A Week in the Life

Lately it seems like our life has just gotten more and more exciting. Each week is full of adventures and new discoveries. As we get ready for Alex's move to Fresno (July 7), mine and Olivia's move to my parents' temporarily (July 12), our wedding (September 17) and then Olivia and my move to Fresno (sometime after that :)) I have lists going through my head constantly. Add to that a few family vacations and fun little outings and every day seems like it's bursting at the seams. I don't know how Olivia finds time in our hectic schedule to learn everything, but Alex and I are constantly surprised by the new things she learns and does. The second week in June was a good representation of our life these days, so here's a few pictures from that week.

Monday started out fairly slow, except for the fact that Olivia was especially clingy. This isn't typical, but every few days she seems to have at least a few hours where she needs her mommy, and I can't say that I mind terribly. Overall she's an extremely indepedent kid, so I take advantage of the little snuggly time that I get. In the evening we noticed that she had a little bit of eye gunk, and her last nap was disrupted by a few bouts of coughing. That was my first warning sign, but little colds and coughs are fairly common, we don't try especially hard to keep Olivia away from normal germs. We did go swimming in the afternoon at te pool in our apartment complex, and it was fun to see Olivia get acclamated to the water. She's always hesitant at first, but after about 15 minutes she was splashing tons, and she especially enjoyed being thrown into the air and coming down into the water, making her feet splash her daddy. Have I mentioned lately what a great dad Alex is?

Tuesday morning when O woke up she was just sad, and I could see why when I picked her up and saw that her eyes were lined with redness and the gunk had almost kept them shut. That paired with a low grade fever and continued coughing, and I was fairly certain we were experiencing our first case of pink eye. We wisked her off to the doctor, and my suspicions were confirmed. We did get to find out that she was 15 lb 8 oz, and the doctor was amazed to learn how good she was getting at walking (with hand-holding of course).

After leaving the doctor, we had to drop off the prescription and wait 20 minutes for it to be filled, so I decided to take that opportunity to have our first mommy-and-me date. We went across the street to Yogurt Extreme and shared a treat that we both enjoy! I think I've created a monster because Olivia LOVES to share grown-up food and won't stop asking until the food is completely gone, even if it's something she doesn't really like (soda - yes I let her have a few sips... and lemon slices). In this case, she had fun at the yogurt counter where I chose some things to add to our vanilla yogurt, and was only slightly impatient while I buckled her in. W had fun on our first date, and I'm looking forward to future haircuts, pedicures, and shopping trips, as well as the occasional treat of course!

Wednesday we found out two things about Olivia. 1. She loves eye drops. Most kids fight drops at least by squirming, if not screaming and flailing (like at least one of Olivia cousins :) ). Olivia, however, lays perfectly still, open eyes, waiting for the drop. After the first one she squints hard, wrinkles her nose, and laughs! Then she opens her eyes and waits for the next one. Alex and I were cracking up as we gave her her first doses of antibiotics. I have to imagine that the eye drops she was given are different from the eye-burning, terrible ones I remember from my childhood (did I mention that I was definitely a squirmer?)

The second thing we learned about Olivia is how much she loves the mirror. I've posted other videos and pictures in the past about her mirror adventures, but they've always been with us because our only mirrors are on the wall pretty high. Recently we bought a mirror to put in the car so we can see her face and talk to her while she's in a rear-facing carseat. We got it out of the plastic on Monday, and let her play with it for a few minutes. She rolled right over to it, smiled at herself, and then proceeded to give herself kisses :) (NOTE: video missing...my computer won't upload videos to Blogger at the moment). I captured this picture, and an adorable video that I will add at some point in the near future.

Thursday was a big day for Alex, as he had 2 interviews. He's been interviewing for athletic ticket office positions for just about a year, and has been in the top two or three considered in multiple cases, but was still looking for a job. In the meantime, he was working at Michaels Craft Store, which was not ideal (I won't lie, I enjoyed the employee discount). On Thursday Alex interviewed with Fresno State and Middle Tennessee State. We were very optimistic, but also nervous, because the soft deadline of our wedding is soft approaching, and we were unsure what we would do job-wise after that.

Thursday for Olivia was also an adventure, as we tried a new snack technique. I personally don't suggest this technique to ANYONE, but for some reason I thought it would be smart to just strip Olivia down to her diaper, put her on a changing pad (lovely gift from Rick and Shirley - THANK YOU) and let her have her snack, a couple graham crackers and some apple in a teether. This was not a successful venture. The mess was unbelievable, and we ended up just throwing her into the bath, because we had no idea how else she was going to get clean. I took a few pictures to remember this technique, and now we put her in her high chair with a bib, like most responsible parents I know :).

Friday was a HUGE day for our family! Alex got a call in the afternoon offering him the position at Fresno State, which he starts on July 11. Needless to say, we had an impromptu dance party (which only Olivia and I participated in). I don't have any pictures, but I can't say how proud of him I am, and how excited I am that he has a job that is exactly what he wants, and a fairly close distance to family in Oregon. We'll have adjustments to make, as we have our first holidays without family and aren't able to just head up to see people whenever we want, but I know this will strengthen our little family, and will make us appreciate the awesome families we have even more.

On Saturday, Gary, Mary, and Ashley came down to help Andy move back home for the summer, so we were able to enjoy some time with them and go out for lunch. Olivia loves to see her Casqueiro family, and especially enjoys when we go out because she gets to try new foods! This time we were at Baja Fresh, so she got to try lime (not-so-much), guacamole (unsure at first, but then she seemed to like it), and ranch (a favorite, of course).

On Sunday afternoons we usually head to Philomath for dinner with the Johnson family. It's usually just dinner and maybe a game, and we try to get back before Olivia's bedtime, so we're not there all that long. This particular Sunday, however, was a major milestone for a certain 7-month-old, as she crawled for the first time! It was short, a short trip crawling until she got close enough to what she wanted that she could dive into a faceplant for it, but it was a definite crawl, and we got a little repeat performance to make sure it was real! I took about a hundred pictures trying to get an action shot, but Olivia's always a little camera shy with her new skills, so this one was the best I got.

Whew! That was a whirlwind week. It's pretty typical for us lately, and although I won't document every day in quite this magnitude, I assure you that every week is just as busy with trips and discoveries and accomplishments. I love my life (total cheese I know, but also true) and am enjoying every minute of the scurrying that has become motherhood.

Closing with an adorable picture of Olivia's 2nd ponytail (if you look closely you can see the hair coming out the top :) )