Three Months and Back to Work

Time flies! Today is my last day of maternity leave and tomorrow I head back to work.  I can't believe that little Olive is three months old already! I still feel like I'm pregnant most days (and some days I still feel like I look like I'm still pregnant, which is a whole other issue).  I can honestly say that for as hard as it was (and, oh my god, was it hard), the last few months have been absolutely awesome and I wouldn't trade them for anything.  I have really loved hanging with my little honeybee and getting to know her!

In this photo, she is doing what we affectionately refer to as "Mr. Burns hands"

This month has been, I feel, more about mental development than physical.  It's amazing the differences we've noticed in the way she interacts with her surroundings.  Her eyesight has improved so much and she loves just checking out the world around her.  She's even stopped screaming in the car for long enough periods to watch the scenery...sometimes.  

She still loves her hands.  She will pretty much put anything she can in her mouth, but her hands are still her favorite.

She loves to smile, laugh, and coo at just about everything.  She mostly loves people and her little play mat with the toys that dangle by her face.  She hits them and just LAUGHS.  It's adorable.

She's a very verbal baby, too...always "talking" at something.  Or screaming.  She has always been really good at screaming.

This isn't to mean that she isn't developing at all physically.  She is SO very close to rolling over, and she uses her newfound ability to rock herself as a means to move even.  She keeps her head still, but rocks herself around and around to face a new direction.  She's like the arm of a clock going around in a circle.  This is how she sneakily tries to watch TV when we turn her away.  Tricky! She is also very close to holding her head up by herself (poor baby, her head is SO big that it's extra work for her) and she really enjoys sitting up in our laps, so I think sitting in her little bumbo chair might be on the agenda fairly soon.

Time for the obligatory bunny photo! 

Three Months!

Compared to Two Months:

I love that she's doing the Fonz in this picture.  Heeeyyyy

And One Month:

Operation Fatten Up the Baby is ongoing.  We have spent a ridiculous amount of time with the lactation consultant over the past three months working on how to get her weight up (you would think the solution would just be to feed her more, but no.).  The general consensus is that we have some weight to gain, obviously, but that she's pretty much always going to be a banana baby (with a giant head) and the doctors are okay with that now, as long as we always go in an upward direction.  The problem with her seems to be that she is just so stinking active that she burns everything she takes in really quickly, so I'm sneaking powdered formula into her breast milk bottles to add calories and hopefully add some bulk!

As of a week or so ago, she was 24 inches tall and weighed 9 lb 8 oz. - about 90th percentile for height and 2nd percentile for weight.  She's basically a supermodel!

In other news, the end of my maternity leave means I'm headed back to work.  I'm sad about leaving her, obviously, but we found an incredible daycare right across the street from my office, which means I can go visit her anytime I want (and Andy, too! Because it's walking distance from his office as well), and I feel really good about it.  The people are awesome, there are not very many babies in her "class" and it just gives me a great feeling.  This spot opened up literally less than a week ago and we are so fortunate to have a spot there, it still seems like a dream!

In work news, I'm going back to my same office, but in a new capacity as the manager of my section. I was crazy enough to work in that job in an acting role throughout the second half of my pregnancy - crazy because it's a much more stressful job with more responsibility - and then I was permanently promoted during the summer (I'm probably the only person ever who was promoted during maternity leave)!  I'm excited for the new opportunity to grow in my position and I'm happy to be going back to work with some awesome coworkers, who I actually have missed over the past three months (enough that I visited them in the office more than a normal person on leave would), so really, this is a good thing all around.

And now I'll leave you with one of the cutest pictures you will ever see:

My family

Fall!

It may still be hot and sunny throughout most of the country, but up in Alaska, fall has arrived!

We've been pretty socked in with rain here for the last few weeks, but the weather was nice yesterday so we went to Hillside for a walk.

The ergo carrier is Olive's kryptonite.  She cannot stay awake while inside.  Also, she looks amazing in hats.

Ripley was so happy to get out and stretch his legs.  His outings have been fairly short with all this gross weather recently.  

He's always so far ahead of us.

The trees have really changed.  So pretty!

This is the best picture I got of the three of them.  It's like herding cats.

Happy Fall!! 

Fashion Show

We've received so many adorable wearable presents from people, we just had to try some of them on and take pictures!

Andy's aunt Sandy hand knit this beautiful sweater, and his aunt Jean made the quilt.  So crafty!

Drooling is kind of her thing right now...

I'm pretty sure she's doing "blue steel" in this one:

I have about a billion pictures of her, but I swear each one is a little bit cuter.  Love.

Our family friends Susan and Steve got Olive these ADORABLE pink Uggs.  Perfect for winter. Look at her showing them off!

I love them.

My Uncle Jim and Aunt Dixie sent a little box recently with a bunch of books, a CD of fun songs to sing along to and this Raggedy Ann doll.  It looks just like her (and is the same size as her)!

She's finally big enough (almost) to fit into the kuspuk that my coworker Patrice made for her.  As much as I tried to avoid pink before she was born, I had no idea it would look so good on her.  Pink it is!

I don't know what happened to her arm...

...and this is what happens when you spend fifteen minutes too long playing fashion show.  Sorry baby!

Oregon Trip! (or, how I got over my fear of being "THAT lady with the baby" on the airplane...)

Last week, my parents flew Olive and I down to Oregon because my grandma was visiting from Texas and it seemed like meeting in the middle would be a good idea.  It was supposed to be a surprise but someone who shall remain nameless (cough cough...Mike...cough cough) spilled the beans.  I guess she was at least surprised when he told her!

The hardest part about the trip was mentally preparing to get on an airplane with my often-colicky two month old.  Ultimately I decided I would just nurse her the whole trip if I had to and if she screamed, we'd deal with it.  I got a seat in the back and prayed for the best.

Of course, she was absolutely perfect on the flight down! Basically she was fascinated by pretty much everything on the plane, especially the overhead bins and the flight attendants (who were totally awesome on both flights! Kudos Alaska Airlines!).

Checking out the spacious changing table in the bathroom (no she didn't change...I took this photo on the flight home).

Her head is showing its true - LARGE - size in this photo.  Sorry, baby.

 After we arrived in Portland and gathered our 3,000 bags (okay just two and a carseat...plus my diaper bag and breast pump, which I carried on), we met Miranda who so graciously offered to not only pick me up at the airport, but also drive us BOTH to my parents' house about 90 minutes away, even after I warned her that Olive typically does nothing but scream in the car.  True friends!

Of course, most of our car rides (most...not all) looked like this:

Of course.  I think it's because Miranda is pregnant and expecting her baby (a girl! due on my birthday!) and Olive decided to be nice to her and let her think that all babies are happy and love riding in the car.  HA.

The next few days in Oregon were a blur.  We mostly just hung out with family and made the obligatory run to the outlet mall, where Olivia spent the entire day sleeping in the baby carrier while we bought 10,000 unnecessary things for her.  She's very smart.  So here are some of the best pictures that my mom took.  Thanks mom!

Grandma with her great-granddaughter.  It's not typically polite to advertise other people's ages, but my grandma is 93! And she looks fantastic! I honestly hope I'm half as active as she is when I'm 93. (Honestly, I don't think I'm even half as active as she is now!)

Every night there was a fight about who got to feed her the bottle.  Grandma usually won.

Dad showing Olive how to work the remote.  I'm still not sure how it works, but I think she got it.

Bath time! (Thanks for loaning mom the tub, Bryan and Deanna!)

On Tuesday, my bestie Megan drove down to my parents' house - ON A WEEKNIGHT - just to have dinner with us and meet Olivia.  Again, TRUE FRIENDS! She is recently engaged(!!) so I got to hear ALL about it...it's always great to catch up with friends.  Speaking of, here is Stubby reuniting with Megan who took care of him for a summer.  He loves her.

Here is Ruti, the baby guard dog, who was never more than a foot away from Olive at all times - especially when she was crying.

On my last night, we drove up to Bryan and Deanna (my brother and sister-in-law)'s house for dinner and to let Olive meet some of her cousins! 

I love the look on Olive's face...yes, you are surrounded.

Grace got to hold Olivia, which Olivia obviously enjoyed immensely.  Piper is looking on...not quite sure what to think of the baby.

Ultimately, the girls decided that they would rather play with their kitchen than the baby.  Wise choice - those pots and pans don't cry.

By the end of the night, Olivia was DONE.

Yes, that is drool on my shoulder.  That is how all my shirts look now.

It was a great trip, though far too short.  I'm glad Olive and grandma got to meet each other and that the plane ride wasn't TOO horrifying (the ride home was less successful than the trip down).  This is good, because we're already planning to go back down for Christmastime, when we'll spend part of the time in Oregon with my family, which I am really excited about because I get to see my sister for the first time in years and meet the TWO kids she's had since I last saw her, and we'll spend the other part of the trip in Washington with Andy's family.  I'm already tired just thinking about the logistics of it all, but at least this time we'll have two sets of hands on the plane (and train, probably).  Can't wait! 

Two Months!

As of yesterday, little Olive is two whole months old! Where did the time go?! Do I really have to go back to work soon??

I feel like she looks so old now! Serious face...

Cooing face...

Silly face!

I was having a difficult time doing the "bunny photo" with these two helping out:

I also have that face when Fro tries to walk on me.

Ripley wanted to be in all the pictures and loves being by his sister...

We finally got a good one!

A comparison of one month to two months...

She is still in newborn diapers in some brands, but has totally grown out of newborn clothes because she's too long for them.  The three month outfits fit her well, but are pretty baggy because she's so skinny.  This month she loves baths, lamps and ceiling fans (she laughs at them!) and really really hates riding in the car for some reason.

Today at the doctor she was 23.5 inches long (two inches longer than when she was born!) and her head is 40.75 centimeters (which is ENORMOUS).  She only weighed in at 9.2 lbs, though, which is teeny for her size and age, so the goal for this next month is to put some meat on those bones.  Grow baby grow!