away she goes ...

I have a feeling my days are about to become a lot more interesting. :)

Crawling

Olivia has been doing a couple of crawling "steps" at a time all week, but she's really ramped things up yesterday and today. This morning she ventured off her playmat and managed to go under the dining room table, and then tried to scoot her way into the kitchen. I'll try to catch it on video, of course.

This has been a somewhat rough week, because Wednesday morning I pinched a nerve/pulled a muscle/did something ouchy to my back and have been in relative agony since. I had to call Dan Thursday a.m. to come home because I couldn't get Olivia out of her high chair without serious pain. Things are just now starting to feel a tiny bit better (thanks to a ton of ibuprofen and trying to have other people carry her for me -- thanks, sis!), but I still can't stand up totally straight and it hurts no matter what position I'm in. I guess a doctor visit is in order on Monday if things haven't resolved by then.

scary things

Overall, she's a pretty curious, happy baby, but there are a few things that reduce Olivia to a quivering, pouty ball o' crying baby:

• Swiffer sweep n' vac
• Dustbuster Kone vacuum (sense a theme here?)
• the green and blue puppets on Baby Einstein
• and probably most strangely, the sound packing tape makes when you pull and tear off a piece.

She's learned to get on her knees this week. When I go up to get her from her crib she's kneeling there, chewing on the crib bar and trying to pull herself to standing. Needless to say, we've already put the mattress on the lowest setting.

EDITED to add that she pulled herself to standing the day I posted this.

new things every day

Today Olivia seemed to figure out how to control her hands a little more. In previous days, she'd try to pick up little pieces of puffs that I put on her high chair try, but she couldn't do much but scoot them around the tray and knock them on the floor. Today she not only grabbed the pieces, but she put them in her mouth -- hungrily and greedily, even. It was hysterical to see her sucking on her fingers to try to remove the puff pieces. The bad part of this is the gagging. She's still not sure what to make of the texture or something, because every few puff pieces she'll gag dramatically and her eyes will water (and embarrassingly, I back up a bit in case she spews. I really need to get over my vomit phobia.). Thankfully so far, she hasn't puked from them. Maybe this weekend I'll give her some small pieces of steamed veggies or fruits and see what she does.

She also seemed to imitate me clapping today. She's been studying my hands quite seriously for the last couple of weeks when I clap for her. Today I clapped while singing, and she followed along. Her form of clapping is more like one hand staying still while the other moves toward it, but she's getting it. And it's so cute! It just amazes me every day that she's learning so many new things and turning into such a little person.

She's also having what I think might be mini temper tantrums (at 7 months old? God help me!) after her bath. She loves the water and protests mightily when we take her out and try to dry her off. It takes both of us to get a diaper and PJs on her because she's flailing/crying/screaming so much. Oh my. This is why I only give her a bath every couple of days right now!

As promised, her 7-month pictures:

It was hard to get her to stay still - and as you can see, she crinkled the paper right away ...

Must ... eat ... paper!

This is what we call her "thinking mouth" - she purses her lips and makes that face when she's checking out something interesting.

so many new things, so little time to write

I had a friend in town all weekend, and now I've got a bunch of freelance projects I'm working on. I wanted to make sure to quickly jot down a few things so that one of these days when I go back and fill in the baby book, I'll have at least a ballpark date to put with everything.

• She's added "ga-ga-ga" to her repertoire. She still does ba-ba-ba, but occasionally she'll mix it up. She looks so proud of herself when she does it.
• She's a pro at going from lying down to sitting up. Unfortunately, a lot of times she does this half in her sleep and then can't figure out how to get back to sleep. :p
• She's started going from a sitting position to getting on her hands and knees. Usually she does this to grab a toy or something, though from time to time it's because a cat is walking by and she wants to get a closer look.
• She's been scooching for a while, but last night she took a few crawling "steps" -- very, very shaky ones, and she frequently sits down to rest before continuing, but I think crawling is really almost upon us. Time to hit Babies R Us and figure out all this childproofing stuff! It's funny -- about a month ago I was convinced she'd crawl any day. :p

Coming soon: her 6-month pro photos and some pictures from her 7-month (!) photo shoot. Stay tuned!

sitting up

She's been doing a funny little pose lately:

I really wanted to put her in her little tankini on a beach towel for this, but as soon as I thought of it, she stopped doing it. Too slow, I guess!

Last night, I put her down in her crib asleep around 8 p.m. My feet hadn't even hit the final step when I heard her already awake. I sighed, turned on the video monitor, and kicked back to wait a bit to see if she'd fall asleep on her own. Within a few minutes, I couldn't see her on the monitor and went upstairs to investigate. I found her sitting up in her crib, happily playing with her blanket. Apparently she learned a new skill and felt the need to practice it immediately. This cycle of bottle/rocking to sleep/put in crib/spring awake/sit up continued off and on for three exhausting hours and then she was finally out for the night. Phew.

And I of course have video evidence:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jZplXXqzvb4

avocado video

This was after a few bites ... can you tell she's not a huge fan?

http://vimeo.com/1654464