Wednesday, May 30, 2012

Eight Months

Dad here taking over blogging duties on a very temporary basis.  Olivia just turned eight months old about a week ago!  We can't believe how fast she is growing up.  Each month we see marked improvement in so many areas.  There is one particular area, though, where Olivia is actually regressing.  She refuses to sit still during our monthly photo shoot.  This month she looked everywhere but the camera before finally breaking down.


It's been amazing to see her take such strides in her movement.  We remember just six months ago when we would get excited when she kept her head up for a couple of seconds.  Now she is crawling all over the place and we struggle to keep track of her.  In the last month she has really taken to pulling up on anything she thinks may be remotely stable (she is rarely correct).  Also, she has started cruising a bit - pulling herself up on an object and then using that object as a walker.

Another thing that has been cool is that Olivia is now eating a lot more solid foods.  We have introduced a LOT of different foods in the past month with varying degrees of success (turkey=bad, chicken=good).  Also, we have finally come to grips with the fact that Olivia is not normal when it comes to the sounds she makes when she eats.  We tried to convince ourselves for a long time that it was normal for some babies to make these sounds (the closest description is a baby version of Monica Seles grunting after each bite) but we have been told over and over again that babies are not supposed make loud sounds every single time they take a bite.  Feeding Olivia in public immediately provokes every person within 75 yards to look in our direction.

Not coincidentally, we have begun to eat out less and less!  That has allowed us to start grilling again which is a Dean tradition in the summer (Corona required). Also, we have found a gym near our house that has a daycare for Olivia.  We hope that this will allow us to get back in shape.  Of course, I am mainly talking about myself since Persis has already lost all her baby weight and somehow magically passed it on to me.
Olivia is settling in and now she really loves her school.  She loves all her teachers now but she really loves Miss Sam in particular.  I didn't really think of myself as a jealous person until the other week when I called Persis and told her with unbridled joy that Olivia cried when I passed her off to Miss Sam.  This is not usually the case as Olivia is often thankful to get away from me and in to the arms of her favorite teacher.  I am trying to get over my grudge against Miss Sam.  She makes it easy to forgive her by making me laugh with all the funny stuff she does with Olivia.  Just last week she gave Olivia her first ponytail!
Finally, Olivia has started babbling all the time over the last week.  She alternates between "B" sounds and yelling "ahhh" all the time.  Don't read "ahhh" as a relaxing sound you make like when you take off your shoes after a long day.  Read it as "AHHH!" as if you jumped out from a dark corner trying to scare one of your unsuspecting buddies. 

Going back to where we started...here is a video we took of an unhappy Olivia after we finished taking pictures of her on the day she turned eight months old.  Enjoy!


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