Christmas 2016

I was so excited about Christmas this year! I think last Christmas was kind of a blur because of Olivia's arrival, so I in a way felt like I had to make up for it or something this year. Plus, I want Christmas to be a magical time for my kid, and even though she is too young to remember it or appreciate it this year, I wanted to start making our own Christmas traditions right away! 

Since we spent Thanksgiving with my in-laws, we stayed with my parents for Christmas. I love that we live so close to both sets of grandparents and that Olivia has already been able to make connections with them. Such sweet moments happen (like G-Daddy reading to Olivia early in the morning) when visiting and it makes my heart happy!

Miguel, Olivia and I drove up to Atlanta on the 22nd so we had a few days to enjoy family before the actual holiday. One of my favorite things we did was go over to my sister's house and make cookies for Santa with her kids! I love being with family and those kids... man, they just have my heart. 

Mom somehow managed to make a Christmas ghost cookie... Maybe it was out of a Christmas Carol or something  ;)

Too bad there aren't many sprinkles on this cookie...

It's a Christmas Eve tradition for us to spend the day with Miguel's family. But before we headed over to Lawrenceville, we made sure that Olivia left some cookies for Santa since her stocking was hung at Lolly and G-Daddy's house. 

Christmas Eve at my in-laws is always so much fun! Growing up I always wanted a big family and my dream came true when I married into Miguel's! There are always a lot of people and we span many tables and rooms. We eat a yummy Cuban meal and open presents late into the night!

Being the first Christmas with Olivia taking part in the celebrations, we had to make some modifications to the schedule and Olivia was able to open her gifts before dinner and bedtime. Olivia received the cutest play kitchen complete with miniature pots and pans and fake food. This gift has been a HUGE hit at our house and Olivia is a big fan of "cooking" while mommy and daddy make her meals. 

Olivia received so many generous gifts from friends and family but I think I stopped taking photos after the second gift or so because I started helping Olivia play and had to clean up wrapping, and I was caught up in enjoying the moment!

This mower from Aunt Jessie and Uncle Juan has also been a BIG hit!!

After dinner we put Olivia to bed and enjoyed more time with family and friends and opened gifts. We wrapped the evening up really early for an Amador Christmas Eve (around 11PM) because the three of us had to drive 45 mins back to Milton and get Olivia back in bed. 

Christmas morning we all woke up with a lot of excitement (and a cold for me! boo!). I was soooo excited to see Olivia open her stocking and experience Christmas as a one year old (as opposed to her first Christmas when she was only 3 days old)!

Olivia went right for the rocking pony that Santa had left her! Let me tell you... she LOVES this pony! We have to keep it in a "stable" (closet) at our house and bring it out only at small periods of time otherwise she would never want to stop playing with it. Plus, it has a song that plays when you grab its ear and Olivia has learned how to make it play. It's pretty stinkin' cute watching her with her pony. She's already grown out of the little purple seat only a month later (growth spurt?!)! Luckily, it was removable. 

The Rays came over after they opened stockings at their house and got to do stockings all over again at Lolly and G-Daddy's. Man, how cool is it that Santa comes twice sometimes?! 

Olivia is really into taking things out and putting them in (baskets, cabinets, bags, etc) right now, so she was all about emptying her stocking! 

She loves this Little Pony toy... we play "get ya, get ya" with it and she runs away and laughs and laughs. 

It's a Leeper tradition that Santa leaves a piece of fruit in the toe of your stocking. Santa always left my sister an orange and an apple for me. Santa must know Olivia really well because he left her her absolute favorite, an avocado!!

We spent the morning munching on breakfast food, coffee and our family's Christmas morning traditional Monkey Bread while we opened presents. 

There were so many gifts and sugar infused children with short attention spans, that we took a break opening gifts for a bit. I really liked how low key and slow paced Christmas morning was this year. I don't generally welcome change (I like routine and tradition) but sometimes change is good and fun and gives you the opportunity to make new traditions and that's what this year brought I think. 

The rest of the afternoon the boys cooked a delicious Christmas dinner for our family, I took a long cold-induced nap, and the kids played with their presents. Again, I dropped the ball on taking photos, but I think that is just a sign that I was enjoying living the moment (or maybe it had something to do with the fact that I was sick and zombie-like?). 

There is nothing better than spending time with family and the people you love and our busy Christmas holiday was full of just that. What a Merry Christmas 2016 we had!

ONE YEAR OLD!

Princess. YOU ARE ONE YEAR OLD! What??? 

This year has been the most joyful, fulfilling, fun, exciting, draining, challenging, and happiest year of my life. You are an absolute delight and our little sunshine. 

It's incredible how much happens and changes in 12 short months. You are a little human being who has her own personality, wishes, desires, and plans and it's been so fun watching you develop into the little bitty Olivia that we love beyond measure. I'm so proud to be your mommy and daddy and I are your biggest fans. 

I made this milestone poster for your first birthday party that is a good summary of what you are up to at one year old. 

That may be hard to read on the screen, but at one year old you love to read books, chase the dogs, CLIMB onto anything you can, go on bike rides (as a passenger), play with the dog bowls, flop onto pillows and soft surfaces, take things in and out, splash in the bathtub, shake rattles and shakers. You can say, "dada", "mama", and "no, no, no". You're 18.2 pounds, just shy of 28 inches tall, and have 7 teeth. You do this tiny little march when you are excited and it's just about the cutest thing ever. You're still taking 2 naps a day (on a good day) and pretty much sleep through the night (7:45 pm till around 6:30 am) regularly at this point! 

Olivia Jane, we love you so much it hurts. I am so lucky to be your mommy and hope to have many, many, many more years celebrating your birthday with you! LOVE YOU BBG!!!  

Olivia 11 Months

Olivia, baby girl. I cannot believe you've been here for 11 months!!! Where has time gone? Every blog I write something about how wonderful life is now that you are here and how I am just bursting with joy to be your mommy. That hasn't changed this month. You are the best thing that has ever happened to Daddy and me and we are so thankful to the Lord that we are your parents. 

That being said... this month has really tested my patience as you have definitely started exerting your will and expressing your desires. Mix that with your new walking independence and you're a handful.  You are fast and curious and want to get into everything. Like any baby your age. You're learning about the world around you and you want to test limits. 

You love to climb! You try to climb the stairs no matter what obstacles we put in your way! You've learned to scale the baby gate that we put on the stairs, so we've had to put a yoga mat over it to impede your ability to grab onto it and pull yourself up (... it's a great look... I think decorators will soon be making this a trend). So you've decided that climbing the side of the stairs is almost as fun and you make mommy so nervous. I haven't yet found a great solution to this problem, but you're definitely keeping me on toes dashing to pull you off multiple times an hour.  You also try to climb the bookcase, couch, and climb into your toy bins. 

We keep super duper busy and I'm grateful to have a packed schedule because it keeps you entertained. We go to story time, kindermusik, and have lots and lots of playdates. We hang out with your baby best friend, Samantha, and her mommy a lot and that's been really great for us. We go on a lot of walks and enjoy going to the beach and park. Swinging is a big favorite of yours and you also like to go down slides with our help.

This past month you've had more teeth pop up! You now have three on bottom, your two front teeth on top, and two more flanking them are right there trying their hardest to come through. 

We're putting your new teeth to use by giving you more and more solids and experimenting with table food. This month you've learned to feed yourself and some of your favorites are blueberries, grapes, raisins, carrots, chicken, black beans, tomatoes, bananas and, of course,  you still love avocados. You've also tried greek yogurt, some cheese, peaches, mango, apples, strawberries (you loved these for a minute but seem to be over it now), rice, squash, and zucchini. You've also learned to drink water from a sippy cup with a straw all by yourself. It's pretty stinkin' cute. 

When you were still pretty new I thought you might be introverted, but I'm pretty sure I was wrong. You are happiest when you are around other people. You can self-entertain, but you prefer to be playing and interacting with someone! Some of your favorite things to do are to roll a ball back and forth, play peek-a-boo with daddy's hat, chase the dogs, play with the dog bowls, and you LOVE reading. It's the cutest thing when you read with daddy. You'll hand daddy a book and then plop down between his legs and read together and it's just so sweet! You help turn the pages of books and particularly love flap books and books with textures. One book we read has a polar bear that you love to kiss each time, and it's so cute. 

Like our fireplace baby proofing? haha!

You love being outside - especially with daddy - and love exploring. Picking up leaves and sticks and acorns is a great way to keep you entertained. 

You're sleeping better!!! HOORAY! Well, let me restate that... you're sleeping better at night! Unfortunately, you're not napping well during the daylight hours. You seem to pretty much protest naps most days. And girl, you are persistent. You can scream and fuss and cry for ages before finally giving in to sleep. 

Also, you've recently started having some stranger anxiety. You cry now when we leave you in the nursery or with a sitter and it's hard on mommy. You reaching out for mommy or daddy and screaming just breaks my heart. 

I spent my first night away from you since you were born this past weekend. We both did well and I'm proud of us pumpkin. Plus, you had a blast hanging out with daddy. 

My first night away from you this year compared to the same time and place last year when I was waiting for your arrival

You don't have too many words yet. But you can say "mama" "dada" and sometimes "zoo". 

Let's see... what else happened this past month.... oh! You celebrated your first Halloween. We had a friend from Atlanta sew your costume and it turned out so cute! You went as Little Bo Peep and mommy and daddy went as your flock of sheep. We pulled you around the neighborhood for about 45 mins and you had a lot of fun people watching and "participating". You collected some candy but we recycled it when we passed candy out at our house later in the evening. 

Well, that's all I can think of at the moment from the last month. You are our joy and we love you so much!!!! Happy 11 Months baby girl!!!