Birthday Girl!

Can you believe this little lady is ONE already?  Where did the last year go?? 

I don't know what her face is here, but I love it.

I've been absent from blogging for awhile because we've been so busy! Andy's parents flew up for a visit and we've been enjoying a great Alaskan summer.

Last weekend we threw a first birthday party for miss Olive.  We invited pretty much everyone we know, and figured that since it was before the long weekend for the 4th that we'd have a huge crowd, but most of our friends ended up being out of town. Oh well, more cupcakes for us!

In the morning, even though it wasn't her birthday officially, we let Olive open her presents, mostly because the presents from the Naylor grandparents required Grandpa's assembly skills.

Olive got the cutest little rocking moose.  Perfect for this Alaskan girl!

And a really adorable mini-sized table and chair set.  The downstairs family room is officially the playroom now! 

She loves the little table.  What is it with kids and tiny furniture??

My parents sent her a little people farm set, just like the one that she played with and loved at their house.

Here she is getting mad at me that I'm not unwrapping it fast enough...

She loves it!

For some reason, the hay bale is her favorite piece.  You would think she'd like an animal, but no.

Andy and I got her a water table to play with on the deck.  This is better than playing in either the plastic tub or the dog dish (for us anyway).

We also got her some fun balloons, which she absolutely loved, and for some reason only lasted less than 12 hours (the latex ones anyway) glad they were cheap!

This balloon was a hit...but it was sometimes scary, too...

After a mid-day nap, she was ready to party!

I channeled my inner Martha and made cupcakes with lots of fun colors of icing that I dyed myself. I'm considering quitting my job to become a professional cupcake froster.

Olivia's buddy Jaxson from her daycare came to the party, which was so fun.  He's about two weeks older than her and we had a great time at his party in early June. Isn't he cute?

He ALWAYS has those two fingers in his mouth.  So much easier than the pacifier!

She had a difficult time sharing her stuff with him.

We grilled burgers and hot dogs and Olive ate about 10 lbs of watermelon (she mostly loved chewing on the rind, which is kind of weird, but it made her happy so we let her do it).

I also let her play with my paper plate after dinner not realizing it was full of condiments.

Do I have something on my face?

After dinner it was time for cake!

My coworker made Olive that bib. Isn't it adorable?!

She was very distracted in her chair...someone was on the deck playing with her stuff, and she was stuck!

Finally she went for the cupcake.  A little frosting at first...

And then she got more into it.  But always keeping an eye on Jaxson down below...

It was a great party!!

I'm 1!

The day after her birthday, we took her to the doctor and got the full stats.  She's so big now! She's 30.5 inches tall (91st percentile), 20 lbs, 15.5 inches (69th percentile) and her head is still in the 100th percentile.  What a big girl!

From this:

To this!

In one year she grew almost ten inches and twelve and a half pounds (really she's gained more weight than that with her losing more than a pound after birth and gaining so slowly after that).  She's kept her bright blue eyes (from the Danish side of my family I think) and she has this full head of strawberry blond curls from her dad that I'm totally envious of! She continues to be a busy, active baby (toddler?!), and as her personality comes out, we love her more and more each day.  She's funny, curious, and happy most of the time...except when she's frustrated.  She loves music and animals, eating (finally), and she loves books (especially "reading" them to herself).  She is always on the go and we end most days completely worn out, but we wouldn't have it any other way.  Happy Birthday, Olive! 

She loves Ripley so much, and she's even learned to be gentle with him most of the time.  It's so great to see them together.  What a pair!

This is her immediate reaction to frustrating situations.  Her walker ran into the wall and she couldn't figure out how to move it, so, meltdown! I have a feeling that the next few years will be filled with a lot of moments like this.

Look how she's grown!! 

11 Months - Summer is Here!

Olive is 11 months old!! This time last year I was sitting in the hospital nursing a kidney infection and thinking that she would be born any day, little did I know she had made herself super comfortable and had no plans on coming out early.  (Funny, because she's always in a hurry to get places and never sleeps in.  What happened?!?)

Last week, I was in Newport Beach, CA for a conference.  The weather there was in the 70s and sunny, and much to my excitement, that's exactly what it was like when I got home.  Weather like that calls for a picnic in the yard, which is exactly what we did on Friday night! (We also hosted a party for 30 people!)

She is chewing on my camera lens cleaner here.  She has a "don't judge me!" look on her face.

...and here she stole my cell phone and hid it in her picnic basket for safe keeping.  Her new favorite game is "INSIDE" where she puts objects inside other things.  We say "Olive can you put the ____ inside??" and she does it every time.  We are amassing quite the collection of formula cans, tupperware, boxes and other containers for her to play with and put things in.

Andy carried her around to check out the yard.  This was about halfway through the adventure.  I LOVE the expression on her face.  Are we done?

The weather has been so nice that we're back to hiking again.  On Saturday, we busted out the hiking backpack that we inherited from my brother and sister-in-law.  Thanks Bryan and Deanna!

Despite the look on her face, she had a good time up at Flattop hiking Blueberry Hill.  The first of many visits!

 We have been playing on the deck, too.  On Sunday, I threw some toys in a plastic bin full of water.  It's obviously the best toy of all time.

I just LOVE her little summer clothes.  Luckily it's been warm because she's growing like a weed and the 12 month outfits are almost too small now!

 This is like bathtime...but better.

Her favorite items, of course, were the things I found in the kitchen.  Why do we bother buying toys??

She is getting so big.  Every day I swear she can do something that she couldn't do the day before. She is now very good at getting up and using her walker - she can go several steps without falling. She is also cruising around all the furniture.  She isn't standing without holding onto anything yet, but she's getting there.

The other day I set her down at the bottom of the stairs and she suddenly began to climb them. Definitely not something I'd ever seen her do before.  On that first attempt, she did about four steps before she got tired, but by the end of the day, she was doing the whole flight.  Note to self - do more baby proofing! She is also clapping and she has suddenly become obsessed with music.  We tend to always have music playing, but it's "parent" music and she never really got that into it.  One day, we put the "toddler" station on Pandora and it was all over.  She sways and dances to Raffi and the Wiggles and everything we never thought we'd spend our evenings listening to.  She is a huge fan of "The Wheels on the Bus" and "If You're Happy and You Know It" (because of the clapping).  Unfortunately, now my coworkers have to put up with me humming kids songs all day because they never get out of your head. Here is a video of Olive clapping!

Olive is also more verbal, and she's starting to identify things.  She's got Dada, Cat, and Dog down solid (still no Mama...it's cool, I only carried her for nine months, gained 30 lbs (several of which are refusing to be lost), underwent major surgery to bring her into the world, and then gave up good sleep for probably the next 18 years, but I'm totally fine with her not saying Mama...).

These days it's harder and harder to get her to hold still for anything, let alone a bunny picture.  Long gone are the days when I could lay her out on the floor and get some artistic shot.  These days I barely have time to pick up the camera before she's on the go again.  She took some good ones with papa...

And this was my creative attempt to get her to stand still.  IT WORKED.  Also, note that she is standing on her tippy toes...this is pretty much the status quo, and probably why she's not really walking yet.  Her quads are so strong!  Maybe we should start her in ballet soon...

I think she has a wedgie.  How embarrassing.

Here's the best one.  Note that Andy is approximately a foot away from her to try to keep her holding still for three seconds.  Look at this little person! And look at all of her teeth! She has number nine just getting ready to poke through.  

I can't believe how much she's changed...and I can't believe it's already June and she's almost ONE!