June 17-24

The Promised "Day in the Life" Post:

6:45 - I get up and savor a few minutes of quiet.  During these minutes, I remember that I want to do a "Day in the Life" post, and grab my camera.  It's Thursday, for those who care about WHICH day in the life this is.

7:00 - Olivia wakes up in her room seconds before the alarm goes off in our room.  She is content to play in her crib until she hears Daddy walking to the bathroom.  "Other people are out of bed, I need to be out of bed, too!"

7:10 - I go in to rescue Olivia from her crib; she does her good-morning march from the corner nearest the door to the corner nearest the curtain that I always open before picking her up.  After a quick breakfast ("No pictures now, I'm famished!") we head over to the basket of diapers and ponder our choices.  Black it is.  Apparently this is a "shake before wearing" diaper.  Who knew.

7:25 - A new shirt for Olivia and then we're on our way to my bedroom.  We got distracted when we discovered Daddy brushing his teeth in the bathroom.  Okay, NOW to my bedroom.  Olivia explores while I get dressed.

7:35 - The three of us head downstairs for prayers.  Then we all go outside so that Olivia and I can wave while Daddy drives away.

7:45 - Time to make the bed and then write a brief shopping list.  Bryan had mentioned to me that he would be bringing a coworker home for lunch, so Olivia and I decided to walk to Kroger to get some salad makings.

8:00 - Shoes for me, pants for Olivia, and into the wrap we go.  (Side note: I don't like mirror pictures.  I find them difficult to take and unsatisfactory to look at.)  No pictures of the walk because I didn't want to bring the camera and my phone was dead.  Here's a satellite image of the route we took, though, courtesy of Google.

9:00 - We're back from our walk and one of us is cranky.  No time for pictures, just straight into bed for a nap.  I tidy up the house a bit and then head to the computer to check email and start the blog post.  I also pan fry some chicken for lunch and try out a new recipe I have for Yogurt Cake.

11:30 - After her longest morning nap ever, Olivia wakes up, ready to play.  I rescue her from her crib once again and we head to the kitchen to sample the yogurt cake.

11:40 - Time to play!  The best game is throwing a ball, pointing at it, and then chasing said ball.  Also fun is seeing how many different rooms one can explore in thirty seconds.  Bonus points if you explore the rooms while chasing the ball.

12:00 - Bryan thought he'd be home for lunch around 12:15, so I head to the kitchen to make some salad dressing and get all the toppings out.  My faithful puppy daughter follows me and plays with the refrigerator magnets.

12:05 - They're here early!  We meet Rafe and it's time for lunch.  Olivia's typical maneuver is to eat the Cheerios on her tray and toss everything else on the floor.  She'll eat whatever I put in her mouth, but she will only feed herself Cheerios.  In an odd turn of events, she will also eat things she finds on the floor while playing, even if those things aren't food.  Today, however, she eats raspberries, chicken, and yogurt cake off her tray in addition to the Cheerios.  She tries a lettuce leaf, but spits it out and then throws it on the floor.  Hey, you can't like all the food on the first try.  Your parents might get ideas.

1:00 - Olivia is being surprisingly crabby seeing as she just woke up from her last nap an hour and a half ago.  I clear the table while Olivia explores the cupboards in the kitchen.  She can't understand why some of them won't open for her.

1:15 - We go into the middle room to play for a bit.  She pulls all her books off her bookshelf.  Twice.

1:30 - The crabbiness cannot be put off any longer.  A snack and a nap seem in order, so I take Olivia into her room and put her in bed.  She plays happily for a bit, which is normal.  Generally this is my sewing or reading time, but I tend to wait until she falls asleep, especially if I'm sewing.  I read and wait and read and wait and read and wait...

2:30 - Nap still un-taken, but in a decidedly better mood, Olivia decides she's had enough of her crib.  There's only one thing she can really reach, and she's already emptied the whole basket of burp cloths onto the floor.  Time to be out!

2:35 - To the front door to check the mail!  It was not as picture worthy as I might have hoped, but Olivia always enjoys the daily adventure to the mailbox anyway.

2:40 - We head back to the kitchen where Olivia helps me unload the dishwasher and then plays Godzilla to the juice bottles' Tokyo while I reload the dishwasher.

2:50 - I have a few dishes to hand wash, so Olivia head back to previously explored cupboards and discovers a green bib to play with.

3:05 - Kitchen chores done, it's back to the middle room for some playing.  Olivia plays with her books, pull all the scarves off the bottom shelf of another bookshelf, chases some duct tape around the room, and discovers that the rubber bottom comes off of the 3-hole punch.  She also learns that those little circles that fall out aren't nearly as tasty as they look.

3:55 - We snuggle up on the couch for a bit. Olivia is worn out because she skipped her nap, so she is content to nurse and then just hang out on my lap while I read for a while.

4:30 - Enough snuggling!  More things must be explored!  For example, how do these wooden blocks of Daddy's taste?  And would you like to try one?  Also, I think Mommy organized this cupboard wrong.  Then it's more chasing balls around the living room.

5:00 - Time to go outside and wait for Daddy to get home!  We head to the porch to sit on the swing and enjoy the fresh air.

5:15 - There's the car!  And there's a foot.

5:16 - There's Daddy!  He and Olivia play a little bit before he goes in to change out of his work clothes.

5:20 - We follow Daddy inside and Olivia discovers him in the bedroom where she sits on the bed and promptly begins her late afternoon ritual of dismantling his wallet.  She's getting pretty good at pulling things out and handing them to whoever happens to be sitting nearby.

5:45 - Daddy brought a tuxedo cupcake home from work.  It is sugary and delicious.

6:00 - Time for a bath and then a little more playing with Daddy before bed.

6:30 - One tired little girl goes to bed.  Bryan does computery things while I make dinner.  We eat, watch some How I Met Your Mother, and wait for our overnight guests to come (we have some friends who live in North Carolina and crash at our house when they make the trip to Michigan to visit their families a couple of times a year) so that we, too, can call it a night.

June 10-17

Last Saturday the three of us went to check out the Farmers' Market here in town.  Not bad, but not spectacular either, although we were surprised at the number of baked goods booths (as opposed to vegetables).  While we were there, we went next door and visited the Friends of the Library Book Sale.  More about that later.

After the Farmers' Market, we headed to Sidney where Bryan and I played in some Lehman Alumni Association softball games.  Our team lost both games, but we had a good time anyway.  There's talk among the team of having more organization next year (which means we'll find out more than 2 days in advance and not have to borrow players in order to field a complete team).  Olivia handled her first non-relatives baby-sitting (baby-sat?) experience well.  A teammate's mother volunteered, and when we got to her house she pulled out all of the toys she keeps around for her grandkids and Olivia didn't give us a second glance.

The rest of the week has been pretty uneventful.  I got some baby-proofing supplies, padded the corner of one end table, covered all the open outlets, and put rubberbands around Olivia-level cabinet door handles.  Bryan stained one of our auction bookshelves, and Olivia and I spent time rearranging the middle room now that we have all that extra shelf space.  :)

Oh!  The Friends of the Library Sale!  Backing up to Sunday once more...  On the last day of the sale, it cost $1 to fill a bag with books.  OR you could buy their bag for $3 and get unlimited refills.  This part started at 1:00, and we decided we would go see if there was anything good.  Unfortunately, Olivia decided to take a nap on my lap at 12:45, so we (meaning I) resigned ourselves to not going.  Then Bryan volunteered to go check it out himself as a sort of challenge/adventure.  So off he went.  Apparently he got there at 1:05 and that was much too late.  The line was around the corner and inside was packed.  He lowered his shoulder, pushed his way through the crowds, and started scooping books into bags.  He came back with one complete set of Wildlife books, a bunch of random New True Books that look like they all go together but have wildly different subjects, an assortment of children's books, a couple of books for himself that he's already forgetting exist, five books for me (1 "I saw the word 'assassin' and picked it up", 1 "The cover looks like something you would read.  Also, it has 'shadow' in the title", and 3 "I wanted to get you a series, too, and these were all together" (numbers 3, 4, and 7)), and one Martin the Warrior by Brian Jacques.  I felt bad telling him I already own that one.  All in all, though, not bad.

Yesterday we had the parish picnic in Sidney, and today we're visiting my dad for Fathers' Day.  Since I'm actually writing this post Friday morning and just pretending that it's currently Sunday, any stories from those events will have to be in next week's post.  :)

Here are some pictures of Olivia.  She's looking out the screen door, being a nosy little busybody.  :)  I had grand plans for a photo-filled "day-in-the-life" section of this week's post, but kept forgetting to grab my camera early enough in the day.  Maybe next week.

June 3-10

I have a big scary sewing machine foot called a ruffler foot that I used for the first time ever this week.  It's supposed to make a nice even ruffle AND attach it to other material at the same time.  How exciting!  I decided to test it on the curtain I was making to cover the crawl space in the basement.  Since it was my first attempt (and only a basement curtain), I decided not to get too fancy: I would simply make ruffles in my existing material without bothering to attach the ruffle to other fabric as well.  After reading the back of the package three times and consulting a sewing machine accessory book, I finally figured out how to attach the foot to my machine, fed some fabric in, and... no ruffles.  Something is wrong.  Enter the internet.  Google is wonderful, and directed me to a site where I discovered that I had to hook part of the foot over the needle shank so that it can properly count stitches.  Of course.  That done, I tried again, but immediately stopped because I couldn't actually figure out where I was supposed to be feeding the fabric.  How hard can it be?  You try it.  There are at least three plausible choices.  Anyway, Google to the rescue again.  This time I found a youtube video where someone demonstrated how to shove the material in at the back and thread it through the prongs at the front and voila.  Ruffles.  Not so hard, I thought.  So I left the video up, just in case, shoved my material in at the back, threaded it through the prongs at the front, and tentatively pressed the foot pedal.  Lo and behold, there were loud noises, and I was getting ruffles!  I was so excited that I stopped immediately and went to get Bryan so that he could witness this marvel.  After ruffling the curtain, I put hooks up downstairs, attached grommets at appropriate intervals (good thing I bought two packs, because I ruined about every third grommet), cut out a hole for the large square metal thing on our basement ceiling, and hung the curtain.  And that is the story of how the basement curtain came to be.  :)  Pictures of the curtain and Bryan's bumper pool table after the break.

Okay, now that you've read my curtain story, here's the Olivia update:

Now proficient at standing, sitting, walking along furniture (parents, walls, baskets, etc.), crawling, and spinning in circles while seated, Olivia is a force to be reckoned with.  This precocious young lady is into anything and everything, especially the things she's supposed to stay away from, such as mom's library books or the box that hides all the computer cords.  Stubborn as her mother, she doesn't take "no" for an answer and is quick to tears at the thought that she might be denied access to something.  Ever mindful of her audience, she is also quick to stop the tears and smile endearingly up at her parents, especially if she thinks she might gain something by such actions.  She enjoys exploring the house during the day and playing with Daddy when he comes home from work in the evening.

Olivia has toys.  I promise.  You'd never know it if you watched her moving around the house, though.  Her "toys" of choice -- that is, the ones that she holds on to and doesn't immediately discard and is reluctant to relinquish -- have thus far in her life been an odd, but rather ordinary assortment.  A cup.  My old cell phone with the battery removed (to keep her from throwing my current cell phone and/or calling China -- although she DID try to text Danielle once while I was on the phone with Justine, and that could have been fun).  Her toy box.  No, not the toys, just the box.  And, most recently, one of her wipes.  For clarification purposes, it should be noted that we use cloth wipes, so she's not carrying around a WetOne, just a square of material that is essentially a baby washcloth.  She even took it to bed with her the other night.  The good thing about the wipe is that we have about three dozen and only three different colors, so when the green one she's using gets dirty I can just fish out another green one to give her and she's none the wiser.

Little girl dresses are short.  For some reason, manufacturers think that a dress should just barely clear the butt of a baby.  And when you have a tall baby, that's even shorter.  So Olivia's 12 month dresses fit perfectly except that she has an 18 month t-shirt that's longer.  Don't get me wrong, she IS pretty cute with her little cloth diapered butt sticking out the bottom of her dress, especially if I'm on top of things and manage to color coordinate somewhat.  But I thought perhaps she should have something longer for church. Enter the 10-minute Onesie Dress.  It took me half an hour, but that's because a certain little girl woke up from her nap when I was three minutes in.  I just used some leftover fabric that, coincidentally, matches my kitchen curtains.  Okay, not coincidentally.  It is my kitchen curtain material.  I had extra, and it's cute.  Of course, this led me to channel Captain Von Trapp and proclaim, "Do you mean to tell me that my children have been roaming about Salzburg dressed up in nothing but some old drapes?"  Why yes, yes they have.  And they look cute in those drapes.  :)

We have a sheer curtain that separates one side of our house from the other.  When I carry Olivia through the curtain, we go THROUGH the curtain.  I usually don't bother moving it to one side.  When she's on her own, though, the curtain must be moved before she can get through the doorway.  I find it amusing to sit on one side and watch her concerted efforts to move the curtain out of her way (after she finishes using it for peek-a-boo, of course).

Naptime has gotten more interesting, because sometimes Olivia is content to sit quietly in her crib and play after waking up.  And sometimes she is upset about being down for a nap, and plays for a bit out of protest before falling asleep.  Unfortunately, there is little to do in a crib.  Ever the improviser, Olivia has managed to find a few things to keep her busy.  For instance, here is what her room normally looks like:

And here is her room after a nap:

Note the completely unrepentant look on her face (also the burp cloths in the crib with her):

 And, lest you think that she only causes havoc when already behind bars:

We've used room darkening curtains in Olivia's room ever since we discovered that she slept better in the dark.  Now that she can move the curtain, however (see above picture), she's caught on to our plot.  Wednesday night I went in to check on her after putting her down for bed and saw her standing up.  That in and of itself is not unusual, as she is often standing up in bed.  Typically she's standing in the corner closest to the door, though, so as to better position herself for rescue.  On Wednesday, she was standing over by the window, holding the curtain open and crying at the daylight.  :(

Also this week: On Friday, Olivia cut BOTH top middle teeth!  No wonder she was cranky Thursday night.

Pictures and Video:

May 27-June 3

Olivia can now pick up food and put it in her mouth.  Even the small things, like Cheerios!  She does NOT like to pick up things that squish, however.  So even though she loves raspberries, she won't feed them to herself because they squish when she grabs them.  Other new tricks include the Indian war-whoop sound (only less shrill) and an excellent transistor radio impersonation.

Bryan got his Fathers' Day gift early, due to lack of space.  :)  Olivia and I were at the local thrift store on Tuesday and saw a bumper pool table.  Bryan has been wanting bumper pool since we got married.  We decided this would be a great gift, and bought it.  We carried home the balls and cue sticks and left the table to be picked up on Wednesday.  When we came back with the car...  The table didn't fit.  So we scheduled it for delivery on Friday.  The only problem: Where was I going to hide a bumper pool table for three weeks?  I wasn't.  So Bryan got to open the balls and cue sticks on Tuesday and got to look forward to the delivery of the table.

On Sunday, Olivia started sticking one hand up in the air.  We couldn't figure out what she was doing.  She'd be sitting calmly and then, suddenly, her little arm was straight out with her hand waving for attention.  Then it hit us: she wanted a high five.  Recently a lot of people have been asking her for a high five.  She's not cooperative enough to give one back most of the time, but she must have realized that this is what people do.  Stick their hands in the air and hope that someone returns the high five.

Also on Sunday, Olivia stood BY HERSELF for all of two seconds before she sat down on the floor.  At least, that's what Bryan tells me.  I wasn't in the room at the time, so I missed everything except his excited yell and her sitting on the floor.  I'm with her 98% of her waking time; how do I miss this?!  Now she will sometimes push off of furniture and be in some sort of half-standing, half-free fall limbo until she grabs the couch again.

Monday we went to Grandma and Grandpa's house to take advantage of their pool on Memorial Day.  Olivia was very cute, in a 2T (!) Hello Kitty tankini, her hat, and some zebra sunglasses.  We didn't get a picture, though, because I was holding her and no one had a camera.  Apparently in the moment we all forgot how to work the camera on a cell phone.  We slimed sunscreen all over Olivia, and she was good to go.  She wasn't particularly thrilled with getting into the water (who ever is?), but seemed to not hate it once she got used to it.  She also got to hang out with her friend, Eva (the 5 month old daughter of our friends), so that was fun.

After getting out of the pool and doing some laps around Grandma's coffee table (see pictures below), Olivia went back out to the deck to be admired by all of Grandma's friends.  Everyone cheered when she waved for the first time -- right at Grandpa!

By the end of this week, Olivia had mastered sitting down after being in a standing position, so naps and bed time improved dramatically.  She still gets mad and stands up, but she can get back down and put herself to sleep.  Usually.

Pictures:

May 20-27

Olivia now pulls herself up to stand and walks along the furniture in our house.  Nothing under three feet is safe, except things that are at least a foot back from the edge, because her short little arms can't reach that far.  Also, things she drops on the floor have a temporary reprieve, because she still hasn't mastered sitting back down.  While at church, I discovered that she can sit back down if her hands are at waist level (she was playing near a wide step), so it would appear that the problem is that she doesn't know how far away the ground is when her hands are at shoulder level.  Usually at our house she stands and whimpers at me until I rescue her from her tremendous height.

Near the end of the week, Olivia also got pretty good at standing while holding on with only one hand.  She's not brave enough to let go with both hands yet.  I wouldn't be, either, if I were as wobbly on my feet as she still is.  :)

In addition to the frequent head shaking and periodic head nodding, Olivia has added a more noncommittal shrug to her repertoire.  She also likes to tip her head to one side in a quizzical way that quickly turns playful when she realizes that her audience mimics her.

Still no concept of size from Olivia; she sees a space and obviously should be able to fit through it.  Luckily for her, we don't have a lot of small spaces for her to try to bull her way through.

I don't know when sneakiness is supposed to fully develop, but we're seeing the beginnings of it.  There are a few things Olivia knows she's not supposed to be playing with -- my basket full of project pieces ("I just want to empty them onto the floor!"), the Xbox ("But the light is so pretty!").  Sometimes instead of directly approaching the forbidden objects, she uses her toys as props.  She'll drop toys into the basket so that she has an excuse to go into it to get them out.  Is it her fault that she happens to find other, better things in there at the same time?  She'll also grab any random nearby toy to toss ahead of her if she sees me watching her progress towards the Xbox.  She'll throw the toy and chase it, a game that she plays often, but then suddenly lose interest once she gets close the the Xbox.  "But the light, mom!"

Tuesday was Olivia's checkup, and she is now 29.5 inches tall and 20 lbs, 4 oz.

On Friday, Olivia and I drove to Columbus to pick up Uncle Brad for the wedding that we went to on Saturday.  While in Columbus, we watched a family of geese stop traffic while they crossed the street.  I was ridiculously excited (and also reminded of the book Make Way for Ducklings), and Brad was reasonably excited.  Olivia couldn't see from her backseat, but one day she'll get to look at the picture I took and be excited, too.

Saturday was Bryan's best friend's wedding, so we were there all day.  Olivia took a nap in Grandpa's arms.  Sunday we went to a baptism at the same church (although completely unrelated to the previous day's participants).




More pictures:

May 13-20

Bryan, Olivia, and I attended our first auction this past week.  A nearby house/office was being sold at absolute auction and we decided to check it out.  It was really neat, although I had no idea what the auctioneer was saying half the time.  There were also some things being auctioned off, so we came away with 2 bookshelves for a grand total of $1.  My mother is so jealous.  :)  We almost didn't get them because we were scared to bid...  When the house auction started, we stood in the back and tried not to move.  Poor Bryan turned to me at one point and whispered, "My nose itches, but I'm afraid to scratch it!"  I think it would have been safe at that point, because the bidding was down to two main buyers, but still...  We didn't want to accidentally buy the building.  :)

We have a screen door!  Wednesday evening Bryan's dad came down and helped us add a screen door to our front door.  It's wonderful for creating a breeze and keeping the house cool.  :)

Olivia has perfected pulling herself into a standing position.  Unfortunately, once she gets there she's stuck: she doesn't know how to sit back down.  So this week we worked on sitting.  I'd help her stand up, then I'd poke her in the stomach and she'd sit down.  We probably worked on that for 15 minutes on Tuesday.  By Thursday, though, she was getting better and leaving the standing position without landing on her head.

Pictures:

May 6-13

We tried to build our prayer room in the driest section of our basement.  In fact, we thought we had picked pretty much the only section with absolutely no puddles.  As it turns out, however, monsoon season swept through our area last week, and we have puddles everywhere.  Judging from the carpet's tendency to get damper the longer one stands on it, I assume the puddles are also under the prayer room.  :(  We didn't attach the carpet or anything, so it's a simple matter of lifting it up and (hopefully) drying it out.  However, I think a better idea would be to move the prayer room, washer, and dryer to the attic and turn the basement into a swimming pool instead.  :)

My project Thursday and Friday was to make a purse like Justine's.  When Olivia and I visited, I took measurements of Justine's purse and wrote everything down.  I just got around to making it this week, and it turned out pretty well!  I still need to put a button on the front pocket so that I can use the buttonhole that I made (first one ever! Yay!)  I also added to the design a little: there are some pen loops and a pocket on the inside of the bag for easy storage.  I noticed how often Justine was losing her pens.  :)

Thursday marked one year since we signed papers on our house!

Sleeping through the night was successful.  ...For about a week and a half.  Then Olivia became proficient at rolling over and started flipping onto her stomach as soon as she woke up.  So instead of drifting back to sleep, she was just mad that she was on her stomach.  THEN she got better at sitting up on her own and pulling herself into a standing position.  It's hard to sleep when you're sitting or standing.

Little things:
-Jazz hands.  Instead of clapping, sometimes Olivia just does jazz hands.
-Crawling?  I catch her on her knees frequently now.  She still can't move on her knees, though.  I'm wondering if she's on her knees because she wants to crawl that way, or if she's just using her knees as a pushing off point for standing.
-Standing.  Occasionally, Olivia will pull herself up.  It's not frequent yet, but Friday morning she was suddenly standing behind my chair after scooting over and hauling herself into an upright position.  And Saturday Bryan found her standing twice -- once in her crib and once in the baby cage.
-Sitting.  I know, old news.  But NOW, she can get to a sitting position all by herself!
-Height.  Olivia is as tall as a card table.  I find that difficult to believe, and a I'm the one who measured her!

We got a "baby cage" last week.  It's a gate with a door that I can latch if I need to go switch laundry or something.  The rest of the time the door is open so that Olivia can get in and out as she pleases.  She took a few days to figure out that she could go through the opening, but now she's pretty good at it.


Pictures and Videos:

April 29-May 6

I added a few more pictures to last week's post.  Also, this week, we have videos!

Olivia's hit a climbing stage.  Thus far she mostly just climbs up ME as we stand in church (or wherever).  Oh, and her "crawl" looks a bit like a horizontal rock climb.  :)

You never realize how dirty your floor is until you have a 9-month-old who scoots along it on her belly.  It doesn't matter how often I sweep, she still picks up dirt and hair on her stomach as she chases after toys.  Also, as I spend more time on the floor, I tend to notice more things that need dusting.

The cute little sun hat that I got for Olivia seems to be on its way out.  She's to the point where she can get it off faster than I can get it on.  Sometimes when she's in the wrap she'll still wear it, mostly because her arms are pulled in and can't reach without some dedicated squirming on her part.  We were walking in the backyard and Olivia pulled her sun hat off, so I put it on top of my head for safekeeping.  She immediately started climbing, trying to save her poor mother from the pink hat attacking her head.

Olivia has taken to putting one hand behind her back.  It doesn't seem to serve any purpose back there, so I'm pretty sure she's just showing off her skills.  Speaking of skills, she can now play pass with a ball.  Well...  I think she can play pass.  Bryan says she "either plays fetch wonderfully or plays pass poorly."  But she throws a ball in a (usually) forward direction and when you return it, she throws it again.  If she's by herself, she'll throw the ball and then scoot after it in order to throw it again.

The weekend was busy as I had MVSO concerts and we were visiting Bryan's parents for their Cinco de Mayo party.  Grandma had some sunglasses for Olivia that she rocked just long enough for a picture before figuring out how to get them off.  :)




Pictures and Videos: