Thanksgiving

Hello out there! I know it's been quite awhile since I've posted on the blog, but it's been a busy month in the Naylor house.  Daycare is finally showing us just what a hotbed of sickness it can be and Olive has (sadly) had her first fever and ear infections, (not related to the fever!) and has had her nose sucked by the dreaded bulb syringe more times than I can count.  Of course this means that Andy and I have also been pretty sick over the past few weeks because these babies are passing around germs we've never seen before.  With her being sick, she's not sleeping well, so we're catching up where we can...and on top of all that, I've embarked upon a pretty ambitious craft project that I have to finish by Christmas, so I officially have NO free time.

Thursday was Thanksgiving! We got the go ahead to try "real food" from the pediatrician back at our four month appointment, but we haven't really been going for it.  On Thanksgiving we tried rice cereal.  It was...anticlimactic.

Interested??

Maybe?

Maybe not.  That face is amazing though.  

 Despite all of the sickness going around, little miss Olivia decided to give us something to be EXTRA thankful for and on Wednesday night slept 10 hours in a row.  A total fluke that hasn't been repeated of course, but it was a nice break considering that we had just come out of a week-long stretch where she was up literally every 45 minutes.  I was so tired at work, I was seriously considering taking George Costanza naps under my desk.  As if it wasn't enough to sleep all night the night before, Olive spent most of Thanksgiving asleep, too.  We had grand plans to take a ton of adorable pictures, but by the time she was up and in a good mood it was dark outside and the lighting was bad.  We did get some cute ones though!

Her foot is ALWAYS in her mouth if she can put it there.  She drives the ladies at daycare nuts by pulling her socks off approximately 753 times per day.

I think aside from her feet, Olivia is most thankful for her Sophie! All signs have been pointing to teething lately and she sure has loved gnawing on Sophie's feet and ears.

This year we decided to be a little more reasonable and only cook enough food for 10 people (we usually aim for about 30 or so).  We stuck to a turkey breast instead of the whole thing and it was perfect for two people plus TONS of leftovers.

I made ALL the stuffing.  And it was good.

We also had cranberry sauce (a must for next-day sandwiches!), potatoes, green bean casserole, and rolls.  I am pretty sure our meal was recently featured on thisiswhyyourefat.com.

On Friday Andy and I both worked, so we didn't have a long weekend, but this weekend has still been pretty good.  Yesterday we got our first significant amount of snow all month (about three inches), and I don't think we're going to set the record for least-snowy November anymore.  I have missed the snow, but I will say I was loving the quick commuting to and from work every day!

On top of the snow, we got another visit from our baby moose friend! We don't see him with his mama much anymore and I think he decided our neighborhood is the perfect spot to spend the winter. We love having him around except for the other day when we were almost unable to take Ripley outside all day because the moose was camped in the yard.  Poor Ripley.

On Saturday he checked out the shrubs in front of the house.  You can tell by looking at the shrubs that he's been doing this a lot lately.

Obviously he has no issue being close to our house - this is the view out of Olive's window.  After this, he went down the driveway and spent about two hours wandering around in the backyard which drove Ripley crazy.  Once he finally left I swear I was outside with him for twenty minutes watching him pee on every. single. thing.

We hope you all had a Happy Thanksgiving - although our feast was small (people wise, not food wise), it was a special day for us as we're now a family of three!

A Day at the Museum

It's getting to be that time of year when there really isn't much that you can do outside - especially with a baby.  Sadly, it's driving poor Ripley crazy because even when it was freezing out, we'd be up for long hikes and other adventures on the weekends, but I don't know if I can physically bundle Olive up enough to feel comfortable with her outside for long periods of time when it's 20 degrees (or colder!) outside.  Poor Ripley.  All of this means that we have to work on expanding the things we can do inside.

We've always loved the Anchorage Museum, but it's become a new favorite spot since we became parents.  A couple of weeks ago we went to the museum to check out an exhibit called "Brick by Brick" featuring some awesome LEGO creations.  Here we are posing outside with the funny armless animal statutes and our new hats! (Olivia and I went to the South Anchorage High Holiday Bazaar with Ann and her mom the day before and bought some awesome stuff!).

I think it was 25 degrees outside - I didn't want to wear a coat because it's really hot carrying Olive in the Ergo inside the museum, but maybe I should have sucked it up and paid 25 cents for a locker so I could walk the three blocks from my parking lot to the museum without trying to get frostbite...

The museum was a big hit! Olive was alert pretty much the whole time and even took a nap at the end so we could have lunch at the fantastic restaurant there.  Good baby! Last time we visited there it was when Andy's mom was up and Olivia had a meltdown before we could eat.  

We're adorable.

The LEGO exhibit was awesome! 

As someone who absolutely must follow the directions to a T when making something with LEGOs, it's pretty awesome to see what creative people can do with them.  

Clouds...

An umbrella...

Creepy Skulls...

Various human forms...

A pretty awesome dog!

But I think my favorite was the dress! Isn't it amazing?!

My cell phone pictures just don't do it justice

All in all, it was a great day! And because this post was low on adorable baby pictures (which I know is the sole reason that most people, at least the grandparents, come to the blog anymore) here you go.

Hanging out in her bouncy seat, which she loves.

Bath time! Her favorite time of day.  Someone is going to be a swimmer like dad!

She even likes tummy time these days!

Our poor baby has been sick with daycare cold number 2 of the season this past week or so.  We finally took her into the doctor because it migrated to her eye (not pink eye thank god!) and we found out she had ear infections, which is probably why none of us have been sleeping for the past several days.  Hopefully this clears up quickly!

Happy Halloween! - Four Months!

Another busy week in the Naylor house! On Thursday, Olivia went in for her four month doctor's appointment, we celebrated our fourth anniversary with little fanfare - though we did have some AWESOME thai takeout, which may be the start of a new tradition - and Friday was Halloween! 

Four years ago! Look how well rested we look! Obviously pre-baby :)

We didn't go trick or treating, but we did carve some pumpkins and dress up for the occasion.  Even after having shots on Thursday and a fever for most of the day on Friday, Olivia was enjoying her first Halloween.  She gets it from her dad! 

She was a crab.  Fitting.

Don't worry, I only took about 432,267 pictures of her in her costume.

...and here's the series of pictures that will win us the parents of the year award:

Chef Andy with his catch of the day!

In the pot she goes!

Yum!  She was loving the spoon.

Awesome.

As I said before, this week also marked her four month "birthday."  Time flies!

Operation fatten up the baby continues and is succeeding! She gained another pound since her last appointment and is up to 11 lb, 10 oz.  She's still 6th percentile for weight, but holding steady and the doctor is very pleased!  She also grew another two inches and is now 26 inches tall, putting her in the 97th percentile for height.  Her head also grew and is in the 98th percentile.  Full of brains!

That bunny seems to be shrinking...

Here's all four months now...She's definitely filling out.  And losing all of her hair!!  I didn't think it was possible, but she is definitely getting cuter, too! 

I was convinced she'd be a redhead, but now it looks like she's definitely going to be blonde.  I can't get over how big she's getting! 

She's very active and very verbal.  This weekend she learned a new horrible squealing noise that she uses to let us know she's unhappy about something.  It's at a pitch somewhere between nails on a chalkboard and dog whistle, and let me tell you, it's really awesome at about three in the morning when she wakes up hungry.  When she isn't squealing she's babbling at everything or laughing.  This kid makes some funny sounds!