Weekend

It has been a long semi-lazy weekend. Brooke ended up getting some stomach bug on Saturday and was up all night with that, and Olivia has had stomach problems as well, but not nearly as bad. She has not been showing any real signs of discomfort, but the 8 poops I changed on Saturday said otherwise. Olivia will be back to her normal day care schedule starting Tuesday and we hope that she can go another week with out getting sick. We are hopeful.

Thanksgiving/Birthday/Halloween Fiesta

We had a great Thanksgiving day. Lots of turkey, stuffing, potatoes, gelatinous-mass and cake. We actually packed a few different events into this one day. First, since Olivia was sick on Halloween and never got to try on her costume, we cheated and put her costume on today and got some "Halloween" pictures for our photo books. She will never know the difference. Second, since last week was John's birthday, we decided to wait and celebrate it today to save everyone a trip down to Columbia. And last, it was of course Thanksgiving.
Olivia looked very cute as a pumpkin. We had gotten previews of her in this costume but not in her control bottom tights and little black shoes. She made a great pumpkin.
For John's birthday part of the day, Brooke made a turkey cake.

She took all of this:

And turned it into this:

It was a great desert after all of that turkey, and John was surprised. John got to eat the turkey head after removing all the skewers holding it on. It was a dangerous cake if you weren't paying attention when eating certain parts of it.

When we first arrived, Olivie looked like this:

She was our little ninja girl. We decided to put her in her costume clothes that go on underneath her pumpkin for the ride up so we didn't have to change her when we got there, saving a possible fit that she likes to throw when being changed. After we got to Mima's, we put on her pumpkin and she had a lot of fun walking around and being the center of attention (when is she not?)

She had a lot of fun

And some not-so-fun moments

But all in all, we had a great day and Olivia always likes getting the chance to see her Auntie Steph and Uncle John.

At the end of the evening Marcia gave Olivia a gift that at first disturbed me a little. It was "The Elf On The Shelf." Now, as soon as I heard elf and saw the little picture on the box I kind of squirmed, but it wasn't until I heard her explaining that it moves at night and keeps watch over whether you are good or bad for Santa. That really got my attention. What is this elf that was going to be coming into our house that moves only at night. I had thought I had gotten the house to a clown/elf/flying-monkey free zone. I knew Olivia would be OK because she licked from the clown lollipop Aunt Gail got her when she was born, but that wasn't going to cut it for me. It wasn't until it was explained to me that the elf was something that we moved around every night while Olivia slept that I relaxed a bit. I originally thought it had batteries or something, and as you know, any elf or clown with batteries is really alive, the batteries are just a front to make it look like the toy is a normal innocent toy. So now that I understand how Elf On A Shelf works, this will be a very fun tradition and I cant wait to start it. I can see Olivia in a year or two getting excited as Christmas gets close and she starts wondering when her elf will show up and start watching her to see if she is good or bad. I already have some fun ideas of where to set him. I still may not sleep as well knowing he is in the house but I know I can get over it. Just need a year or so.

Daycare Play Date

Today is a 1/2 day for me. Brooke is going to get some sleep this morning then when I pick Olivia up at daycare at 12:00, Brooke will head out to get some shopping done. It will be a Daddy day today. Olivia had Grandpa day yesterday and now Daddy day today, so many men, so little time. This is her only day at daycare this week, I wonder if she misses it. I know I don't miss the germs.
This weekend Brooke decided to see if Olivia would enjoy some Diet Coke out of a straw. Her straw sucking abilities were there, but she didn't seem to really like the Coke. Is she really Mommy's daughter?????? I am having my doubts now.

Grandpa's Day

Today Olivia got picked up by her Grandpa Rob for a day of fun. Marcia is out of town so Rob gets her all to himself (ugh, he is in for it with how temperamental she has been recently!!) She will be back home around 5:30 in time for dinner and some playtime.
On the food front, Olivia is not even liking milk anymore. She really only eats solid food now and shows little interest in milk. She does drink water like crazy though. Finally got the hang of her cups. We still give her a bottle right before bed as that seems to sooth her and she hates a cup before bed, but I imagine she will out grow that soon as well. This will be a 1 day daycare week for her, maybe we can keep the germs at bay for this Holiday weekend.
Brooke got Olivia a little singing Santa to get her in the mood for Christmas. As you can see in this video, she loves him.

Lazy Sunday

Olivia still had a fever this morning of 100.7 and seemed to be feeling a little worse than yesterday so I gave her her Tylenol and she is starting to play and be her old self again. I went for my first run in about a month this morning since I am now starting to feel like I can safely exercise without relapsing on my cold. It felt good to get out and do that, though frustrating because it has been so long. Oh well, I give it two weeks and I will be back to my pre-sickness fitness level and feeling great again, assuming I don't get yet another cold in the mean time. I would probably have to stop kissing Olivia on the cheeks to be safe from germs, so I will just have to continue to live dangerously since that is not an option.
Olivia decided to snuggle with my sweatshirt that was laying on the ground this morning (you know how she likes her snugglies.) She was looking kind of blah and I think she did it to feel better, but Lu decided to take advantage of her laying there and that ended up cheering her up quite a bit. They played for a while and after that Livi was up and playing with her toys in no time. Lu certainly cheered her up (and I am sure the Tylenol kicking in helped as well.)

Brain Freeze

Today we decided to give Olivia a Pedialite Popsicle to help re-hydrate her. Not that she has been having any problems drinking, but just figured it would help. Well, she really loves them and took a huge bite at one point, and about 30 seconds after that big bite she started crying her hard crys. I can only assume it was brain freeze, which made it hard for me to sympathize because I was laughing so hard. Poor Livi.
We also finally decided to put Olivia's new birthday boots witht the fur on her that Mommy saw while shopping and couldn't resist getting her. They look great on her. No, we would not normally put her boots on over jammies, but that is just what she happened to be wearing at the time. Jammies or not, she is still styling.

Sickness Still

Poor Livi. There is no end to her sickness. As I said in my last post, she had some pretty bad explosive poops. They have carried on and turned into a fever. I took her to the doctor yesterday afternoon because her fever was 101.7 and her diaper rash was crazy. After the doctor looked her over it was concluded that she has a double ear infection on its way. We are not sure about the diarrhea, but think it could be a stomach virus. the doctor prescribed a round of antibiotics and gave us some new diaper cream that we may or may not use (depending on whether her rash stems from a yeast type infection.) She woke up early today coughing, and had a 102 fever so we gave her some Tylenol to lower it, and she drank down half a bottle, but ended up puking it back up. She managed to keep the second half down. Her poor little butt looks soooo bad, like she sat on a hot plate. This is the sickness that just wont end. Hopefully her little body will get stronger soon. On a good note, Mima is coming down today to watch her at our house. Olivia will be very happy to see Mima again and have fun with her today.

I have no good new pictures because she has been so wimpy, but here is an older video of her eating her ravioli with her fork. She still hasn't gotten down how to stab them herself, she would rather play with them, but she is working on it.

I'm Back

I have always heard "Oh, look how much she has changed" from people that haven't seen Olivia in a while. I always knew that she changed a little, but this week I went out of town for a conference for 4 days. When I got back I thought "Wow, look how much she has changed." It is amazing that even for a short time at this age the small changes that happen. Her babbling has changed and she has a new "phrase." She even looks a little different, cuter of course, but different.
Brooke discovered the "joy" of single motherhood while I was gone. Yes, that is a sarcastic JOY. One of the nights I was gone Chili re-injured his back, Zoe puked in her box in the middle of the night (which required tending to immediately because otherwise she lays in it and foot prints it out in the morning. Livi coughed all night keeping Brooke slightly awake all night, then had a giant poop right before Brooke was walking out the door with her for daycare. On another night, Olivia had a poop explosion sometime at night that about made Brooke gag when walking in the room. She said there was even liquid in Olivia's toes trapped in the jammies. She had to change the bed, changing pad, leave the window open all morning and give her an impromptu bath all before running out the door for work. Blah, poor Brooke, but I am home now so she can sleep in in the mornings now. I got real sick again while on the trip, even thought I was getting swine last night but after a full night of sleep (which I did not get on this trip) I feel refreshed today, yay!! That is all for now, I need to get reacquainted with Olivia so I can share some new stories....
P.S. Check out Olivia moving from her little baby chairs to wanting to be on a big girl chair. She does not quite have the strength yet to get herself up there, but she is determined..

After Shots

It was a long week for us. Olivia had her 1 year shots Thursday morning, which she was not fond of. She got 4 shots, including H1N1 (we weren't expecting that but they said it was available so we decided it couldn't hurt.) She did well the rest of the day, and actually hasn't slept too bad compared to her 4 month shots. She has been waking up a few times a night and crying, but usually will go right back to sleep.
This morning we started miking whole milk into her formula. We are going to get her off formula soon and stick to milk, assuming her stomach does not react poorly to it.
Friday evening we brought Olivia to a nearby park. We have been wanting to put her on a swing for a while but never got around to it. Olivia was already very tired when we went to the park so even though she had a good time, she didn't smile nearly as much as normal. We will have to bring her back again on the weekend when she is fully rested so she can have more fun. In true Livi form though, she saw a cat across the street and left the park on a cat hunt. She is pretty fast when she wants to be. She also really liked to pick up rocks, sticks and pine cones too.

Shots and more Shots

Tomorrow is Olivia's 1 year shots. She just started feeling better and getting back to normal after her cold and now it is going to be turned on its head again. Oh well, she will survive. We will just expect a week of off-schedule.
We finally decided to setup Olivia's little chair that she has had as a baby. She did not like laying in it when she was younger, but really likes sitting in it now that she can walk. She especially loves having her bottle in it while she watches the Today Show in the morning.

Video

Here is a little video of Olivia eating her cake on Saturday. We are happy to announce that we never got ants on the highchair after the cake. You can't beat a good Brooke cleaning.

Birthday Celebration

Olivia's first birthday party morning started out with a home made waffle from Daddy. You can tell it is a Daddy made waffle because it is not nice and round like the way Mommy makes them, it is some strange star shaped waffle hybrid, but Olivia loved it no matter what the shape.
She spent some more time playing around until nap time, then I put her down for her rest. We planned on leaving for Lexington after Olivia's nap, which ended up being 3 hours. It was crazy, but she hasn't been napping at Daycare, and with the time change, she is also losing an hour of sleep because she awakes as soon as the sun comes up now.
So after she awoke from her 3 hour nap, we dressed her and fed her in the car on the way to Mima's for her celebration. Steph and John were coming down to celebrate with us, but unfortunatly John wasn't feeling well so he stayed home. We arrived at Mima's and waited around until Mima got off work, and Rob went and picked up some pizzas for dinner.
After dinner, we gathered in the living room to open presents. Olivia seemed excited by all the packages and colors. She opened some great gifts and had fun tearing the wrapping paper, and even eating some.
After presents we gave her her "smash" cake. She was unsure at first, but quickly got the hang of it and made quite the mess. There was a lot of cleanup involved afterwards, including a quick bath in the kitchen sink for Livi. After that it was time for the adults to have their cake, then clean up and leave. Olivia's first birthday was a success, everyone had a good time. It was a very late night for Livi, but well worth it. Happy Birthday Livi!!

Olivia's Smash Cake

The big stuffed puppy from Auntie Steph and Uncle John

Olivia attacking her cake

The after-cake bath

The B-day family

Happy Birthday

Happy Birthday Olivia Lee!! My how time flies. The household is coming to the end of it's plague I think. I for one am feeling much better, still have a horrible cough that hurts, but other than that I feel good. Brooke does not have a voice yet and is coughing a lot but I think is starting to get better as well. Tomorrow we head down to Lexington to celebrate Livi's birthday with Mima and Grandpa Rob, and Auntie Steph and Uncle John are coming down as well. I can't wait for Olivia to eat her first cake!!

The Morning After

Well, Halloween was a bust. All three of us were too sick to do anything. My cold got much worse as the day went on, even ran a 101 fever for a while. I also had a hard night, but as of this morning, I feel pretty good. Owe that to part medications, but I also think I may be starting to get over this crap. As for Olivia, I was a little worried when I went in to get her this morning. I opened the door and she was standing with her head resting against the crib rail as though she was exhausted. When I picked her up though, I saw both of those beautiful blue eyes looking at me. Neither was crusted shut like the other mornings. I brought her out and gave her all of her medications which she HATES now. It is like we are murdering her. But after I got all the meds in her and brought her out to eat, she was almost her normal self. Still very congested, but running around playing with all her toys and talking up a storm. There are sneezes every 10 minutes or so, but our Livi is back. We will keep up with all her meds, especially the Tamiflu and hope that she is 110% by her birthday party Saturday. I have not taken her temp yet today because that would send her over the edge, but she does not feel at all like a hot-potato that she has normally been feeling like the past few days. We are approaching nap time, I hope she can get some more good sleep!!

Here is a picture of all her Meds, well organized as you know Brooke would do


Below is a video of Olivia yesterday. I figure if I share the good times, I might as well share the bad. Video not for the faint of heart!!