Hello friends! Just realized that it's been a while since I updated the 'ol blog. Olivia and I were in So Cal and had a fantastic time! So fantastic, in fact, that we didn't take ANY pictures while we were there (a combination of forgetting my camera and laziness). While we were down there she tried the swings for the first time and absolutely loved them... I can't wait for the weather to warm up so that we can put the playset in our backyard to good use! She also had her first taste of Pinkberry, and like the rest of us I'm pretty sure that she's addicted to it now. Other than that, we spent lots of time hanging out with my family and meeting up with friends. Thanks to everyone for a wonderful week (and a big thanks to my parents to watching her while I went to the Maslan wedding - it was beyond fabulous to have a night out with the girls :).

Because a blog post is pretty boring without pictures, here's a few...

So apparently Olivia has decided that she no longer requires sleep. Bleh. A few weeks ago she was consistently sleeping 10-11 hours a night, and we really thought that we had the whole sleeping thing down. But now she fights it like crazy and is up at all hours. WHY?!?

When I put her down for her nap this morning I really thought that she was out. Then I check back in to discover this...

Really? She looks like she's attempting a jail break. We're having discussions about how to sleep train her. Other moms, do you have any advice? I'm not resorting to CIO just yet, but am thinking of pulling techniques from "The No Cry Sleep Solution".

On a much happier note, the kid absolutely loves to read books now! It's so adorable. Her current fav is "Peek A Who," especially the mirror on the last page...

She's getting so big! I'm not sure where the last 7 1/2 months have gone.

Punta Mita

While Doug was stuck in Washington for MBA finals week, Olivia and I escaped for warmer, sunnier weather in Punta Mita with his parents, Kevin and Whitney. It was such a wonderful vacation! Olivia absolutely loved swimming in the pool and hanging out outside for the whole week. She's definitely a warm-weather baby :).

Her new obsession is reading magazines (and by reading, I mean chewing on the pages and then ripping them to shreds!).


I also introduced her to something amazing: ice cream! She LOVED it.


Hanging out poolside at the villa with Grandpa.


Just relaxing on the balcony, looking at the ocean.


We also took lots of walks (and Livvy took lots of naps!).


Olivia made a big discovery on this trip... she finally managed to figure out how to shove her entire foot into her mouth. Yum.


She loved playing in the big bed!


And, of course, we had some Bumbo action. I don't know what I'd do without this thing!


Pictures of miss O splashing around in the pool soon to come!

We're Back

Olivia and I had a fantastic vacation in Mexico! I took a bunch of photos, but it's going to take me a bit to go through them all. So here's a shot of our little sunbather to hold you over!

Guacamole Baby

We let Olivia try avocado today.

Pretty sure that she thought that it was the best thing EVER!

Please excuse her wonky eye. Poor thing. She's going to the doctor tomorrow to see what we can do about it!

Thanksgiving 2009

We had an awesome Thanksgiving weekend. It was my first turkey cooking experience, and thankfully everyone survived. We were blessed to have both sets of grandparents here for Olivia's first Thanksgiving, and we had so much fun with everyone. Apparently, we were having too much fun to take many pictures! Here's the few that we got over the weekend...

Olivia spent the entire meal dive-bombing the table in an attempt to get some of the delicious food. Luckily, we had Uncle Craig in town to hold her back.

This is what she does during meals now. I think that our days of going out to eat are over for a while!

The following day, we headed out to some of the local wineries to experience Washington's finest. Don't the boys look super excited to be on this adventure?

The ladies, looking lovely as always :)

Guess I'm really going to have to keep an eye on her once she hits her teenage years...

What, you mean that's not for me?

We had such a great weekend with my parents, brother and aunt visiting. Thanks for coming guys! Can't wait to see you for Christmas.

On a totally different note, a few random things...

Olivia has become obsessed with Baby Mozart. I know that watching TV isn't the best thing for little ones, but hey, it buys me a good 15 minutes of freedom and it makes her happy! She loves to sit in her Bumbo and watch the DVD's on my laptop.

The little miss is so incredibly close to sitting up on her own! Right now she topples over after a few seconds, but if we give her something to lean on she can stay upright for quite a while.

Hopefully she'll be sitting on her own in time to tear into her presents under the Christmas tree!

Food!!!

Livvy has become very interested in what we're eating, so we decided that it was time to give her a taste of the good stuff! Come on, milk for EVERY meal must get boring after 5 months.

We discovered that she likes rice cereal. A lot.

Gimmie that bowl!


Yum.


Chunky monkey!!!

Weekend Update

We had a pretty quiet weekend here. Doug was studying for his midterm on Monday (ahhh, how I don't miss that aspect of school!), and it was pretty cold and rainy. So we amused ourselves indoors and had a pretty lazy few days. Since it's been a while since my last post, I snapped some pictures today to get some new images up for Olivia's adoring fans.

Of course, we spent some time in the Bumbo. Little miss is attempting to launch her way out of this thing, so I think that our Bumbo days are numbered at this point.

Whatcha lookin' at?

Oh, you're taking my picture? I'll smile in that case!

Olivia is looking longingly outside and thinking "rain, rain, go away".

She absolutely loves being outside! (Unfortunately, she's still not a big fan of her stroller, but we're working on that.)

Livvy is very into sticking her tongue out!

Again with the tongue...

And if she's not sticking her tongue out, she's shoving her fist (or anything she can get her hands on) into her mouth.

Playing stackers with mommy. She's SO close to sitting up on her own - she just holds onto one of our fingers and balances herself.

Olivia's very favorite part of the day is bath time. She literally fusses like crazy when she wakes up from her last nap, and as soon as we go upstairs and start taking her clothes off she goes nuts kicking and talking and giggling. It's really adorable!

Starry baby lashes. Love 'em!

Ranch Weekend

We had a great weekend out at The Ranch for the annual elk hunt (although no elks were captured by the menfolk. In fact, no one even saw one!). I didn't bring a camera, so the few photos we have are courtesy of my sister-in-law Whitney. Thanks so much, Whit!

It was an absolutely gorgeous weekend in Oregon, so we headed out to the pond in the afternoon to enjoy the weather and do some fishing. Olivia wasn't so sure about being bundled up in her new winter-ware, but she seemed okay with it once we got outside. And she absolutely loved watching the boys fish!


Another big first for Livvy this weekend...

Her daddy was so proud.

We were at the ranch with the extended Perry fam, including Doug's parents, Kevin & Whitney, and Greg & Erin. G & E's kiddos are too cute for words. Here's Car checking out the whole fishing thing. This kid is the best! I'm sure that Erin will post lots of cute pics of them from the weekend on her blog, too.


There are lots of cool picture spots on the property, and this abandoned car is one of my very favorites.

Olivia is, once again, making some sort of Elvis face in that picture. We tried every trick in the book to get the kid to smile, but she just wasn't havin' it.

Thanks for a great weekend, Wayne & Chris!

Right After a Nap

Bright-eyed and ready to go. Is there anything better?!?







Thanks to my SIL Erin for the adorable headbands... Love 'em!

30,000?!?

Our little family blog has reached over 30,000 hits! I'm pretty sure that several thousand of those come from my mom, who is a self-admitted Olivia stalker ;).

However, we're pretty curious about who else is reading! So the question of the day is: who are you people? Drop us a comment and let us know (even if we don't know you, we're okay with that too :).

Thanks for stopping by! It's so much fun to share Oliva's first months with you all.

On another note, Doug's friends Dax and Christina sent Livvy some awesome one-of-a-kind babywear. MAG 5 is the name of Doug's riding group, and they have a logo they've created that they're put on stickers and other things. This group of guys is very important to Doug, and Livvy feels so special to be an honorary member of the group :).





Yep, she's still after those darn feet...

Got Milk?

If we could read Livvy's mind, I'm pretty sure that it would sound something like this...

Got milk?


Hey you, up there, are you going to feed me or what?


How about now?


Hi feet! Can I eat you?

(Notice the awesome trail of spit bubbles? Sweet.)

Daddy! Can you hook me up with something to eat?


Wheeee! This is almost as good as milk. Almost.


Doug asked me the other day if I was perhaps feeding her TOO much. I started cracking up... when she was first born his main concern was that she wasn't eating enough, and now he's worried that I'm overfeeding her. I told him that babies eat whenever they're hungry and stop when they're full. However, if she still has rolls like this by the time she's going into kindergarten then we'll have to talk :)