Riding with my Babies.

We spent the weekend in Kansas City with family. It was great to see
everyone.

We caught up with friends, went swimming with Miss Olive and
celebrated Matt's birthday. Now we are making the drive back to STL,
and I'm in the backseat keeping the little miss company while Kyle
drives us home.

My Favorite Things.

When we pick Olive up from day care, we peek through her classroom window until she notices. Her face lights up, and she wiggles all over ... my heart swells and all is well with the world.

More Swimming!

We recently purchased a little inflatable pool from Target and stuck
Olive in it. She very much enjoyed even this tiny pool. We are
really excited to take her swimming again very soon.

Oh, McDonald's ...

So, we drove to Chicago this weekend to visit some friends and introduce our babies. On our way, we stopped at a McDonald's with a PlayPlace so that Olive could get out of her seat and watch some other children scream and play. She is crawling more and more these days, but we encouraged her to 'walk' instead of crawl. (Yikes, I may get over it, but those floors! And she puts her hands in her mouth ... and ... yuck.)

Here she is:



I think she enjoyed the adventure.

Our weekend was quick and too short but wonderful. We had a great time watching Olive meet Anna and Elise and Lawrence, and we enjoyed catching up with their parents!

Now, we are back in St. Louis and marveling at how much Olive's mobility will change our lives in the next few weeks ...

Love to all!

Oh, Bananas!

Kyle was home with our Olive today. She had a fever yesterday and was
required to be out from school today too.

We took her to the doctor to discover that she was not suffering from
teething pain (or not just teething pain) but an ear infection!

Kyle snapped this photo and sent it my way to show me how much better
our Lovie is doing. Apparently, the vigor with which you will waive a
banana peel in the air is a measure of your happiness. Who knew!?

All Dressed Up ...

Olive's top two front teeth are coming in, and she is a fussy duck.
Despite her protests, we dressed her up for church this morning.

When she fell asleep as we were just about turning into the church
parking lot, we didn't have the heart to wake her. (Also, we were
really enjoying the quiet. We just were.)

So, we drove and drove and drove.

Here she is at Target, in her church clothes, gnawing a biscotti.
And, yes, that is biscotti mush on her forehead.

Sea Lions. Oh My!

(If you look closely, you can see two teeth!)

This weekend we took Olive to the Zoo. (First, it was Trinity Alumni Family Day at the zoo. Second, this year is the Zoo-tenial, celebrating 100 years of zoo-osity. Third, it was a gorgeous day to take a small child to the zoo. Rain. Check. Chill. Check. Ok, maybe this last one isn't so viable.)

We enjoyed some time with the sting rays. (Kyle fed them. I chickened out ... er held the baby. Yea, that's what I did.)

Then we took in the Sea Lion show. It was really neat. They are amazing animals. Because we have connections (TU, not us personally), our group enjoyed a special sea lion experience after the show.



Nothing like rain and sea lion goo to make you feel your best. (And Olive was not entirely keen on being that close to a big wet animal.)

All in all, we had a great - although very wet - time. Our plan is to go back when its sunny and take Olive on the train and the carousel.

Just Chillin'.

Olive on May 12, 2010. Relaxing and eating Cheerios while I hustle to get us out the door.

Our Baby.

Olive had her 9-month appointment today. Kyle was her chaperone.

She now weighs 17 lbs, 9 oz.

She now measures 2 ft, 3 in tall.

These measurements are in the 25th percentile. (Of 100 babies, 75 would be bigger and taller than Olive. ish.)

Her head circumference is 18.31 inches.

This measurement is in the 100th percentile. (Yup, same 100 babies? Olive's head would be the biggest. Again, ish.)

The doctor had her nurse remeasure just to be sure.

All in all, the doc was pleased and so are we.

Mothers' Day.

We hope our Moms, our family members who are moms and our friends who are moms had a wonderful day.

This year we celebrated Mothers' Day here in the STL. To start, the weather here was GORGEOUS! Really and truly perfect. We went to church, drove Olive around for a snooze, grabbed brunch at a lovely place near us, ran some errands, took a long walk in the park and wound up our day with a home cooked meal and some time at home prepping for the week ahead.

Kyle and Olive gave me some lovely goodies, but I really enjoyed spending the day with the two of them enjoying the mundane and wonderful things that make our lives special right here and right now.

- H

Swimming!

I'm into the one word titles these days.

We recently took Olive for her first swim. At first, she was flustered by the cold water and expressed her displeasure.



Then she took it all in.



Then the sun came out, she warmed up, and, as far as we can tell, she really enjoyed her time at the pool. We're hoping to do it again before too long!

Dirt ...

Olive ate her first dirt this past weekend. Well, more precisely, she sucked on her first piece of bark. Yup, tasty.

Among our weekend chores was yard work. Kyle did the heavy lifting and machine operating, and I helped with some dead-heading and some weed pulling and some Olive-monitoring. We were sitting out front, hanging out while Kyle ran the weed-wacker. I’m not sure when Olive grabbed it, but I noticed her sucking on something. I pried open her mouth (not the easiest task) to reveal a quarter-sized piece of bark. We didn’t see her sneak it in, and we are not sure why she thought it would be appetizing. I fished it out ASAP. Thankfully, she has not experienced any ill-effects, and I am trying not to think of the chemicals lurking in that bark.

Still, she generally brushes off our attempts to offer a sippy cup. What makes a piece of lawn refuse appealing? I’m still shaking my head.

Photos.

Our friend Stacy snapped a few shots of Olive in the recently opened City Garden park in downtown St. Louis. (http://www.citygardenstl.org/)

Thank you, Stacy!! They turned out wonderfully.

I really wanted these to be Olive’s 6-month photos. Given that I didn’t ask Stacy to take them until after Olive was 6-months old and that the weather in January/February was not conducive to cute outdoor photography, we have Olive’s 8-month photos!

Olive - SB limited

It has been a little while ...

... and we've been keeping ourselves busy. We're working on some spring cleaning for the house. (Does that chore ever take the alloted time? We almost finish something and then find three more somethings to attack!) We have been keeping busy with work and other chores too.

Olive is growing like a weed! We're headed to the pediatrician next week for her nine month appointment. We'll report official stats then, but ...

- She has two teeth (on the bottom) and we're keeping an eye out for the top ones to make an entrance.

- She's starting to eat more food that isn't pureed smooth. So. We are playing with texture and 'solid' food. Tonight she gobbled down some macaroni!

- She can roll over but only when we are not around to witness. More and more frequently we find her awake in the morning on her tummy. She can 'spin' herself around in a circle, and oooch around a little bit. But she hasn't really discovered the purpose in moving around a room.

- She loves to stand up which isn't new, but she is becoming more and more stable. Also, if we stand her next to the coffee table, she'll 'walk' along ... slowly, but surely. She'll also take a few steps holding our hands ... we shall see, but she may walk before she crawls. We do want her to start moving but knowing that she won't move very far is pretty convenient ...

We did get Olive in a pool for the first time recently, and I think we have ourselves a water-loving baby. I'll put up a photo or two before too long. Also, one of our friends snapped a few 8-month photos of Olive Easter weekend. I'll find one or two to post soon.

Love to all!

H

Ah, Teeth!

Olive has been teething lately. Not much fun for any of us, but, in life, I'm sure she will enjoy having teeth. For now, she just enjoys gnawing on these messy biscuits.