My Mommy's Amazing 30th Birthday

My Mommy turned 30 on March 29th and as a surprise Daddy planned a whole day of festivities!  It all started on Friday when Aunt Denise flew into town and Daddy presented Mommy with her acceptance letter to her own Amazing Race!  The first clue was given to Mommy and she was told to head to the airport to pick up her Amazing Race teammate!  I stayed home to hang with Dad and Hurley, waiting for Aunt Denise to arrive!  When she arrived she was so shocked at how big I have grown!  I hung with her for a little bit, but I had to go go bed! Saturday was the when the real fun was happening!

At 10:30 in the morning, while I was down for my nap, Aunt Laura arrived and announced she was the driver for the Amazing Race and they were given their first clue! Dressed in Maryland gear, the girls set out to the first stop, The Terrapin  Adventures, to complete a zip line and a giant swing!  Mommy told me later, "the zip line was a bit scary at first, but once you jump off the platform and are on the line it was very cool."  Her favorite part was the giant swing because it was an adrenaline rush.  I am not sure what an adrenaline rush is but it seems like fun because Mommy could not stop shaking and talking about it!  She told me later that it was very scary and when they pulled the girls up the release line did not work the first time so it was even more nerve racking because they were waiting for the swing to drop!  When it did not the man running the ride brought them down and fixed it.  The second time they dropped right away and it was extremely scary!  The staff was so nice and even let them go a second time!  She can't wait to go back and try it again.  I can't wait to be old enough to have an adrenaline rush! I like to swing too!

The next clue was to head over to grandma and grandpa's house and she had to preform a road block.  This posed a challenge for Mommy because she had to start a fire in the fire pit and make it high enough and hot enough to burn a piece of rope.   I think Daddy got that idea from Survivor!  Mommy had a difficult time with this task and she was a little frustrated.   My cousin Tyler told me he tried to help and that made it go faster! Finally, she got the fire burning and she was off to Old Ellicott City for a Detour task! 

During the next stop, The Wine Bin, the Detour, a choice between two tasks, was called Over or Under.  Mommy, Aunt Denise, and Aunt Laura had to choose to buy a bottle that cost over $50 and under $70 or three bottle that were under $20.  The other catch was they had to be different types of wine, ones that Mommy had never had before in her 30 years.  After a short discussion, they decided to go with Under because they were able to get 3 bottles!   The Wine Bin was an exciting store and the three bottles bought were called Blue Reef Shiraz, Ass Kisser Chardonnay, and a bottle of Champagne to toast Mommy's birthday!
The next two stops were in Baltimore.  The fourth clue required  Mommy to get her picture taken at Edgar Allan Poe's grave site and the next clue had the team find the Johnny Unitas statue in front of Raven's stadium and get her picture taken again.  Finally, the race was over and it was time to open the last clue, which told the three girls to come home and get ready to celebrate with a happy hour!  When she arrived home she was greeted by me, who was very hungry, and her family and friends!  I was so proud she was able to complete the Amazing Race!  It seems like she had a blast!

While mommy and the girls were on their Amazing Race, I stayed home with Daddy to get ready for the party at our house.  Aunt Courtney came shortly after Mommy left and played with me while Daddy prepared the food.  Next to arrive was my cousin Brayden and his parents, my Aunt Carol and Uncle Scott.  They ran quite a few errands for Daddy and were a huge help that day too!  Daddy made all kinds of food, each representing a stop on mommy's race!  I think Aunt Carol and Daddy had the most fun cutting up the chicken to make chicken wings! 

The party was a blast and Mommy had a great time celebrating!  My favorite was helping her blow out the candles, even though I wanted to put my hands in that frosting!

I was such a good girl that day too!  I played on the floor, let people hold me, and even stayed up past my bedtime, but was not a cranky girl!  I know Mommy had a blast and was so grateful for the family and friends that help her celebrate her 30th! Great job on planning the day, Daddy! 

Love
Olivia

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!

Snowmageddon 2010

Today should be my second to last day of Maternity Leave, but over 30 inches of snow covered the Maryland area, crippling the state! As a result, schools are closed and another storm is predicted to blanket the area again tomorrow night into Wednesday, adding another 6 plus inches!  So today should be my second to last maternity leave day, but I think Mother Nature is having her own fun!  At this point, Dan is outside for a third day digging out and Baltimore County Schools have closed for Tuesday and Wednesday, so we will wait to see what Howard County decided to do.

My car fell victim to a hit and run sometime Friday night/Saturday morning during the storm.  Someone lost control of their car and sideswiped my Alero, leaving a dent in the fender, the driver's side mirror is dangling, and a huge dent in the passenger side door.  Needless to say they did not leave a note or knock on our door to let us know what happened!  So on top of digging out we have to take the car over to get fixed!  UG!  Here is a shot of the car covered in snow, you cannot see the dents well, but they are there and you can get a feel for just how much snow we received:

 

Other than the car incident we have had a good time and we only wish Olivia was bigger to enjoy the snow more!  Dan is dying to make a fort in the backyard with her and play inside!  Hurley is having the time of his life, running all around the backyard.  We had to block the back area off because the snow is so high he can practically walk up the snow and over the fence!  He is hilarious when he runs to the top of the snow in the middle of the yard, because he looks like some kind of wild animal, watching over his land!  

Courtney and Kris traversed the elements yesterday and came over to watch the Superbowl.  Dan dressed Olivia yesterday in this very boyish football onsie, but he added the headband to make her more girlie!  We got a great laugh at her look:
 

It was an eventful game, but Olivia was asleep before kickoff!  We all had a good time watching the game, eating yummy snacks, and drinking some beers! 

OH BREAKING NEWS: Howard County Schools will be closed tomorrow!  YAHOO!


Back to the blog:
We did take Olivia out in the snow on Saturday and she laughed at the snowflakes that feel on her.  On Sunday the sun came out and when we took her outside it was so bright out she had a hard time keeping her eyes opened and focusing.  So we were not outside for long.  We did compare some of the snowbanks that were not shoveled where it was just snow and they were higher than her little body. 

Well hopefully the next huge snow storm Olivia will be able to play in the snow better!  I know Dan and I will be more excited than her! Haha!

To see more pictures, check out the photo album on the Picasa Web Albums! 
We will continue to dig out and hope for more snow days!
Love to all

3 Months Old

Yesterday Olivia officially turned 3 months old and we spend the day helping Grandma feel better!  My mom has been battling some back issues and yesterday was off of work, so I packed up Olivia and went to keep her company.  I also think she kept me company.  It was an enjoyable day and Grandpa was home for the afternoon and played with Olivia too!  To my relief she took two 50 minute naps in her pack n play at their house.  That made me happy because in just a short week she will have to sleep in that at Miss Sharon's house, her daycare women.  For the next week I will continue to make Olivia laugh, give her lots of hugs, and enjoy the precious moments with her.  At least I can look forward to Spring Break and then Summer Vacation!

So how has Miss Livy Loo changed in the past three months?  Where to begin!  I was looking at her pictures the other day and it is amazing to see how much she has grown!  She now looks less like a starving alien and more like a healthy baby!


It is just so cute to see her face light up when she see something she likes or someone she recognizes!  She has started cooing now and it is getting pretty loud!  The first time I heard her start cooing loudly was a few weeks ago.  I was in the kitchen putting dishes away and she was laying in the living room under her play gym.  I heard this noise and I thought she was ready to switch toys.  When I went into the room she was under the gym talking away at the toy!  She has the cutest little voice ever!  Of course on the flip side her cry can be equally as loud!  I joke that she is going to be as loud as her mother!  I guess it is my payback for being so loud...poor Dan!

She has been gripping things in her hand since Christmas time when Aunt Jill put her rattle in her hand.  She will hold onto the item for a few minutes and then fling it on the ground.  Well the past few days her new tick is that she will reach out and begin to grab at things.  I really saw it this morning when she was sitting in her swing toy we have.  There is a dangling bear on the side.  She reached out and started batting at it!  It was very cute! I cannot wait until she begins to pull at my earrings!

We continue to work on her stomach muscles by daily Tummy Time.  She prefers her back though because she likes to look around and investigate what is going on around her!  She will tolerate Tummy Time and is close to rolling over.  She is starting to figure out that her arm has to come up above her head, but she just does not get that force to roll all the way yet.  I do help her out when she really gets frustrated!

The sleeping has become much improved too!  We have started a bedtime ritual and she goes down between 6 and 6:45, depending on the type of naps she had that day.  The crying has been extremely minimal since we have figured out that we were making her overtired and she could not fall asleep!  When we catch her yawning we begin our nighttime ritual.  It has worked out pretty well.  Most nights she wakes up for one feeding and then wakes up between 6 and 7 in the morning.  It is not perfect and she falls asleep much better at night.  I think it is the whole quite and dark thing! At least she is taking all her naps and sleeps at night in her crib.   I am sure when I return to work next week we will have a whole new issue to deal with but we will celebrate the peacefulness for now!

Well it has been quite the ride for three months.  I look forward to what is ahead and it is amazing to remember where we came from:

 

and are now here:

Time certainly flies when you are having a good time!

Other January Events

Now that we have the 2 month sleep issue on the way to improvements, I am sure there will be more bumps along the road, especially when I return to work February 10th. Olivia continues to grow and explore her world!

At her 2 month appointment, in early January, she weighed 10 pounds 15 ounces an increase of about a pound.  She also grew 3 inches in a month to 24 inches long!  She is in the 49th percentile for weight and 94th for height.  We do not go back to the pediatrician until March for the 4 month check up, but lately she is looking so much bigger to us!

This month she also enjoyed a playdate with Caitlin and Clara Bossle, going to Tyler's basketball games, a visit from Gram and Grandpa Puryear, visiting her cousin Brayden, and being baby sat by Aunt Cathi and  Uncle Randy, and of course Grandma and Grandpa.   She is discovering her toys more and is more fascinated to watch and observe what is going on.  Livy is also grabbing at everything along with puting everything in her mouth.

Here are some picture highlights and for more images of the month, check out the Picasa Web Link on the right column: