March Madness

March is not only Madness with the NCAA Tournament, it is also filled with birthday celebrations! We began this month celebrating my Dad's birthday.  We welcomed a new niece to the family on March 10th, Ava Claire Wittman, born two days before Dan's birthday.  This past Sunday we celebrated my sister Bethany's birthday and we will close the month with my 30th birthday!  Plus Olivia celebrated her first St. Patrick's Day! Crazy times!

As for celebrations, we look forward to meeting and welcoming Ava into the world when we visit Jill, Steve, and Emma in Ohio in April!  Laura Puryear made a connection that all the granddaughters have vowel names (Ava, Emma, Olivia) all we need is a Isabella and an Ursala and the names complete all the vowels...well maybe there is hope with Carol and Scott!  Just Kidding.  Dan had two celebrations one on Friday night and a family gathering on Saturday afternoon.  My parents and Tyler came over and babysat on Friday so we could have a little date night/Happy Hour celebration!  It was great to get out and see our friends and even thought it was an early night we had a blast!  Jean stayed over night at our house on her way out to Ohio and was able to celebrate with Dan and the rest of the family on Saturday afternoon.  Olivia had a great time playing with her cousins Brayden and Tyler and the rest of the family had a nice time catching up!  Here is a hilarious picture of Dan blowing out his candles holding Olivia.  If you look very closely at her face she looks like she has no idea what is going on~

hahaha At least Brayden and Tyler were having a blast blowing out the candles! Other pictures from the day are on the Picasa Web Album.


In other Olivia developments: She celebrated her first St. Patrick's Day (and no she did not have green milk, but Dan did make green eggs for breakfast!), has begun to roll over, but not consistently and more at day care, and is officially sleeping through the night!   We are now on our third week in a row of her going to bed around 6:30-7:00pm and she sleeps until 6:30-7:00am!  She is just so cute and most mornings we do not go in to get her until we are all ready for school and she just lays in her crib and talks!  This past Sunday we did not hear a word from her and at 7:40 decided it was time to get her up and get ready for Church.  When we entered her room she was just laying there trying to suck on her toes!  My dad says we should probably stop at one! haha we will see about that one!  She is drinking 8 ounce bottles at day care and we will start cereal over Spring Break in April!  I know she is ready for the solid food because she keeps grabbing at our cups and forks when she see us eat! She still continues to drool...and drool on everything.  There is still not sign of those teeth...just a lot of drool! 

This past week Spring has begun to make an appearance and the temperatures rocketed last week, topping in the 70;s.  Olivia had so much fresh air last week it was wonderful!  We were able to walk with her and Hurley in the early evening and she loves it!  We now have her in the Bjorn facing out and she looks at everything and kicks her little legs the entire walk!  I look forward to more outing with her in the Bjorn and her being awake and aware of what is around her! 

I hope that Spring has it your area of the world!  We are LOVIN the warm weather and the week and a half until our Spring Break! 

Eating, Sleeping, and Playing

Olivia continues to grow and become so interactive. It seems like every stage we get through and she starts a new one we say, I love this stage!

She is eating well about every 3 hours during the day and at night will last anywhere from 6 to 10 hours. Last week she slept through the night twice! By sleeping through the night I mean from 6:30pm until 6:30am! I actually did not set our alarm because usually she is up once a night and I set it after that night feeding. At 5:45am I jolted awake, realizing I never fed her last night! I shake Dan awake, nearly scaring him, say, "She slept through the night!" He cheered and then feel back to sleep while I got up and showered! The next night she slept from 6:30pm to 3:50am and the following night slept through the night again. It is not consistent yet, but I have enjoyed the past few nights with longer stretches of sleep! It is amazing how it makes the days easier!  She has had nights when she is a restless sleeper and will kick all the covers off and even kicked out of her PJ's.  On morning when we went in to get her she looked like this and we got quite the laugh! 

Since she is sleeping better, playtime is much more fun!  She loves the Precious Planet Jumpero toy we have for her.  After her recent growth spurt, she now can touch the bottom of the toy and can jump  up and down! Last weekend she was content to play in the toy for 45 minutes and we took her out of it because it was close to nap time!   She also loves to lay on her back and bat at toys, stare at Hurley, and watch the other kids at daycare.  Olivia will tolerate tummy time and has rolled over several times from her tummy to her back.  This is not consistent, but it is fun to watch the few times she has preformed of us!  She still loves her bouncy seat and is grabbing at everything she can get her hands on!  She will hold onto her toys and investigate it and then put it in her mouth. 

She has also become very verbal!  She cooing all the time in her car seat, playing with her toys, when we are changing her diaper!  We hear her in the morning in her crib cooing and laughing.  It is the cutest sound ever!  Olivia has also copied Dan and I and started blowing raspberries with her mouth.  It is quite mess and get drool everywhere but Miss Sharon was impressed because she is not suppose to do that until 6 months!  Dr. Landcaster also saw that trick at her 4 moth check up and comment she will probably be very verbal.  Um..wonder who she gets that from! LOL

So all in all Livy Loo is growing up fast and playing hard!  Here are some other family pictures:

 

 

Surviving Day Care and Turning 4 Months

Here is Olivia packed and ready for her first day of daycare with Miss Sharon!

After an extended Maternity Leave of 15 and a half weeks, Olivia began her first day with Miss Sharon.   I was very nervous to leave Olivia with someone who was not a family member and I was terrified she would cry the whole day and be a mess each evening.  As a result, we visited Miss Sharon on Monday so Olivia could get use to her house and we could drop off some of the extra things to keep at daycare.  Surprisingly, Olivia did not cry once and loved watching the other kids playing around.  I felt much better about leaving her at this point.  She was scheduled to start on Tuesday but because of all the snow we did not return until Wednesday February 17th and were delayed 2 hours each day that week!  So it was a nice, easy transition to work and daycare for Olivia. We rushed out of school as soon as the kids left and when we entered to get Olivia we were greeted with her huge smile and giggles!  She was so happy and it was apparent as she looked at Miss Sharon with another huge smile. We got the full report that she ate, slept, and played with out any fussing.  We knew we found the right place for Livy and we continue to be impressed with Miss Sharon!  Thank God we found her!  

There is a part of me that is glad to be back at school.  I was able to realize, during my maternity leave, that teaching is something I love to do and I missed the classroom while I was gone.  Knowing I am in the right profession,  helps the days to go by quickly.  The best part of my day is when we pick her up and she flashes that heart-melting smile!

As we fall into a new routine she has had stay busy on the weekends and have many visitors too.  Laura and her roommate Lindsay came to visit the other weekend and my mom stopped by too. 

Last weekend, when she turned 4 months, we started the March Month of Birthday Celebrations by celebrating my dad's birthday.  Olivia also met her cousin Blair for the first time.  They had quite the play date on the floor, staring at each other.  It was quite cute! Blair is 5 weeks older than Olivia and we look forward to many more opportunities for play dates with the Lake Family.

On Thursday we had Olivia's four month check up and she continues to grow!  She weighted 12 pounds 12 ounces and was 25 inches long.  That puts her in the 31st percentile for weight and 78th percentile for height.  Dr. Landcaster also talked to us about starting her on cereal.  We decided to wait until Spring Break time, which would be around 5 months, to start cereal.  She seems to fine at this point with her bottles at daycare and is sleeping fairly well.

This weekend Dan's parents came to visit and Olivia was spoiled by her Gram and Grandpa Puryear!  It was fantastic to have them visit and stay with us.  I know Olivia was excited to play with Gram and Grandpa.  Gram will also be stopping by next weekend on her way to meet her newest granddaughter, Jill and Steve's new baby, who will be born sometime this week!  We are so excited to hear all the details! 

Hope all is well and we will update again soon!