April 22-29

Last Saturday was my concerto competition.  It didn't go as well as I might have hoped, but it did serve its purpose, which was to give me a reason to practice for a few months.  After the competition, the three of us picked up Bryan's mom and sister and we all drove up to my parents' house so that we could see Jacque in Hairspray on Sunday.  Olivia stayed with Oma and Opa while Bryan, Murry, Keshia, and I went to the play with Josef.  Jacque was wonderful, and we learned that Josef and Bryan together are a dangerous, if hilarious, combination.  :)

Olivia rolls quite well now after having picked up the skill seemingly overnight.  One day she could roll from back to front only by making use of props (such as her mother), and the next she was rolling over in her crib (boy, does that make her mad!) as well as on the floor.  Wednesday she seemed to comprehend that by rolling over, she could then be in position to scoot her way over to whatever she wanted.  (What she wanted most this week was the Xbox.  It has a green light that makes a beeping sound when you're close enough.  How cool is that?  Also, sometimes it magically sends out a DVD tray to pull on.  Most awesome toy ever.)

In addition to constantly expanding the limits of her mobility, Olivia is also building her "vocabulary."  This week we heard some hard "g" sounds with her mouth open as well as her first "ya" sounds.  Too bad neither of the grandmas opted for the Greek version.  "Conversations" have also been more frequent, often consisting of Olivia saying (or yelling) something and Bryan or me repeating whatever it was.  This can go on for minutes at a time before she gets bored and/or distracted and moves on to something else.

Olivia's clapping is noticeably improved from her first attempts a few weeks ago.  She doesn't respond to "yay!" by clapping yet, but I think it's coming.  Mostly unrelated, I think she understands the word "jump."  And possibly "dance".  She definitely dances when there's music.

Oma Liebt Mich

When we visited my family briefly last weekend, my mom had some new onesies for Olivia.  She'd doctored one of them to say "Oma Liebt Mich" (Grandma Loves Me).  Unfortunately, Gerber apparently runs small, because the 12-month onesies aren't going to fit for very long...

We're working on sleeping through the night, and Tuesday night was successful.  At least, Bryan and I think it was successful: Olivia didn't wake up angrily enough to disturb either of us.  Since she was about 2 weeks old, Olivia has been sleeping well at night, waking up only to eat quickly and then going right back to sleep, but she'd only gone all night a few times.  When she got her first teeth, she regressed, waking up every 4 hours instead of her previous norm of 6.  In the last month or so, though, I've noticed that she wakes up more out of habit than need, so we've been working on breaking the habit.  Of course, this becomes more difficult when we're traveling and sleeping in the same room as her...  Regardless, we had success Tuesday night!  I hope it sticks.

Thursday we all went our separate ways: Bryan traveled down to Tennessee for his best friend's bachelor party and Olivia and I went to visit Aunt Justine, Uncle Joseph, and WD.  The most important thing I took away from the weekend: I don't like West Virginia.  Neither does my car.

Justine: Why are her hands on her head?
Me: She's scratching her ear.
Justine: What about her other hand?
Me: ...It's keeping her head from moving.  :)

Occasionally we also get a slight head nod.  Not as obvious as the head shaking, but maybe she's learning to nod "yes."

April 15-22

There's a little map in the "Stats" section of my moderator page that shows generally where viewers are located (very generally...  it highlights the appropriate country).  Until recently, the United States was green and everything else was white.  I looked on Tuesday, though, and Australia was showing up as a very pale green, which I assume means it simply has less viewers.  It's exciting to have viewers from Australia, though.  Hi, Marian and family!

After stopping at Bryan's parents' house Sunday night, we finally made it home Monday morning...  Olivia was very excited to see familiar toys in her usual box.  Not that she didn't appreciate the toys Oma and Opa provided, but these are hers.  :)  Instead of sticking to her usual "quality control" routine where she inspects each toy and then tosses it disdainfully over her shoulder, she actually seemed to play with each toy a bit.  And she occasionally went back and picked up one she had already rejected, just to make sure it was the same as she remembered.

This week we're seeing a lot of sudden growth:
-We had to move the crib mattress down from its highest setting so that our newly mobile little girl wouldn't accidentally pitch herself over the side.

-Purposeful dropping and/or throwing of toys has begun.  No more shaking her arm until the toy happens to fall.

-Suddenly we're hearing the "ba" sound.  When did that happen?  We worked on "na", "da", and "ma", but this one just showed up.  Also, a side note about Olivia's hard "g": she only does it with her mouth closed.  It's pretty funny, and neither Bryan nor I can reproduce it.

-Though Olivia is still only scooting on her stomach instead of actually crawling, she's getting pretty good at it.  On carpeting she propels herself forward using her toes, but on the hardwood floors she smacks the floor with her hands and then pulls herself forward.

-I figure someday the hair will be in the eyes as we attempt to grow it out.  That day might as well be now, when she's too little to be bothered by it.  This means no bangs for Olivia once what she has grows out.  It also means that I've discovered how cute she looks with a little barrette holding some of her hair off her face.  :)

-Bryan says that Olivia is gaining an awareness of what she is capable of doing.  Long gone are the days when she flailed her arms for no reason or threw herself backward with no apparent intent.  No, now the flailing and throwing are purposeful.  They don't make sense to us, but she means to be doing whatever it is she's doing.

Not bad, considering Bryan
is not a teenage girl.  He almost
got all three of us...  :)

-Up until recently I've been using the wrap whenever I go out with Olivia.  It's more convenient than lugging a stroller around, and she couldn't sit up in a stroller anyway.  Now, though, she sits up just fine, and sometimes we pull out the stroller for a walk -- usually one that will involve more groceries than I want to carry back on my shoulders.  :)  Bryan likes us to use the stroller when he's walking with us so that he can help, too.  Sometimes it goes very well, and sometimes Olivia has a meltdown because she's all alone and can't find her parents.  She's getting better, though.  Bryan says it looks like she's exploring the world on this great adventure, which she probably is.  Of course, this phrasing causes me to begin singing, "Olivia and mom and dad, adventurers slash explorers!"

April 8-15

Christ is risen!  He is risen, indeed!  Alleluia!

It's been a busy week full of family...

(In case it didn't come up in an earlier post, Grandma and Grandpa are Bryan's parents.  Oma and Opa are my parents.)

The sun is in my eyes and my
mom is taking pictures instead
of holding me.  :(

Two Fridays ago (Good Friday for most people), we traveled to visit Bryan's family.  Olivia started clapping that evening, which made Grandma and Aunt Keshia happy.  Sunday, after attending Easter services and participating in Grandma's new Easter traditions (an egg hunt in the dark basement using flashlights and then several contests to see who got prizes), we got in the car and headed up to see my family for the week.

This week we've been attending Holy Week services (because Orthodox Easter is today) and letting Olivia get used to my family.  She's finally to the point where she might let Opa hold her and the sight of Uncle Jacob doesn't immediately cause her to burst into tears.  Who knew poor Jacob was so ugly?

Eating Cheerios in her high chair at
Grandma's house.

Olivia has also been practicing crawling on the carpeting... Our hardwood floors lend themselves more to sliding than crawling.  Thursday, after some dedicated work from her Dad and Uncle James, she finally learned she could move with a purpose.  It's not exactly crawling, but she will hunker down, dig in her toes, and muscle herself forward army-crawl style if she sees something she wants just beyond her reach.  We discovered that Cheerios are a good bribe.

Our new favorite picture.
Photo and editing by Josef.

There has been speculation that "Mamama" has become directed enough that it means Olivia actually wants ME, but I'm more inclined to believe that it just means "I want."  :)  Apparently there's a slightly different sound when she's hoping to get to me, but I think that just means "I want... a lot!"

Today we're doing Orthodox Easter with my family, and then we're back in the car to head home.

Many more pictures get taken when we visit my family...

April 1-8

Olivia has been playing with her tongue since the day she was born.  She flicks it in an out of her mouth, sticks it out at people, grabs it with her fingers, and, most recently, turns it over.  In both directions, I think, although it's hard to tell.  Every time I look at her lately, her tongue is upside down in her mouth.

If you had to guess the best way to torment an 8-month-old baby, what would you choose?  If you said "grass," you win.  Olivia loves being outside, but she does NOT like to be in the grass.  She has this little dance where she lifts one foot up and kind of hops on the other foot, trying not to stand in the grass.  Then she switches feet, hoping it might help.  Her cute little face crumples up and she starts wimpering up at the mean parents who keep trying to convince her that grass isn't all that bad.

We've been working on crawling still.  While Olivia is quite mobile and excels at scooting backwards on her stomach, she doesn't quite have the crawling technique down yet.  :)

My feet go in the air, right?

No? Oh, on the ground.  Got it.

Often Olivia will sit on her mat and knock down towers as I make them out of her shapes.  I tell her which shape I'm stacking (all the way to "red scalene triangle"-- to distinguish it from "blue triangle," which is actually equilateral) and try to see how high I can get the stack before she knocks it over.  The other day I was trying an alternate game: I stacked the blocks on Olivia.  I didn't get very far, even when I started putting one on her head to distract her.

You can see her two teeth!

Hers fits better.

We have matching hats from her shapes ball, but Olivia's more interested in the camera.  

While Bryan and I eat lunch, Olivia sits in her booster seat and munches on whatever we give her.  Lately, though, she's started tossing her carrot or zucchini stick on the floor.  We started giving her cheerios instead. She tosses those on the floor, too, but it takes more work.  :)

March 25-April 1

Olivia must have had a growth spurt, because she's already too tall for some of her 6-9 month onesies.  I just moved her out of 3-6 month onesies two weeks ago...

Last Sunday, I put Olivia down on her hands and knees and... she stayed that way!  Usually she just collapses.  :)  She wasn't quite sure what to do with herself, though, so she opted for lunging towards the toy in front of her and landed on her stomach.  She keeps trying to get the crawling thing down, but can only manage hands OR knees, not both.  Bryan and I are encouraging her in her efforts, while laughing about how we will probably be less encouraging to the mobility attempts of later children.  :)

In the past, Olivia took all her naps on me.  The only other naps that were acceptable were those taken in her carseat.  Whenever I put her down, she'd wake up and scream.  So we worked out a system where she would nap while she nursed and I would read while she napped.  It forced me to slow down my day a bit, and I got lots of reading done.  Recently, however, she has decided to only nurse when she's hungry.  While this is a good step forward, it did cause a bit of an upset to our nap routine.  Tired but not hungry?  No nursing, no napping, just crankiness.  So I started putting her down to nap again, and this time it worked!  This whole last week she napped in her crib and I suddenly had free chunks of day to fill with... reading?  Since most of my housework gets done while holding and/or entertaining Olivia, I've found myself with little that I HAVE to do during these times.  So I've been sewing things, working on blog posts during the week, and, occasionally, even reading.  :)

Wednesday we got our first back-to-front roll!  It only half counts, since Olivia used props: she was trying to get to me, so she used my clothes to haul herself the rest of the way over.  Landing on her stomach was an accidental by-product.

The best way to play with toys: