Despite the onset of more frigid days and a nasty spell of the flu, we have been keeping busy…especially Olivia. This little girl is moving! She’s crawling everywhere now; sometimes I’ll turn around to hang up a shirt in her closet, and she’ll already be in the living room, heading for her zebra. She’s quick! Lately, she’s been trying to stand up by herself in the middle of the room; it’s pretty funny to watch because she doesn’t have much balance, but that doesn’t stop her. She’s walking all around the furniture, taking some good risks and steps by herself. And once she’s crawled up onto something, she is not afraid of falling. Often, she tries to take a nose dive off the couch when Brian or I are standing right there–fearless and naive. In addition to crawling, Olivia LOVES to dance or “bop” to music, especially rock or anything with a heavy beat or drum. She often crawls up to her rocking zebra and bounces with it (see picture below). She also thinks it’s hilarious to knock anything over, especially stacks of blocks, books…whatever will make noise or get a reaction out of us.
Olivia’s also babbling frequently. Her favorite word is still “da-da”, but her vocabulary has also expanded to “no,” “boo” or “moo”, “uh oh”–definitely a new favorite–and “ba.” She still loves to play peek-a-boo, ball, and clapping games, but now she’s very interested in turning the pages of books. Sometimes, she’ll sit for a half hour just flipping through books. (Love it!) Just in this past week, Olivia’s been trying to “kiss” people, and she can play “so big.” adorable!
When we took her to the doctor for her check-up, she weighed in at 23 pounds and is 29 1/2 inches long–still in the 90th%. Olivia was recovering from the flu that day, so she was pretty sad to watch because all she wanted to do was curl up on my shoulder, droopy eyes, lethargic body and all. Fortunately, that malaise only lasted a day.
Other than that, I’ve been keeping busy with school (I have great students and classes this term!), graduate school, and seeing friends. Yesterday I took my two certification tests, so say a pray that I passed. Brian’s busy month of fun friend time is about to start, beginning next week with an all-day bachelor party!
So here are some picture of our little darling. The one of Olivia with the balloon reminds me of all the stories I’ve heard about Brian as a baby because he hated balloons. Olivia loves them, but she didn’t want her picture taken. The one of her on the couch is when she was sick with the flu; poor baby!
