The Boot(y) Scootin' Boogie

Well, Olivia cares as much about crawling as she did about rolling over... which is to say not much. Have no fear, though, she is quite the scooter these days. I wish the video below showed it better, but early scooting isn't exactly what you'd call On-The-Edge-Of-Your-Seat Entertainment, not even for me. So after almost two minutes of riveting video, I shut 'er down and then (of course) Olivia really started moving.

You can see in the photo above that Olivia discovered the bookcase behind our sofa. C has been joking about shrink wrapping the whole thing until she gets old enough to understand "No" but I'm starting to wonder what we are really going to do to protect my literary collection. Other than moving the bookcase to the MIL suite, are there any suggestions?

It does not seem possible that it has been a whole year since Cousin A was welcomed into this world. His mom and dad wanted him very much and, although my sister told me she would be sorry to not be pregnant anymore (a bizarre notion I cannot relate to), they were beyond excited when A made his debut at 5 lbs 10 oz.

He was SO tiny. When I spent some time with my sister two weeks after A was born, I remember thinking that I had never seen a more beautiful thing in my entire life. I was able to hold him while he slept, which he did quite a bit, and smell his sweet baby head and wonder how I would ever love my own baby as much as I was already in love with my sister's. I cried quite a bit when I left Orlando to come home last November.

It has been an absolute joy to watch this nephew of mine grow from the tiniest baby I'd ever seen into the sweet-natured one-year old he is today. He is always laughing and playing and I see so much of my sister in the joy he finds in learning and discovering and taking the world by storm.

Happy Birthday, A.

Sunday's Child

Monday's child is fair of face,
Tuesday's child is full of grace,
Wednesday's child is full of woe,
Thursday's child has far to go,
Friday's child is loving and giving,
Saturday's child works hard for a living,
But the child who is born on the Sabbath Day
Is bonny and blithe and good and gay.

Holla

Our phone rang the other night while I was cooking dinner, right after C had walked in the door from work. It was a friend of mine, and I got involved in our conversation for a few minutes and didn't really pay attention to what was going on in the living room. When I looked up from what I was doing, this is what C had done to Olivia:



It reminded me of a story some friends of our recently told us about their 2 year-old daughter, MT. Her uncle (don't get any ideas, B) taught her as soon as she could talk that when leaving a place or person, she should make a peace sign and say "Holla." At first I was horrified, but I have to admit that when we walked out of Old Mexico that night and a 3-foot tall toddler said "Holla!" it was the most hilariously adorable thing I'd seen until my little gangster wore this hat.

They're Like Peas and Carrots

C works late on Tuesdays. It's a deal that we made here so that one night a week, he stays as late as he cares to in order to get things done that pile up during the day. The idea is that his one late night means he doesn't wind up staying as late the other nights during the week and/or doesn't have to go into the office on the weekends. So far, it works for our family.

Anyway, the point being that Olivia and I fly solo on Tuesdays. We usually wind up going to visit Honey and Pappy on Tuesday evenings and have supper with them. It gives me a little break on a long day and gives Olivia regular interaction with People Who Are Not Her Mother so that she doesn't have a meltdown when we are separated.

It normally takes about 4 nanoseconds for Pappy to swoop up Olivia when we walk in the door. Oh, he'll share her; Honey definitely gets to hold her and play and sing with her. But as soon as he can snatch her up again, Pappy is on the floor playing with Olivia or bathing her or rocking her to sleep. She loves every minute of it.

This Princess Wear Knit Slippers

If I had a nickel for every time someone touched Olivia's feet and then cried out, "Oh, your feet are so cold! You poor darling! Your momma needs to put something on your feet to keep them from getting so cold!" well, I'd have a lot of nickels.

So I wanted to show everyone Olivia's adorable little handmade shoes now that she is big enough to wear them, but I didn't want to take a full body shot because you'd never see them. I kept forgetting to take the photo when C was home to help me and she wasn't already changed into her pajamas, so one morning after we got dressed I decided to try to take the picture myself. Olivia sits and plays by herself, and she loves to bounce, but she doesn't crawl yet or really stand all that much. So I had to hold her up and put the camera down in front of her face to snap a photo of her feet. She got so excited to look into the viewfinder on the camera that she kept kicking and squealing and drooling all over the place. It took four tries to get this picture, but it was important to show the world that I am, indeed, covering my child's feet to keep them warm.

Baby Love, My Baby Love

She starts watching the back door for her Daddy around four o'clock every afternoon. I wish I could capture the look of utter delight and devotion on her face when he walks in the door.

The feeling is mutual.