Sleep, Wonderful Sleep...

I'm happy to get some...
We just wanted to share these two adorable pictures of Olivia sleeping. Lately, she's taken to falling back asleep with her knees tucked up and her bottom in the air. Also, to falling back asleep draped over her mama. Or sometimes, very recently, over her papa too.

About a week ago, the lack of sleep just GOT to me one night and I decided to leave the bed to Bob and I went downstairs. It ended up being less than totally traumatic for Olivia. Bob had her to sleep within half an hour, and though he didn't sleep much for the rest of the morning, Olivia, aside from her normalish fidgeting, slept until 8am. I also didn't sleep much or well, but it was restful to have my body to myself for a few hours! We have since tried this a few times and (knock on wood) it just seems to be getting better and better for Bob and Olivia.
Bob is also deeply touched by the sweet closeness of sleeping with his arm around her warm, trusting little body.

Signing!

We've been using sign language with Olivia for a long time now, and as I posted before Christmas, she's gotten a start at it. But now it seems that her language ability has really blossomed. This is one of the most important signs- "eat"! Fingers all together, moving toward her mouth.

This one is "bird"; thumb and forefinger come together like a bird's beak. She is also getting good at signing "help" when she wants help getting down from a high place like a chair, or opening a door. Other new signs- "banana", "sit" (as in her high chair), a very important "hurt", and one of the most useful- "touch-no". This one makes many of the two-year-old type issues much easier (or so it seems right now)- she'll look at something, and sign 'touch-no' toward it while looking at us with an inquisitive look on her face; we can then tell her if the thing in question is 'no touch' or not. Without any signs or words, she'd just have to go touch everything and see which things produced what reaction from us...

here's "bath"- both fists rubbing her chest, scrubbing. Olivia loves baths, and asks for them frequently! She really likes to splash; we recently decided we need to move her baby-bathtub from the kitchen floor to the big bathtub, to contain the water!

Watching the birds!

It seems like it's been a while since our last update! Here is Olivia watching the birds in the back yard. She loves to watch them, and will frequently see one and sign "bird" to us, and when we look, we can't see it, not because it's not there, but because it's hidden in a tree- quite the eagle eyes she has!

She's been doing more standing on her own, and walking with us holding her hands. The other day I stood her up and subtly let go, and she stayed up for a good 10 seconds before doing the semi-controlled sit-down that is such a useful dismount for toddlers. She now signs "bath" frequently, and really understands things we say- if we ask her to come upstairs for a nappy change, she either crawls to the stairs (and up them) or shakes her head with a plaintive look on her face (depending on her mood about nappy changes at the moment). Other new signs: "Cow" (though "Horse" is very similar), and that important one- "Help!".


Here's just a cute shot of her. She's also getting very good at climbing things- she can climb onto the couch without any help (some of the time), and on to the bed or similar things if she stands on one of our legs. She can almost by herself climb into her Tripp Trap chair, and has "graduated" from the baby-style configuration with a bar around her waist, to the toddler-style configuration with just a good place to sit and a good platform for her feet. She's pretty stable! And she continues to be a great eater, in addition to breastfeding. We had her weighed again for the first time in quite some time, and she's now up to 27 lbs. Our arms are getting stronger!