Kite Festival

Some fun pictures from our fun day at the Kite Festival in Zilker Park in early March.

This may seem crazy, but...

These past two days on our way to work I have sat up front with David!  Like an adult.  Dave has been our chauffeur for the past almost 15 months, but I'm slowly starting to transition to the front.  Olivia does okay, on and off,  but overall she dislikes the car seat.  Whether I'm in the backseat with her or not she is antsy and wants to get out.  I have found if I hold Olivia's hand from the front seat that will soothe her enough until she is fine with sitting back there; I love holding her little hand.

I haven't blogged as regularly as I would like, life has just been so busy!  Our weeks are filled with work and the daily routine.  Our weekends are spent with yard work, chores, shopping and visiting family and spending time together.   I'm going to try and make a bigger effort to keep up to date. 

Olivia is growing.  Everything about her is growing, her hair, her teeth, her little body, her feet!  The list of words that she can now say and repeat is also growing.  Help, ball, bubbles, 'nana, nurse, Thor, Mama, Dada, yes, shoes.  She also will mimic sounds and animal sounds like crazy.  She knows how the dogs goes, horses, monkeys, elephants, and birds, too.  I'm in constant amazement by how quick she picks things up.  One of my favorite "tricks" to date is when she will throw something in the trash per our requests. 

While Olivia just seems so grown up at times, I'm very happy with those times that she still seems so baby-like.  Olivia is still my booby baby, and although she can now say nurse, pull down my shirt and ask for help if she doesn't have full access, she is still my booby baby.  Nursing a toddler has definitely been a rewarding experience, and one I never imagined I would enjoy as much as I do.  We take our nursing relationship one day at a time, but every day I'm grateful for another day that Olivia wants to breastfeed.

Olivia is silly, silly, silly.  She and her Daddy love making faces to one another, and they do this silly little fake laugh back and forth.  Olivia looks so much like David, and I love it.  I also love it when people tell me that my beautiful little girl looks like me.  My heart melts.

14 months is right around the corner...

I have a free moment during my work day.  I walked over to Olivia's classroom as I usually do for lunch.  It's about a half mile walk.  It's a very lovely walk through the capitol complex area.  I have really enjoyed this walk over the last 5 months since I started this job.   Anyways, I walked over to the daycare and ran into David who was also walking over from his job for a lunch date with our girl.  We were surprised to find that Olivia was napping. IN THE BIG KID CLASSROOM. ON A COT!  I could of died of cuteness overload. 

By big kid, I mean just the next classroom up.  So the babies are anywhere from 12-18 months or so.  I expressed some interest in Olivia moving up this week, and I guess they sort of started her transition today.  I was told that she is very ready and was doing marvelously.  I was so proud, and sad.  Sad because I have discovered that I do terribly with transition when it comes to Olivia.  One of the other moms said that she thinks our babies do much better with change then we do, and I couldn't agree more. 

So anyways, Dave and I hung out a little bit outside because it was nice.  I walked part of the way with him back to his office, and I may or may not cried because I was sad/emotional/realizing that Olivia does in fact have to eventually grow up.  He doesn't quite get it the same ways I do because he is a "man." 

Olivia is just growing and growing and becoming more and more awesome.  I'm loving everything about motherhood, even the tough times.  I live for our lunch dates, and even more so for 5pm pick-up.  I practically run the half mile walk knowing that I will be greeted by my beautiful smiling with teeth baby happy to see me.   There are fewer things in my life right now that are sweeter than waking up on a Saturday or Sunday morning knowing I get all day with my little family. 

New Years Resolutions

Be more positive about everything and everyone.  I'm pretty positive about life in general, and some may even call it naive at times, but I feel like it can make such a difference in a person's level of happiness.  It does for me.  I'm good about being positive, but it's always something that I still need to work on.

Strive to be a better mother, wife, sister, daughter, friend, stranger, employee.  Try to reflect daily on ways that I could have been a better person each day.

Unplug more!!!  I'm so used to being infront of a computer 40+ hours a week that I find myself automatically reaching for my phone or my brand new Kindle Fire (haha) and using that screen to occupy my time.  It's a horrible habit, and I'm trying to lessen my screen time, especially on nights and weekends. 

Learn to sew.  Or learn how to sew enough so that I can make Christmas pajamas for my little family for next year's Christmas morning.  I just got my mom's old old sewing machine that I need to power up, and possibly have serviced.

Look into the possibility of getting come chicks and a chicken coop for some fine urban farming.  A co-worker of mine bought chicks for his kids for Christmas and they will soon have fresh eggs daily.  I am viewing this more as a long-term goal, but still throwing it in with my 2012 "resolutions."

Focus on reconnecting as a couple more.  We don't get a lot of opportunities for one-on-one alone time, but I want to try and resolve to really using the opportunities that we do have to reconnect.  Once in a blue moon we eat dinner at home just the two of us, once Olivia has fallen asleep, and these nights are just as good as any night out on the town.  So maybe trying to plan those times a little better.

Get pregnant.  Those that I talk to regularly know that this isn't really a secret.  I'm so ready to have a baby all over again.  I would get pregnant tomorrow if I could, but there are a ton of factors that are persuading us to wait a little bit longer.  At 13 months postpartum, I still have yet to see my AF, so planning in that respect wouldn't really be an option at this point anyways. (Sorry if that was a bit TMI, but I've been sort of expecting its arrival for months now, but nothing.  AND I'm not really complaining about this because it has been marvelous, but still strikes me as odd.)  Also, Olivia is only 13 months right now, so I would like a little more spacing if we can.  I would like to get pregnant sometime this year, but if we don't for whatever reasons, I won't be completely devastated, just a tad bit sad.  

Whew

I have so much to blog about! Olivia's first birthday party, Christmas eve, Christmas day, family visits, our New Years, and on and on.  What a whirlwind and glorious holiday season we had.  Time flew by so quickly for me, and partly because I had very few days off, and unfortunately the blogging was thrown to the back burner.

We are having such a great time with this little girl of ours.  I am trying so hard to take it all in and keep up with Olivia.  She will be 13 months on Tuesday and it blows my mind. 

Over the holidays we thought Olivia had a nasty cold, but it turns out it may have just been some effects from teething, because finally she has all top 4 chompers.  She looks like a different person.  I loved her gummy smile, and I loved that we got to enjoy it for longer than most, but I also love getting a glimpse of those precious teeth!  P.S. Teething sucks a big one.

Grandma and Grandpa Jimenez brought over the slide they had at their house because Olivia enjoys it so much when we go visit.  This slide is one of the best things ever.  She has become a pro at climbing up and going down on her own.  However, we have also noticed Olivia starting to get braver and wants to try and go down the slide standing up.  We are working on correcting this, but for now we just try and monitor her closely.



Shortly before Olivia's first birthday we introduced the potty.  I felt like her communication has been getting so much better, that I figured why not try and get this potty party started.   It's been a slow and gradual introduction, and the potty is mostly a toy before bath time, but we have had 2 successful potty trips first thing in the mornings.  We've also had one horribly disgusting poopy accident that did not quite make it to the potty.  Oh well, I would rather clean my carpets than clean an eventual 2 year old's poopy diapers.  So wish us luck in our continued potty learning journey.  I think at this point I'm the one being trained.

My bedheaded potty girl.



Hopefully, I will eventually catch up on some of the great times we had over the holiday break!  I'm working on it.

365 Days

365 days have passed since Olivia was welcomed into this world.  365 days of all three of us, and Thor, getting to know one another in our new roles. 

Heading home from the hospital (12/9/2010)

72 hours old

This past year has been filled with so much learning.  Learning our new roles as mommy and daddy, and how that affects our relationship with one another.  Learning how to care for someone so new and innocent.  Learning to take each day one day at a time, some weeks.  Learning to literally try and keep another person alive.

365 days of growth. Growing as a parent and as a grown-up has been one of the biggest transitions imaginable.  My co-captain, Dave, has stepped up into his role as a father in ways I never imagined.  In the early days he is credited with keeping me alive as I worked to keep our baby fed, and clean, and content.   I have grown as a mother to a newborn to a mother of a toddler.  I have grown to be her advocate more and more as she has needed it in her daycare experience.  We have both grown as partners to one another. 

Olivia has grown to be the best little girl I could ever imagine.  No, I'm not biased.  She has got a personality that I often wonder where the heck this is coming from, but I know it's made up from those who love her.  Her personality is a combination of all of the wonderful people that have played a role in her first year of life.  Olivia's grandparents, who love her so dearly, have shaped her to be strong and goofy, and so intelligent.  Her teachers and her peers have given her more independence, and a little bit of attitude.  Her aunts and uncles have spoiled her with love and have helped to make her more confident. 

How many of the first days were spent.

Nursing puts us both to sleep.

Perfection.  These past 365 days have in no way been perfect.  There have been tears, lots of them, both from Olivia and me.  I had something come over me when Olivia was first born, and my mama bear feelings really came out.  I had this irrational feeling of not letting her out of my sight, and an all emcompassing dread when she was not with me.  There have been all-nighters because of fever, or congestion, or teething, or ear infection, or a strange nap schedule during the day.  There have been fights between Mommy and Daddy when we are trying to decide the next course of action to soothe Olivia.  There have been days when I had to go to work, when I all I wanted to do was curl up in bed and nurse Olivia all day.   There have been days that I was very thankful for my job because it was the break I needed to keep my sanity, and get some rest.  There have been breastfeeding and pumping struggles and getting-my-baby-to-eat struggles. We have encountered plenty of the expected parenting hurdles of the first year, and yet, we have somehow made it! 

Having said all of that, the days just keep on getting sweeter.  Lately when we hug Olivia and say, I love you, she will respond by saying, aaahhhh, and with an open mouth plant the best kiss on our cheek/neck/mouth/eye.  She blows kiss when we wave bye-bye, without us even asking for them.  She runs to us when we go visit at lunch, and then again at the end of the day.  Every night when we have dinner as a family she shows us just how much of a big girl she has become when she wants to feed herself, rather than us feed her.  She is finally saying Ma-Ma when she wants me, not just Da-Da.  She knows that we belong to her, and that she belongs to us.

I thank God everyday for giving us Olivia.  And I thank Olivia everyday for being who she is.  I am appreciative of being able to be a mother to someone, and I don't take that for granted.  I look forward to getting to do the whole first year all over again, one day, because I feel like Olivia just keeps making us be better parents.

Happy Birthday to our Olivia!!!  We love you, we always will, we wish you the best because you deserve it.   I look forward to all that is to come.

Random Thoughts

I have been thinking of a ton of things to write about lately, however, I have not had time to eloquently expand on them via their own blog posts.  So here goes, a bunch of random thoughts.

- We are prepping this week for Olivia's little birthday get together with family.  I'm very much looking forward to it.  However, I'm beginning to anticipate some very hectic years in the future with her birthday being so close to Christmas. 

- On Monday, as I was preparing my pump and parts for the day, I looked at Dave and told him that I was done with pumping.  That morning I decided I was over it, and I didn't want to do it any longer, and then I started to cry.  So, I am now saying that I will continue to pump throughout the holidays, and re-evaluate after them.  I can't imagine no longer breastfeeding at this point, so I fear ending the pumping will also end our breastfeeding relationship.  I know that women are able to successfully breastfeed once they stop the pumping during the work day, but what if my body can't do that? 

- I was up at 2am this yesterday because I had a lot on my mind, and so much that I felt I needed to get done around the house.  Our nights are incredibly fun, but busy.  We hardly have anytime to do things that need to get done that aren't a part of our normal routine, so I played Christmas elf in the wee hours of the morning.  I could sip my coffee and wrap presents at ease.

- I'm itching to talk about something so badly because while I feel I may need support, I'm afraid to let others know what I'm attempting, should I fail.