Like mother, like daughter!

I just couldn't resist this picture. Suzanne swears she didn't do it on purpose! This is the first of a new crop of clothes- the 6-9 month ones! Olivia's really getting big. If you look closely, the two shirts are just a little different, but not much. She's been spending a lot of time today being 'quietly alert', looking around and taking it all in; she's incredibly cute in this state. She's also in the mode of grabbing things with both hands and trying to get them into her mouth- this includes basically anything that comes in range: our hands, clothes, toys, Suzanne's hair (she can't get a good grip on mine, but she can and does grab the beard...). It all makes for a somewhat slobbery affair. She's been chewing lately too; our knuckles mostly, and it makes me wonder if she's starting to feel some of those milk teeth already? I guess we'll see!

Week 22 - It's better with a friend!

Here's Olivia at 22 weeks with the Duck and her friend Lyra, who is 12 1/2 weeks old! Our friends Kate and Wim are over with Lyra for an evening of simple food and an attempt to get through a board game around the needs of 2 small babies! I'll keep this short so I can get back to the festivities and be a good host.

As a side note- it's Mother's day in England! Happy mother's day Kate and Suzanne!

Little Girl

Bob surprised Suzanne this morning, by bringing Olivia downstairs looking terribly cute in this jumper. No questions about whether she's a little girl, wearing that!
It was a springy day, warmish if damp, so Olivia and Suzanne walked around the neighborhood for Olivia to take in the sights, and to the grocery, where Olivia made several friends. A nice woman in line told Olivia that she has lovely eyes - and so she does!

A Busy Day of Firsts

Well, a bit of a banner day really, all things considered, despite terrifying Olivia first thing in the morning by trying to drop a toy on her head. sigh. But we got up and all had a lovely bagel, with cream cheese and smoked salmon before Bob headed off to work.
Olivia and I got off to a quick start this morning by giving Olivia a bath in the morning, then hmmm, a novel idea occurred top 'mom' - maybe _I_ could get washed up too. Olivia had fallen asleep, so I eased her into her seat in the bathroom and proceeded to take an entire shower with just the two of us in the house. That was a very exciting first for Olivia's mama! Probably less so for Olivia since she slept through it...
It was a gorgeous sunny day, almost warm, so we took the bus in to town to meet Bob (dad!) for lunch. Olivia had a lovely walk in the sling with her mama to do a little shopping beforehand and pick up a couple of spinach and feta pasties for lunch. Back at the office, it was still such a nice day that we couldn't bring ourselves to go inside for lunch, so Bob brought out the picnic blanket and we found a small patch of grass in the sun and largely out of the wind. Ahhhh... it's been months and months since we were able to have lunch outside - what a treat! Olivia even joined us for lunch - her first picnic! (loosely described...)

Since we were in town on a thursday, we also went to the well-baby clinic to get Olivia weighed. She just keeps tipping the scales. She weighed in at 15 pounds 13 ounces. She'll weigh 16 pounds in just a few days!

She's also spending a lot more time standing on her feet (with some help from us of course). Here she's practicing her standing with dad's help.

Big Smiles!

Olivia was full of big smiles for Mama and Daddy this morning. Here, she is practically laughing. We think that will come soon though, she often makes sounds that are almost laughter.

Olivia just continues to get better and better with her hands. She is now regularly holding onto and handling her toys. I pulled out her assortment of teething rings and rattles this afternoon, so she has had a go at some of those too. Those teething rings could be coming in handy soon too. It seems early, but she IS also chewing on things and drooling alot.

She has hands...

...and she knows how to use them!



This is a developmental moment we've been waiting for for weeks! We have been encouraging Olivia to touch and reach out for things, which she has been doing somewhat more of lately, but on Friday she really figured it out! Suzanne had put her down in her chair and was looking around for something new and interesting to tempt Olivia with - and her eyes fell on a toy (in this first photo)that she had meant to send to Olivia's cousin months ago! Well, why not try it?
Olivia was immediately entranced by it's face. Suzanne encouraged her to put one hand and then the other on its soft, round snout and soon Olivia was exploring it all on her own - with both hands! and then grabbing it by it's crinkly ears as well - yahoo! So exciting!



When Bob came home, he continued the game with Olivia, letting go of the toy entirely so that she was holding it all on her own, and expanding the game to include other objects such as Jessica the Giraffe, here in the second photo. Jessica is constantly asking Suzanne (with a little help from Bob) if Olivia can come out and play. The answer is invariably, "Olivia can come out and play with you when she can play with you". I think that now translates to a resounding YES!
Olivia is also getting more practice on her tummy, and each time it seems like she's lifting her head a little higher, and a bit longer.
Oh my gosh, it's fun to see her progress, but a bit scary that it could all happen so fast - Bob was put in mind, the other day, of the scene in Fatherhood where he's looking across the table at his little daughter who says "Daddy, I've met a really nice guy and we're getting married" - Zoom into the present! Fortunately, we really do have years before that happens, but we're beginning to understand how your child can always remain your 'baby'!



Here's Olivia's week 21 picture with the ducky. Take a moment to scroll down and look at the week 1 picture in the previous post- it's amazing how much she's grown in these 5 months!

A Look Back

As we approach Olivia's 5 month b-day, we're thinking about how far Olivia has come in such a very short time. It's a bit wild to realize that almost half a year has passed already! Here is Olivia's 1 week photo for ease of comparison with her 21 week photo in the next post. She must have been approaching 4 lbs at the time, and just today, she weighed in at 15 lbs 3 oz. Note how the ducky comes down to her knee in this photo, whereas now it comes down to about her elbow. It's just amazing to see her growing in such leaps. Again, she has gained one pound in 2 weeks. We are really beginning to _feel_ her being heavy too! We are starting to strategize how to get her napping lying down more often than in our arms - we don't have much incentive, though, because we love to hold her!

When Lori came to visit, she brought this wonderful pig from our dear friend Stephanie. It's Olivia's first piggy bank - yay! and a sweeter one we couldn't have found. It's already jingling with pence and pounds, Lori made the first donation :) Stephanie does wonderful things with clay, and the pigs are really her specialty, we think. Take a look at her web page for more cute piggies, or better yet, go visit her stall #25 at Pike Place Market!

Bathed Baby!

I just couldn't resist Olivia peeking out from her towel after her Monday bath.





















Need I say more?

20 weeks old, and a sad milestone for daddy

Olivia at 20 weeks. She's getting downright HEAVY these days. She hasn't been weighed in a couple of weeks, but we're pretty sure she'll be over 15 pounds now. She's a Sack of Sugar. So sweet. Especially when she's asleep. Then her sack-o-sugarness is complete since she's limp in our arms.

But lately (in the last few days) she's been having periods of painful gas in the evenings, we think (hope) due to us eating tofu. It's been very difficult since there seems to be nothing we can do to ease her pain, so we just have to try to help her through it as best we can. But it's so hard to see (and hear!) her in such pain.

And the saddest thing of all for me as a dad is that tonight is the first night I need to be away from her (and Suzanne!) since they came home. I'm blogging right now from a hotel room in Venice where I'm staying for 3 nights at a meeting. It's hard on so many levels, from just missing them both, to feeling bad that I can't be there to help as I've been helping all along, and especially with her recent painful gassy episodes. But we've stopped eating tofu, and hopefully that helps. Unfortunatley she still had some pain this evening but Suzanne said it seemed less bad than previous nights and that it seemed shorter also, so we'll hope it's on its way out. I guess there are other things we'd miss more if we had to cut them out of our diet than tofu, but we _do_ like it.

New Arrival!

On March 6, we met Olivia's second ready-made friend in Cambridge, Sebastien. He is 6 days old in this picture with his adoring parents, Sophie and Chi. When this picture was taken, he was about 6 pounds, working back up to his birth weight. It was amazing to hold such a tiny baby again. It made us realize just how much Olivia is _not_ a newborn anymore! In some ways, though, it was amazing the kinds of things he was already doing then, and especially when we saw him again this weekend. Things we had to wait 2 months and more for with Olivia (it didn't seem weird to us, it was just the way it was) Sebastien is already doing. A big one is that he is already looking into people's faces and eyes. So far, Sebastien seems to looking out at you with eyes like his dad's and hair and ears like his mum's. He's a cutie, and we look forward to watching him grow!

19 weeks - and sweet

Olivia is now 19 weeks old. We're starting to dress her in things other than her sleepers more often now. Today was warm indoors, so she wore a jumper, one of many cute items given us by Ruth from Suzanne's work.

Olivia was ready for a 19-week photo shoot after her bath today, so we couldn't resist taking a picture of her whole sweet little self! Olivia is getting bigger all the time and she is learning more tricks too - essentially new ways to fuss. Now she will often let us know if she thinks it's high time to have a clean, dry nappy. Just in the last few days, she has also started getting a bit cranky and rubbing her face just before she falls asleep sometimes. The trick is figuring out which 'requests' belong to which needs! We feel like we're getting pretty good at figuring it out, though!

Olivia and Toby came over for dinner last night - the last time they had spent time with Olivia was on New Year's Day. They observed with enthusiasm that, compared to two months ago, Olivia is really observing and interacting with the world/people around her. It's nice to get the perspective from people who, unlike us, don't spend every day (hour!) with Olivia, and can thus step back and see the changes that have been happening slowly enough that it seems to us she's always been as she is at this moment!

Oh, What A Busy Day!

Olivia had a full day, today! She got up in the morning and helped Bob do dishes while Suzanne cooked breakfast, then we all ate breakfast before waving Bob off to work. Olivia spent the rest of the morning helping Suzanne with the laundry, eating and having a nice late morning nap in preparation for an afternoon Out.
Olivia and Suzanne piled into the car and went to meet Bob for lunch at The Snug. Olivia continued her nice long nap, had lunch and then woke up all-bright eyed and charmed the waitress, Ida(ee-da), with her smiles. As she was getting back into her sling for a walk about town, Olivia looked out the window and saw that it was snowing (horizontally) in Cambridge - brrr! Fortunately, it was just a shower and she and Suzanne saw Bob back to work - it was still cold and windy out though, and time for a nappy change, so Olivia thought it would be a good idea to stop in at the Thursday well-baby clinic across the street and get weighed and have Suzanne change her nappy. Olivia weighed in at 14 pounds 5 ounces. - wow! That's eleven ounces over last Thursday!

After the well-baby clinic, the weather had transformed into a nice day, so Suzanne and Olivia walked/(got carried) into the town centre for a wonderful visit with Suzanne's friends at work. Olivia loved being the centre of attention and charmed all with her smiles. Here, Olivia is soaking it up while (L-R) Claire, Ingrid and Jo entertain her (or is it the doorknob?). The evening was wearing on, so Suzanne carried Olivia back to Bob's work with a detour to the market for a book for Olivia and to Boots for cotton balls(for Olivia's bottom :)
Back at Bob's work, she woke up again a bit to say 'coo' to Bob's colleagues and our friends Toby and Liz. We picked out a tree to plant for Olivia in Liz's back yard next fall - a winter-flowering cherry or a rowan. Olivia's existence (ahem) dates from our stay in Liz's house when we first arrived in Cambridge, so it seems appropriate :) And finally! Back home for some nosh and R&R before bedtime.
It has been a Busy Day! Good-Night!