Olivia Dell: 10 Months

Height/Weight: I am so bad and didn't measure either of these at 10 months! based on my powers of deduction, she weighed about 19 pounds, and is probably about 30 inches (as she's still a decent bit of ways from the top of her car seat). bad mommy!

Feeding: I haven't bought pureed food in forever! Unless you count the food pouches, which I only buy for when we are out and about because they are easy- not because she needs pureed food ;) Olivia is pretty much entirely a "table eater" now and eats what we eat. It has forced me to actually cook dinner, and at a decent hour.  She still loves her puffs, can suck all the food out of a food pouches, and is getting so good at eating with her pincher fingers!

Clothing:  still haven't worn shoes! i went on a one day shopping scour of shoes and she hasn't even worn them after i read a whole bunch of stuff that discouraged shoes on babies until they've been walking for 6 months. oh well! as for clothes, we are into 12 month sizes! waaaahhhhh. 6 months sizes are pretty much out the window and 12 month pants are almost a must with her long legs.

Sleep:  Olivia continues to be a good night sleeper, and only gives us a serious hard time when she's teething. Her nap times have been throwing me for a loop, as she has at least 3 days a week where she only takes 1 nap! I'm not ready to have a 1-napper!

Milestones: Olivia is an efficient crawler, stair climber, and puller-upper. She is a chatterbox, telling people "hi" on the phone and when she seems someone new. she also knows how to pull open drawers and get into kitchen cabinets!

Firsts: Olivia celebrated her first Thanksgiving and Christmas! She also ate her first Christmas cookie, met Santa, and opened her first present!!

Holidays gone by...

I've been super disappointed in myself these past few months about not keeping this blog updated. I've gone back and forth between being too busy, too tired, not interested, etc. Good thing for me, I haven't stopped taking millions of pictures, so I can return to blogging and hopefully catch up!

First things first: Olivia's first smattering of holidays! I've managed to completely miss Halloween, Thanksgiving and Christmas blogging. For Halloween, miss Ollie was an owl, of course! I was actually trying to avoid it because everyone knows how much I love owls and I really don't want anyone to think I'm projecting on to her, but I found the cutest outfit so oh well. To celebrate, we went to my dad and step moms neighborhood party and walked around a little. nothing too fancy!

I didn't plan on hosting Thanksgiving this year, but we had somewhat of a family ER illness come up so I ended up cooking for Dave and myself. Then, my dad, step mom and step sister ended up coming over so we had a family dinner after all! Ollie got to have her first Thanksgiving dinner and she loved it!

Christmas was amazing! I tried to celebrate all month long with cookie making with my mom, Christmas tree decorating, parties with friends, a visit with Santa, Christmas light watching, Christmas Eve church services, and gifts at my parents!

This first holiday season for Olivia was wonderful! I think back to the holidays last year when I imagined what it would be like with her here with us, and it went way beyond my expectations. I can't wait for many more to come :)

9 Month Favorites

Old Navy Bow Graphic ankle socks: these are the ONLY non skid socks I can find so far, which amazes me considering I have all 6-12 month sizes and most babies are at least standing by this age span. Anyways, I got these as a gift in 0-6 month sizes and they are very cute and soft. My only complaint is the size- they are huge in 6-12. I figured since the 0-6 were seriously too small that these would fit, but they are  big and keep falling off. Oh well, they'll fit eventually!

Fisher Price Go Baby Go! Poppity Pop Musical Dino: Olivia LOVES this toy! She plays with it at a friends house and also at church. I actually have two of them because our first one didn't pop right so Fisher Price sent us a brand new one for free! It's easy enough for her to play with starting back at 5 months or so and she still loves it now. I've even started to find non-ball objects inside, like blocks and pacifiers. Clearly she thinks this is funny.

Vicks Baby Rub: since Olivia had her first cold/cough, we used this a lot for a few days. It's different than the adult kind so if you need it for an infant, be sure you get the BABY one. We rubbed it on her feet and chest and it seemed to really help her congestion.

Baby Orajel Tooth & Gum Cleanser: Baby's first toothbrush! My dental hygienist told me that we should start rubbing Olivia's gum with a washcloth or finger brush even before she got teeth, so I bought this pack. At first she thought I was insane and would just try to bite the finger brush. Now she loves it! Every night we "brush the toofers" as my song goes, and she even spits out her pacifier when she sees me coming with it! I think she likes the feeling.

Circo Stripe Bath Mat: LW is a big girl now and takes regular baths! I used her baby sponge mat for as long as I could but now that she's crawling she wants to be mobile in the bath too. This mat is great! It's pretty large and inexpensive and really keeps her from slipping in the tub (except of course, when she wants to stand!). I pull it up after every bath so we don't get mildew and it stays nice and clean.

Skip Hop Bath Spout Cover: we got this before Olivia was even born as a gift and finally put it on the spout at our new place. I NEVER worry that she will bonk her head on the spout when she's crawling around at the end of the tub. It's made for a shower pully that goes up and not out like ours, but since she has her own bathroom, we aren't using her tub for showers anyways.

With only 3 days until her 10 month birthday, our 10 month favorites aren't far behind! (hopefully)

Olivia Dell: 9 Months

Height/Weight: I waited so long for this post because Olivia's 9 month appointment was almost 2 weeks after she turned 9 months, and here we are 4 days before she turns 10 months! Let's just say I'm going to be limping to the finish line to complete this year's updates! Olivia now weights 18 pounds, 6 ounces (was probably a little off in last month's numbers!) and is 29 inches tall! She is in the 90th percentile for height and 50th percentile for weight, a huge gain. The doctor is satisfied with her head size and we are all relieved.

Feeding: Olivia is now eating 3 8-9 ounce bottles a day: 1 around 7am (depending on the kind of night we've had, sleepwise), 1 at 1pm, and 1 around 6:30pm. She has rice cereal, cheerios, and sometimes scrambled eggs for breakfast, a fruit puree, some puffs, and half a piece of whole wheat bread for lunch, and usually a veggie puree and a little meat puree. However, all this is slowly evolving into "big girl" food because I'm over the purees and she doesn't seem to mind. No matter how much I feed her, she ALWAYS want to have what I'm eating. It's actually more fun to give her mini size portions of what we are having, and she likes it.

Clothing:  We are now into all 9 month clothes and a lot of 6-12's in both pants and tops. I packed away a lot of old clothes and filled an entire rubbermaid tub :( It made me so sad to look through her old clothes that fit her just a few months ago. She's even outgrown three pairs of shoes before she even wore them! I got her sized and she's a 3.5 in shoes, but still fits in 0-6 month in Robeez slip on styles. I got her a pair, but she's yet to wear them.

Sleep: Ollie is officially sleeping through the night! For the first five days it happened, Dave and I kept waiting for her to change her mind. But here we are, over a month in and it's the real deal and it's awesome. The only time she's given us trouble is if she's not feeling well. This last month she got a nasty cold and cut 2 top teeth so the nights were a little bit of a doozy. But once she's feeling better, she's sleeping better!

Milestones: We have a crawler! Olivia is quite the mover and I love hearing her little hands slap the floor when she's coming my way. She pulls herself up on everything and can scoot around the coffee table, couch, and her activity table. She's also started to crawl up the stairs (already got a baby gate!) and over me to get to a toy. Olivia also waves good bye, claps, and says "uh oh." She is growing by leaps and bounds now!

Firsts: Olivia celebrated her first Halloween (as an Owl!) and picked out her first Christmas tree at Peltzer Pines. She also cut her first (2!) top teeth, started crawling, and had her first cold and trip to the doctor's for a sick visit.

Crawling!

I see top teeth!

 

First cold :(

Winter baby

Dave and I have long joked that Olivia is a "winter baby" because when she was just a few months old, she deeply expressed her hatred for being hot and clammy. there were a few sweltering days and nights where she let us know that she wasn't too keen on warm weather. since it's started to cool down, she can be found watching the rain against the sliding glass door and happily wearing sweatpants and socks in the autumn chill (chill being a relative term, here in Southern California).

that being said, Olivia is also growing out of all her clothes and didn't have much of a winter wardrobe anyways because she didn't have much past 9 month sizes. so the past few weeks I've been on the prowl for some warmer clothes. The good thing about living in Southern California is it doesn't really get cold like most states, so I can get away with upgrading her pants and long sleeve collection and be pretty good. No snow suits or one piece fleece stroller outfits necessary!

I'm definitely a bargain shopper, especially when it comes to baby clothes that are only worn 3 for months. So sad. So in the words of the well known series, Game of Thrones, buckle up, because "Winter is Coming":

I definitely shopped around because it's hard to find cute baby clothes, in my opinion, that aren't all cupcakes and unicorns. I'm also not a big fan of onesies that have cheesy sayings like "grandmas sweetie", etc. The navy owl onesie and black, ruffle top are from Kohl's (brand: Jumping Bean), the pink striped top, navy and teal polka dot blouse, and navy and pink onesie are all from Baby Gap (on sale AND an extra 30% off!), the 4 pack of onesies are Carter's, and the purple sweatshirt is from Target (brand: Circo).

and for bottoms:

I got pretty lucky and found a decent amount of pants from Old Navy. I say lucky because they're onesies are just too wide for Olivia and never fit well enough. the navy and black leggings, as well as the mint and dark peach color pop jersey pants are from Old Navy, the dark pink sweatpants and light pink polka dot jeans are from Carter's, and the navy polka dot corduroys are from Baby Gap. I also got her two pairs of leggings in teal, and pink and black polka dot from Baby Gap, but they aren't pictured because I ran out of room!

my diligent quest to affordable clothes means that I got all of this for about $100! Everything was on sale and I even got one of these items for $2.09! Though not urgent, I would love to find some cute, warm boots and a warmer jacket. We have one, but it's really not made for winter and she's nearly grown out of it.

lately, Olivia has been outdressing me! even though I can fit into most of my old clothes, there are some old blouses i'm dying to get back into. let's hope the winter is kind to me ;)

8 Month Favorites

I am getting worse and worse at this! Luckily, I only have 4 more of these to do. Honestly, it's been taking me forever to make my lists of favorites because they are fewer and further between. I haven't been paying attention as to whether or not something is new, we just use it!

Old Navy Pop Color Jersey Pants: these are my FAVORITE pants for Olivia! We only have 2 pairs (in peach and turquoise) but as soon as I can get my hands on more, I will. They are really soft, like leggings, but look like pants. It gets a little old for babies to just wear typical leggings and these fit the bill!

Johnson's Honey Apple Baby Bath: I know a lot of people give J&J a hard time but I'm not one of them. You couldn't pry their pink baby lotion out of my dead hands, I love it so much. This baby bath and container are awesome! I always find myself up to my elbows when giving Olivia her bath and the pump on this bottle is so helpful! The smell is delicious and it's very creamy, so Ollie doesn't get extra dry skin.

Fisher Price Classic Infant Trio Gift Set: Olivia got this as a gift from great grandma and she loves playing with the lid of the shapes box. I find it all over the house! I probably play the xylophone more than she does but she always smiles when I do :) This is a nice basic toy set that is small enough to take with us and is inexpensive.

Carters Microfleece PJs: now that it's "cold" in California, these are perfect jammies for baby! They keep Ollie nice and warm and she doesn't need a sleep sack when wearing them. The only problem is that she doesn't crawl too well when she's on the carpet, because the friction from the carpet with her pants causes her leg to get stuck. It's actually quite funny.

Gerber Puffs: These are Olivia's favorite snack. She literally starts shaking when she sees the container. I keep a little ziplock container of them in my person and they have proven quite helpful in screaming situations! They have whole grains and the serving size is something like 85 so I know she's not eating too many.

Halo Microfleece Sleepsack: no more swaddle Sleep Sack for us! This is an awesome wearable blanket that keeps Olivia warm, and that we don't have to worry about accidental smothering with. I accidentally got her a size Large based on her height and it was ludicrous how big it was. I think I could have worn it. Once we got the medium, it's been great!

Chef Mom

a few weeks ago Dave drove off for the day with our one and only car seat and I was stuck at home. I decided to keep myself busy by trying something I've always wanted to do: make my own baby food.

I've gone back and forth throughout Olivia's solid food days on whether I should make or buy her food. I have no problem buying it because it's really not that expensive ($1.09 feeds her for an entire day, minus snacks) and I trust that the food manufacturers know what they're doing. I.e. I'm not making claims that they have poison in their food, blah, blah, blah. I personally buy Gerber because I'm confident that when the label says the ingredients are "green beans and water" that it's the truth. I don't feel pressured to buy organic because I don't eat all organic myself, and honestly, I can't afford it. It's over $1.60 for 1 serving, which is more than double what I pay now.

I found butternut squash for a little over $1 at Trader Joe's and found an easy recipe online. I was actually surprised at how easy it was! and it made 8 servings, which was indeed cheaper than buying premade. that night I gave Olivia some and she loved it! So I froze the rest and set about to make even more food! I bought carrots, green beans, sweet potatoes and apples. I tried carrots and green beans and noticed they didn't give me as much as the squash. It was actually more expensive to make the green beans then buying them! Regardless, we tried some with her that night.

it did NOT go well. I gave her some of my green beans and she literally GAGGED. I tried again, she almost threw up. I had Dave open a Gerber pack of green beans and no problem: she finished the whole thing. before the night was over I decided to have her try the carrot and same thing: gagged to the point of almost barfing.

I really wasn't offended at all. I have a girlfriend who's daughter reacted the same way, and it was probably partially my fault for starting her on Gerber in the first place. Additionally, the recipes had warned me how hard it is to get certain foods really smooth and I know the green beans were way more grainy than she's used to.

I thought the squash would continue to work out and I defrosted one of my cubes a week later. I noticed how watery it was but stirred it up anyways. there wasn't any gagging this time, only crying. after the first bite she cried like I was torturing her. and so my days of making baby food were over.

don't get me wrong, I liked the feeling of making something for my child from my own heart and hands. And to be honest, this won't be the first meal I make that she won't eat in her lifetime! But there are many other ways I can love her and create things for her instead of slaving over the Magic Bullet (which she despises anyways). Every morning we share scrambled eggs and if I ever eat near her, you can bet she's crawling onto my lap to see what I have. there aren't many days left when I will even have the opportunity to buy her baby food. she's getting so big and will soon just be eating off our plates. I actually love going down the baby food aisle and planning her meals. We chit chat back and forth about what she wants and she gets excited to hold her puffs container.

They say "food before 1 is just for fun" and while I'm not sure that's entirely true, I'm having a great time! I'm looking forward to seeing her personality even more through our experiences with food :)

Operation Abs: Week 4

I simply can't believe a month has gone by since I started this fitness adventure! I have to say, it wasn't as hard as I thought it would be and I am now a believer in the philosophy that if you do something for 30 days, you can create a great habit.

For the past 3 of the 4 weeks, I have worked out 5 times a week (the first week was only 4x). This most likely means I went to the gym or did a workout video. On occasion I went for a good long walk with the stroller. But more often than not I doubled up on video days by also going for a walk, usually to Trader Joe's for dinner supplies. I am now addicted to feeling that tired, sweaty sensation and I NEED it to feel like I'm not cheating!

At the gym I've continued with 30 minutes of cardio, usually on the Arc Trainer, and then 15 minutes of strength training. It seems my secret machine has caught on, however, and twice now they've all been taken by the time I get to the gym! Those days I did 10 minutes intervals on the stair master (the real one, not the one where you flutter your feet), running for 10 minutes (almost died!), and then the final 10 on an elliptical. I have to say, I was SORE after those days. I am planning on doing this at least 1 time a week to keep things interesting. As for strength training, I usually alternate between up and lower body.

Of course the area I would love to see the most improvement is my mid section and it's the area I hate to work out the most. I don't know why I hate ab workouts, but I do. Maybe it's because I'm never sure if I'm doing it right. Because of that and not seeing an immediate improvement, I usually just give up, thereby ensuring zero improvement. Anyways, doing Lindsay Brin's Bootcamp 2 video has really got me going. There are 6, 5 minute Core workouts to choose from and I have no excuse to NOT do one. Probably my biggest takeaway from her videos is actually "activating my core" throughout the day by ensuring I have good posture and am hollowing my stomach during workouts. Though I don't have a 6 pack yet, I definitely notice the lessening of the pooch. It still looks nasty when I bend over, but I'm on counting on too many people looking at me from that angle!

As for my diet, I am paying a lot more attention to what I eat. I've taken to making berry smoothies 3-5 times a week and make them with Trader Joe's frozen berry mix, milk, 1 scoop of vanilla protein powder, 1/2 a banana, a scoop of Peanut butter, and a little yogurt (I like Dannon Light & Fit Vanilla the best). They are pretty tasty and replace a breakfast or lunch pretty easily. Though I have to be careful when I make them because my Magic Bullet scares Olivia! I am also continuing to watch my bread and general carb intake and limiting it to later in the day if at all.

Here are my numbers after 4 weeks:

Weight: 126.5 (DOWN 3 pounds from initial measurements!)

Hips: 34.5" (DOWN a 1/2 inch from initial measurements)

Waist: 31"

Below Waist: 33" (DOWN as 1 inch from initial measurements)

Arm: 11." (DOWN a 1/2 inch from initial measurements)

Thigh: 21"
Bust: 35" 

It's hard to say whether others would notice a difference but I do, even if a small one. While my thigh measurements haven't changed, I most definitely notice that they are toned. If they don't shrink in size, that's fine by me, so long as they don't flap back at me when I walk. Here's a comparison picture and you be the judge:

Week 1 is on the left and week 4 is on the right. Not bad, right? I think I look "tighter" for lack of a better word. I'm over halfway to my goal of losing 5 pounds by the end of the year and can't wait to reach my goal!

Olivia Dell: 8 Months

Height/Weight: Holy weight gain Ollie! I did the whole, weigh myself then weigh myself with the baby trick and she came in at 19 pounds! I'm very impressed and I can definitely feel the difference when I carry her. My rudimentary measuring puts her around 28 3/4 inches. I'm excited to get real numbers at next month's 9 month appointment!

Feeding: Ollie has been leaving a fair amount in her bottles these days and I think it's because she's eating more solids. So we reduced her 4 bottles to 7 ounces each and she seems to be doing quite well. She's not really drinking water from her sippy cup, but enjoys chewing on the straw. So, I may just start giving it to her in a small bottle so she's getting some. As for food, she's eating her cereal in the morning and then I usually give her some of what I'm eating, like eggs or fruit. For lunch, she's eating 1 fruit and some vanilla cereal puffs. For dinner she has an entire container of veggie and  more often than not these days, a container of meat (eww, but she likes it and needs the protein). Then she usually gets some veggie puffs if she's still hungry.

Clothing:  This month I went shopping and bought all 9 month clothes for Olivia for the winter. I've had to pack away a ton of 3-6 month clothing, especially pants, aka capris. I've even had to start packing straight 6 month sizes and it's making me said. She easily fits into 9 month sizes, even at Target which has HUGE sizes. 

Sleep: Ever since we've been giving her bigger dinners, Olivia has been sleeping AMAZING at night. I've only considered her sleeping through the night maybe twice before this month because she fusses upwards of 3 times a night, requiring us to go in a find a pacifier or change a diaper. But lately there's not even a peep until 4-6am for her bottle. As each month passes, she continually reminds me that she is on her own schedule and will meet her milestones when she feels like it! This is one I'm glad she's finally arrived at.

Milestones: This month, Ollie started army crawling! She has mastered it on both the laminate floor and carpet and now I have to watch her all the time because she loves to get her hands on cords and magazines. Also, just the other day, Dave also found her SITTING UP in her crib. WHAT!? she's never been able to go from laying down to sitting up before and I still don't know how she did it but I'm very impressed. Olivia is also getting great with feeding herself, and has especially realized how to open her fist to get food in her mouth instead of cramming the entire thing in! She can sit up in the bathtub, has started pulling herself to her knees and sometimes feet, and loves standing on her own at the side of the crib.

Firsts: Olivia's first tooth came though! Not only that, she's a big girl and already has another one. Olivia also had her first visit to a pumpkin patch and her first Dodger playoff game (something probably many adults haven't done). She also had her first taste of meat (see hilarious picture below) and stood by herself for the first time (waah).

First Tooth!

Pumpkin patch visit

First Dodger playoff game!

First taste of meat!

First time standing by herself