A friendly coworker let me borrow his Canon XSi DSLR camera this evening to snap a few photos. I obviously didn’t have the best lighting in the house and didn’t have Olivia in the best of moods. Usually we take pictures of her in the mornings, when she’s had the most rest and is happy after her breakfast. I didn’t have that luxury tonight. Instead I had Miss Crankypants. I still got some really great shots. I used the Full Auto mode on the camera, since I am not too aware of the settings and didn’t want to mess up any preconfigured settings he had on his camera. The 50mm f1.8 II lens is perfect for what I need for taking pictures of Liv. It doesn’t do half bad with distances either that I’ve noticed! The best thing I noticed was that it takes pictures FAST. I barely had trouble taking any shots of Olivia and losing it due to her movements.

Here are a few pictures I took this evening. I touched them up only a tad in photoshop to remove her teary eye (typical for her right eye, of course).

I know this is horribly late, but we travelled last weekend and ended up with some illnesses in our wake. I have been shot down by a double ear infection and severe sinus congestion while Maurice was struck with a minor case of “I really hate math but have to take this exam”-itis. Olivia’s 9 month appointment went quite well last Monday. She weighs 21 pounds, 2oz, and is 28.5″ long. That’s pretty big for a 9 month old (90th percentile). The pediatrician said to keep up whatever we’re doing, because she’s as healthy as an ox. She was introduced to cheese, yogurt, Cheerios, and meats this past week. All have been received with glowing praise from Olivia, who couldn’t be happier with the new options in her diet. I’d have to say that pureeing a turkey just seems weird, but it does work out if you have a good food processor. I’ve been mixing a little fruit with the turkey puree to help her get adjusted to the meat flavor at least until I can blend in some spices. I didn’t want to shake up her diet too much in one week.

She’s really coming into her own little personality now and communicating much better. If she wants something, she gestures to it and opens and shuts her hand in its direction. That’s a big one! It helps us pinpoint what it is she wants. She HATES naps. Actually, I think “hate” is not strong enough a word. She LOATHES naps… there, better. We put her down and she spends about 5 minutes screaming at us. Oi. It’s an exercise in patience. I clearly do not have it. I have caved a few times to the screaming and just let her sleep on me, especially if we’re trying to get her to nap a little before going out somewhere for a while. She also doesn’t nap at daycare, though they say that she is quite happy during the day regardless.

Well, on to pictures. I’d have to say that we’re running into a problem trying to take pictures of an active baby with a small point-and-shoot camera. The camera is awesome, if she sits still. Now, we have a REALLY tough time getting good shots of her. Of the 30 or so pictures I took, these few below are the only ones that weren’t blurry or had her face all contorted between shots. We’re considering getting a digital SLR, but they’re pricey (> $500) and we need to consider our future finances this year before making a purchase like that. There are a few things around the house we could sell to make up the cash though, so we may be craigslisting a few things in the near future.

Olivia is clapping! Yay! All the clapping we’ve done whenever she does something awesome (like finishing dinner, discovering how to use a toy, etc.) has finally sunk in. She started clapping and dancing at the big toy from Grandpa Rick and Grandma Ruth tonight. I only caught it on the smaller camera, so it’s not the best quality.

This past weekend we made a very quick trip down to NC to see Grandma Mandy, Grandpa Rick, and Grandma Ruth. Grandma Mandy had her birthday on Saturday, so we ran down there to cook her dinner and let her relax with the babies in the room while we stuffed her full of mussels in garlic butter, salmon, sweet peas, and wild rice. We of course had Wegman’s bread available as well. Aunt Sarah grabbed a great cake for the grand finale. Olivia seemed to do quite well on the ride down and back. She slept most of the way when we went down Saturday morning and of course stayed asleep during the entire ride back last night. It was crazy. We probably won’t do this often, because it left us feeling horrible at work today. However, it was worth the trip to see family. Our next big trip is most likely going to be the 8-10 hour drive to Rock Ledge. We’re looking forward to showing it to Olivia. She’s never seen the mountains before!

Today Olivia had her 9 month appointment (and yes, pictures will be available this weekend we hope!). She weighed in at 21lbs, 2oz and is 28.5″ long now. She isn’t anemic, which is good and didn’t have to suffer through any shots today. The doctor said we could start her on meat, cheese, and yogurt now, so tonight she got a few treats. I tried a jar of Gerber chicken with apples first to make sure she wouldn’t gag on meat like she did with lentils and chickpeas. She sucked it back, but I think the apples helped out there. Then I gave her little bites of Horizons organic sliced cheese. She gave me this look that basically said “where have you been all of my life!@!?!@!?!” She’s also a pro Cheerio eater now! I was very impressed with how quickly they disappeared from her tray.

Picture 1: Olivia with Grandma Mandy. The lighting was really bad, so I opted to make this black & white instead.

Picture 2: Olivia sleeping on Grandma Mandy

Picture 3: Olivia playing on the floor with her “travel toys” (toys she only gets when we go somewhere)

Picture 4: Olivia playing with Meka, one of Grandma Mandy’s dogs. I’m actually shocked she wasn’t scared of it!

Picture 5: Vultures! What the heck!?! We went outside and there was a flock of them sitting on top of the smaller house and garage. Crazy… they were all over the yard and on the roof of the big house too.

Picture 6: Grandpa Rick holding Olivia, not so amused at having 3 cameras aimed at him.

Sorry for the late posting, but we have had a busy past couple of days getting back into the swing of things at work after an almost week-long break, and spending more time teaching Olivia valuable lessons in consuming Puffs and drinking from a sippy cup. This year we went back to Aunt Kathy’s for Easter dinner. It was great! She hadn’t seen Olivia since Christmas when she was very ill and snuggled up against Grandpa Rick for the brief moment we were able to visit with the family. The Easter Bunny was quite generous this year. He left Olivia some Gerber puffs in Easter eggs, a rabbit rattle doll, and a squeaky chicken (or duck?) doll, which she loves. Grandma Mandy sent up a Cat in the Hat doll and book pair. We also just received a cute Tigger doll from Grandpa Rick and Grandma Ruth! Olivia hasn’t stopped trying to chew his tail off.