Our Little Toddler!

Olivia at 18 months

Once again it has been way too long since our last update, but it is amazing how quickly life happens when there is an active toddler running around. If you notice the date on the blog says July 3rd.  I have been working on this update for a month! :)

Olivia has really come into her own in terms of personality!  She loves the computer, so it makes it difficult to update this blog with her around.  If we turn on the computer she walks over and says, "up please" and when she is on our laps, she will point to the computer and say, "fish!"  We recently showed her some YouTube videos of her new interest, fish, and she loves to watch them...all the time!  In any case we have a lot to update about and I am probably missing so much more!

Helping plant Spring time flowers! Check out that ponytail! 

 There are many physical changes lately in our Livy Loo!  First she is growing much taller, and her feet are getting bigger too!  We recently noticed that her toes are starting to overhang her sandals.  Her feet are size 4 at this point and I think she finally made it into size 5.  The only problem is that the stores are not really stocked with sandals anymore!  So, unfortunately we may have to stick with flip flops for the rest of the summer!
The other big change is her hair!  Dan and I were both bald until we were about 2, so we have been pleasantly surprised lately because her hair has been growing like weeds!  We have to pull it back into a ponytail daily, and our favorite style is two pigtails.  The best part is she usually leaves the rubber bands in her hair, but while riding in the car likes to pull the hair clips out!  That is always fun in the morning when we are running late to school and we have to stop to redo the hair before we go into Miss Sharons!  Oh well!  I am looking forward to braiding her hair!

Our little helper, making the graham cracker pudding dessert

We have quite the  little nosy, but helpful daughter on our hands! She loves to help out with anything, especially with food! She is obsessed with what we are cooking and always wants to help out.  Of course her favorite part is licking the bowl and utensils!  Other favorite helping activities include sweeping, and washing...anything, including her blanket, "night-night."   She has recently begun to challenge the whole cleaning up system, so this can become a battle at times.  Just this morning we were playing with Legos and it was time to clean up.  She bought into my whole "which color can you put in the box" game, when suddenly she picked up the box and dumped them all out, yelling, "Oh no!"  A little frustrated, I said again, "okay time to put in box."  She ran away and started circling the dinning room table, laughing!  A little upset I decided to ignore and read a magazine until Dan came down the stairs and she wanted a hug from him!  UG...we did get them picked up, but it seems that she is becoming Little Miss Independent!

Miss Olivia Grace has really come into her own in terms of language development.  It was just after we got out of school we realized she was speaking in short complete sentences (about 19 months) and this summer has just blossomed as a communicator.  She certainly knows what she wants and how to communicate that to us!  Some of our favorite saying are as follows:

• "Four, five Hurley poops" she likes to count our dog's poops in the backyard and whenever we ask how many she counted out there she replies, "four, five Hurley poop."  My favorite is when she tells Dan to, "get bag, pick up." It is pretty funny!
• Early Spring/beginning of the summer everything was responded with by saying, "kay."  We would ask her to do something and she would reply with, "kay."  Recently she started saying yes and no, but I like the days of "kay" much better! 
• "Hug...fill in the blank."  She loves to hug anything and everything!  She will hug the bugs that land on her outdoor play climber, she hugs the bears in books, her baby, Hurley, and of course family members and friends!  She is a hugger, not a fighter!  
• She counts everything!  Often starts at four, five and gets to ten, but more recently has started at one and can get to ten with help from us!  We often count the steps and other objects.  She will sit in her car seat and count her shoes! 
• "Some...fill in the blank"  again it is hard to sneak a snack anymore.  As soon as she hears a package being opened in kitchen, she darts in and says, "some cracker" or "some cookie"  it is strange she always knows what we want to sneak to eat!  That should help me with my diet in the fall!  
• "Ride Jeep"  her favorite car to ride in is by far the Jeep and she is disappointed when she has to "ride mommy's car."  I think mostly because she can see out of the windows better, but she loves to ride, especially with the doors off and the back rolled up.  There is something about the wind in her hair she is just like her dad!  
• "I go potty."  During Spring Break we bought a little potty to start the introduction of the potty to Olivia.  Well she certainly has the idea and is a little obsessed with it!  If I go into the bathroom she is right there sitting on hers too!  She loves to say "I go potty" and go to sit down.  To be honest, we have had three successful pees and one poo on the potty.  To be even more honest, she is ready to start the process of potty training, but Dan and I are very hesitant to commit this close to the new baby being born.  Hope we can have success in the next few months!
• "Climb" the stairs, the couch, the bed, the dinning room chairs...she is ALL over the place and loves to climb on everything! 

There are so many more, but these are just a few of our favorites! 

Water fun in the sprinkler! 

Many of her favorite things include being outside, playing with any kind of water, including he sprinkler, the pool, and of course the ocean!  She loves this puppy she received as a present that barks, wines, and then sleeps by snoring.  She adores this toy and brings it everywhere!  She still loves her books and her recent favorites include, The Napping House, Chicka, Chicka, Boom, Boom, Daddy Hugs, and Click Clack Moo.  I think I have all of them memorized!  She still is loving food of any kind, especially "ice cream" and "cookies!"  There are more things she loves, but I forget right now :)

Playing outside on the 4th of July

We constantly have music on in the background of house and always in the car.  The music is in her soul!  She enjoys singing so much!  She will sit in the car and just sing to herself.  She says, "I'm singing"  it is very cute!  In early July we joined Gymboree and she attends class once a week and loves the music element to the class.  She will come home and sing the songs all week.  Her new favorite song is, "The Wheels on the Bus" We have sung every verse I can think of and her favorite is the people go up and down.  She throws her self down on the ground!  Yesterday morning I was getting ready for work and I could hear her in the crib saying, up and down and then jumping down on the mattress! It was pretty funny to hear. 

Our daughter has become quite tech savvy too!  She loves our new iPhones, especially the FaceTime feature and a doodle app.  She loves to "see" the person she is talking too.  Currently, my parents and Aunt Laura are the only ones we FaceTime with and she is so much fun to watch!  She will wave into the phone and have a whole conversation! The crazy part is that she is growing up in a era where seeing people on the phone is possible!  Whoever would have thought it would be a common thing.   She also plays with a doodle app we have on the phone and a Skeeball game too!  We do not often let her play with the phones, but when she gets a hold of it she can navigate through it to the places she wants.  It is pretty crazy to see her playing with the phone! 

Last nap in her "old" room! That smile melts our heart!

To end this long and much needed update, it is important to talk about the other changes in our family.  We are about 15 days away from Lil Sis' due date of August 17th.  We have been busy working this summer on a new room for both girls to share and trying to get Olivia to understand what is about to happen.  We did switch the rooms up and both girls are in our former guest bedroom with two cribs and two dressers.  She will look at the other crib and say, "sisters," but I am not sure how much she really understands that soon a baby will be in that crib too!  She will hug my belly and say, "hi baby" and "hug baby" I think she will adjust well when Lil Sis arrives, but it will certainly be an adjustment period!  We put the pack-n-play up in the living room for naps and changing the baby when Olivia was sleeping the other day.  When she came downstairs she said, "my bed!"  She is noticing the changes in the house and she seems to be doing well.  Time will tell!  For now, we wait and wait and wait!  I know I speak for myself, I am SO OVER this pregnancy.  We are all ready to meet Lil Sis!

I am sure our next Blog update will contain the great news of Lil Sis' arrival!  Until then, keep us in your prayers!  Thanks as always for keeping up with our lil family!

Love to all,
Laura, Dan, Olivia, and Lil Sis

It Has Been Way Too Long!

15 Month Valentine Day Pictures!

 My goodness I can hardly believe how times flies!  Every weekend I say to Dan, "I am going to update the blog this weekend!  We have so much to include about Olivia and our growing family!"  The weekends always seem to get away from us and on Sunday I am upset that I never got to update the blog!

Miss Olivia is 16 months now and has developed quite a personality!  She weighs about 22 pounds and is 30 inches long.  That puts her in the 36% percentile for weight and 36% percentile for height.  What is funny is she has tiny feet, size 4, and it has become difficult finding shoes that fit her that are for a walking/running/climbing toddler.  I am sure there can be worse things than small feet!  I always wished she would have small feet and hands too! She is definitely our little toddler, constantly on the go and a little mimic!  We are having fun with this stage, but to be honest it can be exhausting! 

We decided that the theme of this entry is, "The reason why I have NOT updated the blog!"  Here is the list of reasons in no particular order!

Teething

It is hard to capture her teeth, but if you look closely you can see top ones!

My goodness we never had an issue with teeth and Olivia until the molars started to enter the mouth!  Right night she has four front teeth on the top, two on the bottom with two more breaking through.  In the back of her mouth she has four molars now, and the other day at the doctors, she said there are four more breaking through!  WOW...lots of drool and lots of cranky!  We feel terrible, but there is nothing we can do except offer her the teething rings, wet washcloths, and her tooth brush!  Yes, brushing those new pearly whites is one of her favorite activities!  She will walk into the bathroom three and four times a day point to her teeth and say, "brush."   So there are days when she just wants to cuddle with us and that is fine with us.  It has not affected her sleeping at all...just her waking hours!  Hope this all ends soon.  She does look so much older with a grin full of teeth!

 Talking 

Most of you know me and know that I love to talk!  Well I guess this trait has been passed down to Miss Olivia!  Oh my goodness what a talker!  What amazes Dan and I is how from week to week she adds to her vocabulary and her talking becomes so clear!  There are many times we still have no idea what she is saying, but there are more times now we can understand her.  About a month ago, I counted and she could say over 20 words, but now that number is larger!  Her favorite words are, please, cheese, walk, eee for Hurley, and milk.  Of course she is always shouting for daddy and momma!  My favorite word she says is night night, which apparently she named her blanket that!  We would always say ready for night night Olivia and she would go runing for the stairs.  While changing her into her PJ's we would give her her blanket to cuddle with and suck her thumb.  I guess she understood night night to be her blanket and now it has been dubbed that name! 

Walking

At the playground!

"Walk...Down...Walk" is a constant phrase we here when walking through stores or the parking lots!  Olivia loves to walk and walk and walk!   We will go to the playground and she likes to go down the slide a few times, but she will spend more time walking around the place than on the equipment.  On weekends we take daily walks outside, weather permitting, around the block.  She has certainly mastered this skill and it has only made our life more exhausting.  haha

Eating

Well she loves to eat!  Anything and everything we give her she will gobble down!  She will usually have oatmeal, or yogurt for breakfast with some Cheerios and fruit.  Lunch is a variety of items and we usually try to vary it up with some kind of protein a fruit and a veggie.  Dinner is about the same.  Right now she prefers to eat, cheese, pasta, avocado, blueberries and strawberries and oddly enough her favorite veggie is zucchini!  We are constantly giving and trying new foods and she loves it.  Her most favorite food is off of mommy or daddy's plate!  We often have to say no it is mommy's or no it is daddy's.  Then a fit is usually thrown, but we try to distract!

Waving 

Bye-Bye, to her shadow, dogs, and cars, Olivia loves to wave at anything and anyone!  She has developed this princess like wave.  She holds her arm out in front of her and moves her entire wrist back and forth!  We have no idea where she learned that from because we never waved to her that way, but man oh man I hope this is not a sign of what is to come! haha.  In any case, she is quite the waver and that is  usually accompanied with blowing kisses as well.  One thing is for sure, she is a lover not a fighter!   

Feeding Herself 

Eating her yogurt with her spoon!

Olivia has always wanted to use the spoon herself and often gets upset if we do not let her feed herself, so recently we gave up control a bit and let her go for it on her own.  The task can get messy, but to be honest, she is doing wonderfully!  She can stab most items with a fork, but still needs help with soft things.  Her cereal and yogurt are on the way to being mastered.  It is nice to be able to give her something and walk away or sit down to eat too.  Our little baby is growing up!

Traveling and Other Visitors

The girls

We journeyed to the beach after Christmas to visit with Dan's family.  Olivia is an excellent traveler!  She will usually sleep for about an hour and then be content to look at book after book!  She loves being at the beach house too.  Olivia had a blast keeping up with her cousins!

We had two weekend visitors in February.   My friends from college, Denise, flew down to Maryland and Beth drove up from Virginia.  Olivia hardly napped all weekend because she wanted to play with the girls!  We had a girls night out and left Dan home with the baby!  It was nice to have them here and I look forward to seeing them again soon!

Last weekend my mom, Tyler, Olivia, and myself traveled to Ohio for my cousin Heather's wedding.  The car ride out was fine.  We stopped for dinner and shortly after, she fell asleep. It was a bit chaotic when we arrived at the hotel at 11:30 that night, and both kids were awake for a bit.  She settled down though and took a fairly good nap on Saturday.  Saturday night we pushed the limits and she was up way past her bedtime.  Exhausted, she finally succumbed and fell asleep in her stroller.  Sunday's drive home was long and we ran into snow, but her exhaustion helped the journey!  She did not really want to be walking around anyway!  Tyler turned on a movie and that kept her occupied for quite a while too!  She is our little traveler and we look forward to more road trips this spring!

Favorite Anecdotes  

There are many Olivia stories, but these are the ones that make us smile the most!
Ring Around the Rosey was taught to Olivia by Grandma and Grandpa Hart one night when she spent the night.  It is a cute little game, but for weeks she was obsessed with it!  She would walk up to you and hold out her hand saying, "Ashes, Ashes!"  It was fun and adorable the first few times, but when it went on for hours one day...I had enough.  I taught her how to twirl and I sang the song for her!  She still loves "Ashes" so you are not allowed to say that word unless you want to spend hours spinning in circles!
Itsy Bitsy Spider is another song, Grandpa taught her.  This one is fun to watch her move her two index fingers, trying to move that spider!  We sing it in the car on the way to school and she is getting really good at the other hand movements!  We want more like that Grandma and Grandpa!  haha
The last of our favorite Olivia anecdotes includes Hurley.  A few weeks ago we were eating breakfast in the dining room.  Olivia's high chair was facing into the kitchen.  All of the sudden she says, "EEE (her name for Hurley) No, No!"  We turn around and sure enough he had his head all the way into the garbage can.  Apparently someone did not close the lid and he was having a field day!  We laughed about that one for awhile! 

Olivia's  Favorite Activities

Dont take me inside! 

 One constant favorite in her life is reading books!  I would like to think it is because we have read to her since she was born, but I am sure it is also because both Dan and I love to read too!  We have so many books and she loves to read them in the car, in her room on her favorite chair, and in the living room with the bin of books.  This is the only activity that will keep her attention for a span of time!  Her favorite book at the moment is "Blue Hat, Green Hat" by Sandra Boyton, she often giggles when the last character is wearing the wrong outfit and the book reads "Oops."  She will repeat oops.  She is also into the books that make noise.  We bought two new books with buttons and sound.  When she pushes the button it will say what it is.  Perhaps the favorite new book is the animal noises one.  She pushes the button for kitty and it meows.  She will sit in the car and hit the button for the animal noises the whole ride.  We are constantly saying what animal makes the noise.  Hopefully one day she will know it and say it back to us! 

Her second favorite activity is walking and playing outside.  Whenever the weather is nice she is outside playing both at Mrs. Sharon's, our house, and grandma and grandpa's swing set.  It is very hard to get her back inside.  Often she throws a fit when we come inside, as you can see with the above picture!  Mrs. Sharon was surprised last week when Olivia threw a fit for her when she needed to bring the kids inside.  It was funny to us because Olivia will throw a fit and this is the first time for Mrs. Sharon to see that!

Lastly, all day it is up and down the stairs.  We use to have gates up to block them, but she is so confident going up the stairs and loves to play in her room.  So we gave up on the gates this past month and are teaching her to go down the stairs too.  She has almost mastered going down too, but she likes to play on the stairs and we often have to stop her and say, no playing.  I am thinking though in the fall we will have to gate off the stairs to keep her retained to one floor of our house because...

Baby Puryear #2 is preparing for an August 17th arrival

Yes it took us 18 months to finally get pregnant with Olivia and had to go through IVF, but in December we found out we where expecting again!  It has taken us by surprise, and we feel so blessed!  To be honest, in the past few weeks I have just started to show and it is starting to become reality.  The two kiddos will be 21 months apart and I will stay home with both kids in the Fall!  I think I will be teaching summer school this summer, but it will be great since I will have an extra three months off!  I can handle that!   We have an anatomy sonogram on March 29th and we will find out the sex and if everything else is healthy!  So for now we keep telling Olivia about her baby brother or sister and use the word baby a lot.  We do not think she has any idea what it means, but I am sure she will soon enough!

This blog has been four months coming and I hope we do not go that long again, but running after a toddler takes much more energy than I ever imagined!  We continue to be amazed on a daily basis and some days are more exhausting than others, but overall we would not change a thing!

We will update soon! Until then, enjoy the pictures on the Picasa link and pray for a healthy baby!
Love to all,
Dan, Laura, Olivia, and Baby Puryear #2

Is It Really Thanksgiving?

Olivia turns one!

Oh my where has the time gone?  I hope that everyone had an wonderful Thanksgiving weekend.  The big question that was throw around this weekend was, "is it really Thanksgiving?"  The fall season has begun and we are enjoying each moment, as we realized it goes by so fast!  If I had to recap the fall in one sentence it would sound like this: We are thankful for the two front teeth Olivia has now, a happy healthy, 20 pound one year old, who has learned how to walk and talk, and blah blah

Since the last entry in September, we visited two farms, the Maryland Zoo, gone apple picking, traveled to Rochester,  traveled to Ocean City and spent time with the Wittmans,  grew two front teeth and have four more that are working their way through,  celebrated Halloween and a first birthday, started really talking, blowing kisses, giving kisses, and most importantly started walking! Of course and most recently, celebrated Thanksgiving!  Now do you understand our lack of attention to the blog?!

The following descriptions are in no particular order and are brief descriptions of our adventures! There are pictures on Picasa Web Albums that show off our events in more details, if you are more visual. 

Fall Festivities

Watch out sheep, here comes Olivia!

Olivia has always loved Hurley, but we recently discovered a love of all animals .  We went to Elioak Farm with friends in October and they have a petting area. She was enthralled with the animals!  She was practically crawling over the fence to get into the pen!  We also visited the Maryland Zoo on Friday after Thanksgiving and were able to walk around the petting area and she was trying to hug all the goats in the pen.  She was so excited and provided us with several laughs.

Chowing away on the apple

We also discovered another love of Olivia's, apples!  Tyler went along with us in October to Larriland Farm to pick apples from the orchard.  Olivia was in the stroller because she was not stead on her feet.  She was very interested in what we were doing.  Of course when you apple pick, you need to eat an apple.  She kept pointing at our apples,  so we found a baby like apple and bit off the skin, then handed it to her.  She was in her glory!  She gnawed on that apple the entire time we picked apples!  It was quite a sight to see.   We realized she prefers bigger bites of food.  Once in a while she will eat a bit that is too big, and she will spit it out. She is doing quite well I if I say so!

 Girls Weekend to Rochester   

The first weekend in October my Mom, Bethany, Kym, Olivia, and myself made the journey up to Rochester for a girls weekend, and to celebrate the baby shower of our good friend Amy Knight (Scata).   It was a bonding experiences for us and Olivia was a fabulous little traveler.   It was great to for her to meet her Uncle Ron, cousins Colin and Andy, and of course to see Greatest and Uncle Ken again.  She missed two naps, went to bed late both nights, was in the car seat for 17 hours and hardly complained!  The best part was on the way  home she sat and looked at her books by herself for more than a half an hour!  My mom would just give her an new book when she threw one on the seat!  The weekend was great and my sisters and mom were a great help with Olivia.  We missed Dan!  I think he enjoyed his bachelor time, but was ready for his girls to get home.   

All the Cousins Together

The Puryear, Wittman, Wambolt Cousin Photo Shoot

-The Girls-

As some of you know Jill and Steve Wittman, Dan's sister,  moved to Geneva, Switzerland for three years.  We miss them very much, but keep up with them using Skype!  Before they left, they spend some time in Maryland, visiting the siblings.  Steve flew to Geneva before the rest of the family, so Jill and her two girls, Emma and Ava, spend  time in Ocean City.  We visited them for the weekend.  The three girls together was so much fun!  The weather was lovely and we walked on the Boardwalk, went for two boat rides, and played outside.  The Boardwalk area in Ocean City has huge wooden play toys, which are great in the off season because they are not overrun by kids.  Emma and Olivia had the best time discovering, crawling, and running (well Emma ran), all over the toys.  Olivia loved the sand, of course, and this time was more mobile in the sand.  We had to keep an eye out for her because she kept trying to escape.  We also had two boat rides on the Cris Craft.  Olivia and Eva joined us for one and then Emma, Jill, Dan, Lee, and I went on a two hour tour for the second ride.  O and E were so cute in the over-sized life jackets.  The weekend was bittersweet because we had to say good-bye to the Wittmans. There are great pictures from the weekend and a cousin photo shoot on the photo link!  We are looking forward to seeing them at Christmas time.  I am sure we will have lots of good stories now that Olivia is walking and Ava is crawling!

 Teething

No longer a toothless grin, Olivia's bottom teeth came through at some point in the spring and her top two teeth broke through in the late summer, but it was mid-October they became cute little fixtures in pictures!  She is now cutting the top two "fang" teeth and the the bottom two as well.  I looked into her mouth the other day it the entire top of her mouth looked like it was white and swollen with tooth buds.  It must me awful, but she is holding on.  She loves the frozen teething rings.  Last week I discovered her fingers had scrap marks all over and I realized she was chewing her hands.  So I try to save  her fingers by handing over the Soothie things. It is a pacifier for infants because it has a place to put a finger in for a baby to suck on.  She LOVES to put her own finger in it and that has really saved her fingers. 

Talking and Talking

Talking up a storm!  I think her first official word was Daddy, but she had since learned, light, yes, mommy, Hurley (yes she says some of the word), cheese, please, and a few others I cannot think of now.  It is amazing that she can communicate with us, she can sign to us, but usually prefers to point at the object and make a little noise.  We are well trained and usually give her what she needs, but we always name the item.  I guess we should encourage her to sign or use her words more!

 Halloween Time

All bundled up ready to go outside!

We did celebrate Halloween with a party at our house, a Maryland tailgate, and good old fashioned trick or treating!  We usually have a Halloween party, and this year I think at one point there were more kids than adults! Olivia was a pumpkin and looked so cute.  We put the hat on her several times and she kept it on most of the nights.  We are a family were a pumpkin patch this year.  Not very creative, but the price was right.  Pumpkin carving was a family affair this year and Olivia like to put the top on her pumpkin and then take it off.  She sat in her highchair for quite a while, while we finished carving.  Tyler came over to trick or treat.  We went out for about forty five minutes and Olivia had a little stash of candy that Dan and I ate!  Next year will be fun because she will be able to really walk around and say,  "Trick or Treat!"

First Birthday Celebrations

Our little one year old!

Just dive right in!

Finally, she turned one!  We had two birthday bashes, lots of cake, and plenty of gifts!  My parents and Grandma Mary Lou came over for a birthday dinner on Monday, her actual birthday.  We dressed her up in tutu and matching pink sparkly tights.  She looked like a little princess.  My favorite part of the evening was the smash cake!  We sang to her and put down a little cake.  She had not trouble putting her hands right into it and licking it all up!  At one point she just put her face right into the cake!  We all had a good laugh, and then we opened presents.  She received a few gifts from Tyler, Grandma, and Grandpa, and a few from friends who could not make the party on Saturday.  The best toy gift was the walking toy from Skylar and Bryce.  That was the catalyst in giving her the confidence to take her first steps!  The evening flew by and soon it was bed time.  Dan and I can hardly believe we have made it a year with a child!  Our life is drastically changed, but we cant remember not having her in our lives! 

We had huge bash on Saturday for Olivia. The theme was pink and the number 1! We served chili, bread, some appetizers, and of course cake!  There were about 25 people who came to celebrate and it was a tight fit for a while, but well worth the closeness!  She received so many gifts and had some help from Brooke to open them all!  We played a few games, but the most fun was that smash cake!  We felt so blessed to have the love and support from our family and friends on her Birthday and throughout the year! As people started to leave the party, Olivia climbed up the stairs and went into her bedroom, pulling her blanket from crib and laying down on her rug in her room.  So I put her into bed, exhausted by the day, she slept for a little while!  The day was certainly memorable!

 Walking and Other Developments

As I close this LONG and DETAILED entry, I must add I am astonished how quickly she develops a skill!  Take walking for example, she was cruising for weeks,  then on Saturday (November 20th) she was walking around the living room table and stopped.  With a second thought she let go, and started walking towards the dinning room where we were sitting.  She stopped half way to clapped, then continued on towards her toy!  I was crying and I realized she is a little girl now!   Now she has taken off!  She walks/totters/falls everywhere, and has even started to climb!  She has been clapping for months, but waving bye bye, blowing kisses, and giving kisses, just started happening before her first birthday.   It is like one day in her brain, things start to click and she can do all the new tricks we have been encouraging her to do all along! 

So our live is a whole new crazy now, keeping up with her!  We absolutely LOVE it and cannot ask for anything more! 

10 Things That Make Us Smile in the 10th Month

Olivia has developed quite a personality over the past few months!  She brings a smile to our faces daily, and too many times we laugh out loud!  One of the comments we tell her daily is, "I don't think you can be any cuter!"  We thought we would share some of the ten things she does that makes us smile! We hope this will share some joy to you too!

The list is in no particular order:

1. Group Hug

Recently when holding Olivia, we will encourage her to have a group hug.  She caught on to it and now will lean in towards Dan or myself and we have to say, "yeah, group hug!"  She smiles and seems so happy with herself! 

She was in the process of yelling, "OOH"

2. OOH
This is Olivia's favorite word!  Whenever something is interesting to her she yells out "OOH."  When Hurley walks into the room, she yells, "OOH."  If she discovers something new, she yells, "OOH!" You get the idea.

3. Outside Voice being used inside

We are not sure where she gets her loudness from, certainly not me! (haha).  At times Olivia is so loud.  She will be in her car seat and let out a loud yell.  She will be playing with her toys and suddenly be babbling, followed by a loud yell.  Often when we put her in the high chair and walk to the kitchen to get her toy she will scream to us!  We laugh, but tell her that is an outside voice Olivia.  We are hoping that she will soon understand to use that yell outside.  We will have to see about that! haha

Wait for me!

4. Following us from room to room
Now that she has mastered crawling, she is all over the place!  We will put her down in the living room and walk into the kitchen.  Following behind, you guessed it Olivia.  It is so cute because when you look down it is this little person making her way across the room.  My favorite is when she crawls up to us and reaches up for us to pick her up!  It melts my heart!
5. Cuddling with her blanket 
Now that we are back at school, we have to go in and get her earlier than we were this summer.  This summer it would be after 7:00 before we went in to get her.  Now it is before 7:00.  She is very much like Dan and needs some time to wake up.  The past week or so,  in the morning, I will pick her up and she immediately grabs her blanket and has to cuddle with it and suck her thumb while I change her diaper and dress her.  Often she will take the blanket with her while she nurses too!  She just loves that blanket!  At night I cuddle with her after book and prayers with the blanket and she lays there, sucking her thumb. 

6. Greeting us after naps, sitting up in her crib, playing
We do not rush in to the room when she wakes up from naps, giving her a few minutes to wake up.  When we do go in the room, she is often found sitting up, "playing jail", shaking herself back and forth on the crib railings.  As soon as she sees us she lets out a huge yell that often sounds like "Hi!"

7. The grumpy, angry, hungry cry, that resembles her mother's hunger cry!

If you do not know I like to eat, and so does Olivia.  I also get kinda grumpy when I am hungry.  Dan discovered this trait during our 2008 trip out west, and has become a running joke with Dan and I. We think Livy has the same irritation when she is hungry because around 5:30pm, her dinner time, she gets very grumpy and often will just start to cry.  There have been several nights Dan will be feeding her while she is crying and opening her mouth for more food!  She will finally quite down after some food.  The scene is pretty hilarious.  Dan is so patient with her when she is that upset too!

Kicking the waves in Ocean City

8. Her love of water

It does not matter what it is, the ocean, pool, bathtub, kiddie pool, or Hurley's water, she will play in it and love every minute.  She loves to kick in the water, drink the water, and splash and splash.  

9. Her reaction to other kids, especially Tyler 

Olivia is thrilled to be back at daycare because of all the other kids.  The moment we drop her off in the morning she is looking around Ms. Sharon's for which kids are there already.  She follows the bigger kids around too.  The family member who earns the biggest smiles is Tyler!  Her entire face lights up. She also loves Brayden.  Last weekend at his house he started laughing at a toy and she immediately started to giggle too.  He would laugh again and so would she.  It was adorable. 
10. The way any kind of music makes her bob her head and clap her hands
Finally, a lesson we can take away and apply to our own lives is a ten month olds love of music, especially Olivia.  She has a music table she is borrowing from Gram, and she is obsessed with it.  We put her down and she heads straight for the table.  She will bounce her head and clap her hands! Often a song will come on the radio and she will bounce her entire body to the beat.  My favorite happens when the TV is on...I will be nursing her in the morning and the Today Show theme will start.  Shes will stop nursing and look towards the TV, smile, and clap her hands.  I laugh every morning because of her!  So the next time you hear music think of our baby bouncing to the beat!

We hope you enjoyed the list of ten things that make us smile!  Life with Olivia has flown and we look forward to what else will be added to this list!

Summer of 2010 Wrap Up

Our little family during the trip to Myrtle Beach

As our tan lines fad and the school year begins, we remember what an amazing summer it was!  Since our last blog, Olivia has been non-stop!  She started army crawling in late July and has since mastered the fine art of crawling by the middle of August.  Now as she nears ten and a half months she is pulling up on everything!  Before we get ahead of ourselves here is the recap of our Myrtle Beach trip, her nine month doctors appointment, and all of our August travels!

Olivia had her nine month check up before we left for our beach vacation.  She continues to grow and be healthy!  She weighed 17 pounds and 12 ounces, putting her into the 34th percentile for weight.  Her height was 28.5 inches, falling into the 83rd percentile!  She is a long and skinny baby! The doctor said everything looked good and her ear infection from last month was all cleared up.  She cried a little for the shot, but otherwise was a perfect baby. 

Three Generations!

The last week in July brought us a beach trip with my mom, Tyler,  and Greatest to Myrtle Beach, SC.  The trip down was uneventful and long.  Olivia did well in the car, but became a little fussy towards the end...we all were though!  The week long vacation was restful and I know that Greatest loved spending the time with two of her great-grand kids! Each day we had to make the tough choice of going to the beach or the pool.  A few days we did one in the morning and the other in the afternoon (tough life I know)!  The last morning we went for a walk on the beach before the crowds hit and it was beautiful.  Of course Livy loved the beach and this time was more interested in the waves crashing on her!  At one point a wave crashed right up to her face and after the initial shock wore off she started laughing and clapping! Dan and I were able to head out for a dinner one night and Greatest treated us to dinner another.  We missed my dad and sisters, but it was a fun family vacation. 

Tyler and Olivia on our final day in Myrtle Beach

We had two weddings the first two weeks of August, so we left MB on Thursday.  The drive home was quite eventful though, and it was a good thing my mom decided to leave with us!  We left around four and stopped for dinner around five, and continued driving.   I was growing tired and we decided to switch drivers.  Dan was on the road for about twenty minutes and he ran over a huge pipe in the road, slicing our tire (yes our brand new tire).  We quickly pulled off the road to investigate the damage.   I previously failed to mention it was about nine thirty at night and pouring down rain!  So on the side of I95 in the middle of a thunderstorm we, and by we I mean Dan, changed the flat tire and drove the rest of the trip on our spare tire.  That added an extra hour to the trip! To top it all off...we were caught speeding by a speed camera at  2:30 am and got a ticket in the mail a few weeks ago!  $150 dollars, plus $200 for the new tire...it was an expensive ride home! I feel very blessed we got home safe and Olivia did not cry at all during the whole tire incident.

The Wambolt Cousins with Olivia

As I previously mentioned, we had two weddings on back to back weekends in August.  Both weddings were in New York and it was easier to leave Olivia in Maryland while we made the trips up on Saturday morning and home on Sunday.   First wedding was Beth and Oliver's in Binghamton.  For this wedding Olivia stayed at Grandma, Grandpa, and Tyler's house.  The second wedding was Shannon and Scott's in Jamestown.  We dropped Livy off at Aunt Carol and Uncle Scott's house to be watched by Gram, Grandpa, and Brayden, because Blake Lee Wambolt was born on August 13th! While Carol rested and recovered in the hospital, Olivia played with Brayden at his house.  Everyone had a blast and I know Gram loved playing with the grand kids. We feel very lucky to have such a supportive family to leave our daughter with! 

We were very busy in August and even made a final trip to Ocean City before school started.  Olivia spent three days on the beach and even had her Scopes taken on the beach!  She took short naps on the beach, so when we dropped her off for day care on Tuesday she was a little over tired.  Oh well she had a blast with Ms. Sharon and the other kids!

As the summer fades to fall and Olivia re-adjusts to day care and us to school.  Her first summer was a memorable one and I look forward to what is ahead!

My first summer

The Balash Family

Emme and Livy wearing their matching dresses!

Jenn, Brian, Ryker, and Emersen came to visit on July 18th!  We were so excited they were visiting because Emersen and Olivia are three month apart and had not met each other yet.  Plus we have not seen Ryker in almost a year!  We were a little worried about how they would sleep since our house a little, but it worked extremely well.  After running into traffic in Virgina, they arrived with two passed out kids around 10:30p.m.  We were happily waiting with beers and smiles.

Yup-That is Jenn, Brian, and Laura!

On Monday we decided to visit the Maryland Zoo. The day was extremely hot and we were all a bit sweaty!  However the big kids managed to have a fun time at the zoo! The kids were wonderful and enjoyed the animals.  Ryker had a blast running from animal cage to animal cage.  I think his favorite part was either the giant slide or the train that drives through the zoo.  Emme was a precious baby and slept the first half of the visit.  The just hung out in the stroller watching the world go by! Olivia was extra cute this trip. We have taken two other trips, but this time she was able to see the animals and she loved the ducks the best.   In the afternoon we hung out and had a little happy hour!  Of course that evening, as the kids were passed out, we had to watch The Bachlorette.  I think that was Brian and Dan's favorite part of the day!

Kiddie Pool Fun with Ryker

Tuesday brought another hot day and we decided to have a water fun day in the backyard.  We played in the kiddie pool and had some sprinkler fun!  Tyler, my mom, and Kym visited for a bit and Ryker was all about playing with Tyler.  Brian was even able to stay cool with a little head dunk in the sprinkler.  Emme and Olivia had some time together in the pool, kicking around and laying on their stomachs. 

After a nice afternoon nap, we left to play at a local playground.   Again Ryker had a blast with the steering wheel, the slides, and running all around.  The girls went down a few slides, but they were not as active as Ryker.  On the way home we picked up some dinner.  During dinner,  Jenn and Brian decided that it was best to leave that evening and travel home while the kids were sleeping.  So we sadly helped them back up and they left on Tuesday night.

The three buddies and Grandma helping out too.

We have such a great time hanging out...if only we lived closer!

Beach Weekend in July

Loves the water and the sand!

Olivia fourth trip to the beach was quite the eventful one.  She had so many adventures I am not sure where to begin!  We arrived on Thursday and after a quick afternoon nap we headed over to the pool down the street from the Puryears.  Once again I forgot my camera, but Olivia adores the pool.  She loves to kick on her stomach and lay on her back.  We even went  under the water several times with her.  She is quickly turning into our little water baby! 

She kept licking the life jacket when it was on.

On Friday Livy had another first~she took her first boat ride.  Lee took us on a boat ride for over an hour. Olivia really seemed to like it.  She had a hard time keeping her eyes open when the boat was moving fast, so we turned her away from the wind and she wanted to touch the water in the back of the boat.  The life jacket was not her favorite because it did not fit perfectly, but she will have to get use to it!  We look forward to many more boat rides in the future.   That evening we also went out for an all you can eat crab feast!  We started dinner on the earlier side, so that hopefully Livy would last until we were done eating.  She was a little angel.  We were seated by the waiters station and she watch all the waiters walk back and forth, smiling and watching them all.  She was very interested in the food we were eating, so we gave  her corn off the cob to eat.  She was entertained by that too.  We all had plenty to eat and she did not even fuss!  It was a lot of fun and great to know she was content to sit in the high chair for over an hour.  

Hurley wanted in on the toy action!

Saturday was another adventure!  The plan was to wake up, eat breakfast, and head to the beach for as long as Olivia would last.  We packed up the car, the two beach bags, and headed out the door about nine o'clock.  As we pulled out of Ocean Pines the skies did not look so great, but we drove on.  When we arrived at the beach, Livy had fallen asleep in her car seat and the skies were dark.  We called back to the Puryears and talked to Laura, who informed us that it was raining back in Ocean Pines.  We decided to sit in the car for a few minutes to let her finish her nap and see if it would pass us by.  It held off until she woke up and we ran out to the beach for twenty minutes before the skies unleashed.  It ended up raining all day :(  So our plan was foiled.  The back up plan?  Head to the Outlets!  Jean babysat Olivia while we went out shopping with Laura.  Then we played some games that afternoon/evening.  It was another eventful day...just stunk that it rained.

Family photo opt down by the surf

When we woke up on Sunday the sun was shining and it was time to try the beach again.  We let Olivia take her morning nap at home and as soon as she awoke we were off to the beach!  We set up camp and were in the for long haul.  Olivia enjoyed playing with the water so much we had to fill it with fresh water because I was afraid she would get sick.  She splashed, knocked over, and dug in the water.  When she ate the sand too much we had to put her on a towel.  We did take her down to the water and really put her in the surf.  She LOVED it!  She was laughing and having a great time.  We definitely have a little beach bum in the works!  She then finished her bottle and ate some pears.  About one o'clock she was pretty exhausted so we crossed our fingers that she would sleep on the beach.  I held her until she was almost asleep and then we put in under the cabana and laid next to her.  We did have to soother her once when a loud person talking walked by and scared her.  It worked perfectly and she slept for a little over an hour!  YEAH! She also took her three o'clock bottle on the beach.  Life is good when you spend a day on the beach.  Dan and I were delighted that we have a little beach baby!

The weekend was wonderful and we were sad to leave.  We look forward to seeing Gram and Grandpa Puryear in a few weeks and heading back to the beach in August before school starts again!