Funny Dog

As I have said, Olivia loves her dogs. Here is just a quick video of her laughing at Chili. Later on, after the camera stopped rolling, chili got the sneezes real bad, and she just loved it. This video was actually taken a few weeks ago.

Also, here she is in her Jumparoo. She used to go pretty crazy in it, though now that she is crawling and cruising on tables and furniture, she doesn't like being in it much anymore. I guess you could say she has outgrown it :-) Like the previous one, this was taken many weeks ago. She is playing her "Jump and Freeze" game with me.

Oompa Loompa

Don't you just wish all babies came with instructions? I guess slapping a safety label on a baby doesn't automatically give you all the wisdom you need. Oh well, it was a good try at least.
So, we decided to research why Olivia's nose has been getting oranger and oranger every day. At first we thought the camera added a shade of orange (and 5 pounds) to Olivia, but as time went on we started admitting to ourselves that it wasn't the camera, but reality. Her nose was orange. Was Olivia going to be my nightmare and become an Oompa Loompa? How could I sleep at night knowing that there was a little Oompa Loompa in the next room? Sure, she was in a crib that would ultimately hold her in so she couldn't wander the house at night and possibly eat my toes, but it was still an unsettling thought. I began hearing the Oompa Loompa song in my head when I looked at her.
To easy my un-ease, Brooke researched the orange nose syndrome Olivia was experiencing. The culprit, beta carotene. Yes, Olivia loves her orange food. She hates meat, peas and beans, but loves sweet potatoes and carrots. I guess babies are what they eat, and she is a little orange vegetable. I wish adults could do the same thing, then I could search for a nice tan food and look GOOD!!!
We also got Oliva a new toy yesterday. It is a little walker that converts into a car. She loves it, thought cant walk with it yet. After practicing for a bit, she stood up with it, it rolled out away from her and she went right down with it. It will be fun when she gets the hang of it thought and is walking through the house.

Phone Call

I had my first conversation on the phone with Olivia today. I was talking to Brooke on the phone and she put the phone near Olivia's mouth so i could hear her do her excited breathing that she does when she is playing. Then she put the phone to her ear and I talked to her a bit. Brooke said she smiled and then I heard her do a little laugh. Was it me that made that happen? I like to think she knows my voice by now!!

(My First) Father's Day

Better late than never posting about Father's Day I guess.
Friday evening the three of us went to Columbia for dinner with some friends. They have a 4 year-old and thought it would be fun to see Olivia and him together, along with catching up with Emily and Rob. We had a good dinner and Olivia did pretty well despite not getting much in the way of naps that day. After dinner we dropped Olivia off with Mima and Grandpa Rob. Lulu happened to be staying with Sheri from work, she requested a weekend play date with her since she loves Lu, and thinking nothing of it, I obliged. I had promised her that she could have Lulu on a weekend when she wanted and this was her requested weekend. Brooke's master plan was falling into place right in front of my face and I was oblivious. The plan as I heard it was that Olivia would stay with Mima and Grandpa Rob Friday night and then they would bring her back Saturday afternoon. Little did I know this was not the case.
I woke up Saturday morning, ate breakfast and was getting ready for a run when I heard the shower running at about 8:00. This was strange, Brooke is never awake before 11:00 on weekends. She emerged from the bedroom and said, "Go shower, we are taking a trip." My immediate thought was "great, we are going to Target in Simpsonville and possibly BabiesRUs, just what I want to do on a weekend." I showered, got dressed and noticed the leashes on the entertainment center. Then saw Brooke wheeling out a suitcase. I realized that maybe Target wasn't on her mind after all. I put the suitcase in the trunk of the car and saw dog food, another suitcase, pillows etc. Definatly not Simpsonville here.
Brooke told me that we were going on a surprise Father's Day trip with just the two of us and that Livi was staying with Rob and Marcia for the weekend. Sad to be away from Livi for part of Father's Day, but a weekend with just adults, awesome!!
Brooke broke down and told me we were going to Charleston. We were dropping the dogs off with Marcia and Rob, so that makes 4 dogs, 1 cat, and 1 baby for their weekend, 0 animals and 0 babies for us, SCORE!!
We arrived in Charleston and ate at a little "dive" sandwich shop that was very good actually. After lunch, we drove to the downtown market area and started the long process of finding a FREE parking spot. After about 1/2 hr of looking, we decided to pay to park a few blocks away. We had a great time looking at all the shops and in the flea market style area in the middle. It was hot hot hot though. We were both drenched. Should have listened to Marcia and brought a towel to wipe ourselves off with.
After shopping, we headed to the hotel. We got checked in and had just enough time to shower before heading to dinner. Brooke surprised me with a fancy Sushi restaurant for dinner. I had not had sushi since I left Florida and had been craving it for a while. I got a very good sushi fix!! After dinner we headed back to the downtown market area for another round of 1/2 hours of driving looking for a parking space, where there were a few good dessert places. Again, after wasting time driving, we headed to the parking garage and parked. We ended up at a desert place that has no menu. They make all their desserts fresh daily and what they make is what they have. Brooke got a turtle cheesecake and I got a mountain of chocolate cake. After we were through, we were both stuffed and decided to walk it off for a while now that it wasn't so hot. We walked back by some of the shops we saw earlier until we were exhausted and headed back to the hotel for some much needed sleep.
The next morning we had to get up early because Brooke had another surprise expedition planned for us. We were going on a kayak tour. I was very excited, yet another thing I have not done since Florida and had been craving. As it turns out, the group of 5 that were scheduled to go on the tour with us cancelled so it was just Brooke and I along with the tour guide. Made the trip allot more enjoyable. We saw dolphin and learned all about the native birds that roost there. It was an awesome kayak trip. Just what I needed.
After kayaking we headed back to Columbia to have a late lunch with Marcia, Rob and Livi, then head home for the evening and receive Lulu from Sheri. It was a great first Father's Day. I will remember it always, especially next year when I will probably just get new socks or a tie :-)
Lulu was happy to be around her main snack source, and wore her bib in anticipation.

All Boxed Up..

Olivia is all boxed up and ready to ship to Grandma. Ok, not really. Didn't mean to get any hopes up. We received some new throw pillows in the mail the other day and Brooke decided to have some fun with the box they came in. Olivia seemed to enjoy it.
We are still having problems keeping her away from cords, though she seems to slowly be learning "No". I imagine with her personality "No" will become her name, perhaps with "Stop" as her middle name.
Olivia has been pulling her self up a lot lately. She may be an early walker, she defiantly has the legs for it. Brooke got to witness and amazing feat, Olivia pulled herself up on the sliding glass door to get a better look at the dogs. I don't have any idea how she did this, but it sure was cute.

Self Propelled "Furniture"

I feel bad. This morning I was more tired than normal, didn't get enough sleep so during my normal routine of wake Olivia, change Olivia, feed Olivia, feed dogs, let dogs out, wash baby bottle, etc, etc. (I am getting exhausted just reading this list!!) I made a mistake. Setting Olivia down on the floor and going and washing out her bottle, I headed back into the dining room to log the amount of formula she drank. As I walked out of the kitchen I caught a glimpse of Lulu's tail by the couch, and since Lulu is never more than 2 feet from Olivia, my mind just assumed she was with our little "O". Well I turned the corner of the table and my shin came in contact with a hard object that I would normally assume was Zoe's head. It was not, it was my baby's little head. That is when the crying started, from Olivia as well as me. I felt so bad, it was a good whack to the head with my shin. She didn't cry too long. My hugging and bouncing may have helped a little but I knew all was ok after she caught a glimpse of Lulu near my feet and she started her normal "there is my puppy" laugh through her tears. So even though I cant get her to stop crying, at least I know the dogs can.

On another note, I am including a picture from Olivia's first play date with the daughter of one of the professors here. This was from a few weeks ago, but fun to look at either way. Notice that Olivia has the stuffed animal. She loves her stuffed animals!!

New Hair

Just a quick picture of the new Olivia hair style. Well, not her always hairstyle, but a new hairstyle.
Olivia is showing a love for music. There are some commercials that come on that she shows an extra liking to, but for the most part, she will stop what she is doing and look at the tv when a commercial with music comes on. It is pretty cute. She can be sitting facing away from the TV entirely and when her commercial comes on she gets a cute look on her face and turns her head around as far as she can. We will have to start having the radio or CD's on more often for her to start developing her favorite genre.