I was very hungry Sunday and decided to break down and get some McDonald's chicken nuggets. While sitting at the table eating them I had two little beggars looking at me. It was very cute. I actually kept biting the "fry" off of the chicken and giving Olivia small pieces of "chicken" or what ever is included in the nuggets. She loved them. Like Daddy, like Daughter.
I am officially saying Olivia was walking by the end of August. I say she reached her goal. It may be argued that she isn't, but 5 steps then sitting down is walking enough for me. I think she could go as long as she wanted if she wouldn't get lazy and sit down then crawl the rest of the way. It won't be long now before she is walking everywhere. She has the weight shift just rite now and seems to like walking. We shall see.
Olivia was also sad that she didn't get to spend much time with her mom this weekend. Brooke is feeling much better today (though not nearly 100%) Hopefully she will be back to normal by the time Olivia gets back home from Mima's on Wednesday afternoon.

Flipping Pages

No, this isn't about turning the pages on a new chapter in Olivia's life. But it is about page turning. Olivia has been turning her own pages when she gets her night stories. She loves to reach and turn the page when you say "turn the page." Not sure if she knows the phrase or not, but when I lift the page slightly and say it, she grabs the page and turns it for me. It is very cute. Plus, her new activity table has a little plastic book with a page that makes noise when flipped, and she is great at turning it back and forth.
This has been a strange weekend for Olivia. Mommy has had a bad stomach flu or something and has not been out of bed but for a few hours this weekend. Olivia misses her I think. It has been Olivia and daddy all of Saturday and Sunday. I wonder if she is sick of me yet? Probably not, I most likely give her more Cheerios than she is used to and I bet she loves it. I hope momma starts feeling better soon!! I know she misses Olivia as well, but we don't want to take the chance of passing anything to her. We miss you Mommy, get well soon!

Morning Smiles

I am always surprised at the amount of smiles I get in the morning when Olivia wakes up. Whether it be by me waking her up (nice smiles) or me going in when I see she is already awake (very big smiles.) I decided to video what I get to see when she wakes up. I will enjoy it while I can because I am sure when she has to wake up someday for school, it won't be the same smiles. Of course, I didn't capture the big smiles because I had the dreaded video camera with me when I went in. But I did get some happy faces none the less.

Belts and Beach Balls

The Scenario: Olivia doing something very cute and funny.

The Problem: How to share this cute situation with family and friends.

The Solution: Digital Video Camera...

The Problem: Digital Video Camera.... (well, Olivia's awareness of it)

Why is it that ANY time Brooke says "Get the camera" what ever Olivia was doing will end abruptly after the camera focuses. This could be after I watch for 5 minutes, then decide, "Yes, I will get a picture of this" or even after 15 seconds of me jumping up and grabbing the camera. The result is the same. The fun stops. Not necessarily because she (or even the dogs) see I have the camera, but just the actual presence of the camera on the situation. It happens time and time again.

I took two videos today of Olivia. The first is her playing with my belt. I laid it on the floor while I got dressed to keep her from crying (she was getting very tired.) I took 6+ minutes of video, but in order to spare everyone the time, I sped it up to under 2 minutes. Results are the same, watch her discover a bendy type of object that she has never come in contact with before. She was fascinated. Plus it is kind of fun to see her at 400X speed.

The second video is us playing with Olivia with her beach ball. All the real fun happened before I said "I need to record this." I would bounce it off of her head and say "BOOM" real loud and she would just crack up laughing and LOVED it. Of course, after the camera came out is was the typical blank stare. It is like she knows.

Enjoy.

Last but not least, she took 3 actual steps today. I would call that officially a "walk." She just needs to get better with that left leg, but they were three certified steps. Certified by Mom and Dad yes, but certified none the less.

School Days

School has started today for Brooke.  Marcia came up and watched Olivia here at our house for the day so Brooke would not have to drive and pick her up tomorrow.  I will stay home on Wednesdays with her until 12:00 when Brooke comes home and we switch off.  If Marcia decides to take Olivia home with her on Tuesdays, then I will just go to work as normal on Wednesdays.
Other than that all is normal on the Olivia front.  Still working on that walking.  She can take a step with her right leg, but the left leg is planted firmly.  She could almost just walk circles around her left leg if she wants.  However, she is very very close!!!  We have also been giving her more and more table food.  Last night she had a few small bites of my pizza, and tonight she had some macaroni and cheese.  She loved the mac and cheese, but the pizza, not so much.
Olivia is also starting to want to climb.  She tries to climb the gates whenever possible.  She may climb before she walks.  We are also getting excited for Grandma and Grandpa's visit next weekend.  Just under 2 weeks away!!  But please, keep the wild boar meat and caterpillar eyebrows at home.

Walk This Way

We still have 8 days left to reach our goal of having Olivia walk by the end of August. It may be a lofty goal, but you gotta shoot for something right? She is standing on her own, even stands and does little squats. She has great balance. She finally took to her little walker. It used to shoot out from under her when she put weight on it, but now she can control it and walk all the way down the hallway.
She has started to share with us as well. She will sit in front of you with a toy then hand it to you with a big smile. We take it excitedly and then give it back to her. Such a good little girl. And yes, she even shares her spoon with us (her favorite toy in the world.)
I am sitting writing this at 8:30 this morning waiting for Olivia to wake up. We have decided to try a new schedule with her since school is starting up again. I used to get up at 6:00 and wake her up, feed her, play and put her back down around 7 - 7:30. I am very surprised we put her down at 8:00 last night, it is 8:30 AM and she is still sleeping!! OOOOhhhh... She is up... I see her on the monitor.... Gotta GO!!!!

Theory Of Mind

No, I had no idea what this post title meant either before I met Dr. Brooke. I learned that phrase last year sometime when she was talking to her students at a department get-together. It encapsulates many developmental milestones, but among them is that ability to look in the direction of where someone is pointing, as opposed to just looking at the hand. I have found that Olivia is now doing that. I will roll a ball, and point to it. She will usually look at where I am pointing now as opposed to just at my finger. It is pretty cool (well, yes, cool if you are the parent, probably just blah blah if you aren't. Hey, at least I recognize!)
There are a lot of new faces she makes that I need to capture on the camera as well. We have a new "ugly" face. very crinkled nose and evil eyes. However she still is the cutest thing around. And it is not just Brooke and I thinking that. Olivia is pretty smitten with her reflection as well.....