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!!! 

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!