Here’s a cute video of Olivia that I took last night while we waited for Maurice to get home from work:

And here we are a month later with tons more changes happening with Olivia as she gets older and older. I think Maurice and I feel like we’re aging about as rapidly as she is at this point! She has become quite fond of pulling my hair, touching our cheeks, chewing on our shoulders, and sitting up. She’s still wobbly when sitting on her own, but she’s getting to a point where we feel comfortable putting her down and walking away so long as she has her faithful boppy behind her. She also seems quite fond of the Mahna Mahna Muppet Show song… I’ve been replaying it in the background while she sits on my lap banging on the desk in a futile effort to imitate my typing.

We’re not quite crawling yet, but it seems as if she is more interested in tuning those fine motor skills than working on gross motor skills. She was late to roll and sit up, but very early in babbling, smiling, pincer grasp, etc.

I think above all, this month’s best achievement is to have her reach out for us and touch our cheeks. The first time she did that I cried. It was just so sweet and she is so gentle when she does it. For me, it’s the ultimate sign of her affection for us when she does that.

Unfortunately, she has another ear infection. I took her in last week for a follow-up appointment from the last ear infection just under a month ago. She was diagnosed with yet another one and given Augmentin to help combat it. She’ll be referred to an ENT (ear, nose, throat) specialist next month if she has another one. On the bright side, we got her latest measurements…

19.8 lbs
27.5″ long

Yikes. She’s barely fitting into 9 month clothes because of the length. I’d have to say that we’re going to be buying sizes 12-18 months from this point forward. All of the stores are carrying short-sleeved summer clothes already, which is nice… except that it’s still too cold! We have to rummage through the clearance racks in hopes of finding something she can wear to daycare without freezing to death.

Maurice found a wonderful little activity for us to do as a family today, the Colvin Run Mill’s Maple Syrup Boil Down. It’s an older mill in northern Fairfax County that has a small museum, general store, and park. We didn’t let the cold weather hold us back this weekend, so we layered ourselves up in tons of clothes and headed out! It was quite fun. Olivia was all smiles the entire trip. And despite her age, we did give her a tiny amount of the maple syrup they were making, because it’s just wrong not to! A little maple syrup never killed anyone. She enjoyed it very much. The mill has a general store attached to it that sells odds and ends museum-like things, but it also sells cornmeal and grits they make in the mill itself. We bought a bag of cornmeal and yellow grits. Tomorrow morning I will make breakfast for Maurice before heading out to work, since he is going to be Mr. Mom tomorrow while daycare remains closed for President’s Day. We also bought Olivia a miniature, porcelain tea set. Obviously she won’t be playing with it anytime soon, but it is up on her hutch in her bedroom.

After the mill, we ventured out to Tyson’s Corner for lunch and some shopping. Olivia loves looking up at all the people who walk by her. She even tried to grab a few by their sleeves… oops! We bought a little pink dress for her, but she can’t wear it just yet. It is of course meant for warmer weather. We played it safe and got a size 12 month dress… you never know. At the rate she’s growing, she’ll probably be wearing adult-sized jeans by the time she’s 5. God has a wicked sense of humor.

We had a lot of fun! Next time we’re definitely going to spread the word about the little mill and see if we can get some people together for a picnic lunch or something out there (of course when it’s warmer!).

Picture 1: She’s started this face touching thing as of late, but prefers Daddy’s scratchy face since it is so different.

Picture 2: Hi Mom! We can haz maple syrupz?

Picture 3: Daddy’s making funny faces so I’ll smile. What he doesn’t know is that I’m holding back so he can keep acting silly.

Picture 4: Mmmm here’s where they boil the syrup!

Picture 5: This is my sly look. I’m sneaky like that.

Picture 6: I don’t know why Mom’s so happy.

Picture 7: Oh, hi Dad!

Video 1: Olivia playing with Daddy and watching the other kids in the mill.

Video 2: Olivia going crazy in the jumperoo after we got home.

Happy Valentine’s Day everyone!!!

Today the family ventured out to the magical Wegman’s store for lunch and some quick shopping. Maurice and I are planning on cooking meals that we don’t often have this weekend (Dijon Chicken and Fish n’ Chips) as a way to celebrate Valentine’s Day. Sadly, we don’t have any babysitters around these parts that we could trust with an infant. Olivia has a little wet cough that she’s developed since Friday, but so far so good. There’s no runny nose or fever yet. We’re keeping our eyes out for any further developments there. It could just be a side effect from the little bit of pink eye that she has in her right eye again. Poor kid. She is in good spirits though.

We were surprised to receive a little t-shirt in the mail for Olivia from her great-grandmother, so I snapped a few pictures of her in it this morning! Hopefully Maurice doesn’t forget to call and thank her (*coughs*).

Olivia tried to do this talking thing, but didn’t quite understand that noise was supposed to come out of her mouth. Instead, she moved her mouth as if she was talking… but that was it. Very odd! The funny thing is that she was talking just a few moments prior to us turning on the camera.

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