Olivia 6 Months!

How is it that at 6 months pregnant I felt like each month had dragged by, but the past six months have gone by in a flash?! I seriously cannot believe our precious little, nugget is SIX freakin' months old!!! 

Olivia Jane... goodness. You have made my heart so, so, so full! It is bursting with love and joy and pure happiness! Yes, not every second feels like that - like in the middle of the night when I am zombie walking to your nursery to feed you- but, generally and overall that is how I feel. Sometimes I just pinch myself and cannot believe that I am a mommy and that YOU are my sweet baby girl! You are my greatest joy and biggest accomplishment and I am very proud of you. I didn't know love existed this deep. Having you has made me understand our Heavenly Father's love in a whole new way and it is amazing that what I feel towards you is just a fraction of his love for us. 

I often stare at you in wonderment and dream about all the possibilities you have ahead of you. I pray for you to have a blessed and easy life, that you make wise choices, and (to steal a phrase from Lolly), that you 'skin your knee' just enough to know you need the Lord and that otherwise he keeps you safe from all harm. 

You seem like such a big girl to me now. You have definitely left the "newborn" stage and are full into the pure "baby" stage. You need me less and less and I am already struggling with the pull between wanting to you to reach each new stage and the selfish desire of wanting you to stay little and needing your mama forever and ever. 

At six months old you have mastered the sitting up independently thing. You are super duper close to crawling (on hands and knees and rocking back and forth) and can actually scoot around by slugging your way across the room pretty quickly. You have two bottom teeth that are razor sharp, but not quite as sharp as your fingernails which grow at record speed. You still like most people, but have very recently become more clingy to mommy (maybe it is because of the crazy few weeks we have had). You are very interested in grabbing glasses off of faces. You're curious about everything and it's a blast watching you learn and figure out the world around you. You really enjoy shopping trips especially now that you are sitting up in the shopping cart and can observe everything that is going on. We get loads of compliments about how cute and beautiful and strong you are whenever we are out and I won't lie, I eat each one up and love hearing the compliments. 

This past month has been a big one, full of events! You were dedicated, went on your first Leeper family vacation (I love that we are carrying on that tradition!), and moved to a new home (I may have cried ugly, sobbing tears leaving your nursery and the home we brought you home from the hospital to). --- Quick shout out to Uncle Jason who let us and the two dogs crash at his place for a week and also to your Aunt Jessie who took a couple days off of work to come play with you while mommy unpacked boxes!

We discovered that you're quite the little fish in the pool. It's adorable. You splash and kick and smile and I love it. Kicking seems to be a thing of yours right now. You also kick and thump your legs in your crib when you're ready to wake up. It still takes me a few seconds to figure out that that is what I'm hearing. 

You're still a serious little girl but you have a lot of fun too. I should try round two of photos sometime when your daddy is around and can help by getting you to giggle. I get you to laugh and then as soon as I put the camera back up to my face you go stone cold haha. Plus, it's a little hot (100°) outside and I may have locked us out of the house for 45 mins today... oops... so you were pretty much over it. 

Oh sweetheart, I love you to pieces. Happy six months! 

Olivia Jane's Dedication

Mark 10:13-16 tells us that, “…they brought little children to Him, that He might touch them; but the disciples rebuked those who brought them.  But when Jesus saw it, He was greatly displeased and said to them, "Let the little children come to Me, and do not forbid them; for of such is the kingdom of God.  Assuredly, I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God as a little child will by no means enter it."  And He took them up in His arms, laid His hands on them, and blessed them.

In May, surrounded by our families and members of our community group, Miguel and I dedicated Olivia to the Lord. It is important to Miguel and me to raise Olivia, and future children, to know Christ and to be raised in a household that honors the Lord. We recognize that she is a gift from God and we want to honor Him by teaching her about her heavenly father. It is our hearts desire that she accepts him into her heart and lives a life running after him.

Our church doesn't do baby dedications during the services, but encourages us to do one within our community group. We asked our group leader to officiate and invited family and and members of our CG to attend. Miguel and I wanted such an important moment to be in a beautiful location that also felt like a church setting so we decided to have the dedication at the pretty Tybee Island Wedding Chapel.

We were so grateful that both our families made the long drive down to Savannah to be at the dedication and to witness us present, first ourselves, and then Olivia to the Lord for both His blessings and our surrender for His service.

During the ceremony our community group leader, Mark Stivers, asked us the following questions:

1. Laura and Miguel, by coming forward before God and his people, do you hereby declare your desire to dedicate yourselves and Olivia to the Lord?

2. Do you today recognize this child as the gift of God and give heartfelt thanks for God’s blessing?

3. Do you now dedicate Olivia to the Lord who gave her to you, surrendering all worldly claims upon her life in the expectation that she will surrender her life wholly to God?

4. Do you pledge as parents that, with God’s gracious help, you will bring up Olivia in the discipline and instruction of the Lord, making every effort, with patience and love, to build the Word of God, the character of Christ and the joy of the Lord into her life?

5. Do you promise to provide, through God’s blessing, for the physical, emotional, intellectual and spiritual needs of Olivia, looking to the Father for the wisdom, love and strength to do so?

6. Do you promise, God helping you, to make it your regular prayer that, by God’s grace, Olivia will come to trust in Jesus Christ alone for the forgiveness of her sins and for the fulfillment of all His promises to her, even eternal life; and in this faith follow Jesus as Lord and obey His teachings?

Miguel's brother, Juan, and my sister, Sarah, graciously agreed to be Olivia's godparents. They pledged to fulfill the vow we made by becoming Olivia’s godparents and to help us in our duties as Christian parents.

"This candle represents the light of Christ in Olivia’s life. Parents and godparents, this light is entrusted to you to be kept burning brightly. May Olivia walk always as a child of the light. May she keep the flame of faith alive in her heart. When the Lord comes, may she go out to meet Him with all the saints in the heavenly kingdom."

Our friends, family, and community group members also made a pledge of commitment :

"So that Olivia may walk in the abundant life that Christ offers, do you pledge by God's help, to pray for and encourage Laura and Miguel in their effort to raise Olivia in the fear of the Lord, so that Olivia might receive our Lord's guidance and instruction?”

And finally, we all gathered around our daughter and family laid hands on us as we prayed the prayer of dedication over Olivia.

“Olivia, together with your parents, who love you dearly, and these people who care about the outcome of your faith, I dedicate you to God, surrendering together with them all worldly claims upon your life, in the hope that you will belong wholly to God for ever."

Afterwards we invited everyone for some yummy treats to celebrate Olivia's special day.

The very talented Izzy Hudgins captured images for us that we will cherish for the rest of our lives! 

Did I forget to mention that Olivia cried during most of the ceremony? 

Aunt Jessie!

Amador Grandparents 

Uncle Jason

Aunt Sarah

Godparents!

Lolly and G-Daddy!

Olivia is wearing a baby dress of mine that I wore at her age! 

Thank You Izzy Hudgins Photography for the beautiful photos!

 Tybee Island Wedding Chapel

LuluCakes 

Olivia 5 Months!

Princess, you're almost half a year old! I keep thinking back to this time last year when you were still a teeny tiny little thing in my tummy and only a handful of people knew you existed. I would imagine what my life would be like a year from then and try to picture life with you here. I didn't even know if you were a little boy or girl yet. But you're here now and it's so much better than I could have ever imagined! Life has new purpose and meaning and I've experienced a deep level of love and joy that I didn't know was possible. People always say you don't know how deep you can love until you have a child of your own, and there is really no way to prepare yourself for the truth of that. I love you so much it can sometimes make me physically ache!

You're getting so biggie! At your 4 month well visit you were almost 15 lbs and are finally measuring over the 50th percentile on growth charts. I've started to take you out of your carseat when running errands because it's just so heavy with you in it now! Plus, you prefer to be carried anyways. I am so grateful to your Aunt Sarah for lending me her Ergo! 

You give me this look (above) a lot. This is your serious face. You are super observant and prefer to spend your time looking around and taking in the world. You are curious and serious and I think (totally mommy-biased) that you're really intelligent. After a couple of different big events filled with lots of family and people time, I'm starting to think you may be an introvert. People seem to overwhelm and drain you quickly. It takes you a bit of time to recover from trips and family time. 

However, you do save a lot of giggles and smiles for mommy and daddy. You think it's hilarious whenever you're on your changing mat or when I put you on our bed and sing to you and lean over and "fall" on to your belly. You laugh and laugh and I do it over and over again until it wears me out. I usually sing a version of Skiddy-Mer-Rink-A-Dink-A-Dink, Skiddy-Mer-Rink-A-Doo, or Baa Baa Black Sheep to get you to smile and laugh. 

 

You're sitting up pretty well on your own now! I'm so proud of each milestone you achieve and am glad for you because you so want more independence. You will still randomly nose-dive after sitting up on your own for a while so I still sit near you while we practice sitting up, but you've got some impressive endurance and strength. 

You are sitting up in the bath now and you splash and splash and it's adorable. I love watching you learn new things and experience new things like playing in the tub! You also have discovered the bathwater duck thermometer and try to catch and eat it. 

Putting objects in your mouth is definitely a marker of this month. You've pretty much abandoned chewing on your hand in favor of picking up anything in sight and putting it in your mouth. Which makes sense because you are teething! In fact, you have a tooth! It popped up one afternoon! Teething is no fun, it's made you have some rough days and nights. You love to suck on the bottom of cold La Croix cans and have practiced sipping small amounts of water from a baby cup. You also really enjoy grabbing onto puckered lips and noses. Which is adorable, but can be dangerous because you have razor sharp nails that grow at an incredible rate. BUT, mommy is finally more confident when it comes to trimming your nails! Yay!

You are sleeping much better and mommy and daddy are SO, so, so, soooooo grateful! You wake up about once a night now around 1 am and then are up for the day between 5 and 6. We wake up and play for about an hour and a half and then you go down for a long nap (about 2 hours - again, thank you!) and mommy is able to get a nap in too! You're pretty cute when I go in to rescue you from your crib, you arch up and look at me and then smile and I LOVE it! You can move all over your crib now and it's always a surprise to discover which direction you're facing in the morning. You're going to be so happy when you can crawl. 

You still love the jumperoo and are using it to jump, jump, JUMP, more and more. You can spin yourself around in it now too. We've hung a bunch of baby links and teething toys from the top parts and you really enjoy that. 

Oh, baby girl. I love you so much and am so glad you're my baby! Each month is better than the last (especially now that we are sleeping a bit better!!) and I still wake up every day with excitement that this is my real life and you're here! Love, love, love, LOVE you Olivia Jane!!!