New Blog!

I want to announce that all posts from November on will be on our new blog:

http://casqueirofamily.blogspot.com/

I apologize for the inconvenience of switching what you read, but This blog has become less about solely Olivia and more about our little family as we grow and learn together. so I wanted the URL to be a little more appropriate for that.

Just to make it more confusing, I still plan on continuing my snail-paced catch up on this blog, so ideally you will see new posts on both. I just got the wedding pictures all together, so I have a lot to catch up on, and would really like to post about Olivia's 1st Christmas before she experiences her 2nd :).

Anyway, I am working on my first picture post for the new blog right now with some November pictures, and I love you all!

Birthday Party!

Olivia's Big Day ended with a "party", also known as Mom and Dad, lots of presents, and Skype :/. Not exactly the first birthday party that I had in mind, but it worked just fine. We were able to skype with Aunt Jenaye first, then Grandma Terece and Auntie Em. While talking to them, we opened a box from them, which included the toy that Olivia is playing with below. It's Sesame Street character toys, complete with Oscar's garbage truck! She loves it :). The M&M's she is standing on were also in the box. At least she found a good use for them! The box was a fun combination of toys, clothes, and stuff for mom and dad (fun new towels for a guest bathroom will hopefully eventually have and a 2 month membership to a gym for my birthday, YAY!).

Our plan was to skype on two different computers with two different families, but one computer was acting up that evening, so we ended up saying goodbye to my family and calling the Casqueiros. Here is a picture of Olivia talking to her Auntie Ashley.

The Casqueiros sent this OSU Pillow Pet (which she wrestles with at night before falling asleep usually half on the pillow, half squished up against the side of the bed), and some super cute clothes and new books. She loves the embroidery on the pillow pet most right now, I always find her scratching at his mouth and nose :).

Olivia's favorite gift was the dollar she received from Great Grandma and Grandpa Romrell. It was her first cash gift ever (although she did get some fun gift cards!), and she played with that dollar until I made her put it down to open the next gift.

She had many fun gifts and cards from our wonderful family. Mom and dad got her her first doll and The Lion King movie. She wasn't as interested in the gifts as we were, but that's to be expected, and she had some practice for Christmas in a few months.

We chose to do cake last, for the simple reason that we knew she would head straight from the high chair to the tub. I made her a little cake of her own, and here is a few pictures of her birthday cake experience :).

Here's the clean little munchkin after her bath. Alex took the tough job of bathing the birthday girl, and I took the kitchen floor. You will all be proud to know that there was cake and/or frosting on 20 of the 18" tiles that cover the dining room...The video of her flinging cake was no joke. This picture also looks exactly like a pic of Auntie Ashley that I tried to find, but I failed...

Overall, I'll say that my 23rd birthday is my favorite so far, and I anticipate that I will love every birthday that I get to share with my sweet daughter. Alex and I relaxed in the evening, which completed my day :). Olivia officially moved from baby to toddler (I think, I may be wrong but she's toddling everywhere, so it counts in my book!) and I would call her birthday week the first week that we felt settled in our new home. It was a good week.

Party Sneak Peek

I'm still unsure if I can put video and pictures in the same blog post, so I'm posting the video of cake action first :). I'll admit that I always assumed I'd have a "dig right in" kind of cake eating child, so this was an experience that I wasn't expecting, and it makes me glad that it will always be my birthday when cleanup of birthday cake is needing done :).

Birthday: Part 1

We started our birthday early, because we wanted to get as much fun in before naptime as possible :)

Here are Olivia and I, the two birthday girls, on our way to the Fresno Zoo.

Olivia is SO excited to see the animals :)

First she tried her hand at the life of the turtle...she didn't like moving slow, so she quickly moved onto other things.

Olivia's hand is slightly smaller than that of a gorilla

Feeding the giraffes. Olivia liked it, right up until the giraffe's tongue touched her hand. Then she was over it :)

A petting zoo! Just the thing I hope DOESN'T exist in our local zoo. I sacrificed my cleanliness to go in and get some up close pictures, then did some major sanitizing before moving on.

We attempted a few impromptu pictures, but Olivia was interested in all the animals, and didn't feel like smiling for the camera...I can't really blame her, it was a fun little zoo.

And a family picture! This was the first time we asked someone to take it for us, and boy am I glad! It turned out really well, if I do say so myself :)

Three hours and our first non-nap morning later we headed home from a great family trip to the zoo. Olivia had a good time, but is a lot more watchful and less smiley lately, so I'll just assume she had as much fun as we did. It was fun to go somewhere and let Olivia walk to where she wanted to go, instead of just pushing her in the stroller.

Olivia took a power nap on the way home, then we played for a while in the afternoon at home. I still had to put the finishing touches on her birthday cake and get ready for the "party", pictures to come!

Some Stats

Well as usual, I made promises about blogging that I didn't keep. Time just goes way too fast when a certain somebody is asleep, and I never seem to be able to get everything done!

I have a few stats and such to go with Olivia's birthday post that I want to post before I forget.

Heigth: 30.25" (80%)
Weight: 20 lb 0 oz (17%)

New skills:

This seems silly I know, but Olivia is getting quite adept at obeying when she wants to. She is only using her plug (pacifier) when in bed and the car (if we are driving during a naptime). Every time she is getting out of bed or the car, all we have to say is "plug" and she will take it out of her mouth and throw it violently, then look at us with her best innocent smile :). Her obedience, however, only goes so far. No matter what I say, I can't keep her out of the fridge, pantry, or from pulling books (that I worked SO hard to organize by type and height) off the bookshelf. She is always smiling, and knows that I am telling her not to do it, but she's a sneaky little one.

Walking is now her primary mode of transportation, and she just recently has figured out how to stand up with no assistance. She toddles around most everywhere, usually following mom or dad wherever they go

She is still babbling, and doesn't really have any words that she uses regularly. Sometimes she will say "ma ma ma" or "da da da", and will copy us when we say "all done"or "woof woof". That being said, she talks all the time now, which is very different from her first 10 months, which she spent pretty silent, just taking everything in. Apparently now she knows that she is an expert on her surroundings, and wants to tell us all about them :).

Overall she is a sweetheart who wants us to know that she is in charge. She is loving the time she gets to spend with other kids at the gym childcare center, and is enjoying the freedom that walking allows. I am really enjoying getting to know this crazy mischievous little girl. I learn new things about parenting (primarily new doors and cupboards that need locks) every day.

Olivia's First Birthday!!

Olivia turned one on Friday, October 28, 2011. We had a wonderful day (I will post about that tomorrow or Tuesday), but I wanted to do a quick trip through memory lane over the last year. It's amazing all the things that have changed in our lives, and all the wonderful experiences that Alex and I wouldn't have had without this sweet addition to our lives. I am forever changed, and wouldn't trade one moment of it.

So here goes...

One day old:

Our beautiful girl. I never imagined that I would share a birthday with my child, it was the absolute best birthday gift ever. Our serene, beautiful daughter was wonderful from the moment she was born. I was actually concerned because I thought babies were supposed to cry after they were born, but Olivia was just watchful and observant. She stayed that way most of the night, before falling asleep and sleeping most of the day. I'm always amazed by how little she has cried in her first year. We are very blessed. 

1 Month: (November 28)
She looks very serious here, which was common in her first month. The last picture is on the way home from our photo shoot, right after her first blowout diaper. Unfortunately we weren't able to get a picture because it was in the photo studio (where they don't allow cameras), all over their infant support pillow :) I think she looks like a little boxer in her blanket.

2 Months: (December 28)
Introducing the smiley baby that we see all the time now. Her little face thinned out a lot this month, and she began to have that "kid" look

At about 5 weeks Olivia started to smile, and smiled for about the next six months straight

3 Months: (January 28)
The bonus picture in this one is the first time we put her in the Jenny Jump Up. She had the time of her life, but it just looked SO awkward we waited a few months before putting her in it again.

4 Months: (February 28)
During her fourth month, Olivia made her first TV appearance! We also went to Disneyland, which meant that before her 4-month birthday, Olivia had been in 5 states! (Oregon, Washington, Idaho, California, Utah)

Olivia also learned to roll over this month. I'm pretty sure she was just biding her time, because as soon as se rolled over the first time, she would roll over all the time, and just laugh :)

5 Months: (March 28) Yes, we are sideways and I'm not fixing it :)

6 Months: (April 28)
Olivia loved to stand as soon as she figured out that she could. She wasn't able to pull herself up just yet, but if someone stood her up next to something, she would grab on and hold tight with white knuckles. She also learned to sit on her own this month! This gave her a new freedom, and she suddenly became much less happy on our laps. She wanted to sit by herself all the time!

7 Months: (May 28)
This is the beginning of the "lack of photoshoots" every month. Olivia's sweet personality continued to grow in leaps and bounds, which led to her refusing to sit and smile for pictures anymore. She is always on the move, so we take what we can get :) She made her first crawling steps right at the end of the month, one day before her 7 month birthday.

8 Months: (June 28)
And we have an official crawler on our hands! We said goodbye for now to Alex this month as he moved down to Fresno for his new job. As soon as he was gone, Olivia knew she was no longer outnumbered, and decided to become totally mobile and adventurous :)

9 Months: (July 28) The stank face :)
This was taken at Twin Lakes, when I refused to give her the rest of my ice cream. I learned my lesson, and the next time I got an ice cream cone I left her with Grandma :). We spent most of August in Idaho with the Grovers, which was a huge relief for me, because for some reason being outnumbered 5:3 in the kid:adult ratio seems much easier than 1:1. We had a blast, Olivia experienced her first water park, and really enjoyed playing with her cousins. She had much more freedom in this kid-friendly house, where she was allowed to just crawl around following whoever she wanted.

10 Months: (August 28)
And a successful kneeboarding trip! In all honestly, she did get on a kneeboard at Twin Lakes in July, but as soon as the kneeboard hit the water she started screaming. This trip was much more successful, she loved the water, and swam with me for a little bit after sitting on the kneeboard for a while.

We also enjoyed the state fair this month! We went twice, once with each side of the family. It was a blast, and isn't she wearing a cute bow!

11 Month:
This was quite a busy month for our family, we got married! Pictures of that will come soon, and since I don't want to spoil it, I have included a picture of her sucking on a honeysuckle! She really enjoyed it, but it might just be because her grandpa gave her a plant to eat and I didn't stop him!

Olivia also learned to walk this month. She still reserves her walking mostly for at home, but she is getting more confident each day.

12 Months!
Last Friday Olivia turned 1. She is quite a character now, always exploring, climbing, and proving to her mother that I am no longer in charge! Here are her birthday pictures (actual pictures from her birthday to come later this week)

 The last one is very special to me. This is her wedding dress, and the quilt that my Grandma Grahyl made for Alex and I for our wedding. She is also demonstrating her standing-on-her own skills!

And some Halloween pictures. I consider this a major accomplishment because this is the first hat she has worn successfully! The cutest little duckling I've ever seen :)

And that concludes Olivia's first year. We move on to toddler-hood, and although I miss rocking my baby in my arms, I look forward to all the new adventures we will have this year. I'm glad the first year has the most changes, because I feel like we barely had a day between each major new skill and accomplisment.

I hope you all have enjoyed this trip down memory lane as much as I have!

Birthday week!

The week of Olivia's 1st birthday was very busy. We did official birthday pictures at JC Penney, had a lunch date, went to a couple parks, and were just busy in general. This being said, I didn't get a single picture of any of that. I did get some pictures of Olivia adventures and new experiences.

The first is her first spaghetti! Making this meal reminded me of a childhood story. Growing up, we all learned that when we were eating spaghetti, to minimize mess we would take our shirts off and eat topless :). I'm sure this ended by the age of 8 or 9, but it was an automatic response to coming to the table. My mom learned why this may not be a good thing to teach when we had houseguests over who were very concerned as to why 3 little girls, age 2,4, and 6, all took off their shirts as we came to the table for dinner :).

Alex and I decided a bib would probably do the trick, and gave Olivia a serving of spaghetti, salad, and garlic bread. She loved it!

She couldn't get enough of that yummy out-of-a-can sauce, and licked her plate for the first time :)

This is a habit of O's. She wipes her hands on her hair...YUCK!! It happens almost every meal, and the ponytail usually gets the worst of it. I have learned that hair bows come out before the meal :). I think it may just be a trick because she loves bathtime, and nasty hair ensures a bath that night.

The next morning I let Olivia play in my room while I got dressed, and I came out of the closet to this :). Chapter 12 is further than I got in that classic novel, good job O!

And last but not least, Thursday afternoon I started the first birthday cake that I have ever made. This of course meant that O got her first beater :)

Look at that tongue action...

And the chocolate drool :). She was actually less messy than I thought she would be, because she licked her hands and tried her best to get all the chocolate that she could. Into the bath we go!

And the cake making...
Please note that I realize this is not very good. I'm not sure I will be attempting a stacked cake for a while, shape cakes are more my thing (hopefully). However, I worked for hours on it, so I thought I would show what came from my efforts.

I decorated O's little cake second, and that made me realize that I should have done it first because I had NO idea what I was getting into with piping. It's for the creative...I don't fall into that category :)