March for Babies

Some of you may remember that two years ago we participated in the March of Dimes March for Babies in mid-May...and it SNOWED.  Well, the March is coming up this Saturday and it looks to be a beautiful day for us to walk in support of an important cause.  Here is some info on all of the great things that the March of Dimes does, and what donations support!

We're walking again with my friend David and his awesome family.  This year, I'm asking people to donate directly to their team page and help make them the top family team in Alaska for the second year in a row.  I think they even win something awesome for it (Alaska Airlines tickets??), and I couldn't imagine a more deserving family. 

So please, visit the Newman Family team page and make a donation - big or small - to support a wonderful cause and help ensure that more babies are born as healthy as this one:

Ten Months Old!

It's been a busy month!  I'll do another post catching up on everything we've been up to in the last few weeks, but I'm trying to stay on track with Olive's monthly posts as best as I can.  On Friday she turned 10 months old!

I had one heck of a time trying to get her to hold still to take pictures with her bunny.  I needed Andy's full assistance with this one and even with taking about 100, she just wouldn't cooperate - she's too mobile and the world's too exciting!

I thought maybe I'd try to do one on the floor.  HA!

The big news this month is that she's STANDING!

Tongue out = maximum concentration.

She's even pulling herself up on her own.  This is a new development in the last week.  Check out this video! (and note her "dismount" from standing.   She is always very careful to drop onto her butt)

The video is from maybe the third time she stood on her own.  This was about 30 minutes before bedtime and we had to scramble to go drop the mattress down so she wouldn't tumble out if she decided to practice her new skill in the middle of the night (and before she went to bed, she did stand in her crib about 20 times, so it was a good thing we put the mattress down!).

Other big news is that we started swim lessons!

This is from her second lesson, which was yesterday.  The first week we went just in her swim diaper and the pool was really cold.  For the first "lesson" she loved it at first but then got fed up by the end of 30 minutes in the water, mostly because she was FREEZING.  I spent all week searching high and low for something warmer for her to wear, which seems to help.  Obviously we're not really teaching her to swim yet - the goal is just to get her comfortable with the water at this point.  The teacher is trying to figure out ways for her to know to close her eyes and mouth in the water.  She has us say "Mama/Papa ready go!" and then pour a cup of water on our heads while we hold our breath and close our eyes so she can mimic us.  Of course when we say "Olive ready go!" and do it to her, she opens her mouth and eyes as wide as they go and then swallows a bunch of water.  She does love gliding around with us and doing a little dolphin kick, though, and mostly enjoys being in the pool, though I think she would like it more if it was warm like the bathtub (I would, too!).

Bathtime is her FAVORITE time of day.  She can be in total meltdown mode before bed, but the minute we pop her in the tub, she's so happy!

She's almost too big for the baby tub now...how did this happen?!?

The weather has been so nice lately and we've really been enjoying the sunshine and playing on the deck.  

We try to make her wear a hat.  HA!

Ripley is not amused.

It feels like summer is really here.  Time to spend the next three-four months outside as much as possible!! 

Here's the best bunny picture.  Ten months old! Where is my baby?!

Have a good week! :)

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 :)