Happy First Birthday!

Olivia had a wonderful first birthday surrounded by good friends, food and fun. Here, the whole gang gathered for a photo (Kate and Lyra were in the other room starting a nap). The party was 'scheduled' from 11-1pm, but guests stayed until about 3:30 as adults and babies were having a good time, if beginning to get a bit ready for naps. Olivia crashed for an hour and a half when all was quiet again.

Olivia(Bob and I) blew out Olivia's candle on a lemon cake, and she tried some apple pie filling and a little sherbet. Her first refined sugar! I still think she prefers banana... :-) As per usual, Suzanne was racing toward the altar (let's blow out the candle!), when Kate saved the day by remembering to sing Happy Birthday first! It was a rousing chorus, with lovely harmonies - I had no idea we had such musically-talented friends!

Olivia has 8 teeth (4 top, 4 bottom), weighs 24 pounds and is 30 inches tall. She is crawling easily, pulls herself up and walks around holding onto things like an old pro, and is more frequently forgetting to hold on for a moment while she balances a bit before plopping onto her bottom. She says 'mama', signs 'milk', 'eat' and 'more' sometimes, smiles and laughs alot, and is beginning to test the upper and outer registers of her vocal range...
It really is amazing that a whole year has gone by since Olivia's birth. To think that at this time last year we were new parents of a surprise-arrival two-day-old baby. sigh. My, how the world has changed since then! What hasn't changed is that Olivia continues to melt our hearts...

Starting to Blog for herself!

Actually, her laptop doens't have wireless, so she's not connected to the net. Ok, also it isn't switched on, and in fact it doesn't even work! One more use for an old, out-of-date, broken laptop; good toy for a youngster who'd love to play with yours!

Of course, as we've discovered, it's not really the fact that it's a you have that makes her want to play with it (she has her own versions of all of the above), it's the fact that you're _paying attention_ to it! "ah ha! now if I can get my hands on it, I'll have them wrapped around my littel finger!" As if she didn't already...

Taking time to stop and pick the berries

It's been blackberry season in East Anglia, and for the last few weekends we have taken Olivia out to learn (well, at least watch) the joys of gathering berries. We've gone a few different places, and here we're with Toby and Olivia (the other Olivia), out at Wimpole Hall. Toby and Olivia graciously shared with us one of their favorite blackberry picking spots, and we had a go of it. We had to have Tea first to fortify ourselves, and then found very good picking!


Here, the two Olivias take a break from picking. It was late afternoon, and as we walked back to the car park, the light was lovely, and the grounds of Wimpole Hall looked very stately indeed. They have an interesting habit here of going to rather a lot of trouble to keep fences from marring the sightlines, so the result is very nice views!

More visitors!

September was a busy time for Olivia, entertaining not one but 2 pairs of visitors from the states. Our friends Lisa and Adam came and spent a couple of nights in our brand-new guestroom (thanks for the extra space Joanne!), before heading off to the west to do some long distance walking on some of the many public footpaths in England. The visit was marked by catching up on Seattle happenings, and excellent indian take-out!


Then, to celebrate my Dad's birthday, his brother and sister-in-law, my uncle and aunt, Olivia's great uncle Oscar and Jody (that's just 2 people, mind you) came up to cambridge for a brief tour. We took in some colleges, and had a lovely lunch in Don Pasquale, an italian restaraunt in the market square. It was a lovely visit, and even the weather played along- beautiful!

Sociable Climber

Forget all that crawling stuff! Olivia is much more interested in standing. She has been pulling herself up regularly in the last couple of days. It is no longer surprising to see her pull herself up on the edge of the tub, or on our pantlegs. She would climb if she could; one leg is always bending up, toes searching for that next purchase.

Olivia enjoys other babies and people - but largely from a safe distance. She is very mama-oriented right now. She doesn't much like me to leave her at all. If I try to leave her in a room with other people I get a crabby face and arms outstretched. Bob gets this sometimes too. Yesterday, she woke up quietly in the living room in the carseat and Bob was the first to respond. I ended up holding her when she came out, and Bob began to leave the room - she criiieeed. I had to hurry up the stairs to follow Bob and gave Olivia to him at the top - happy baby. Happy Papa.

She has moved on from the scrunchy-face phase to a _very_ cute 'tilt-my-head-and-look-sweetly' phase. Often she lays her head against our shoulder or chest when doing this and smiling. If she is on her own, she will tilt her head toward her own shoulder. Soooo adorable. Even after a night of waking up every 1-1/2 hours...

On the Go!

Olivia has been working up to crawling for some time now, but she put all four wheels into motion this weekend as she crawled several feet across the floor on all fours (tummy off the floor!) to chase some much-coveted items; my wallet and cell phone. She has pulled herself up several times with no help from Bob or me and even works her away along the edge of the tub.
She seems to have come a long way with her crawling since beginning Tumble Tots a couple of weeks ago(I'll try to remember to take a picture today). One of the things we have done there is to help her work her way up a slope using my hands as footholds to get to(you guessed it) my wallet and cell phone. All the cute, educational toys in the world, and she prefers a wallet, cell phone, book, camera, CD case... She made her way into the pots and pans cabinet the other day too. It has begun...


We have found the backpack comes in handy in all sorts of situations, not just outdoor walking. I can cook up a storm in the kitchen with her in the backpack, or this morning for example, I put her in it to hang the laundry. She fell asleep, so I've come indoors and am sitting on the couch with a cup of coffee, a computer in my lap, and Olivia is getting her morning nap - magic! We have also picked alot of berries this fall with her in the pack - there's no way I could have picked pokey, nettle-ridden blackberries with her in the front carrier!