seriously... who can blog regularly with a one year old?

Really.  I often feel I should be updating this more, but c'est la vie. 

A one year old is a busy, busy creature!  Olivia is currently into everything, loves books, dancing, and being outside.  She is her mama's daughter!  While listening to Pandora the other day, she got way into some Horrorpops song, while earlier could have cared less about Laurie Berkner.  Admittedly, I was a bit proud.

Recent new stuff:  she says "dog" and "bug" now, with a few others (mama, dada, an attempt at gordon, water, etc); tries to repeat whatever we say... for better or worse; running, she is full on running; giving the best hugs and kisses around; and being much more outgoing!  It's like she turned one and suddenly she was a toddler.  No one told me this happened overnight.

Josh recently passed the state nursing exams, and is officially working as a nurse!  We are beyond proud.  He is at work today, his first official day.  After taking a couple weeks between school ending and passing the boards/new job beginning, we have been busy.  (Perhaps another reason my blog has been neglected!)  While we miss him and I love having him around, our schedule gets a little out of whack.  I'm currently trying to figure out Olivia's nap schedule, the past couple days have been nap from 10am-noon, then 4pm-5pm (have to wake her up for dinner) then struggle with bedtime.  Today we played all morning and then walked from 10am-11:30, ate lunch and she promptly fell asleep.  I figure as long as she stays down for about 2 hours we'll be good for the day.

Pictures to be uploaded soon, I am taking this opportunity to do another quick workout!  I'm down to my pre-pregnancy weight, but am not yet satisfied with everything.  

need to update

But tonight is not the night for it!  Last night was pure teething hell.  Olivia has had a bit of a cough, the best we can figure it's due to molars coming in and causing excessive drooling.  Anyway, nursed her to sleep as usual at 8pm.  She started coughing in her sleep and wound up throwing up a bit.  Woke up, of course, and I cleaned her up.  Went to nurse her back to sleep and she bites me!

Ok.  Play for a bit?  Change diaper?  Read a book?  She keeps making the sign for "nursies", then goes to latch on and bites me again.  This goes on for hours.

Oh and Josh is at work, so I'm going it alone.

After many exasperated hours, I get her to sleep by walking her around the living room until she is so exhausted she falls asleep in my arms.  She then is able to nurse twice that night in bed with no issue. But it was 10:45 when we finally got into bed.  I don't know what happened, but I felt like I didn't have any other tools in my toolbox to get her to go to sleep.  And that sucked.

Today, I began realizing the sign for nursies can also mean she is hungry for food, and doesn't want to nurse at all.  So, she only nursed a few times today, and wound up taking one two-hour long nap (as opposed to two one hour naps). 

She's in bed now, it's 7pm.  I am unsure of what the night will hold... and I am not getting too excited!  I will update very soon with birthday pics and stories, because my little girl is ONE!  (Don't get me started, I need to save my energy should Olivia wake up for a wee hours party tonight)

pre-birthday update!

I can hardly believe it's been 1 year.  On the 31st... I was so sure I'd have a little junebug and then on the last day of May I went into labor!!  I've been thinking about cakes and decorations for her birthday, although it will be pretty small.  I desperately want to meet some other moms/families in this area, we don't really know anyone! 

Anyhow, we are back to teething like mad over here. Olivia has cut another tooth (#6) and is working on 2 more. It's odd the way they've come in though, she has her two bottom and two top teeth, the top left, and the right next to that the top left canine. So right now her teeth are totally lopsided! Weird, but I can feel the top right and right canine under the skin, so presumably we'll see those soon.

This morning Olivia and I were reading a book with animals in it, and a picture of a cow came up so I moo-ed. Now she has been moo-ing all morning! She also thinks "baa" is a laugh, so she laughs at the sheep picture. It's been cracking me up. She loves books, and all throughout the day she will go grab a book, hand it to me (or Josh), climb into our lap and then turn around and sit down. She is just so cute and funny, despite the fussy teething we have had a really fun week!

As far as words, Olivia doesn't say a ton yet. She says mama, dada, baba (baby?), uh oh, and ba (referring to the dog, usually, I think she picked this up from Josh saying "bad"... nice ) The past two or three days she has started saying things that sound like words and are consistent, but I have no idea what they are? I remember reading or hearing something about early walker/late talker and vice versa, so I haven't been very concerned. I think it has to do with using a similar part of the brain for both talking and walking, so developmentally babies tend to do one or the other. And as far as walking goes - there is no crawling any more, Olivia can run now, it's crazy! She is so fast!

Instead of saying "whazzat" she now points to EVERYTHING and wants you to tell her what it is! It's hilarious, she has a book with all these different pictures of objects so she's pointing and me and Josh are like "flower. flower. flower. baby. flower. cat. cat. cat. cat. cat. cat. cup. flower. cat." (the cat seems to be her favorite)

She's also started giving hugs to everything! I can say "Can mama have a hug?" and she lays her head on my chest and puts her arms around me! GAH it's so cute! She also LOVES hugging the cats, which is hilarious and cute!

She is just so much fun, and developing her little personality.  Very determined.  (understatement).  She doesn't easily forget something she wants!  I focus very much on this being a good quality when she gets older :)

Bedtime Bliss

My girl is sleeping on her own right now, something that has been remarkably easy for us transitioning to the past few months.  I knew before she was born I'd never be a CIO mama, but it's seriously gratifying to see the results from AP lifestyle.  There's no crying and screaming before bed, there's no crying and screaming at night, there are only a handful of times when I've spent any time out of bed with her (unable to get her back to sleep) and that hasn't happened for 3 or 4 months now. 

Did a million errands today and started our garden.  Seems Olivia is quite sensitive on her feet.  I can't get shoes on her for anything, and setting her on the grass today totally weirded her out.  Not sure what to make of this...

Also, while out on errands I came across a ton of copies of Baby Wise at Marden's.  Left without finishing browsing.  Not that I think folks should necessarily seek out parenting advice from a discount store, but it always surprises me to see that book still being sold.  Next to it was Toddler Wise...I shudder to think... 

On the go...

I haven't posted for awhile because the action just doesn't stop over here.  Since my last post, Olivia is officially walking, and even a bit of running (on purpose or not, it's still fast)! 

She waves hello, goodbye, signs for more, gives air kisses and plays peekaboo.  She runs up and gives me hugs.  This is probably the best thing in the universe.

Currently she is shoving her toys out the cat door.  Oh, wait now they are in the dog's water dish.  No time to post, but I'll put pictures up soon!

walkies!

I've got the video camera on ready, as Olivia has started taking some steps on her own.  Before I would walk with her and let go, and she's take a few more steps into daddy's arms, but now she has begun letting go of things and walking on her own! 

So far I've only been able to record her smiling, laughing, waving, and sounding like a pterodactyl. 

Also, I've yet to figure out how to put the videos from the camera onto the computer...

I can feel another tooth coming in, number 5.  I think it's one of the pointy ones (incisor?).  I really sound like I know what I'm talking about today.  So this has made for good sleep until about 4 am, then super restless.  I can live with that.  I could do without the kicks to the bladder, but it could be worse!

We went out and bought some of our gardening supplies today.  I even splurged on nice gloves for me, as I have this image of being able to go out to the garden with Olivia this summer and play in the dirt.  This will be my first attempt at a garden, and I remain hopeful it is as relaxing and enjoyable as I imagine it to be.  In reality it will probably be less relaxing and more me chasing a dirty one year old around the yard.  Will be leaving the video camera available.

sleeeeeeep...

It's lacking.  I've been reading that 9 months is a particularly sleepless time, with new teeth coming through, Olivia nearly walking, and the bellyaches associated with being on antibiotics, there are many potential reasons why she is so restless.  None of which really matter when you're frustrated and overtired!  She just acted so uncomfortable all night. 

In other news, my 9 month old is nearly walking.  Um.  Yikes.