Mini Me?

So, we all know that Olivia is Andy's baby...I mean, remember this post of the two of their newborn pictures?  Anyway, everyone has told me pretty much from birth that she looks just like him, but lately, I'm starting to get a few people telling me that they notice a resemblance between the two of us.  Obviously because she is the cutest baby ever, this is an awesome compliment!

I figured I needed some photographs to compare, so I got my mom to send some pictures of me when I was a baby.  I then dug through my phone and the computer and tried to find ones of Olive around the same age in similar poses and...you be the judge!!

Here's one of me and my brother...I couldn't find a similar one of Olivia because she would never fall asleep like this.  Obviously, she gets this from her father.

Here's one of her sleeping!

I think I'm a little younger in this next one - look at my pretty dress! We are horrible parents and do not own any dresses for Olivia...

I had a hard time finding a similar picture...I don't have many of her sitting like this, so I just found a cute one of her from a few months ago.

Here is me just starting to figure out how to crawl...

That Christmas outfit kills me.  I think I only took about 475 pictures of her in it...I should have taken more.

This next one I think is the one where I see the most resemblance.  I see her making this face ALL THE TIME.  I think it's the eyebrows...

Of course, I couldn't find one of her making that exact face, but I think the adorableness here makes up for it.

Naked baby!

 And here's one with my dad.  What's funny is that in both of these pictures, my dad and I (as the grownups) look kind of horrible...and I also have two options for comparison photos.  I apparently like taking pictures of myself without makeup on.

She's about two months old in this picture...

She is about eight months old here.  Notice that I look approximately 10 years older.  This is what children do to you!
I'm going to do my own public awareness campaign a la "Faces of Meth" (kidding...only partly)

So what do you think? Do we look alike or what??

First Trip to the Zoo!

As I mentioned before, spring is in full swing up here, and the weather is finally nice enough to do some extended outdoor adventures with Olive.  On Saturday we took her for her first trip to the zoo! 

Before you get sad about zoo animals in Alaska, remember our zoo is specifically for arctic-climate animals, so they don't mind the snow and cold.  We didn't have to worry about cold on this visit though - it was a warm sunny and 50ish degrees on Saturday and the animals were loving it! 

We got to see the polar bears swim! I've never seen them swim before!

The two polar bears were doing a lot of "playing" in the water when we got there.  We soon realized that the activity had a little less to do with playing and was more closely related to the spring fever sweeping through the zoo.

There was a lot of polar bear cuddling and not much else.  I think they were a little shy.  *wink*

So many of the animals were out and about - aside from the good weather, it also helped that it was feeding time.

Red Fox 

Moose.  I kind of feel bad for the one that's stuck in the zoo while all his buddies walk around just outside the gates.  Then again, he doesn't worry about traffic and bears.

 Linx.  I am DYING to see one in the wild...maybe someday.

Kind of looks like Fro!

The deer, unlike the polar bears, were not shy about their spring fever.  I will spare you from having to see the next photo I took.  Let's just say there were some small children who got a front row seat on the intimate workings of the birds and the bees. 

Due to space constraints, the turkey (not wild...I don't honestly know why they even have one) lives with the deer.  He was super embarrassed for them. 

Look away, turkey!!

Musk ox, or, if you prefer - Oomingmak.  This is the only Yupik word I know.  

Alpaca.  Doesn't he look like David Bowie?

This is an endangered snow leopard.  He just chilled on a rock and cleaned himself the whole time we were there.  Looked like Zeus on his cat tower at home.

Olive was enjoying the day!

Brown bear.  Soooooo big.

This picture reminds me that I need a pedicure...

The coyote was SUPER interested in Olive...

 Goofing around.  Andy's practicing his embarrassing dad face:

While we were walking around, we saw an exhibit for a red squirrel, but it was empty.  Lucky for us, we have our own at home:

Isn't he ADORABLE?! He was hanging out under our deck the other day munching bird seed (time to put that away I think...the bears are waking up!).  He's definitely a juvenile - based on our prior experience working in a wildlife rehab center I'd say he's about a month or two old...probably just booted from the nest.  He was not at all afraid of us, which is concerning considering that there are cats, bears, eagles, and other predators around.  Hopefully he has a nice place to hang out in our yard.

It was such an awesome day at the zoo!

Oh, and then, easter morning, we woke up to this:

Sigh...Thankfully it was all gone by dinner time.  We mostly spent the day indoors with this little monkey:

She LOVES sitting in chairs.  The rocking chair is a particular favorite because she can make it rock (I'm supposed to tell you that Andy was sitting right there so she was very well supervised while I took the pictures).

She even has her own little rocking chair that Andy's mom sent before Olive was born.  It's only been recently that she's been able to use it, though, and SHE LOVES IT!!

The pretty flowers on the back are very distracting...

Happy Easter everyone!!

This is her "pure joy" face :)

9 Months!

Look who's 9 months old!! She's been on the outside as long as she was on the inside now (longer, in fact, at this point).  How did this happen?!

She is "crawling" up a storm these days and has a very hard time holding still for ANYTHING.  I say "crawling" because it's more of an army crawl.  She doesn't have time to invite her legs to the party.

The first step is to dismount from sitting.  She's getting very good at this, especially when I try to put her in a sitting pose for pictures.

Once she's on her belly, she's in full concentration mode.

and, as her grandma (my mom), and my brother would tell you, REALLY serious concentration means your tongue has to be free from the confines of your mouth.

Success!!

She loves her new ring stacking toy.  The old school toys are classics for a reason! Her favorite thing to do is pull all the rings off, so for her it's more of a "de-stacking" toy.

She also loves hanging out with dad.  And I'm going to call it.  She's saying "dada" now and she means him.  She hasn't even said "mama" accidentally yet.

She LOVES the cats though. They are a major motivator to getting her to crawl around.  It makes sense that her first word is "CAT."  This morning she crawled in circles around the kitchen after Zeus and when she couldn't catch him, she said "CAT!!" really loudly.  Maybe it's like a swear word to her?

I got this look after the 245th picture of her with the bunny.  Fast forward 16 years when I won't let her borrow the car.  Mo-EM...you are so uncool!

So I call it...this was the best one...she's holding still and you can see the bunny's size by comparison. Success!

We went to the doctor this afternoon for her 9 month check up and got all the stats.  She's 17 lb, 13.5 oz, which is 45th percentile! So good!! It's really nice to have the days of worrying about her weight behind us.  She is 29 and 1/4" tall, which is 95th percentile and I think this means she's almost grown out of her bucket carseat.  Finally, her head is 47.5 cm in circumference which is off the charts (100th+ percentile).  Full of brains I think! 

She loves eating finger foods and purees.  The obsession this month has been string cheese and pretty much nothing else (she has this in common with Ripley).  She also has five teeth, with two more cutting in right now, and as I mentioned before, she said her first word (CAT!).  In April we're looking forward to flying down to Oregon to visit grandma and grandpa while I present in a conference and attend a bridal shower, and we start swimming lessons, too.  A big month!!

Time flies! Happy April!