1 week from today

I can't believe her birthday is next Saturday. Everyone always said the time flies, but I didn't really buy into it. But it really feels like just I blinked, and bam---I have a one-year-old toddler on my hands.

<------There are some new videos linked at the left: one of her favorite activity, stair climbing; and one of her dancing to her Fridge DJ ("Where the tunes are tight and the music is right!" Yes, it really does say that). She's a little ham. She did a very lengthy and entertaining Fridge DJ dance for our friends Laura and Jerry who came over last night, and gave some seriously flirty eyes to Jerry. Is it too early to start dreading the teen years? ;)

wondering where my good sleeper went

I never thought I'd call Olivia a good sleeper, but she actually has been for the last few weeks (except the night when my sister and brother-in-law babysat - she was so keyed up that she wouldn't go to bed until I wrestled her into submission around 11:30 p.m.). Her normal schedule is to go to bed between 7 and 8 p.m., maybe do her weird waking up thing 30 minutes to an hour after going to sleep, sleeping through the night , and then not getting up until 9 a.m. unless I wake her earlier. Last night looked like this:

8:00 - bed
11:00 - wakes up babbling and laughing
11:15 - the crying begins
11:20 - drinks a bottle
11:30 - wide awake
midnight - wide awake
12:30 - wide awake
1:00 - wide awake

See where I'm going with this? At 1:15 she started looking somewhat sleepy, so I put her in her crib and crawled into bed, praying that she would stay asleep. Then she woke up at 6:58 a.m. Oooooooof.

And one of the cats hurled up their breakfast on O's play mat. Ugh. Nothing like cleaning up barf before breakfast.

In other Olivia news, lately when I ask her to say mommy, she grins and yells, "DA DA!" Stinker. The tooth to the left of her left front tooth finally broke through, and her fourth bottom tooth finally showed up (so much for that oh-so-helpful woman telling me it was never going to come in if it hadn't by now). Hopefully that's it for the teething for a while ... but what's causing the sleep disturbance?

more signs

So in addition to "more," Olivia now does the sign for "all done" and just did "milk" for the first time today! It's so much fun watching her do these things, and it's pretty amazing to me how quickly she picks up on them when I'm so inconsistent with doing them. I'm trying to teach her the sign for cracker next -- right now she just signs more or points and grunts when she sees them. That works too!

She also does the sign for more when I'm singing to her and she wants me to start over, when we're playing and she wants to repeat something, or when I'm reading her a book and we finish it. It's adorable.

She can tell us what a fish says (opening and closing her mouth) and what an elephant says (keeping her lips together and blowing, although sound doesn't always come out). Occasionally she'll say mmmmmmmm for what a cow says, but other times she says "buh," her favorite word. Today we were reading "Good Night Gorilla," and she surprised me by pointing to the elephant in the book and making the sound. She can point out things in books when you ask her to show you where they are -- stuff like bear, chick, strawberry, dog, cat, and even guinea pig.

She's getting better at standing and doing it for longer periods of time, but she still doesn't show any interest in walking. Which is actually fine with me, because I have a feeling that once she starts walking, she won't be content to ride in shopping carts or strollers.

I think that's all the new stuff I have for now ... preparation for her birthday is in full swing. I'm second guessing the dress I chose for her, though, and have ordered a new contender. You'll just have to wait and see what she wears for her big day. ;)

baptism

Olivia's baptism was Sunday. She skipped her morning nap and was a bit squirmy and fussy through the whole thing. At the end, I realized I was sweaty from my baby-wrangling efforts.

She didn't like the water:
But made a decent recovery:
She was fascinated by the candle:
And afterward, in a pretty good mood and hanging out with Fr. Mike:
My sister hosted an awesome lunch at her house afterward for all of us -- homemade minestrone and chicken salad on croissants, plus an apple bundt cake with ice cream. Mmmm. It was a nice day despite the nap-skipping. ;)

I didn't get many photos of her in her cute dress, so I put it back on her today:


And a close-up, just because she's cute. :)

teething, signing, puking

The title of this post pretty much sums up Olivia's day. :p

Teething: it looks like the two teeth on either side of her front teeth are making their way in. Still no sign of a fourth tooth on the bottom yet, but hopefully it'll show up eventually. I actually had someone at Target tell me that teeth are supposed to come through in pairs, and if the tooth to the right of her two bottom center teeth hasn't already come in, she probably won't get a tooth there. Uhhh ... thanks, lady? I think the asymmetry is pretty adorable.

Signing: After getting the awesome Baby Signing Time DVD and doing a few signs for a couple of weeks, Olivia did her first sign this weekend! She must take after me, because she was eating and did the sign for "more." ;) At first I thought it was a fluke, but she did it again when Dan came home and has been doing it all weekend. She's also pretty good at the point-lean-and-grunt method of getting what she wants, which is how I realized she wanted another graham cracker tonight. I'm trying to get her signing on video, so hopefully I'll have something to upload soon.

Puking: Is it horribly mean and unsympathetic to say that I'm really glad I wasn't home when it happened? I was at Carter's checking out their clearance (and also eyeing the crazily cute spring stuff), and when I got home, Olivia was wearing a new outfit and sucking on her pacifier (which she rarely does other than at bedtime). Dan says, "We had ... a little incident." Apparently he gave her some apple cinnamon oatmeal to start off her dinner, then moved right into this really stinky jarred cheese/broccoli/carrots concoction by Gerber. She had eaten some the other day without incident (although the smell of the stuff was making *me* want to hurl), but apparently the abrupt switch from sweet to ... that ... was too much to bear. Major gagging ensued, followed by what was described as a volcanic spew. Ack. Not really sorry I missed that! Anyway, she didn't seem bothered by what happened at all, and she ate a pretty good second dinner before bed.

Here she is in her Indiana University sweatsuit (which Dan's parents bought for her for Christmas, though neither of us attended college there), pre-vomit:

Oh, and if you haven't already, check out the video to the left (the thumbnail has a Christmas tree in it) -- she's standing up like crazy these days. Does this mean she'll be walking by her birthday next month? Stay tuned!

11 months old

Olivia rang in her 11 month birthday by having a sort of fussy day, one where she whined at Starbucks, all the way through Target, and a lot at home. Such a lovely sound, that whining. ;) I think she's probably teething again, because she's figured out how to unvelcro the custom crib rail covers my mom made (after the first crib-chewing incident in November) and gnaw on the wood underneath.

Hopefully I've foiled her for good this time -- I wrapped an ace bandage around the crib rail, covered it back up with the crib rail covers, and then safety pinned the covers (note to mom: don't worry, I put them somewhere where she can't get to them).

So she was definitely in no mood to have me throw a dress and tights on her to take her picture today.

Maybe if I turn on the waterworks, she'll leave me alone.

Really? The tears didn't convince you to call this thing off?

Ok, in exchange for the duck, I'll give you a half smile.

happy new year!

I'm just checking in quickly while I upload all of our holiday photos and videos -- I'll be back later with pictures and links to YouTube.

Christmas was hectic, but great. We drove to Dan's hometown for Christmas with his dad's side of the family for a few hours, then went to his parents' house to open gifts. We drove back to Indianapolis around 8 p.m. Christmas Eve night, thinking Olivia would sleep in the car. That was a no-go, so we had to listen to the Magical Baby-Calming Car CD for the entire 2-hour trip (note to self: find a few more Magical Baby-Calming Car CDs before road trip to North Carolina in July, lest we go insane).

We opened gifts at home on Christmas Day, then went to my parents' house for dinner that afternoon. The Sunday after Christmas, we went to my parents' again for yummy dinner #2 and presents with my sister and her husband, who had been out east with his family on Christmas.

Olivia's schedule is still working its way back to normal. She had been going down for the night at 7 p.m. with little fuss, but is now fighting it until at least 8:30. And most nights she's getting up at least once; last night, it was twice. But as a wise friend told me, just wait a few days and things will change. Keep your fingers crossed.

New Year's Eve was low key, just like we like it. Thankfully, Olivia was not up at midnight to ring in the new year with us. ;)