Saw this on facebook

"A thirty year study was conducted by John Hopkins Medical School to find out if a single related cause existed for mental illness, hypertension, malignant tumors, coronary heart disease, and suicide. After studying 1377 people over a thirty-year period, the single common denominator was not diet or exercise. Instead they found instead that the most significant predictor of these five major calamities was a lack of closeness to the parents, especially the father."
John Hopkins Medical Journal (vol. 134, no. 5 (May 1974): 251-270.

Project 366... Weeks 16 + 17

I know... I'm behind. This whole blogging thing has taken a serious back burner.  (By the way...I'm not a fan of change, so this new set up is annoying!)  People are always reminding me to get back at it.  I will try to be better about it.  Even if it means just telling what we did for the weekend.  I see/read all these blogs that just tell what the person did from day to day.  They have hundreds of followers.  Yet, I feel like I need to come up with some grand blog idea for all seven of you.  I'll try harder! :)

So here is a start.

106.  This is the look we get when she knows she's headed to do something naughty!  She was on her way to the shelf to pull something off.  I said, "Olivia Grace!"  She stopped, turned, flashed me that smile and kept on going. We get this often!  We need a baby jail!

107. Remember how I said we were down to two pacis?  So I bought her 4 for her Easter basket.  Well, since then we found some missing ones.  Since she only uses them for sleep (and one in the diaper bag for back up), Michael just dumped them all in her crib.  She LOVES this.  She will have one in her mouth, and one in each hand, and she rotates them out every minute or so.  It's hilarious!

108.  Just playing--happy girl!

109. Changing her diaper has become a nightmare.  She just wants to crawl, twist, turn... anything but lay like she's suppose to.  One day she was crawling around and I was snapping pictures. She was clearly not amused.

110.  How I am greeted every morning and after nap!  Love it!

111.  Clearly I didn't have enough pictures of her in her pajamas?!  There is a full length mirror on the back of her door, so she was looking at herself and talking.

112.  My sister was in town and we went to Ft. Worth.  Olivia was hanging out with daddy.

113.  At the bowling alley--dancing with Aunt Ang

114.  These are a little out of order.  114 is actually in the bottom right corner.  It wasn't showing the whole picture in the smaller box, so I moved it to the skinny box.  Doesn't she look so big?  She was watching Little Man at his Tae Kwon Do practice.

115. Playing with her toy box at work.  She took a few scoots and a few steps when pushing it.

116.  Her go to spot-playing with her table and pulling books off of the shelf at the same time.

117. She is back to making the scrunched up face ALL. THE. TIME. This isn't even the extent of it, but it's the best I could get.

118.  Daddy made her a tunnel and they were checking it out.  How cute!

119.  Playing in the bounce house at a friend's birthday party

I still need to get some pictures of last week uploaded to my computer, but I'll work on that collage too.  Oh... by the way... picnik did close (another reason why these posts were delayed), but I found a replacement site.  It's ipiccy.com.  Word on the street on the internet is that it is founded by someone who use to be part of picnik but left.  Anyway, it's pretty much the same thing and for now, it's all free!  YAY!

10 Month Loves

Man, these lists are getting harder and harder.  Now I know why the other bloggers quit before they reached a year! :)

Floppy Shopping Cart Cover

Originally I wasn't going to get a cart cover.  I read they weren't any cleaner than just wiping down the cart.  I heard they were a pain.  I figured it was just another thing that I didn't need.  That was until Olivia moved out of her car seat carrier and couldn't sit up that well.  I researched and asked friends and had a lot of people say that they liked the Floppy brand.  It's (just a tad) bit more expensive than some of the other ones, but it's big so it fits bigger carts.  It also has more cushion than others, and since I was needing to use it when Olivia was all wobbly this was helpful.  Plus, it folds into itself and carries like a bag.  It can be used for shopping carts or restaurant high chairs.  I got mine on sale at Babies R Us and we use it often.  I'm really glad we have it.  Even with it on Olivia tries to eat the side of the cart.  I can only imagine what it would be like without it.  I don't find it nearly as inconvenient as people said it would be.

Plum Organics Little Cremes

When you ask a mom what kind of food her baby is eating at this age, 9 times out of 10 eggs, cheese, and yogurt show up on that list.  Out of the whole MSPI issue, I am most bummed about the fact that Olivia can't have yogurt.  Babies love yogurt.  Plus, the probiotics are good for kiddos.  Olivia eats fruits and vegetables like a pro.  I just feel bad that it always seems to be the same general stuff.  So when I found these imitation yogurt melts (made from rice milk), I decided to give it a try.  Not only are they a handy little snack, but they are made with super foods.  She wasn't sure about them at first, but now she loves them.  She will even choose to eat them before eating her puffs.  They are a little expensive for what they are, but sometimes I just need something quick to grab.  It's nice to have this option.  Plus, I like to give Olivia options.

I told you in our two month must have list that we liked the diaper champ.  It was true.  It was working out well for us.  It contained the smell and all was good.  That was until Olivia started solids.  From that point on her room smelled like poop....pretty much constantly.  Even after the pail was emptied.  Michael deep cleaned that thing multiple times and it didn't help.  I'm not sure what the issue was.  I used one for Little Man (although an older model) and there were never any issues.  That is one of the reasons I chose it.  That and the fact that it didn't need special bags.  Well, ten months later we were just done with the thing.  Michael hated it for months now and after this last take apart and clean it didn't go back together quite right.

I knew I didn't want a diaper genie or the arm and hammer one.  So after researching, I decided on...

The Diaper Dekor

We love it.  It does have it's own little bagging system, but you can use regular garbage bags too.  It has a step thing at the bottom that opens the lid.  Then there is a little shoot where you put the diaper in.  Both Michael and I have said to each other multiple times who happy we are.  It's sooo much nicer and easier than what we were dealing with.  I highly recommend it!

Ten Months!

OLIVIA GRACE, you are TEN months old!

What have you been up to?

*First, I can't believe you are that old.  Something about ten sounds so big to me.  Maybe because it's double digits?  You are getting closer and closer to being one!  While every day with you is getting more fun, I think I'm going to miss my little baby.

*I had been thinking you seemed to have lost some weight.  We don't go back to the doctor until you are one, so I weighed you myself the other day.  You weighed 22 pounds 4 ounces.  That is one pound, 5 ounces down from last month.  I think is mostly because you are drinking less formula, but also because you are on the move now.

*You are wearing mostly 12 month clothes.  You've been known to sport a few 18 month items too!

*You are still in size 4 diapers--both regular and night time.

*Your schedule has remained pretty much the same as last months.  I think that's a first!  Although, you are back to sleeping in closer to 7 than 6.  Thank goodness!

*Whenever I tried to help you take assisted steps you would not budge.  You'd just laugh at me.  I think you thought it was a game.  However, you did it for Gi Gi (my grandma, your great-grandma) on Sunday, April 1st.  Since then, you have no problems "walking" around with help.

*You also started crawling while Grandma and Gi Gi were here.  You took your first official crawls on Wednesday, April 4th.  It took you about a week to get comfortable with what you were doing and now you crawl all over the place.

*You also pull yourself up to a full standing position.  You LOVE to do this.  You get so proud of yourself too!

(CHECK OUT THOSE TEETH!)

*We had to lower your crib on March 31st.  I was waiting as long as possible, but you started pulling yourself up.  This is another reason why sleeping training when we did worked out for us.  I would never have been able to transfer you to your crib without waking you.

*You are beginning to cruise.  You don't go the full length of the couch or around the room, but you will take a few steps.

*You still love to stand.  You'll even let go and only hold on to something with one hand.  Every once in a while you'll let go with both hands, but it only lasts brief seconds.  You will stand by yourself for a little while if you don't realize you are doing it.  If you know that is what I am trying to do, or once you realize that's what is happening, you laugh and panic at the same time. :)

*You can go from a laying position to a sitting position and vice versa.  You have no problems getting around and being in the position you want to be in.

*You are down to 3 bottles like the doctor said.  You take 6 ounces when you wake up, 6 ounces mid-day (although sometimes you only want 4) and 8 ounces at bedtime.

*You are eating 3 solid meals a day.  The doctor said 3 and a snack, but that just wasn't working out so well.  You are a really good eater!  Grandma and Gi Gi were impressed.  You eat pretty much anything we give you.  You also get most of it to your mouth.  Sometimes it drops into your bib/lap, but the floor always stays clean! :)

*As with last month, I'm not really keeping track of your new foods anymore.  We don't follow the 4 day rule anymore either.  Some of the new foods you've tried this month (that I can remember) are: toast, whole wheat pancakes made with almond milk, rice cakes, mandarin orange segments, black beans, biscuits, homemade turkey meatballs, tilapia, quinoa, and homemade hummus with pita bread.  You also eat all three flavors of the rice milk "little cremes" (yogurt melt type) and they have super foods such as: acai, purple carrot, blackberry, kale, pomegranate and berry.

*You are great at eating finger foods.  We do still do some purees.  Mostly because you still don't mind them and they are easy.  Plus, we use them for "jelly" on your bread/pancakes or a "sauce" for your pasta/cous cous.

*We are working on getting you to drink out of a sippy cup.  We've practiced on and off for the last 4 months, but now that you are down to 20 ounces of formula, I'd really like you to be drinking some water.  You aren't really a fan of water.  Nor have you figured out the sippy cup.  We'll keep working on it.

*You know what you like when you eat.  You will pick out all of your first choices first.  You always end up eating what is on your tray.  I find it funny that you pick and choose your order with purpose.

*We have overcome the stranger danger!  You stayed in the nursery on Easter morning with no problems!  You also went to Grandma, Ken, Gi Gi and Auntie Ang with no issues.

*You still love to look at yourself in the mirror.  Now, you even enjoy looking at pictures of yourself.  You'll even start to giggle.  It's pretty cute.

*Our doctor said that true words (where you know what you are saying and associating it) don't really happen until 1 year.  She said the first year is about motor skills and the second year is about social skills.  Even though you don't say words yet, it does sound like you say "hi", "yeah", "oh" and "uh oh".  I'm not counting it though, because I'm still not sure you know what you are saying.

*You still don't clap, but you love to take my hands and clap them together.  I'm pretty sure that counts for something. :)  You think this is really funny too.  You also bang items together, so the fact that you don't clap doesn't bother me at all.

*You don't officially wave, but you are getting close.  You like when we wave to you.

*When you get excited you flap both of your arms and your legs and make a "hoo hoo hoo" sound.

*Besides climbing up on everything, your favorite thing to do is pull all of the books off the shelf.  If we are in the living room, it's all of the DVD's.

*You are definitely a momma's girl--at least for now.

*You are a pretty happy and content little girl.  You are always smiling and can go with the flow.

Things you love right now: The Little Gym, singing, being able to crawl!!, standing, climbing up on stuff, Mommy!, and the hot dog song on Mickey Mouse Clubhouse.

Your least favorite things right now: hmmm... I can't think of any!  You rarely cry.  Really, it's only if you are tired.  You are pretty happy and easy going now that you can get where you want to be.

HAPPY TEN MONTHS BABY GIRL!
WE LOVE YOU!!

This outtake pretty much sums you up...

  Smile, drool, and trying to be on the go, go, go!

Project 366: 15

99. Happy Easter!

100. That is the face of trouble!  And she's proud of it! :)

101. She likes to play this drum, which is one of Little Man's old baby toys.

102. Just happy to be playing with a water bottle

103. We met our friends at the park for a play date

104. She loves pulling herself up on these bar stools at work

105. Pulling herself up to mommy

75 Days

When I signed on to the bump yesterday that is what it said.  75 days until Olivia's birthday.  That means we are now down to 74... and counting.  I can't believe it!  That seems like such a small number to me.

I'm not going to lie, I was thinking about her birthday before she was even born.  You may remember that I posted about it once while I was pregnant.  To say my birthday has always pretty much sucked is putting it nicely.  I won't go into details (although I will say--who doesn't get their kid a freaking birthday cake!?!?!), but I decided a loooonng time ago that my children would have fond birthday memories.  Whether I spend $2 on a box cake or $2000 on a lavish party (I wouldn't--just saying) doesn't matter.  Making a day special isn't about the money.  It's about the thought.  The little touches.  It's about celebrating!

And celebrate we will.  Heck, I'm celebrating too.  The first birthday is just as much about the parents as it is the kids.  We all know the baby won't remember it.  I think we get to celebrate making it through the first year.  Those sleepless nights deserve a big fat piece of birthday cake!

I now have 74 days to pull everything together for Olivia's day of celebration.  I've been scouring pinterest looking for ideas.  I don't want to give too much away, but here's the scoop so far:

Location: I have been worrying about this for MONTHS!  Our apartment is too small and it is too hot in Texas to have a summer party outside.  We finally decided to have it at our church.  It isn't my first choice by any means, but given my options it will work.

The date: Olivia's birthday (June 23rd) happens to fall on a Saturday so her party will be on her actual birthday.

The theme:  We are going with owls.  I seriously picked the theme while I was still pregnant.  It's super trendy now, but that's ok.  It's not nearly as popular as The Very Hungry Caterpillar. :)  Plus, Olivia likes owls.  She has owl toys, owl books, an owl high chair and stroller, owl pajamas, an owl towel...the list goes on.

Colors: The colors will be a really bright pink and a turquoise blue.  It's going to be a little tricky.  Lots of things are pink and green.  I like pink and green (hello, our wedding), but I want something different.

Details: I plan on doing as much of the stuff as I can.  It's a nice little project for me.  I'm looking at doing a more sophisticated party than a kiddie party.  I'll have years and years of kiddie parties to do.  She doesn't know what is going on, so now is my chance to have the party my way! :)

I'm pretty excited.  I have come up with lots of cute little ideas.  I've already started ordering and collecting items.  I plan to hit up Hobby Lobby later this week for craft supplies.  It's going to be cute.  I just wish all of ya'll could be here to celebrate!  You are all welcome!

Project 366: Week 14

Instead of doing a collage, I am going to recap the week.  I didn't take a ton of pictures.  I was busy playing hostess. :)  My mom, her husband Ken, and my grandma flew in on Saturday evening.  We had a great week!

Olivia was already in bed when they got here Saturday night, so she was in for a surprise when she woke up on Sunday morning.  She warmed right up to them though. She went to my grandma almost immediately while I was getting breakfast ready.

They also played on the floor while everyone was getting ready for church.

Both my mom and my grandma love to watch Jack Graham on TV.  Instead of going to our church (which I didn't think my grandma or Ken would like), we went to Prestonwood Baptist so they could see him in person.  The church is right down the road from our church and is H-U-G-E!  Everyone liked the sermon though.  Afterwards we went to Babe's Chicken.  It got rave reviews!

We spent the afternoon playing with Olivia and watching some movies.

On Monday we went to the Dallas World Aquarium.

Everyone enjoyed it.

Olivia loved the big tanks.

(A little blurry--we learned that my mom is not the best photographer!)

(Yep, she cut off our heads!)

In the afternoon we got pictures with the Easter bunny and took blue bonnet pictures.

On Tuesday we went to The Little Gym as usual.  My grandma and Ken sat out and watched from the waiting area.  My mom joined us in the class.  She took tons of pictures, but I don't have any. :(

From there we headed downtown to the Sixth Floor Museum where JFK was shot.  This is right around the time the tornadoes were happening in Dallas.  We weren't sure if we were going to be able to get in.  We were driving down the freeway, which wasn't the safest of places, but were weren't near any of the touchdowns.

She was smiling for her grandma while taking a bath.

On Wednesday we laid low.  Olivia was LOVING the attention and the three grandparents were enjoying giving it to her.  We played most of the morning.  Oh, I forgot to mention that my grandma got her to take some assisted steps on Sunday.  She also decided to start crawling on Wednesday.  She doesn't go super fast yet.  She usually just takes two or three crawls at a time and then stops, but she's going forward regardless!

We ran some errands in the afternoon.  Of course, Olivia got spoiled!

Stopping for a pose at Target.

On Thursday we visited Southfork Ranch--you know, where the TV show Dallas was filmed.  Both my mom and grandma watched the show, so they found the tour to be interesting.  Did you know there is a new Dallas show coming out soon?  Parts of it were also filmed here.  Too bad we don't have TV...

Speaking of... we weren't sure my grandma was going to survive without her Fox News, but no one seemed to mind that we were TV-less.  They all had books to read during nap time and Olivia kept them occupied all the other times we weren't touring the city.

This isn't the clearest picture because it's a snapshot of a video.  

It sums up the week pretty well though.

Anytime Olivia would do something, she'd look from one person to the next to the next to make sure they were watching her.  She was eating up all the attention!  She's such a ham!

Friday we hit Ft. Worth.  

We watched the cattle drive down the street.

Olivia was in serious need of a nap!

Then we went shopping, had dinner, and went to the rodeo!

Our guests left Saturday morning and we had a pretty low key day.

Overall it was a great week.  Olivia really enjoyed having her grandparents here and they enjoyed the time with her.  We had a good mix of play, sightseeing, relaxation, food, and fun.

Now we count down until my sister comes!!! :)