Olivia 10 Months!

Princess. My beautiful, little girl. I love you SO, so much! You've now officially lived longer in the world than in my belly and I cannot believe how fast time has gone. Every thing is brighter, I feel deeper than I knew was possible, and every event has more meaning now that you are in our lives. 

I feel like this month you have grown up in folds. You are walking like a PRO. There have been times that you walk so fast you catch yourself in surprise as you are almost running. 

Your top two teeth have come in (after a really hard two weeks of teething!). We've started giving you less pureed food and have experimented with you feeding yourself. Though, to be honest, I think the dogs are benefiting most from the process ;) 

This month we all experienced our first hurricane together. Hurricane Matthew hit Savannah a couple of weeks ago and you, daddy, the dogs and I packed up the car and evacuated to your grandparents' house in Atlanta for about a week.  

Our house took some damage, but we are really thankful to the Lord that we were able to return to a pretty much intact home. We lost our two beautiful trees in our front yard. But luckily, they didn't fall through the house. And, now we have firewood to last us a lifetime! 

This is the base of one of the trees that fell (baby for scale)

While we were in Atlanta you were able to spend lots of time with both sides of the family, go to your first pumpkin patch, you learned how to go down a step safely all by yourself, and lots of other fun things. 

Sadly, while we were in Atlanta on our evacuation-vacation, you had your first bad boo-boo. You fell into an umbrella stand and sliced your face on the one, teeny, tiny sharp edge. You cried and then stopped fairly quickly so it took Lolly and me a minute to even realize anything was wrong. It wasn't until we noticed the blood running down you face that we even realized you were hurt! My heart just exploded and fell to my toes at the same time. I was so scared for you. The cut ran all the way to the very edge/corner of your eye, but no further. We praise the Lord that you didn't scrape your eyeball! We ended up taking you to Children's the next day to make sure it wasn't seriously hurt or at risk of getting infected. We were given the a-okay and some topical ointment and sent home. No more injuries, okay, baby girl?

With your new mobility, you've become more and more curious. You're always getting into things and especially love exploring outdoors. You enjoy picking up sticks and leaves and I often find yard debris in our house after your adventures outside with Daddy. 

You're sleeping better and better and we've had a string of nights where you sleep through the night!! Mommy and daddy are very grateful! Let's keep it up! You're still taking about two naps a day, averaging about an hour each. However, recently you have been protesting many of them. You're obviously exhausted but fight sleep so much. My little extrovert, you just can't stand not being awake and being a part of whatever may be going on!

Every day you work on your verbal skills. You babble and babble and pshhhhpshh your lips. You try and mimic mommy and daddy and you've got us making silly sounds on the regular in an attempt to see you try and copy us.... making the three of us crack up in laughter! You can say "mamma" and "dada" but the clearest thing you say is "No, no, no". You wave your finger back and forth when you say, "no, no, no" and it is the absolute cutest thing! I think you've picked up the motion from me. I only recently put together the fact that I make the motion when I read the line, "No, no, you say, that isn't right, the pigs say oink all day and night", from Moo, Baa, La La La. Regardless, it's so cute when you do it! 

This month you've started to develop attachments to certain stuffed animals and lovies. When I go get you from your crib these days you're always holding one of your crib lovies and I often hear you "talking" to them in the morning before I get you out. You are also all about your Teddy that your Granny and Poppy gave you. I love that you love it and that it is almost your size but that you are insistent on carrying it around with you. 

Oh princess, I really cannot say it enough. I LOVE you SO much, so much it hurts. I thank God for you and cannot believe that each day brings so much wonder and joy watching you grow. I pray you know Jesus as your savior and continue to grow healthy and strong. I think you're the best and love that God made us YOUR parents! Happy 10 months, love bug!