Olivia Oaksford Hawley

Clever girl

2011-02-21T11:19:00.002Z

Another anecdote I just felt I needed to pass on/archive:

On Valentine's day, as I was getting ready for work up in the bedroom, Olivia joined me there. Unbeknownst to me she had been instructed to stall me up there while Suzanne arranged some Valentine's day things downstairs. Also part of the set-up to this story is that a few days before I had moved some boxes that had been in the middle of the bedroom for a long time onto a closet, resulting in some clear floor space.

Olivia came to the door and said "I really like what you've done with this space." I thanked her of course, and said something about having those boxes out of the way.

"and where did you get that shirt?"

I was wearing a t-shirt from the Scott's Hut race, in Antarctica- I was again all too happy to talk about that. As I was getting ready to leave the bedroom, she put her hands on each side of the doorframe and called to Suzanne to see if all was ready, at which point I realized she had been sent to stall me. Note that all of these lines were completely uncoached.

I tell you she's going to be an actress. I guess an alternative is con artist...

Broccoli coming out of her ears

2011-01-03T12:28:00.003Z

A little anecdote I thought I needed to share.

Olivia has broccoli at dinner very frequently. Now, we don't require her to clean her plate always, but we want her to at least eat her broccoli. There have been many ways we have used to cajole her into eating it all, and one that has been especially successful has been for me to palm a piece of broccoli while she's not looking, and then pretend to pull it out of her ear, or Suzanne's ear, or my ear.

Though I'm no magician, she bought this for quite a long time, and then the other night she asked me how I do it. Wanting to be honest with her, I showed her how I could hold the broccoli in my palm without using my fingers, and showed her how I could pick it up off her plate.

Having palmed the broccoli and showed it to her, I then reached to Suzanne's ear and pretended to pull it out. Looking slightly perplexed, she said:

"But what happened to the piece of broccoli you already had in your hand?"

Visiting the Maryland Cousins

2010-08-10T02:18:00.004+01:00

Olivia and I(mama) found time for a short visit to Maryland in July to visit my sister's family, while Olivia's Grandma was visiting. We had a very enjoyable, if short, visit with Olivia's aunt and uncle, cousins and grandma. Olivia really enjoyed spending time with everyone. She was particularly lonely for her cousins when we got home.
We even made a trip to the D.C. zoo, but I forgot my camera, so am waiting to have photos some passed on to me.

All the ladies hanging out on a warm day, (except me behind the camera!)

Olivia gave the hula hoop a try.

Even Grandma got in on the act!

Summer's First Camping Trip

2010-07-19T21:00:00.000+01:00

We finally got ourselves out camping this summer. We went to Moosalamoo Campground in VT's Green Mtn Nat'l Forest. It rained itself out before we got to our campsite, and the weather was wonderful the rest of the weekend. We went for walks in the woods, paddles in the creek, and had time to roast marshmallows around the campfire (which Olivia clearly enjoyed!).
We saw moose tracks as big as Olivia's feet, but alas, no moose.

Olivia visits a Monarch Butterfly caterpillar on a milkweed leaf. Our first of the season.

Olivia the camp-chair monster!

Just after a messy s'more.

Happy camping family!

The Joke's On Me

2010-02-05T02:39:00.004Z

I just happened to look back at a post from 2 years ago which reads "Knock on wood, but she has been sleeping the night through! Tonight, after breastmilk and a song, she rolled off my lap and crawled to her spot on the bed and virtually collapsed. Her first time putting herself to sleep! Quite a surprise and very exciting. Although it can leave one feeling just a little redundant."
No worries. Two years later and we are still not redundant. Since that post, she has probably slept the night through fewer times than you can count on your fingers(yes, I am taking into account the possibility that someone reading this might be missing a couple)... and that was probably also the only time she has put herself to sleep so far...

The Next Michelle Kwan or Frido Kahlo?

2009-11-20T03:21:00.007Z

Family photo. Olivia drew this picture of Mama, on the left, and of Olivia and Papa on the right

Olivia in her new figure skates after watching a video of Michelle Kwan.

Olivia's 4th Birthday Party

2009-11-20T03:17:00.004Z

Olivia had a nice group of friends over and chose the same castle cake that I remember my mom making for one of my birthday parties. The main difference being that Olivia really wanted princess figurines on hers... although now she's saying that next year, she wants a pirate castle!

It was a very warm October day, so we played outside in our shirtsleeves.

The first thing Olivia did with these two dolls was to straighten out who wears the pants...

Our First Family Noodle, - er um, Cat

2009-11-20T03:14:00.006Z

After going to the fair, Olivia came up with the idea of wanting a rabbit, but given time, worked around to wanting a cat, which we could all agree on. We took a couple trips to the local humane society and had a hard time choosing among all the wonderful cats there, but finally decided on a black, shorthaired, extremely friendly and floppy kitten with an incessant purr. We call him Timothy.

Olivia became comfortable with Timothy quite quickly, though she still doesn't like him to bother her at bedtime. Her comfort with him seems to have been generalized to other pets - she is even alot more comfortable around dogs than she used to be. Timothy is a very happy addition to our family. Olivia has recently started saying she wants a dog... we'll see...

Fall Day at Billings Farm with Hope and Hannah

2009-11-20T03:01:00.004Z

A curious new rare species of bird...

Olivia takes a turn helping to make pumpkin ice-cream whilst Hannah looks on.

Enjoying the fruits of her labor, looking out over a beautiful vermont fall landscape.

June in Cambridge, England

2009-09-30T03:17:00.012+01:00

Can I possibly say enough about this visit, or post enough pics? For more pics, you'll have to visit our flickr site, but here is a taster. There's something about the place and people you grow up with. Olivia, and we, felt right at home with Cambridge and our good friends. What a wonderful way to spend 3 weeks. More Text Soon.

More Visitors and Visits

2009-09-30T02:56:00.006+01:00

While Bob was away in early September, Olivia and I visited my sister, Olivia's Aunt Kristen, and Uncle Jeff and cousins Rachel and Sarah in Maryland for a really enjoyable 5 days. We got to see their new house, and Olivia got to know her cousins and played lots of "Monster Tag" in the garden. She got to go swimming, learned how to be a puppy, got used to the cats, watched Pocahontas, and picked milkweed for a monarch butterfly. Then we had to come home, but much refreshed.

We also had fun visits from Bob's sisters (excuse me, Olivia's Aunts) Regan, and Betsey and Uncle Michael with cousins William and Robert - blog soon, with pics.

Summer Visitors

2009-08-17T02:46:00.015+01:00

We had a stream of visitors to Hanover this summer - unfortunately, we didn't get pictures of all of them, such as Lisa, because we were too busy just doing stuff!

Grandma came to Hanover for 10 days in May after a trip to Hawaii and brought the Hawaiian Hula to Olivia. Olivia was comfortable with Grandma right away and kept her busy reading and playing.

Olivia also loves visits from the Camera family. Here is Olivia with Sam and Julian at the Montshire Children's Museum of Science across the river, in Vermont.

Here is Olivia enjoying a (rainy) visit on the beach with Grandad and GrandMary at Rockport, where we spent an enjoyable couple of days when Bob went down to give a talk at the Yacht Club.

We had a great weekend with Lisa Stuebing visiting, and the rain stopped (just) long enough for us to go to the fair.
Olivia had a ball watching these miniature stallions perform - and sucking on her first lollipop that she collected during the parade at the fair. All in all a nice little fair. She came away having decided that she would like a rabbit.

Olivia's Summer Fun

2009-08-17T02:16:00.004+01:00

Well, it's August and we're finally beginning to act like summer. We have just discovered the wonderful pastime of swimming in lakes in NH and VT. It took Olivia about 10 minutes to decide that she really DID want to be -and stay!- in the water. She loves to bob around in mama's arms or ride on papa's back, jump from a dock into our arms or walk between us in water up to her armpits. And this has been only her second day of it! There's a place near us on Lake Fairlee where they've even set up an old slide going into the water. Scary, but Olivia kept coming back for more!

A couple of weekends ago, we went on our first camping trip with Olivia in the states. We went to Chittenden State Park in VT, which was just lovely, if different (a deciduous instead of a pine forest/ moose poop instead of mountain goat). Here, Olivia is enjoying her first S'more by the campfire, which she was extremely wary of. She doesn't like that "smoke follows beauty".

We hiked from the campground along a series of clear and rippling connected streams towards the Long Trail, and to a nearby "beaver pond" filled with fun-to-watch salamanders. Toads abound.

Olivia in her new home!

2009-04-22T01:58:00.003+01:00

Olivia's got a new home- so to do her parents of course, but this is her blog! Here she's found a cozy spot to sit inside a rolled-up futon while said futon awaits a final positioning. She's really done well with all the moving we've been doing for the last year, and living among boxes (actually making some great forts out of them!).

This easter Olivia had a great time decorating eggs, then leaving them for the easter bunny to hide. In the morning she gleefully tromped about the yard, collecting all that she'd decorated and a few more besides- never mind that it was definitely not spring weather!

This is around behind the house- you can see the neighbor's house in the foreground, and the swing (which Olivia likes!) is just on the edge of our property.

Playtime

2009-04-05T02:25:00.010+01:00

Here is Olivia playing in her new home.
She really likes forts and is beginning to be interested in board games.
Olivia also gets very creative with her make-believe and likes to direct the action.

Tidbits & Trivia

2009-03-03T03:24:00.002Z

Olivia has been in only nighttime nappies for basically the last year, but a few days ago, we ran out of nappies and so had to put her to bed without, so she's on her 6th night without nappies and it seems to be going fine. We didn't get her up to pee before we went to bed on the second night, so had a wet bed, but every other night so far has been dry, with nighttime potty breaks.

She hasn't shown much interest in drawing, but the other day we played a game where we had to guess what the other was drawing. She basically just drew whatever I had drawn before, but she _drew_ them! A tree, a snake, a boat, and more that I can't remember.

Olivia will count or say the alphabet in all sorts of silly ways if you ask her to, but I've just started to notice that when I'm not really paying attention she'll show what she knows - she sang most of the alphabet with me the other day, and today when I was in the kitchen I heard "ABCDEFG..." being sung in the living room. The same with counting. I've heard her say the numbers between 1 and 10, even going into the teens, but she loves the sound of "1-2-3-5-8!" Her favorite letter is 'O' (big surprise), and she'll look at you slyly with a little smile whilst saying that every letter you're pointing at is "O".

Olivia enjoys her dance class and likes to dance at home, and has just learned to wiggle her hips.

We have just bought our first house and Olivia will have a room that is all hers. She really likes the idea of having her own room and wants to paint it pink, red and blue.

2009-03-03T02:20:00.005Z

We have slowly been making new friends with some very nice people. Here Olivia is, after a bit of sledding, with one of her more familiar playmates, Lyra - yes, another Lyra; one of at least 3 just in this area. Popular little heroine! Olivia goes to a cozy playgroup with Lyra every week and we get together at each other's houses when schedules permit. What's more, Olivia will let Lyra's mom, Kristin, look after her - wow! She also likes to stay with Hope & Jonathan, and has just said she will also visit with another new friend, Joy. This sort of scheme is really unprecedented for us, and very welcome.

Some things don't change. Lots of time spent on our little couch reading.

Some things do change. Trains and babies are still loved, but have taken a backseat to Princesses and Princes. Oh my, do we spend alot of time playing with this theme. Olivia is developing a mean curtsey, though!
Olivia is delightful and friendly with everyone and seems to gather admirers wherever she goes.

A brief vignette...

2009-01-26T03:10:00.006Z

So, I know we've hardly posted at all lately, but better short, snappy posts than none at all...

Our little girl has been growing, physically and personality-wise. A few weeks ago she _really_ wanted a cookie, and I was surprised to find that she knew how to, and was physically able to, drag a chair from the dining room into the living room, get up on it, open one of the _upper_ kitchen cabinets, and point to the high, high shelves where the cookies are (fortunately she hadn't figured out about climbing up onto the counter, or at least she hasn't let on...).

Here's a brief exchange which shows perhaps quite a bit:

Bob: "Olivia, it's time to get your pants on."
Olivia: "uh-uh me want to get pants on" (her syntax for "I don't want")
Bob: "hmm. what does this mean?"
Olivia: "We at Impasse."
Bob: "well, we really need to get going" (picks Olivia up)
Olivia: "Unhand me!!"

I kid you not these are her exact words...

anyway, it continues to be a wonderful adventure, even if we've been less prolific about posting!

Okay - It has been a LONG time since our last blog

2009-01-05T02:58:00.004Z

The past 6 months have felt extremely unsettled for us with our drawn-out move from England to the U.S.A and then our house-search with trying to figure out how to be in this place. Olivia has been a star, however, and weathers it all with resiliency and certainly often more grace than either of her parents. For a quick pictorial glance at our past 6 months, take a look at our flickr photo site, http://flickr.com/photos/hawley/
We intend to write a real blog soon.
Here are a few snapshots of our wintry life in Hanover.

American Girl!

2008-09-22T02:09:00.004+01:00

Ok, so although Olivia's been away from her web audience for the last 5 months(!!!!), she's been living life pretty fully. We moved out of our house in Cambridge at the end of April, traveled around England for about a month, then went to the West coast of the US for a month, then stayed in temporary digs on the East coast (MA) for a month, before finally landing here in Hanover, NH at our slightly-less-temporary home here. It's a rental house owned by Dartmouth College where we'll stay until we find a house to buy.

Through all of this upheaval, Olivia's been sailing with flying colors. Oh yeah, and in the midst of all this Papa's spent 2 weeks in Greenland and 2 1/2 weeks in the Canadian Rockies teaching a field course.

More pictures are on our Flickr photo page, but here are a couple from our life here:

On the back lawn. Our house is set back in the woods off the road, a short walk from Dartmouth. Not a lot of lawn but it's been fun!

Suzanne and Olivia getting to read on the couch (which came from FreeCycle) in our living room. Olivia continues to devour books , and it's always fun to have some reading time after dinner and before bed.

Beautiful pretender

2008-03-31T21:18:00.003+01:00

Long time no post! We've been extrordinarily busy lately, what with various travels, travel planning, _move_ planning, getting horrible flu/colds (all three of us), and everything else... you know how it goes.

But I wanted to put in another post about Olivia's pretend play. It's gotten very elaborate! Here, she had set her 2 chairs up to be a bicycle, and brought Suzanne over to help once she's set it up. She explained that they needed to get on the bicycle to go and visit papa at work! so they got on their helmets and went for a ride.

Another moment to share: often, when we see bollards in the sidewalk with Olivia, we'll help her vault over them while saying the nursery rhyme "Jack be nimble, jack be quick...". Today as we walked along, she saw a row of bollards, and went up to each one of them and blew at the top of it. It took just a moment for Suzanne to realize she was blowing out the candlestick!

These, I just wanted to include because she's so beautiful. Sure I'm biased, but then I'm allowed, and heck- this is her blog anyway!

'appy' girl

2008-02-24T11:34:00.006Z

Olivia's most-used word right now is "happy". It's often surprising the circumstances under which she'll use it. She can find something to be happy about. She's just now recovering from a flu-like illness which had her unable to keep anything down except for breastmilk. Of course the most intense vomiting times were 1 or 2 am! But after a vomiting spell, when getting some comforting breastmilk, she'd often say "Appy!" between sides.

Other words are more specifically situational... She's learning to pull her pants down and up by herself. Her commonest comment upon pulling up her pants is "wedgie". Brand new today: Blueberry. Guess what we had in our scones for Sunday breakfast!

Trains!

2008-02-18T20:24:00.003Z

Olivia does love trains.
Mama went to IKEA for the first time ever and went nutso! Came home with lots of things, like this train set, that weren't on my original single-item list. But she loves it! It's a real winner. And the thanks really go to Grandad and GrandMary who sent $ for a little table for Olivia with chairs plus shipping. But they don't ship the table anymore, so we went to the store - and so got lots of things "for the price of one" as it were. The table's great. O loves having a place just her size to sit and serve tea. (pic soon). O also got a handy toybox that matches the table.

So the big new developments are in Olivia's sleep. Knock on wood, but she has been sleeping the night through! Tonight, after breastmilk and a song, she rolled off my lap and crawled to her spot on the bed and virtually collapsed. Her first time putting herself to sleep! Quite a surprise and very exciting. Although it can leave one feeling just a little redundant. Just a little, though :-)

Answer: She's Breathing

2008-02-09T09:19:00.000Z

Question: How can you tell when Olivia is hungry?

Olivia likes food.

It makes her happy.

She wants more.

Growing Girl

2008-02-08T20:12:00.000Z

Olivia discovers spaghetti noodles. And my, is it fun, except when it gets a head start down your throat while the end is still hanging out your mouth and mama has to pull it back out by the dangly end. Urk. It's a knack Olivia is still working on acquiring.

Olivia is getting talky. She is now trying to say alot of words each day - often only recognisable in context, but it's fun to hear her trying! She is now regularly stringing together a couple of words verbally, whereas her signing tends to be more complex. Or words and signs in conjunction to convey her thoughts. She likes to tell about the interesting and exciting bits of her day. Trains, planes, dogs seen, cats petted, friends seen. Today, we watched a huge tree get pulled down, which was a big topic of conversation for the afternoon. I thought it was pretty impressive too. "More!", Olivia signed. Sorry, honey, I think that tree is only coming down once.

Right, Olivia has had quite a growth spurt over the past few months. She shot up by a couple of inches and a couple of kilograms. She's at least 36 inches tall and 38 lbs heavy. And she still loves to be carried... The other day, when the petite Sebastien hopped up into my arms, Sophie offered Olivia a ride in the sling and immediately paused for thought, but valiantly carried(ahem) through on her offer.

Olivia has slept through the last 3 nights. We'll see what happens next...

Day Out

2008-02-05T08:16:00.000Z

The other day, we went to Fulbourn Fen with Wim and Lyra. It was clear, cold and a beautiful day to be out and about. Olivia and Lyra outdid themselves with running after each other and doing almost all their own walking(Good news for us as Olivia has had a growth spurt and now weighs over 38 lbs!).
Olivia likes playing peek-a-boo, and had fun popping out at Bob from behind a tree. "Boo!"

We haven't had much rain lately, so the walk wasn't _too_ muddy, but Olivia was still reluctant to step off this bridge into the mud while Wim and Lyra watch. She signs "cow" to papa, "Poop!". I did end up lifting her across to the grass since she just wasn't quite willing to step into a puddle of what she thought looked like cow poop. We _do_ see alot of cow and sheep poop around here. The mounds in the field are mole hills though. Honestly.

Olivia and Lyra did eventually give in to tired legs and opt for a ride. "Baby!" said Olivia, wanting to be cradled like Lyra. What sweet girls.

Busy Girl

2008-02-01T19:37:00.000Z

Getting ready to go outside the other day, Olivia took matters into her own hands. Grabbing her shoelaces for the first time, she circled them around each other elaborately for several tries. Her shoe didn't end up tied, but it was sure fun to watch.

Olivia has a creative streak and is really enjoying her pretend play. After helping to put the cord back on the vaccuum, she decided it was time to clean her hands, so turned on what was obviously put there to be a tap and rubbed her hands underneath to wash them. She has various versions of this around the house - a round, plastic thing in the bed can be used to fill her doll's bath. Today, she was bringing me 'bananas' to peel and taking the 'peels' to throw away. "Actually, Olivia, those go in the compost!"

Last weekend, we went to Wicken Fen, which still has one of the windmills that was used to drain the fens. Olivia really likes windmills, so we went to visit it and give her a closer look. What are the shafts and wheels mentioned in her favorite bedtime song? She got to see them up close and personal. "Whoom!"(read:'around!'), she says when she sees it.

Busy with the budding cook!

2008-01-24T22:20:00.001Z

Long time no post- Olivia's been keeping us very busy lately. Here she's hamming it up in the kitchen while helping us cook. She continues to talk more- new words: tickle, sticky, moon, broccoli, poky, her friends names Lyra and George- and when she backs up (or sees a car backing up), she says "ba ba ba"... She now signs and says "again"; other new signs: house (home), work, stop, excuse me (a popular one!)... She now eats up signs faster than we can teach them to her (and us!). One of her favorite games these days is a version of "red light/green light", except that for Olivia it's always a green light! She'll go to the end of the hall while I sit at the other end, and when I cover my eyes and say "go!" she starts running towards me. When I uncover my eyes and say "stop", she keeps running towards me... We need to work on some of the concepts, but she loves it! and I generally peek though my fingers so I don't get trampled too badly.

She's also been teething (4 second molars coming all at once) for what seems like months now; this brings with it a new nighttime wakefulness that's been pretty draining- probably contributing to our lack of blog posts! we're hoping for the teeth to be in soon!

Happy Holidays!

2008-01-01T22:04:00.000Z

We had a quiet last Christmas in England with just the three of us. It was very nice and cozy, and Olivia was able to make the whole day last by playing with each present as long as she liked before moving on to opening another (and she had quite a few!)

Early on, she had fun with a new apron and cooking implements- which is perfect as she's lately started making "soup" and "stew" in the kitchen when Suzanne's cooking...

She also enjoyed the traditional wearing of new presents- note the new pajamas as she reads her new (first!) Dr. Seuss book (while holding a can of playdough- now that's product placement!)

One of Olivia's favorite presents was a fisher-price farm, one that Suzanne had picked up for a few quid at a "Jumble sale" as they call them here. Probably missing some parts, and some parts from other sets, from the look of it, but Olivia loves it. Lots of animals, a tractor, and a farmer with a cowboy hat and a decidedly Mexican looking moustache. It's got plenty of character!

Olivia's First Drawings

2007-12-24T09:04:00.000Z

Olivia drew this on her aquadraw mat the other day, pointed to it, and signed 'bird'.

Olivia drew this next, and signed that it was a 'horse'.

Our little artist in the making!

Learning Curve & Fun Developments

2007-12-19T06:46:00.000Z

words: "wawa" for water, bumpy,
signs: beautiful, friend, happy,
avg nappies used per day: 2! :-)

Somehow, I always seem to learn pertinent details after acting on a lack thereof. After buying Olivia a taller potty, I read about how squatting is actually the healthiest position for pooping. Well, Olivia likes both her potties and alternates between them. She is becoming a master of their use, though, and really only goes not in a potty when she is wearing a nappy. I try to leave her nappy-free when we are in a home and we've had a couple outings to the grocery store. It just means that sometimes we're moving from the vegetable aisle to the toilets pretty quickly!
We had a little xmas party at our house Sunday, and so Bob's and my attention was largely elsewhere alot of the time. I had dressed her in a very short dress (only) so that she'd be free and easy when it came to potty use and this seemed to pay off because half the time she went to her potty and sat down without even informing us first. In fact, at one point, Bob and I were both in the kitchen when Bob walked into the hall and met Olivia going the other direction, potty bowl in hand on her way to the bathroom to dump it out. Nobody in the living had even noticed that she'd used it! Bravo, Olivia!
The feeling of accomplishment is tempered a bit by the fact that I've been reading lately about "Natural Infant Hygiene" ("Diaper Free" by Ingrid Bauer), and realize that we could have avoided the whole toilet-training issue, not to mention a whole lot of nappies! Ah well. Hindsight, and all that...

More Olivia!

2007-12-13T20:32:00.000Z

I just wanted to jot down some of Olivia's newest words, before they got completely passed by.
Let's see... She said "puppy" when a lady with a cute black lab puppy stopped to let her and Olivia get acquainted. Both were on their way home for a nap. Tonight, she signed "why?", though we won't know how well she understands it until she really starts using it. A woman in the post office told me she said "dog" the other day, but I didn't hear it and she didn't repeat it. Olivia charmed everyone in the post office that day with her smiles and pointing out interesting things like dogs and cats on the cards. At the end, she helpfully lugged my big bag down past the queue and out the door, after being stopped near the door by the press of people smiling down at her. One lady opened the door for her, and another exclaimed how she had livened up everyone's day :-)
Today, we went shopping for a bigger little potty for Olivia, as I had gotten tired of her knees being up around her chin. She picked it out. Quite a plain, white one. Not the pretty blue winnie-the-pooh one that I'd tried to interest her in... She likes to sit on it(spent quite alot of the evening on it), though she signed that it was _cooold_! to sit on after having been towed home in the bike trailer in the freezing air.
Olivia's been spending alot more time at home un-nappied. She likes to not have one on, and it makes it that much easier for her to sit on the potty. It still helps for me to look for cues that she has to go, though, and help her to sit on the potty.
I know there have been more words and I'm just not coming up with them - next blog!

Another Day

2007-12-09T20:04:00.000Z

Olivia had a much more interesting day today than yesterday, and though she seems to have alot of energy now at bedtime, she _seems_ to be going to sleep more easily. I can still hear the occasional "mummy" or "mama" from upstairs though, as Bob is singing her to sleep.
It wasn't too chilly and the sunlight was peeking hopefully through the clouds this morning. Then it started to RAIN. Hard. We all threw on our raingear and went outside to watch Papa trim the base of the xmas tree before it got too wet, and dragged it inside. Then, since we were already geared up and rained on, Olivia got on her bike, and we pulled on our galoshes and we went for a walk in the rain. Olivia had a great time alternating splashing through puddles on her bike and stomping in them.
Home for a warming lunch of grilled cheese sandwich and tomato soup, then a shortish nap for Olivia with mama. After the nap, we put up the tree, then Bob took Olivia for a fun outing to Scotsdales to see the owls(Olivia looks forward to seeing the owls all week), xmas displays and fish(some koi are HUGE and scary but compelling). Mama stayed home to vaccuum like a fanatic and at least get _into_ the shower before they got home. Then another nap with mama for a very tired girl.
We all sat down to a nice tea of banana bread that Olivia helped papa make yesterday, hot (lukewarm) chocolate for Olivia and hot-buttered-rums for us :-) and xmas music. Then Olivia went between mama putting lights on the tree and playing with xmas ornaments in the living room, and papa making dinner in the kitchen. She spent most of dinner spinning around and having us pop the occasional bite into her mouth. Then, upstairs for a pee in the potty and getting ready for bed, and Bob is downstairs again and it's only 8:30pm. Later than usual, but nothing like as late as last night - whew!

Some new words for Olivia from last week. She said 'Olivia' for the first time! 'Got it', 'Yehwow" seems to be both yellow and hello. 'Potato', immediately shortened to 'tato'. She said 'onion' today. She named her doll Lyra (Lala).
She's been using some more signs lately too. 'I like', 'happy', 'star', 'fork', 'scared', 'dizzy'(a favourite while spinning around), and 'stop'.

Total Aargh (Bob's Summation)

2007-12-08T23:01:00.000Z

Well. Olivia has finally turned in after a long day. Most of which occured in the last 3 hours. We began the bedtime ritual at 7:15 and she fell asleep at 10:15. Mama and papa are _tired_. Not sure what kept O up so long, though she asked for the toilet alot and eventually had a poo on her potty before finally settling down in bed. Poor chick. She had a weird day too. We ran errands this morning, including getting our xmas tree, stopping at the post office, impulsively hitting a local Saturday market, and looking at new bikes for mama, so she was _very_ late for her morning nap, which was short. Then, mama had some present wrapping and packaging to do, so Olivia's activities in the living room and access to mama were certainly constrained. It was a crummy, rainy day too, so not alot of incentive to get outside to play. sigh. Olivia has started to deliberately pour her drinks onto the rug, too, which can be quite vexing under the wrong conditions.
This really isn't a complete entry, but I'm _very_ tired and it's time to go to bed!
Hopefully, O will sleep well now that she's asleep!

Hair and Baby Dumpling

2007-12-01T10:06:00.000Z

Olivia with pigtails

Olivia "sshhh, don't wake the baby" with baby dumpling and book"

Olivia rocking baby dumpling, with her Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star book.

New words: Bobby; Thursday: bamboo, carrot; Friday: feeling crummy, no new words; Saturday: big toe(I think), poke(for the toes poking out of her pajamas, sounds alot like 'pooh'); Sunday: Potato and tato

Budding Musician

2007-11-26T20:11:00.000Z

Bob brought out a harmonica for Olivia the other day and she took right to it. She can play it blowing and drawing, and it _always_ sounds good! A definite plus for a child's instrument. She even got a bluesy sound out of it today - go Olivia!

Clapping for Papa, multi-talented one-man band.

Happy 3rd Thanksgiving, Olivia!

2007-11-25T19:48:00.000Z

Saturday, we celebrated Olivia's third Thanksgiving in Cambridge with special friends. We feel very blessed to have found "family away from family" so far from 'home'. We all cooked, cleaned, set up and watched toddlers together. And ate, of course! My only regret is that we don't have a bigger house to be able to share the holiday with even MORE of our good friends!
Olivia's seat was by mama, but almost as soon as George vacated his chair, Olivia took up the post by Nancy-Ann and helped herself off of Nancy-Ann's plate - she even ate most of her pumpkin pie!
Olivia, George and Lyra had a grand time together jumping around on the bed upstairs, though it's tough to keep heads from knocking when they fall over! They all play really well together with lots of hugs and a minimum of pushing. (On that topic, Olivia used to maintain her space by running away, and has now figured out that she can defend it by long-arming anyone trying to invade it. It's good that she doesn't run away anymore, but we're working on finding an alternative to a behavior that is awfully close to pushing.)
Kate and Wim and Lyra spent most of the day with us, cooking (and trying to give the girls naps). Bob and Wim were fantastic on baby duty. Bob was the first line of parenting Friday, Saturday and even Sunday. Thanks both Bob and Olivia for giving me so much time in the kitchen, and even some time to lie down alone upstairs! (Speaking of which, I think Bob has fallen asleep upstairs while putting Olivia to sleep, and SHE was asleep when I put her down :-) Tired kids.
It's been an active weekend for Olivia. She is starting to try out more new words. Thursday was 'dirty', Friday was 'moon', Saturday was 'turkey' and 'sticky', and Sunday was names from her books, 'Poppy' and 'Nono'. Olivia is fun and beautiful and ultra-cool. So is her papa, and I think he _must_ be asleep because I came down 45 minutes ago and it's been awfully quiet up there for about 44.5 minutes. To wake or not to wake, that is the question...

Life is too short...

2007-11-22T09:04:00.000Z

...to not do exactly what you want to do. And, this morning, what Olivia wanted to do was dress in her doggy smock and mama's swimming goggles. She wore them all through breakfast, and is keeping them on hand for future cravings.

Olivia's new word today is "dirty". Not surprising, considering the content of the previous post. You can imagine it's something that has been coming out of mama's mouth alot lately. We are tickled, though, that she has still never said 'no'(verbally, anyways!).

Let's Talk About Two

2007-11-17T19:46:00.000Z

Olivia is amazing in more than one sense of the word. She is a fast learner. She has been doing a great job of riding her little bike, but today Bob suggested that she pick up her feet, and now she can balance for a fraction of a second as she paddles along then picks up her feet. She spent a long time on her bike this morning trying out her new skills.

Sometimes, she seems to resist learning and leaves no doubt that she has a will of her own. This evening, getting onto the toilet, she touched the inside of the toilet. In summation, I said 'no' with an explanation and she promptly stuck all four fingers in her mouth. 'No, yuck!', wash her hands with soap, and she promptly sticks all four
soapy fingers of both hands in her mouth. Right. 'Does that taste _good_ Olivia?' Shake head 'no'. 'Then, _why_ are you doing it??!' Sticks fingers in mouth again. sigh...
All this, as she is sitting on the toilet doing one of the things she does best right now; going on the toilet. She does a great job of telling us when she has to go, and often really prefers to go on the toilet - so we spend _alot_ of time putting on and taking off nappies and sitting on the toilet/edge of the bath reading Christmas catalogues. It has sure cut down on the poopy nappies though!

Twerrific Twos!

2007-10-27T20:45:00.000+01:00

Olivia's Second Birthday Celebration!

2007-10-27T20:36:00.000+01:00

Oh, what a two years it's been. Wonderful, and tiring, beyond compare. Alot of Olivia's friends -old and new- joined us Sunday in celebrating her birthday. So did the weather, it was sunny and warm.

Olivia blew out her candles on the first try! She wasn't sure what to do until mama said it was just like blowing on a dandelion - without further delay, whoof!, out went the candles! Olivia had cake and ice cream this year, but mainly ice cream. yum!

Just in time for Halloween! Abby gave Olivia this lion costume - rroaarr! She likes to see herself in it in the mirror. She also got alot of fantastic books and some great toys. Thanks everyone!
On Monday, Olivia's birthday, we had a leisurely morning with more presents and then a trip to the zoo, where Olivia got to see more lions(of the tooth-and-claw variety), tigers, zebras, enormous tortoises, and best-of-the-best - ponies.

One Thing to Say Today

2007-10-11T20:54:00.001+01:00

Olivia is lucky to have a mama blessed with so many wonderful and caring friends. Thanks for taking care of us while Bob's gone.

Great developments!

2007-10-07T20:03:00.000+01:00

Olivia's been moving up in the world lately. We'be borrowed a stable chair (none of our "regular" chairs are safe for standing on since they fold up) and so now Olivia's able to stand at the counter in the kitchen and help us with all manner of chores! She especially likes to play with water in the sink; which generally ends up in a rather wet kitchen floor... Here, she's giving some water to her dog (feeding her flock is another favorite!)

Also, as avid cyclists, we're thrilled that Olivia is starting to get the hang of her new bike. We've had this for a few months now, but until recently Olivia hadn't been able to do much with it without help from one of us. Until recently, that is, because Suzanne had the brilliant realization of what the problem was: the handlebars could swivel 360 degrees. So poor Olivia didn't have much to grab on to in order to hold the bike up (they'd just turn around), let alone start riding it! Other 'trainer' bikes (like the "like-a-bike") have constrained handlebars, and this may be part of the reason. So clever Suzanne pulled out her trusty ball of string, and a few minutes later the bike doens't turn quite as sharply, but Olivia can handle it now! She's taking to it like, well, like Olivia to a bike. Which is to say, beautifully!

Olivia Update

2007-10-01T20:23:00.001+01:00

Hurrah! for tomato soup!

Well, Olivia's doing great in general. Specifically, we're all slightly under the weather with some vague, nondescript malaisey yuck. It seems to be causing Olivia (so Bob and me too) to be sleeping poorly many nights. Discouraging, as Olivia had a long run of not nursing during the night in the first part of September. We're all tired. Olivia and I took a long nap this afternoon. Bob is upstairs putting her to bed right now. I haven't heard anything for a long time, so I think he may have fallen asleep too!

Olivia got her first pair of wellies the other day. I would have gotten some earlier for hopping in puddles, but it was hard to find a pair that fit over her squeezable calves.
Olivia has been talking more. Sometimes she sound like she's stringing together sentences. Yesterday, when I was gone for a few hours, Bob was sure she said "I want Mama", or "I wah mama", at least! 'Quiche' was a big word for her a few weeks ago, when we were eating it alot. 'Wow' is a big favorite right now. "WwwOww!" Other new ones, 'mummy(to my mild chagrin), nipple, hop. Hm, can't think of any others right now. She's 15kg and over 34 inches tall. She loves horses and trains. She loves to be played with and hold hands. She's beautiful.

Home

2007-09-21T20:18:00.000+01:00

First, I wanted to blog a couple more favorite pictures from Cadzand. Here, Olivia has a fantastic time being photographed and adored in her first-time pigtails.

Holland is a wonderful bicycling country, and we got out once as a group to go on a picnic. We rented a cool double-seater to carry Olivia and Lyra, and on the way home, against all odds, with wobbly heads and trying not to be leaned upon by each other, they both fell asleep.

On our way home, the three of us stopped in Bruges for a couple of nights before meeting Kate in Brussels for the Eurostar ride through the Chunnel back to London. Bruges is a lovely city full of historic buildings and joy-of-joys, horse-drawn carriages - FULL of them! Olivia had a hey-day watching them come and go. She signed by patting her bottom and pointing at the horses that she really wanted to sit on them. I'm keeping my eyes open for a pony-ride now!
Less to do directly with Olivia, we also brought home a ton of belgian chocolate - yum!
After less than a week at home, we all spent a week in Edinburgh where Bob had some work to do. Olivia and mama kept busy going to the playground, the Botanical Gardens which has a nice waterfall in the rock garden (just ask Olivia), and the zoo, where Olivia saw many favourite animals she'd never seen in real life before. The zebras were a big hit, as were the rock-hopping penguins and the gibbons. The pygmy hippos were a little scary for some reason, whereas she _really_ wanted to get in to the rhinoceros' enclosure to play with their big blue ball...

But now we're home for the long haul, which is a comfortable feeling. Preparing food in our own kitchen, reading all Olivia's books, seeing mama & Olivia's friends, welcoming papa home for lunch in the middle of the day, sleeping in our own bed, making plans for Olivia's _second_ birthday next month - WOW! What a joy to be Olivia's mama and papa and together at home at last.

Cadzand

2007-09-20T20:11:00.000+01:00

Olivia was _so_ happy when Bob got home from 3 weeks in Greenland. She missed him terribly the whole time, expecting him home from work on his bicycle at any time.

A few days after Bob got home, we took the train to Cadzand to spend a week on the coast of Holland with friends Kate, Wim, Lyra and Wim's family.

Olivia's getting to be a real pro at having a good time on the beach - when the waves aren't frightening her, she loves splashing in them.

Also, alot of time spent sitting on the warm sand filling (and emptying) buckets, and burying feet and toes (and poking them out again)!
Kate, Wim and Lyra are adored by Olivia (as well as us!) and are honorary family here in Cambridge.
For lots more pics look at our flickr site (there's a link at the introduction at the top left of this page).

Sidmouth with Grandma

2007-09-19T19:55:00.000+01:00

We spent an enjoyable week in Sidmouth, on the coast south of Exeter, in August. Here is Olivia, impatient to be out the door with her beach bucket and shovel.

We spent the first couple of really sunny days on other activities, so by the time we got to the beach it was cool, windy and rainy. But Olivia really enjoyed the beach rain or shine.

There was alot of relatively safe walking area for Olivia, so she spent a great deal of time running around, and making people smile too. She really managed to tire herself out every day. Here she is with mama, dashing around the esplanade. She really developed a craving for ice cream cones this week, and even created her own sign for them - a fist held up to the mouth!
We stayed in historical Pebble Cottage, and briefly visited Yeovil looking for genealogy info.

Oh, What a Busy Summer!

2007-09-17T22:13:00.001+01:00

It feels like we have been on the go even when we haven't been on the go this summer because time at home has mostly been spent recovering from and getting ready for various travels. Olivia has been a champ through it all though, and even when tired often remains cheerful until she finally just zonks out. Grandma caught this charming picture of Olivia during one of our moments at home in August. We have barely had blocks of more than a week at a time at home this summer - each time, Olivia seems simply delighted to be surrounded by her familiar toys and everything.
After we returned from the U.S., we had a couple of weeks in Cambridge before Bob left for a 3-week field season in Greenland. Olivia's Grandma Steffens came to spend that time with Olivia and mama - and was immediatley incorporated as a member of Olivia's 'pack'. She and Olivia had a great time getting to know each other as we traveled to Stratford-Upon-Avon for a few days, then down to Sidmouth on the coast near Exeter for a week of relaxation. Olivia had a good time on the long train rides, walking up and down the cars, charming other passengers, though naps don't come easily on the train so it is tiring travel...

Olivia and Grandma get excited about a performer juggling on a unicycle in the park in Stratford. Notice a family resemblance?

Next, she absolutely _had_ to have a ride on the beautiful carousel horses - so exciting! I explained to her that when we got on, we would have to stay on until it stopped, but as soon as it started moving up and down, around and round, she had big second thoughts, signing 'milk, milk, milk' and 'down, down, down'! As soon as we got off she wanted another go, of course! If ever you are there, look for her horse, "Victoria".

Sleep Landmark!

2007-09-06T06:48:00.000+01:00

Olivia has just spent her 7th night in a row (with Paps's help) without breastfeeding in the middle of the night - hurrah! Good sleeping Olivia!

Missing my Girl

2007-08-13T21:14:00.000+01:00

I'm writing this post from the center of the Greenland ice sheet, where I do glaciology fieldwork. I miss Olivia and Suzanne terribly, and so I've been looking at the pictures we're got at our flickr site. These are twe of my favorites. Right now Olivia and Suzanne are traveling in Southwest England with Grandma- they're in Devon and I hope they're havign a great time!

Here Olivia's enjoying some hummous with a messy face- yum!

Le train! Le train!

2007-07-21T08:52:00.000+01:00

Here is one of the floats Olivia was _very_ excited about at the Rockport parade. Train! Train! she kept signing long after it had rounded the corner and disappeared. I realized I should blog again about Olivia's speech after her aunt Kristen asked whether these things that Olivia keeps 'saying' are spoken or signed. The majority of words that she uses are still signed. She is experimenting with verbalizing more and more though. Here are her more recognizable spoken words...
behbow or bow(elbow), bah(ball), bapa or papa(papa), dah(dog), ca(t), zthatth(that), moo(cow and cow milk), woo(woof), she also whinnies for a horse, and snorts for a pig.

Other sort of updatey things about Olivia are that she has been drinking alot of cow milk lately (moo), sometimes preferentially over breastmilk.
As you can see in this picture, she is becoming interested in gymnastics recently. This headstand sometimes turns into what looks like would like to become a somersault. She can 'stand on one leg!' and 'now stand on the other leg!' while holding my hands. She also likes to bend her knees and try to jump, though she often bends them so far that she ends up sitting down instead! :-D

Hotdogs, Fries & Rootbeer, mmm...

2007-07-17T15:57:00.000+01:00

Near the end of our visit, we 'went to town' for the afternoon. We had to walk around to look at the shops and visit the local toy store to pick up some fun wind-up toys, and see what other goodies were in the offing. Olivia did a little sight-seeing over the harbor with cousin Lilly. She had such a good time playing with and imitating her older cousins, in particular. She has come back with a habit of swinging both arms back and forth in a very cute, hum-de-dum manner. I'm sure I saw one of her cousins doing it, but can't remember which...

Before leaving town, we picked up a good ole' all-american lunch of hotdogs, fries and rootbeer, which Olivia partook of eagerly as much as she could get us to let her.

Olivia had a great time with all the attention and activity. Here we are with cousin Lilly, Uncle "keys" Kevin, and Aunt Betsy. She is still signing 'keys' and wanting to 'start' her shoes (vrooom!) when she sees Kevin's picture. She has a couple of other really obvious memories too. Simone the Dog, who Olivia just couldn't get enough of, and she signs 'bicycle' when she sees cousin Rachel's picture. (Rachel had a very cool new bicycle that she let Olivia sit on alot!).
All in all, Olivia had a fantastic visit with family and friends. She loved all the activity and attention and affection.

4th of July in Rockport

2007-07-16T21:05:00.000+01:00

One of the highlights of our trip was the Rockport 4th of July Parade. All the parents and kids trooped into town for the local festivities. Olivia had a _fantastic_ time, which made it a blast for us too. The parade held most of her favorite things - music, a train, huge bird, mondo cow, lots of real horses and ponies... She even loved the LOUD fire engines, and there were _lots_ of them!

Here, Olivia cranes her neck to see something better as it goes by.

Every parade must have its bagpipes. This parade had them twice! Olivia looked surprised as she recognized the song by which we sing her to sleep as they played it.

Olivia soon got a better view from atop Papa's shoulders. She got so excited, laughing and clapping and asking where things were long after they had passed by.

Maryland

2007-07-16T21:00:00.000+01:00

After meeting with friends, we flew to Maryland to see my sister and her family and Olivia's Grandma and Grandpa who flew out from Washington state. Olivia had a week to get comfortable with her cousins and the rest of the family. By the end of the visit, she was running between Grandma and Grandpa Steffens, insisting that Grandpa sit down next to her and feed her, enjoying cousin Rachel's attentions (and her bicycle, which she is still 'talking' about!) and had big smiles for everyone. Here is a picture of Bob and Olivia with Kristen and Sarah taking a walk around the lake near their house. Both girls are wearing beautiful little dresses from Grandma and Grandpa.

We had a fun outing to the DC Zoo. Here, Olivia gets up close and personal with a lion - brave girl!

This may be too much information, but...

2007-07-13T23:20:00.000+01:00

(Continue at your own risk)

Olivia peed in the toilet for the first time yesterday.

So, I know what you're thinking. "She's only 20 months- isn't it a little early for toilet training?" Well, we're not toilet training her- she seems to be doing some of it herself. Let me explain. She came to me and signed "bathroom", which she'sbeen doing for some time now (when she goes). I asked her if she was, and she pointed to the bathroom- Suzanne suggested she may want to sit on the toilet, and so I pulled her nappy off and helped her balance on the full-size seat. She sat there for a minute, peed, and then was done! She had done the same thing to Suzanne earlier in the day and had peed a little then too. I think the reason she did it is from watching us. After all, she knows that we go in there from time to time and sit down, and she knows what we're doing... I guess it's not surprising that she might emulate us.

So today we bought the little seat that helps her not fall in!

Meeting the Gang in Rockport

2007-07-01T02:39:00.000+01:00

This is a pretty exciting trip- last weekend Olivia, Suzanne, and I got together with some very long time friends and their families. Babies at Rockport, we dubbed it Rockababy 2007. Here is the whole gang in one place. They are: L-R, Suzanne, Bob, Olivia, Doug, Julian & Ian, Sam & Evie, Ben & Margaret, Beatrice, Anne & Emma, Sam & Jonas. Notably missing (and terribly missed) are Jeremy, Sheila, and Donna. This weekend was the first time we'd all gotten together with our families, and it was fantastic. There are more pictures from the weekend (and the higher-res version of this one) at our flickr photo site. There was much talking with old friends, much child play, and much beach going...

And here is Olivia experiencing the Atlantic ocean for the first time. First time on a beach, too- when I put her, barefoot, down to walk on the sand, she picked her foot up and wriggled her toes, as if to say "what's this stuff stuck to my feet?" She did touch the water, though she prefered to do it from a safe distance.

Olivia is looking forward to meeting...

2007-06-29T03:00:00.000+01:00

Donna Quirke Hornik. Astute long-time readers may remeber when my oldest friend (we met at the top of an apple tree in kindergarden) Jeremy Hornik visited Olivia when she was just a few months old. He and his wife Sheila have a daughter, Donna, who is a few months older than Olivia. Three months ago they discovered a tumor in Donna's brain. The whole family has since been on a roller coaster involving several surgeries, too many nights in the hospital, many scans and tests, good news, bad news, chemotherapy, and (blessedly) many fun-filled symptom-free days. Jeremy and Sheila have been keeping an online journal to keep friends and family informed. We have been watching her progress day by day, and are at times joyous, heartbroken, sad, and hopeful. Please take a moment to send some healing energy Donna's way. We love you and we're pulling for you Donna- one strong little girl to another!

Girl on Wheels!

2007-06-17T22:55:00.001+01:00

One great thing about living in Cambridge is that Olivia _knows_ that what grown-ups do is go off on thier bike in the morning to work. She's very excited about bikes, and generally likes to ride in her bike seat. Lately she's been interested in climbing aboard and steering herself! We just got her a little trainer-bike, more pics of that soon.

She also loves to ride in the wheelbarrow. Pushes it too! What was really funny was when she wanted to push _me_ in it... I kind of had to help.

So, I've been wanting to tell this story about Olivia for some time now- I think this happened a few weeks ago: Olivia woke up very early in the morning, around 4 or so, and sat up, asking (in sign) for milk. I carefully explained to her that it was still night time and that night time was for sleeping, and that when it got light out and was day time, then she could have some milk. She listened carefully, and nodded from time to time, understanding. Then she pushed me over and clambered over me to where Suzanne was lying, taking matters into her own hands!

Olivia goes to Paris!

2007-06-05T23:10:00.000+01:00

Boy- it's been a long time since the last post! Olivia's been keeping us busy lately, now that she's officially a toddler and walking everywhere... But a weekend (or 2 now) ago we finally got the chance to take advantage of our close proximity to the continent, and went to Paris for a long weekend. We took the eurostar train through the chunnel, and stayed at (first) Cousin (once removed) Kathy's apartment, which was fantastic. We all had a great time despite quite a bit of rain (turns out we were missing a great deal of rain back in England that weekend as well!).

Olivia on the march in Paris, with her Horse. Turns out one of the great things about the broad Parisian sidewalks is that you can play with your horse on them! Several more pics are at our flickr site.

Olivia loves fountains, and Paris didn't disappoint. This is also one of several pics at our flickr site.

Of course we went to see Notre Dame, but for some reason it didn't seem like a fun idea to spend an hour or more in a queue to get in, so we viewed it from afar.

Olivia slumbering through the rain (which for some reason doesn't show much in this picture) while strolling along the Seine. The cobblestones were pretty rough- it's amazing what she'll sleep through once she gets going!

In Action

2007-05-08T09:12:00.000+01:00

The other weekend, we got to babysit Lyra for the first time, which was fun. She and Olivia are quite comfortable together. What you're not seeing in this picture is that just before this, Olivia walked off on her own, and Lyra put her hands on Olivia's shoulders and walked along behind her - SOOO cute!

I see the moon and the moon sees me. God bless the moon and god bless me.
Olivia has recently noticed the moon. Plane? Moon. Plane? Moon. She seems to be getting the idea that it's its own thing now, though. Here she is, by her favorite lavender pot, pointing at the moon.

Olivia and mama feeding each other porridge for breakfast. Bob has a really cute video of this, which hopefully he'll be able to post soon.

Olivia wokking. (Sorry, I couldn't resist). Olivia will try to sit in anything no matter the size or original intended use. She seems partial to cooking vessels...who knows what that's about?

Olivia leads the way back to the car after an afternoon at Wicken Fen, which we chose for a walk because the great boardwalk over and through the fens offers great opportunities for Olivia to do alot of walking on her own two feet, though she also did plenty of walking in mama's arms and on papa's shoulders.

All About Olivia!

2007-05-07T21:43:00.000+01:00

Well, Olivia is walking up a storm. She still likes to hold a hand or two, but more often charges/teeters off on her own. Today, at the Botanical Garden, she took her stroller for a walk for the first time, pushing it around in circles and into the occasional bush. She loves the fountain at the gardens, raising her hands up and down to describe the water rising and falling. During a break in the rain, we sat at the outdoor cafe and shared a piece of fruit cake (NOT the american kind!) whilst I indulged in a cappuccino - yum.

Speaking of signing for things like the fountain, the other day I decided to write down the signs she has produced and it's about 35 now - which really blew us away. Especially, realizing that she understands many more times than she is saying herself. Kids are just amazing - every day she seems to do at least a little something new and surprising. She is reproducing signs almost a fast as we can feed them to her. Funnily enough, she still hasn't said "cat" that I could tell, although she _loves_ to watch them. Currently, she is really into signing 'bicycle' and 'car'.

Of course, she's still our 'baby', but Olivia is seeming much more like a little girl now than a baby. She has developed "looks"; some disapproving, some dubious, quizzical, frustrated, impatient, or rebellious. They can be turned into smiles remarkably quickly, though. She is expert at passive resistance. She is rarely grumpy for long.
One of her favorite things is to request "The Itsy-Bitsy Spider" by doing the hand-motions to it; for some reason, particularly during a nappy change. Her favourite books right now seem to be The Mitten, The Hat, I Love You As Much, Goodnight Moon and her book of bedtime rhymes, oh and Poppyseed. Oh, and Clap Your Hands. Hm, she seems to have alot of favorite books, I'd better stop or I'll list them all.

Olivia really likes to go outside. She will get her shoes and try to put them on then ask for help, and almost stay still long enough for us to get her ready to go outside. Once there, her favorite things to do around the house are visit the lavender for smelling (she rubs it with her fingers and puts them to her nose), touch the ceramic pig's ears and nose while snorting through her own nostrils, visit the shed where we keep the bikes, and the crown jewel...get in the driver's seat and do everything mama and papa do while driving the car. She can even get the key into the ignition. Yikes.

Right, inside the house, she has been practicing with door handles and keys in locks. She loves to play with fast-x buckles - the hitch is that she's great and getting them together, but can't get them apart yet, so this game requires alot of 'helping'.

Olivia is sleeping pretty well at night quite often now (touch wood). She has even slept through most of the night several times. Bob puts her to bed around 8-8:30pm, we get in bed around 10:30pm. Olivia sleeps on the other side of Bob, who keeps her asleep during fidgets and wake-ups, and she is usually awake and extremely ready for a breastfeed sometime between 5 and 6 am. Sometimes though, after that, we fall asleep again for a while. All-in-all, we're feeling pretty good about how the sleep thing is going.

"Is she sleeping through the night yet?"...

2007-04-21T16:09:00.000+01:00

...This is a question you should never ask of new parents.

Tomorrow Olivia turns 18 months old, and joy-of-joys last night she (and I!) slept through the night for the VERY FIRST TIME!!! YAY!!! It's quite a thing to go to bed and not wake up until it's light outside. Even if that occurs before 6am.

18 months has also been a time of other firsts- Olivia was babysat by Kate and Wim with Lyra, and get this - she had a GOOD TIME.

And she's walking up a storm. She still likes to have a finger to hold "for balance" though it really isn't helping :) but she will take you by the hand and toddle off to look at his or that, and she likes to go walking down the sidewalk near our house. Recently she's been letting go more and more, and deciding to walk by herself; the only step she still doesn't have is getting on her 2 feet without using a wall or a person to pull up on...

And we haven't yet mentioned that Olivia's now sitting in her Tripp Trapp chair without a 'baby' rail- she's very stable on it and can now climb up into it by herself! great climber!

Feeds self (messy)

2007-04-16T19:40:00.000+01:00

These words are in our Sears Baby Book, in the development chart... and well here it is! Olivia's been eating 'finger foods' for a while now, though it's been difficult to tread the line between things soft enough to avoid the choking hazard (been there a couple of times, wouldn't mind if it never happens again!), but firm enough for little fingers to get a handle on. This week she graduated!

Olivia showing off her finger food technique on a piece of bread. She's been doing this successfully for a while now. She has also always loved to play with her spoons, and help feed herself; until today we'd put some food in the spoon for her, hand it to her and she could get it into her mouth...

And recently she's been interested in scooping food up with her spoon as well. We'd been helping her with that too (to avoid a bigger mess), but today we tried just dealing with the mess, and it was less than we'd thought! It happened a little slower than usual, and sometimes she'd scoop up a spoonful and then hand the spoon to mama or papa to feed to her, but for much of her soup, she scooped it up, and fed herself- She uses tools!

Olivia Walks!

2007-04-06T22:42:00.000+01:00

Real walking! She's made the one-step-and-collapse moves before, letting go of the table, chair, wall, or whatever. But about a week ago she was so stable on her way down the hall (along the wall) as I was following her, that I thought all she needed was a reason. So I called Suzanne in to the living room, sat down on the floor a few feet away, and pretty much pointed Olivia at Mom and let her walk right over! It was great. Then she walked back to me, and back to Suzanne, and along the way I managed to grab the camera so we could get some footage. Hopefully this shows up well- it was a very exciting day!

Since then, she's walking more and more, though still not more than 6-8 feet before plonking down on her knees or bottom. But the best thing is how proud and satisfied she looks when (and after) she walks. It's such a joy to see.

Sleep, Wonderful Sleep...

2007-03-25T09:46:00.000+01:00

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!

2007-03-19T21:26:00.000Z

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!

2007-03-06T21:17:00.000Z

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!

At the Farm - Wimpole Hall

2007-02-18T16:27:00.000Z

Not far from Cambridge, there's a National Trust property named Wimpole Hall, and right there is a farm which you can visit. We like to take Olivia there from time to time, as there's nothing like seeing a _real_ cow after having seen a bunch of drawings in books... Olivia enjoys the farm, here with the sheep in the barn...

And here with the cows. The cows really seem to be her favorite. The farm also has some very large Shire Horses, which she likes to look at but from a safe distance, thank you very much!

Visit from Great Aunt and Uncle

2007-02-18T16:02:00.001Z

In mid-February Olivia and I (Suzanne) had a very welcome visit from my Aunt and Uncle, Herb and Margaret Steffens, during their visit to London. It was their and Olivia's first meeting, and Olivia warmed up to them very quickly which was fun to see. We had a good time chatting and catching up on each other's news - and experiencing Olivia, of course!

Here, Olivia is showing off some of her lovely teeth. She has 11 now, with a twelfth on the way. She took her first step yesterday from a chair to Bob, and is becoming a toddler in many other ways as well. She likes to wipe her face off, move a toothbrush around in her mouth (and in mama's). We have spent many weeks with colds this year, so she has also started to mimic blowing her nose... She likes to wipe the crumbs off the table (almost) like mama does (I don't usually sweep them onto the floor).
Her sign language is really coming along too. Some of her new signs are 'bird', 'finished', 'down', and a popular one with her is 'nappy change'. She often initiates a nappy change by telling us she needs one. She and her friend Lyra had their first conversation the other day too. What was the topic? MILK.MILK.MILK.MILK.

A Tree for Olivia

2007-01-29T21:37:00.000Z

Cambridge City Council has a great "Free Trees for Babies" scheme, where the council will give you a free tree to commemorate the birth of your baby. You then plant this tree, and you and family have a great tree, and the council gets more trees planted. Good for all!

We got Olivia's tree a few weeks ago, and finally had a chance to plant it. Olivia was still sick, and Suzanne needed to take care of Olivia, so I went to plant it myself. Our friend Liz graciously offered space in her garden for us to plant the tree, which is particularly nice since we'll be wanting to visit the tree from time to time after we've moved back to the states!

The first order of business was getting the tree to Liz's house- you'd be amazed at what you do _not_ need a pickup truck for!

The tree happily planted in Liz's garden. We'll be looking forward to bringing Olivia back here as she gets older to visit her tree.

Stackin' it up!

2007-01-15T22:59:00.000Z

Well, Olivia's had this particular toy since just after she was born- the classic rainbow stacker. A great toy, and so far, she's been getting really good at getting the rings off of it. At first, she simply dumped all the rings off by grabbing the base and upending the thing. Then she started to take the off one at a time, usually upending it after a few.

Yesterday, though, she learned the skill of actually getting the rings back on! She's been trying it for a little while, and discovering that it's more difficult than it looks (you have to relax your grip on it, and kind of let it find it's way on- ever think much about that?). I helped her out a couple of times yesterday and then it seemed to click- and she had it! Now she's working on advanced maneuvers, like putting on 2 at the same time (no success yet), or putting one on while getting distracted watching Mom (about the same).

Anyway, I just thought I'd share. She's still under the weather, but a doctor's visit today turned out a new possible diagnosis, of a bacterial infection, so we're now armed with antibiotics and will hope that clears it up. We're looking forward to having her feel better!

Is this a video of Olivia Crawling?

2007-01-07T15:59:00.000Z

Or is it really bigfoot? with the quality, that's the sort of thing you'd expect... I'll have to figure out how to get better quality out of my YouTube uploads. We'll see... But enjoy this for now, and with any luck I'll have more and better videos in the future.

Sick Baby :(

2007-01-07T15:48:00.000Z

Well, in the interest of Full Disclosure, I thought it would be a good idea to include a bit of reality; Olivia's been sick with a cold/flu sort of thing for the last 2-3 days. It started with a simple runny nose and such, but on Friday evening (why is it always on Friday evening?) it progressed to a fever up to 103. She responded well to CalPol (the infant brand of paracetemol, which is what they call acetaminafin here, and slept "ok" during the night, but Saturday early in the morning woke up miserable with a fever again, this time accompanied by vomiting. Of course our local GP surgery (aka the doctor's office) was closed for the weekend, but Cambridge NHS has a service called CamDoc where we can go at these times (it turns out to be one of the only places we go since Olivia's colds wait until the weekend to act up).

Anyway, we went in and waited for a while, and were seen by the doctor. He didn't see anything wrong in terms of signs of bacterial infection, but wanted a urine sample to rule out a urinary tract infection- now _you_ try getting a urine sample from a baby girl! Long story short, we did get one and it was clear too. So the advice was, keep giving her paracetamol and ibuprofin, and wait it out.

We;ve been doing that for the last couple of days. When she's not in high fever, she still clearly feels crummy, not feeling like doing much but lie in Suzanne's arms. Occasionally she gets up enough energy to play for 5-10 minutes, or to eat, but she spends a lot of time asleep or resting, which along with fluids (which she seems to be getting plenty of) is one of the best medicines.

We hope she feels better soon. She's the sweetest thing and we hate to see her feeling lousy.

Another Polar hat!

2007-01-07T15:39:00.000Z

Here's Olivia doin' a little dance while wearing her latest hat, directly from the South Pole! Katie picked it up on her way to Pole through Christchurch, NZ. Olivia loves her new hat- Thanks Katie!

Olivia's Second Christmas!

2006-12-27T23:46:00.000Z

Merry Christmas! We're just recovering form Olivia's second Christmas. It was great, and very different from a year ago! Olivia has been interested in, and a little frightened of, the tree that came into our house just before Christmas. How amazing, then, for her to come downstairs on Christmas day to find that it had laid a whole pile of Christmas presents, most of them for her!

We had a fairly quiet Christmas at home, starting with just the three of us. We had Grandboo's Christmas coffee cake (a longstanding Hawley tradition) and opened some presents before we invited our neighbors Joanne and Cathy over for brunch. It was great. These pictures represent only a few of what we took, take a look at our flickr photo page for more.

Olivia had a great time opening presents. She couldn't always get the tape off, but she was great with the paper! Sorry Dad, we weren't able to save much of the paper for next year :) She also had a good time deciding which presents to open. The whole present-fest ended up taking a long time, since she would pick a present, open it, and then proceed to play withh it for a while (no matter who the intended recipient was!), before deciding it was time to get another present to open.

But we made it through the pile in the end. Thanks everyone for the great things you gave Olivia, and for the nice cards! We were able to get out on our traditional Christmas day walk, but saw few people, and no Chinese Water Deer, of which we saw one on last year's Christmas walk, which was a treat. Dinner capped off the day with a (traditional?) meal of Butternut squash soup, from a recipe that Ingrid gave us after she so kindly brought it to us while we were still in the hospital with Olivia. And then to bed after a very busy day for all, especially the little girl who was probably aware of Christmas for the first time!

2 Great new developments!

2006-12-24T22:17:00.000Z

Well, Olivia is almost at her second Christmas (although she was mostly unconscious for most of her first Christmas), and it's amazing how far she's come this year! She's been crawling pretty well for a while now, but has never been interested in the stairs until today, when Suzanne was upstairs and Olivia and I were down. She decided she wanted to be up there too! And on she went, with hardly a pause for breath, climbing (spotted by papa of course) happily toward mama. And to prove it wasn't a fluke, she did it again later in the day. Fortunately, she's still not terribly interested in trying to go _down_ the stairs. She's quite cautious in that regard- she'll come up to the edge (spotted), reach down and seems to say, "hmmm- that's quite a drop. But I really want to go downstairs... maybe this big guy here will carry me?" then she looks at me and away we go down the stairs together.

Which leads directly into... This communicating thing is something she's getting lots better at. We've been working on signing with Olivia, and she's definitely got some simple signs down for important things like "milk" and "more". But for me the breakthrough was that the other day she was able to tell me that she was hungry. It wasn't the sign equivalent of a complete sentence, but she crawled over, pointed directly at her high-chair, and signed "more" very specifically while looking straight at me. It was pretty clear to me. So off we went to the kitchen and we fixed her something to eat. It was tremendously satisfying to feel like she was able to tell me what she wanted, and I was able to respond. Definitely a connecting moment.

Sweet Interactions

2006-12-04T19:58:00.000Z

I just couldn't resist sharing a couple of, what Bob and I think are, really cute pictures of Olivia. The first is Olivia's impression of a flower.

Here, she is touching faces with Kate through a hole in the cover of her book.
In the third photo, she tossed around during a nap, leaned against me and promptly fell back asleep.

Tumble Tots

2006-12-02T21:38:00.000Z

Not having Olivia in daycare at all means that we have to look for special opportunities to introduce Olivia to dynamic situations involving other people. Tumble Tots (Gym Babes) is a baby activity group that I decided to start going to with Olivia in order to help her be more comfortable with movement and get some social interaction.

This exercise helped Olivia learn to crawl. She can crawl up the slope herself now, climb over the top and back down the other side.

Lyra and Kate have been going too. Here, Lyra is in the background watching her mama take pictures.

Plenty to be thankful for

2006-11-28T21:28:00.000Z

On this, Olivia's second Thanksgiving, we have plenty to be thankful for. First and foremost Olivia herself, who continues to fill us with wonder each day. Being in England, where nobody gets any time off from work for an American holiday like Thanksgiving, we decided to shift our expatriate holiday to Sunday. So we had a fantastic Sunday Thanksgiving with all the trimmings, planned for and provided almost singlehandedly by Suzanne (yum!). And we had good friends to share it with. Here, seated around the table (L-R), are Lori, Wim, Kate (thier daughter Lyra is under the table), Toby, and the rest you know :). And of course, Suzanne is behind the camera! We had the traditional dinner around 3pm (or 15:00 in Europe), then a nice walk, and back for some pie. We were all, true to tradition, rather full. It was a great holiday, the only missing elements were a 4 day weekend (greatly missed) and a football game (not really that missed).

Upwardly mobile

2006-11-27T21:07:00.000Z

Well, it's been a while since we put anything up here; Olivia's been keeping us pretty busy! As of the last post she was crawling and able to move on her feet some. In terms of the "big milestones" (read- walking), we haven't passed any more since last post, but she sure is getting around these days. She'll use whatever means is right for the job: crawling (she likes to look back and gesture for us to follow), walking holding furniture or the wall, or walking holding our hands or clothes. She transitions between these modes effortlessly, hardly thinking about it. Closest to "real" walking? She's walked 4-6 feet holding only one of my hands. And all these words can't express how well she clambers over just about anything, up anything, and on and on. It almost seems like she looks for interesting challenges of navigation ("I'll walk along holding the coffee table, then climb over papa's chest, then see if I can pull the bookshelves down!"). She doesn't even stop for nappy changes these days, which can be challenging (but we'll spare you the gory details).

And of course she continues to be a joy to be around. In these pictures she really wanted to get a hold of the camera!

Walking Tall

2006-11-03T21:56:00.000Z

Olivia can now walk quite well when holding our hands, and frequently enjoys a little excursion. She's still working out how to transition from, say, walking along the wall holding on, to down on the floor crawling, but she's getting better at that, and now pretty much has the run of the house (ground floor only!). One of us will be in the kitchen and she'll suddenly appear in the doorway; a nice surprise!

When she gets to the kitchen, as it seems most babies this age do, she "gets into everything". We've tried to keep as many cabinets accessible to her as we can, and have consolidated the breakable and dangerous items behind doors that have been safety-latched. Phase 1 baby-safing is under way.

As she romps around, it's particularly nice now to have some overalls she fits into- most pairs we've tried don't have enough room for her cloth nappies (considerably bulkier than disposables). This pair, though, does the trick- another in a fantastic and long line of hand-me-downs from second cousins Megan and Sarah. Thanks Vicki!

Happy First Birthday!

2006-10-25T13:04:00.000+01:00

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!

2006-10-20T21:33:00.000+01:00

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

2006-10-17T22:19:00.000+01:00

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!

2006-10-12T07:00:00.000+01:00

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

2006-10-07T07:10:00.000+01:00

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!

2006-10-02T09:36:00.000+01:00

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!

Sweetness and Light

2006-09-30T21:11:00.000+01:00

I just couldn't resist adding these two photos of Olivia in my baby dress. We certainly, and against all preconceptions, think that she is particularly pretty in pink!

The beautiful afghan in the background was made by my mother for me.

Back in the Cascades!

2006-09-30T20:48:00.000+01:00

One of our last days in Seattle we spent hiking in the Cascades with the Peterka family. It was a wonderful outing with beautiful weather, a nice big rock by the lake for lunching on, lots of interesting exploration - Zeth and Devon found a mysterious orchid in the undergrowth - and fantastic company. Ooooh, and lots of yummy baked goods! of which Olivia, alas could not partake as she had only just begun to eat solids.

Olivia seemed to enjoy the day. We found a nice, shady nook for her to sit and take in her surroundings. Here, she is exploring the heather. For hiking, she hitched a ride with Bob mostly, in the Baby Bjorn. It was so good to be in the mountains again and to introduce Olivia to one of our favorite outdoor destinations.

Our little biker

2006-09-18T21:54:00.000+01:00

Now that Olivia can hold her head up and sit up pretty well, we're able to get her in the bike seat- which is a great thing, as Cambridge is a perfect town for bikes, less perfect for cars! The terrain is flat, and the roads can be rather clogged with cars in peak times (locally known as "chock a block!"). So the bike seat gives Olivia (and Suzanne!) some much-needed freedom and flexibility- to say nothing of getting some exercise and not having to burn biodiesel!

She initially didn't like the helmet much, but we got her used to it by letting her play with it, and when it's time to put it on we put ours on first so she can see what's going to happen. Now she doesn't seem to mind it so much.

This is what often happens during the ride. She spends a fair amount of time looking at things passing by, but frequently eventually passes out. Fortunately we can pretty easily pop the seat off so we can, say, sit on the grass and eat lunch in the Botanical gardens while Olivia naps.
This particular picnic spot is under a descendant of Newton's apple tree, so the headgear is an essential precaution...

We're back!!

2006-09-12T21:04:00.000+01:00

This picture is actually over a month old, but it seemed like a good place to start back in. She'd just so darn cute!

Its been a long dry spell for all of us, not being wired at home. But we've finally gotten back on a broadband connection (or maybe that's narrow band?) with a "service" called TalkTalk. I just looked back and noticed how long it's been since we've had any regular updates- quite a while! Well, rather than feel like we need to start from where we left off (which would make us procrastinate indefinitely since it seems like such a big job!), we thought we'd jump back on the horse with current events, and fill in things that happened in the intervening time with back-dated posts. They'll show up in the correct chronological order, so if you see a post show up that you don't recognize but you're sure you've been watching, that's probably why.

So, where to start? Olivia has been blossoming in the last couple of months. She now has 4 teeth, and we think number 5 might be right around the corner. She's rolling over and sitting up like a champ, and incredibly close to crawling. She eats a lot; solid food plus plenty of breastmilk. Her favorite is bananna, but she does pretty well with sweet potatoes, peas, carrots, rice cereal... she didn't like the green beans too much though. She's quite good at feeding herself, we put some food on the spoon and aim it for her, and she grabs it and does the rest. For a long time she'd then keep the spoon, and we'd have to use another, so we'd have to have 3 spoons for a feeding- 1 for each hand and 1 to actually use (she'd drop one spoon to grab the current one). Lately, though, she's doing a good job of letting us have the spoon back, and this evening she seemed to want to show us how good her aim was, but taking the spoon, stretching it out to arm's length, and then bringing it to her mouth all by herself. What a star!

Here are Suzanne and Olivia relaxing in the Cambridge Botanic Garden, which is very close to my work. They come in from time to time and the three of us enjoy a picnic in the gardens.

Ok, well, that's quite a long post, so I'd better go. We'll get back into the swing of things though, so there will hopefully be many more posts soon!

Olivia in Scotland!

2006-07-29T08:12:00.000+01:00

When we returned from the US, we took a trip up to Edinburgh, where my boss has just taken up a Readership at the Univeristy there. He wanted me to come up for a couple of days, so we decided to make a week of it and see the town (especially as he'd wanted us to move up there- long story short, we're staying in Cambridge...).

It was a fun trip, and Edinburgh is a lovely city. Here Olivia and I have the Edinburgh Castle in the background. We wanted to try some Haggis & Chips, but somehow never got around to it- maybe on another trip!

Long time with no updates!

2006-07-14T14:35:00.000+01:00

We're back in Cambridge, after a long and busy trip to the states. There are lots of pics and lots of news, (for example not one but now two teeth!), but our network is out at home so we haven't found time to update the blog. Here's a pic of Olivia at Steph and Lori's house- what a beauty. More will be coming, when our network is up and running- get with it NTL!

Starting Solid Food!

2006-06-14T08:03:00.000+01:00

Well, make that pretty darn mushy, actually! While we were in Seattle we decided to see how Olivia liked mashed-up Banana. As it happened, she liked it pretty well. Her first 'spoon' was mom's finger, and she had a good time with it!

The classic messy-face shot. A littl eearly on for the _real_ mess, which is sure to be coming soon...

Reunited!

2006-06-10T20:26:00.000+01:00

On 11 June, Olivia and I (Suzanne) welcomed Bob back from Greenland - hurrah! Bob was impressed by how much Olivia had grown, and it didn't take her very long at all to be comfortable again with her daddy! We are both delighted to have him back! As soon as Bob got back, we celebrated by heading straight to the nearest (read 'only', but quite good!) alehouse brewery in Richland where Olivia set straight to work attempting to acquaint herself with one of our favorite pasttimes!

A few days later, we bid farewell to the folks and headed up to Seattle where we spent the first few days with our friends Stephanie and Lori and their teenage daughter Emma. We had an enjoyable, relaxing visit and Olivia charmed one and all. Here(L>R), are Bob and Olivia standing by Puget Sound in Lincoln Park with Lori and Stephanie.

While at their house, Olivia had her first taste of solid foods. Banana is an interesting new adventure, but overall she seems to like it. She also got her first tooth while there! The lower left incisor came in, without a lot of to-do, over a couple of days. And, of course, she is sitting up like an old pro!

On the Lawn

2006-06-03T21:37:00.000+01:00

Friday, after a warm walk in the desert (the umbrella brought for rain protection ended up being used for shade)in sarah's Baby Bjorn (Olivia slept most of the way, seemed to think it was pretty comfortable!), Olivia and I sat on the lawn with Olivia's aunt Kristen (my sister) and Sarah (born at term, a month before Olivia). She has been having a grand time watching her older cousins - they make her laugh! More pics from this, as soon as they get downloaded.

Olivia begins her culinary experience with her very own sprig of sage. She likes to feel the different textures of the dry flowers and the leaves.

Olivia has been sitting up by herself for the past week and a half and she is also getting much better at pushing up on her stomach. As well as just using her forearms, she is also pushing up on her hands, which gets her alot further off the ground. Sometimes, this gets her really close to rolling over from her front to her back.

More pics from Red Mountain

2006-05-31T16:30:00.000+01:00

Olivia takes some time with me to relax and enjoy a book with her cousins Bobby and Alex and aunt Nancy (my sister) and uncle Joe.

She likes to take time to 'smell the roses' too. and touch them and pull on the petals...but also rosemary, mint and sage. She enjoys a good explore around the garden. She slept in the sling through an entire game of croquet the other day, though!

Just hanging out on the porch, enjoying the warm weather.

At Grandma and Grandpa's

2006-05-27T18:38:00.000+01:00

Olivia gets to expore the beautiful roses in grandma's garden. She can content herself a long time touching the plants in the garden - all sorts of new and some familiar sights, smells and textures.

Olivia and I took a little walk into the desert around the house. Olivia, sleeping, missed alot of sagebrush, some nice little wild flowers, a cold snake, and fantastic skies.

A happy grandma with Olivia by some of the roses.

Our friend Alisha drove all the way from Seattle to spend a couple of days getting to know Olivia and to catch up with Suzanne. We look forward to seeing her again in Seattle!

Coming to America

2006-05-19T05:23:00.000+01:00

She didn't ride on my shoulders the whole way, but we've come across the pond for several new firsts for Olivia this post. For starters, before we came, Olivia rolled from her back to her front twice in a row! She had some difficulty getting her hand out from under once she was on her stomach, so it may be a 'qualified roll', but it's definitely on the way! Since then she seems to be less motivated to roll over... Maybe she thinks its become passe.

Then Tuesday Olivia got a couple of firsts in- first bus ride, first airplane flight, first time going through US customs... We flew direct from London to Seattle, but had a 2 1/2 hour bus ride ahead of our flight and a 4 hour drive after, and with waiting time at the airports and dealing with luggage and all, we were on the go for close to 24 hours. Pictures? nah! But Olivia took it like a champ. About the only thing that consistently made her upset was having her nappy changed in that little bathroom. I'm not sure what exactly it was, but she really hated it! Other than that she did pretty well, getting bored like everyone else on the flight, but crying about it a bit more than most of the rest of us :). She even slept right through the landing itself, with it's bounces and the roar of the reversing engines. We're all still recovering from jet lag but are really happy to be here with Olivia's grandma and grandpa. Her cousins (all 4 of them!) arrive next week to meet her for the first time too!

Now how much would you pay? But wait, you get more- She's been getting better at it for some time now, but today Olivia stayed sitting up for longer than we've ever seen, and recovered from getting off balance a few times- she's really getting it! Quite a ways from getting into a sitting position by herself, but it was great to see her sitting, and she even stayed up for a photoshoot. What a treat.

Week 29 and Laughing!!

2006-05-13T15:42:00.000+01:00

Olivia's 29 weeks now, and we're gearing up for a trip to the states (thus the low blogging traffic!). She is having a great time, and we're having a great time along with her. It's been on the way for a while, but now we can officially report that she's laughing! Here's a shot of her at it. She loves this game- quite simple really, but it's appeal is undeniable; sit on Mom's knees, balance as long as you can, and when you fall off, mom catches you with a great swoop of arms and you land back on her knees. This game also has the desirable high difficulty factor!

Week 29 with the Duck, taken a few minutes ago. This was a fun photoshoot, with Olivia playing with the Duck and even getting in a few wrestling moves.