Tuesday, September 17, 2013

15 months

Olivia is 15 months!  I can't believe it!  I have to say, 15 months is my favorite age yet.  I think I say that every other month but she is so fun right now.  She can (kind of) tell us what she wants by pointing and using the sign for "more" that Jason taught her.  She also gives hugs, kisses, high-fives, and snuggles all day long. Her babysitter tells me almost daily how sweet & how good of a baby Olivia is and I have to agree.

At her 15-month checkup yesterday, she weighed 25 pounds 14 ounces putting her in the 94th percentile for height and weight.  She is a very healthy girl!  Our normal doctor, Dr. Brink, is out for a family emergency so the clinic had a doctor from another location filling in.  Olivia & I weren't huge fans of her or her nurse and there were lots of tears from Olivia, but once they left the room she was all better!  Here is my happy girl once we got home from the doctor:
Happy to be done with shots and playing in the garage!
Some of Olivia's favorite things at 15 months:
-Her blankie
-Playing outside
-Shoes
-Giving high-fives
-Yogurt melts
-Bananas & strawberries
-Kissing her grandparents on the iPad
-Playing with her baby
-Bath time
-Daniel Tiger
-Putting on her pajamas

Olivia's dislikes at 15 months:
-Diaper changes (especially after a bath for some reason) & getting dressed in the morning
-Coming in from outside
-Sitting in the car when it isn't moving
-Sitting in her stroller for more than 30 minutes
-Sloppy Joes

We have so much fun with our sweet girl!  I know everyone thinks their baby is the sweetest but Jason and I talk almost every night about how she is the cutest thing we have ever seen.  We went to visit our friends Christine & Jeff and their new baby, Aston, last night and Olivia was not a happy girl when Mommy fed Aston a bottle.  I don't think she is ready for a sibling quite yet!  

Big day - Olivia's first ponytail!  Now if we could just grow some hair on top.....



Monday, August 5, 2013

What do you eat?

I took this from one of my favorite blogs, Kelly's Korner.  I am nosy and like to know what others eat during the day :)

1.  What do you eat for your normal breakfast?

2. What do you eat for your normal lunch?

3. When you are on a road trip and stop at a gas station..................what's your go to snack? And come on - we all do it, right?


And be honest.   Don't fear judgement!


1.  Every day I eat a protein bar.   I love it and really do look forward to it every morning!  The only exception to this is the rare occasion that we have company & Jason cooks breakfast, or if I can convince Jason to go out.  I love breakfast out but Jason isn't a huge fan.  The other exception is today - my Dad dropped off these delicious cinnamon rolls for my birthday.  Thanks, Dad!  I think I'll be eating them for days!
Breakfast the size of my head! 
2.  I usually eat out at least once a week for lunch - I just hate thinking of lunch ideas.  There are very few things I like to eat leftover, but usually do bring leftovers once a week.  Otherwise I bring a turkey sandwich or PB&J.

3. If we stop somewhere in the morning I have to get a donut - love donuts!  If it's in the afternoon I like to get something salty like Chex Mix or Combos, plus something sweet - my favorite thing is a cherry Tangy Taffy.  Yum!

So what do you eat?

Monday, July 29, 2013

Weekend wrap-up

Well I am already feeling like a bad blogger - zero photos taken this weekend!  In my defense I came down with a weird 24-hour bug that left me feeling like death.  This is the first time I've been sick since having Olivia and being sick with a toddler is no joke! I was out with friends on Saturday when it hit me - I was torn between thinking I had food poisoning and was pregnant!  Thankfully I have a wonderful husband who took care of Olivia for 90% of the day while I slept the day away.  Feeling much better today & can't wait to play with my little munchkin tonight.

Friday night Olivia and I had a fun dinner date with Lydia.  Olivia is hit or miss these days when we go out to eat - she is either a perfect angel or a terror.  Thankfully she was in angel mode on Friday and spent the entire dinner waving at the waitresses and the other diners around us.

Saturday morning Olivia and I went to pick my Mom up to run a few errands at the mall, and when I pulled into the driveway my Dad came out and said he wanted to watch Olivia while we ran our errands.  Yes, please!  We were only gone an hour or so but it was much easier to get things done without my little sidekick and I know Olivia and Grandpa had a fun time.

My friend Jana got to town around 4:00 on Saturday and shortly afterwards we headed downtown to meet up with some friends for dinner & drinks.  Olivia had a fun night in with Jason!  I had a great time until the bug hit me around 9:00.  I made it until around 11:45 when I had to leave.  I'm hoping to avoid sickness for as long as possible - I forgot how miserable it is to have a fever!

Thursday, July 25, 2013

Thankful Thursday

I am thankful that Olivia woke up in an extra happy moood today!  Mornings are always her happiest time of the day, but today's level of happiness was above and beyond what I've ever seen before.  She was full of big smiles and giggles.  I suppose I'm also thankful she gets just as much joy out of an empty cottage cheese container as she does with a brand new toy.  Just try and not smile when you look at this face:

Mom you're so funny!

I'm thankful for cooler weather!  Finally the heat & humidity have let up.  Last week had me looking like this - scary!

It's the humidity!  My all time favorite Friends episode :)
I am thankful for friends introducing me to new things.  Today my friend Kayla came down for lunch and suggested we go to Open Sesame, a Lebanese Cafe in the East Village.  I won't lie, I was not thrilled about trying Lebanese food.  I am more of a cheeseburger/chicken strip girl.  However - it was DELICIOUS!  Their hummus was to die for.  One of the best meals I have had in a long time.  Thank you, Kayla!

Finally I'm thankful to have house guests two weeks in a row!  Last week we had Megan, Fred & Claire and this weekend my college friend Jana is coming down for a visit.  I love having extra time in the evenings & mornings to catch up with friends.  Not only do I love having friends stay with us but it gives me a reason to clean.  I swear if we didn't have house guests our house would never get cleaned.   

Monday, July 22, 2013

What a difference a year makes!

I started looking back through photos today and found photos that I uploaded exactly one year ago today.  How did our Olivia go from this sleepy little peanut to this sassy little stinker in just one year?!
A sleepy six-week old.

13-month stinker girl!

Welcome!

Welcome to our blog!  I decided to start blogging for two main reasons - first and most importantly to keep everyone up to date on Olivia!  I have been slacking on taking pictures of her so I figured if I had somewhere to post the photos without overloading Facebook I would be more likely to photograph our darling daughter. 

Olivia is now 13 months and I say this every month but this is my favorite age yet.  Right after she turned one we noticed that she was understanding a lot more.  We can now tell her to do something (bring us her blankie, bring us her baby, etc.) and she will do it!  If we ask her if she wants to have lunch, she will head straight for the kitchen.  My absolute favorite thing to tell her to do is to give Mommy a hug.  Seeing her toddle towards me, arms out, is the best feeling ever!

Can you even handle her preciousness?
                                                 
My favorites.
                                                                 
Secondly - I am selfishly starting to blog to hold myself accountable while training for the Des Moines Marathon.  I'm starting to get into the rough part of the training and I thought if I had somewhere to post how training was going it might help me stay motivated when  my alarm clock goes off at 4:45 a.m.  Right now I'm trying to do all my runs early in the morning before Jason and Olivia get up.  I want my training to impact them both as little as possible.  Of course that will change when I have to run 16, 17, 20(!!) miles on a Saturday morning, but for now I'm gone and back before they both even think about waking up. 

This blog very well might only be interesting to me and that's okay :)  For now I'll leave you with one of Olivia's latest tricks!