Roll/Grab/Eat

As each day passes, we can't believe the new things Olivia learns.  After her initial rolling over she has been using this newfound skill as a mode of transportation.  The best is when we go to congratulate her rolling over again, the biggest smile ever appears.  I have a feeling she will be a very interesting person as she grows.  She is very adamant in what she wants and often listens intently to conversations.  This milestone is fantastic, but can pose a few new challenges.  She will roll over and over again in her crib when we put her to sleep, and can't yet figure out how to roll back all the time.  She actually started doing this differently of what is expected; she rolls from her back to her stomach.  Most babies will start to roll from the tummy to the back.  I shouldn't be surprised really, as I only crawled backward.  We have been having issues with her sleeping through the night the past month, so we moved her bedtime up an hour and it seems to be working.  This is especially wonderful for me, as Tim simply doesn't hear her in the middle of the night.  Good thing I'm around!

Olivia also is developing a love for grabbing anything and everything in sight.  This includes the massively dirty diaper I just changed to the entire bowl of baby oatmeal I'm holding.  It definitely keeps us on our toes much more.  It's pretty funny when she takes a fistful of our dog Lucy's ear and tries to eat it.  Poor Lucy just takes it.  It's really cute to watch her be more aware of the animals in the house though.  She also tries to pet the cats, but it's a little rough on them.  She is starting to really love her Baby Einstein Sit and Spin.

Speaking of oatmeal, we had a major rookie parent mistake in our quest to feed solid food.  I am proud to say until this point, the only little mistake we had in raising our newborn was keeping her in newborn diapers too long (they have weight guidelines on the boxes for a reason.)  Well that and also being so freaked out about burning her during baths we kept the water pretty lukewarm at first.  In retrospect, I realize it's okay to give your newborn a warm water bath.  Otherwise all of my reading and years-long observations of my sister's parenting have really paid off.  As the doctor advised, we started with rice cereal mixed with formula.  It took a few days but she got the hang of the spoon after awhile.  After one week, it was time to give her oatmeal.  Mind you, the doctor's written instructions merely stated "oatmeal," not "infant oatmeal," nor "baby oatmeal cereal."  We literally thought good old oatmeal.  Obviously now we realize this was a pretty big "duh" moment, but then we actually gave her a full spoon of real oatmeal.  She looked at us like we were crazy.  After this I asked Tim to try to find some kind of baby oatmeal.  Well, lo and behold, it's right there next to all the baby food.  Many, many different brands even.  How I missed this golden knowledge nugget, I do not know.  Luckily, she loves baby oatmeal, and is currently enjoying baby mixed grains as well.  Tomorrow we try bananas!

The last time I wrote we were certain Olivia was teething.  After a visit to the doctor, he confirmed that she is in a teething state for sure, but the first teeth can take even months to appear!  I bought baby tylenol and homeopathic teething tablets to help, and then a week later those tablets were recalled!  Thankfully only the tylenol helps when she is in pain anyway.  It hasn't been much of an issue lately though.  I can't wait to see those cute teeth!

Our days spent at the skate shop are still filled to the brim, but we are still having tons of fun.  We had a fun night of skate video premieres with free popcorn last week with a great turnout.  It is rather difficult to make and serve popcorn and feed a crying starving baby all at once, so thank goodness for our friends who helped!  We also set up our shiny black Christmas tree ( I insisted we get a real tree this year for our house.)  We are so blessed to have this opportunity.  Now all we need is a vintage-inspired pin-up boutique with cosmetics studio and persian cat mascot named Dixie.  That one is MY dream.  :)

I'll leave you with Olivia's favorite thing to do...Stand Up Baby!