GOT SLEEP

Last night Olivia slept great:) Paul and I actually got more then 1 hour of sleep at a time-we got almost 6 hours. Finally things are getting back to normal after Olivia being sick. She went down at 9:30 woke up at 11, like always. Went back down until about 7 this morning. I think she woke up for about 5 minutes around 1 but went right back down. I think we're onto something, not sure what it is but lets hope it's the start of something wonderful-a good night sleep for all of us.

I wanted to show off Olivia's new toys. Yes, you are looking at her playing with a wooden spoon and a pot. She loves them. Nanny gave her some last week to play with and she couldn't get enough. I gave her one of each at home too and that's what she goes to every time I put her on the floor. I think this is the beginning of a love of cooking, well maybe not the pot just makes a loud noise when you bang on it.


This is Olivia's new talent, standing in the crib when she wakes up or doesn't want to sleep. She has been sitting up in the crib when she wakes up but she has moved up to standing. The first time we saw this I was shocked and a little worried, what if she falls out. Paul assured me that she wouldn't but he still moved the crib mattress down. It won't be long before we move it down again.

For the past few days we've been walking with Nanny(my mom). We all need a little exercise. Olivia is always game for a walk. She is so nosey that she looks at everything while we are walking, she loves it. It's a good thing she likes the stroller because we're going to try and go walking every night.

Smile

Thanks to Tara for giving me The Smile Award:) Tara and I have worked together at HES fora few years now and just started to get to know each other in the past year, that's what happens when you start a family. We will continue to share stories of our little one's together over the years to come.

Characteristics for the Smile Award:
1. Must display a cheerful attitude.
2. Must love one another.
3. Must make mistakes.
4. Must learn from others.
5. Must be a positive contributor to blog world.
6. Must love life.
7. Must love kids.

These are the rules for The Smile Award:
1. The recipient must link back the the award’s creator
2. You must post these rules if you receive the award.
3. You must chose 5 people to receive the award after receiving it yourself.
4. You must fit the characteristics of the recipient of the award, as posted by Mere
5. You must post the characteristics of a recipient.
6. You must create a post sharing your win with others.
7. You must thank your giver.

Being new to the blog world I don't have many people to nominate for this award so I'm going to go out of the box and nominate people who are "all up in my business" and check my blog often but don't have a blog of their own, maybe this will make them start a blog:)

Tara B-Tara and I met when she became my pod partner at HES a few years back. She has helped me cope with some of the hardest times in my life and shared in some of the greatest. She has been a great friend and is a equally great mother and wife. She checks this blog often but will not start her own, maybe now she will:)

Jen-my sister in law. We haven't always been close but being mothers has brought up closer. She has two amazing children who never cease to amaze me, especially Kendall-who always makes us laugh.

Anna-another great friend and mother who has given me countless advice about being a mom.

Laurie-someone I met at HES when I started teaching. She has been a great friend and mentor over the years. She too has shared the tough times along with the great times with me.

Tara-a friend from HES who nominated me for this award. I think having children the same age will(as well as lunch together) will help us get to know each other even better. See you Monday:)

Now ladies don't just keep reading our blogs get out here and start your own. You want to know what's going on in my life and I want to know what's going on with you too. I hope to see you in the blog world soon:)

He's AWESOME!!

I'm referring to my husband. Since Olivia was born I feel like all I do is stay home to cook, clean, and take care of our baby girl. Well yesterday he helped me out in the cleaning department. Yes ladies, he is vaccuming. I guess when you give a man a $500 vaccum they feel like they can help around the house. Now this isn't the first time he has cleaned the house(he did it a few times while I was pregnant). He did a great job, he even moved furniture:) I have to say I am married to a great man, next we'll work on him doing laundry:)

But is awesomeness didn't stop at cleaning. While we were at lunch with a friend he asked me if I wanted to go to the Town Center shopping. I was suppose to go today with my Mom. Of course I said yes, he never wants to go shopping. We loaded up the truck, we ha to get all of Olivia's stuff and went. I was in serious need of some new clothes since having Olivia, as many women know, things just don't fit and are not in the same place. Well I found a few new things to go along with my wardrobe that is getting larger everyday with new clothes that fit. Maybe one day I'll fit into my old clothes again, it's happening slowly. We even picked up a few new things for Olivia. It was like Christmas at Baby Gap, everything was on sale.

My awesome husband and Daddy also was a sucker when it came to his little girl. In all of the noises she make she sometimes growls and of course he growls and barks back. I don't know why but she likes it and thinks it's hilarious and laughs at him. It is quite funny, I'm sure one day she will bark or growl at an adult when they talk to her and we won't think it's that funny. Well over the past few weeks he has also been asking her if she wants a puppy, she already has a cat. So of course I put an end to the puppy thing. We don't need anything to take care of around here. As you can see by the picture below she got her puppy. It's pink, fluffy, and even barks. She loves it. We found it at Swoozie's while we were shopping. She grabbed at it and started chewing on it as soon as he took it off the shelf and gave it to her. She's loves it. So yesterday was a fruitful day for everyone. Olivia and I got some new clothes, she got a puppy, and Paul got to spend the day with his family(even if it was shopping).

The Sippy Cup and Target

This week I gave Olivia a sippy cup with apple juice in it-YUMMY! She really hasn't gotten the whole concept of the sippy cup. She isn't really into holding it herself to drink the juice. She is much happier if Daddy or I hold one handle and she holds the other. Of course we are holding the cup up so she can drink out of it. She also hasn't really gotten the point that she must put the spout in her mouth to get the juice, she will suck on any part of the cup she can get in her mouth. She really likes apple juice, when she actually drinks it.

We also took a trip to Target this week. No this isn't the first time she has been there, but it is the first time her and I have gone alone since she has been sitting in the cart. I usually drag Nanny along with us. I guess I'm a little nervous she's going to cry and I'm going to freak out when I can't get her to stop. It was a successful trip for both of us. I packed all of our goodies around her and she of course played with(and ate) them. I think the pencils were her favorite. All in all it was a good trip, I think we may do it again. We also saved $8.50 on our purchase, that was a plus too. I think she likes to shop, just like her Mommy:)

Ready, Set, Explore!!

Olivia is all over the place since she has perfected crawling. Paul and I can't seem to keep up with her. She has managed to get away from us every chance she gets. All I have to do is turn my head and boom she's gone. She hasn't gotten brave enough to leave the living room or kitchen, but I'm sure that's coming. Tonight she got into everything she possibly could in the living room(pictures to follow). Nothing is sacred anymore-or stays in its place. I think I'm going to have to rearrange everything on the coffee tables.

Over the past few days I was able to capture a few pictures of Olivia doing some of her new tricks-crawling, pulling up, getting into things she isn't suppose to, and even trying to escape out the back door:)

I was amazed when I saw this. She has been trying to get up on the dragon since we got it, last night she did it.

She is completely amazed by our giant goldfish. Paul and Olivia feed them together often. She has gotten into the fish stuff before but never like this. I think she wants to help Daddy:)

We haven't had a good night sleep since she got sick. We are really baffled by the fact that she wakes up every hour(or less) at night. But Paul, being the great Daddy that he is, gets up and takes care of her, we are both so lucky to have him. We'll see how tonight goes, she didn't have good naps when she was at Nanny's today.

We're off and crawling!!

Yes, Olivia is actually crawling:) For the past few weeks she has been scooching herself around the living room. Then she started to crawl for a few steps and sit up, I think she was saying "look at me, look what I can do". But Saturday afternoon she really crawled using both her hands and legs. She was cookin' across the floor to get the cat. Of course he doesn't really like her but she likes him and wants to get him. She chases him around the best she can and sometimes she gets him. I was so excited when Olivia was really crawling I couldn't get the camera or video camera fast enough to catch it. By the time I got the video camera ready she was sitting up looking at me proud of what she had just done. She is now crawling everywhere and can't be stopped. One minute she is playing and I look back to check on her and she's half way across the room. Next up walking-I hope she doesn't start soon. I need to get some practice keeping up with her crawling.

I think we are finally over the whole virus thing. The rash is almost gone and she hasn't had a fever since Thursday morning. Now we are back to not sleeping through the night. We have been spoiled since Olivia was about 3 weeks old, she was sleeping through the night. For the past few weeks she has been having trouble staying asleep all night. She has been waking up screaming and crying-sometimes she's not even awake. Paul usually goes in and pats her back and she is fine. We have been desperate since she was sick and let her sleep with us about half way through the night-somthing neither one of us wanted to start but I guess you do what you have to get some sleep. I think we are going to try and let her cry it out and see if she will go back to sleep. I guess we'll see what happens.

She's feeling better:)

Olivia is getting over this virus, finally. The fever broke on Thursday after keeping us up all night Wednesday. She still has the red spots, but they are starting to look better. The worst part of this virus has been her sleeplessness. Olivia has had the hardest time falling and staying asleep since she got sick. We can tell when she is getting sleepy so we try to cuddle her and put her to sleep but she can't seem to fall asleep. She would cry and scream for hours, yes hours. She kept Paul up all night Thursday. He was sweet enough to let me go to bed since I have to get up at 5 for work-isn't he great!! She's sleeping a little better today. Last night we got desperate and gave her some baby benadryl. It worked she fell asleep about 15 minutes later and slept until 7:30, she woke up twice for a few minutes and went right back to sleep. I hope tonight is much better for Olivia. We all needa good night sleep.