Damn You Sippy Cup, Damn You

My poor little Ladybug resembled a mangled boxer nearing a KO earlier today.

Miss Olive was trying to be a big girl and use her sippy cup herself. Though she is incredibly skilled at using the sippy cup by herself most of the time, when she's sitting on the floor, she for some reason thinks she should bend her mouth to the cup on the floor rather than lifting it to her mouth. On the floor is the only place she does this, and I have no clue why.

Anyway, today, she decided to actually lift the cup to her mouth but had it turned with the spout on the top instead of the bottom, keeping her from actually getting any water. She was hanging out with my mom at the time. My mom moved toward Miss Olive to help her flip her cup, but the baby girl had a different plan.

The little one - holding the cup with spout still upside-down in her mouth - flung her head toward the floor. The cup hit the floor and jammed upward between her upper lip and gum.

My mom calmly hollered for me in the other room and said Olivia was bleeding some. In the seconds it took me to run to the living room and grab my crying baby girl, the few little teeth she had were blood covered. The blood was starting to creep out the corner of her mouth as she wailed.

At first I thought she'd nicked her gum by her front tooth. As I tried to wipe some blood, I saw the little flap between her upper lip and gum was cut - not badly, but still cut.

As I cradled poor Miss Olive and tried to comfort her, my heart sank at the look of her bloodied little mouth. I felt awful.

Grandma got some cold, wet towels for clean up, and with a little pressure the bleeding stopped and the little one calmed down.

We headed to snuggle on the couch, armed with a cup of crushed ice for her to suck on - both a treat for my ice-loving Miss Olive and an aide to attempt to cut down on what was quickly becoming a fat lip.

Aside from her few minutes of tears (which I believe were well deserved), the Ladybug was a trooper. She was back to giggling and playing within no more than 20 minutes. Though I try to keep tabs on her as best I can, this little girl is a rough and tumble daredevil, and I'm sure this is just the first of many injuries to come (though I will continue to hope and pray they are few and far between).

Come dinnertime, Miss Olive and her cup were friends again with no further trouble. Me and said cup however, we're still on the outs.

Easter Fun-day

Some photos making our celebration of Miss Olive's first Easter. We had a great time!

Visited the Easter Bunny a couple weeks ago. Olive LOVED him. 

The Ladybug decided egg coloring would work best if she held the egg in the dye.  At least with yellow, her fingers matched her Easter dress.

Cheesing with Daddy while excited to show off her first egg.

Checking out what the Easter Bunny left. Her favorite thing - the new princess sippy cups.

Or, maybe it was the white chocolate duck.

Olive enjoyed hunting for eggs in her room.

"Look, Mama, it's chocolate. Let's eat it NOW."

The fam still fancied up after Easter church. I loved Miss Olive's dress and wish there were more places for her to wear it.

Hope everyone enjoyed their Easter celebrations as much as we did.

Taking the Plunge

We're going to do it. We're really, truly going to do it.

Tomorrow morning, the Hubby and I are leaving the Ladybug with the in-laws while we go ... van shopping.

That's right. By July at the latest, we will be the proud owners of a minivan, which I believe somehow seals our parental fate.

Miss Olive turned 11 months old today. Sometime in the not-so-distant future, I foresee her needing a littler one as a playmate.

The Hubby has a Toyota Camry; I have a Hyundai Santa Fe. They're both 4-door vehicles that we could easily fit another kid and carseat in. But, kids come with SO much stuff.

And, what if we end up with more than two little critters? I hear officers aren't so fond of parents heading off on family vacations with a kiddo strapped to the roof. I want to make sure everyone in our family - however many people that ends up being - have a comfy place to ride on what I hope are many adventures to come.

So, we're taking the plunge. Friends have given the looks. They've said, "You're not really going to do it, right?" They hope we change our minds.

I know I should probably want something more hip to drive, but (shhhh, don't tell anyone) I don't. Have you seen the VW Routan and Toyota Sienna commercials? They're hilarious, and the parents driving those vans in the commercials are super cool.

Since we all know commercials don't lie, I feel I can safely say I'm looking forward to my new ultra hip status once I'm behind the wheels of a new minivan. Bring. It. On.

Adding a random bit of 11-month-old cuteness.

Thoughtful Sleep

Tonight, as I rocked Miss Olive to sleep as I do every night, I sighed a little bigger than usual as she drifted off to sleep.

My little angel baby will be 11 months old tomorrow, and as I’ve mentioned once or twice before, I have no clue where the time has gone.

As our bedtime routine, Olive kisses Daddy goodnight, we say “Thank you” and “I love you” to the angels near her door, then Olive helps me switch off the light before nuzzling her head on my shoulder.

Before she falls asleep snuggled tightly in my arms, Olive looks around the room, as if she’s trying to pick one thing to focus on to settle her final thoughts for the day.

Almost every night since she was born, we’ve had a similar routine. And almost every night, I’ve wondered what goes through her little head before she nods off.

When Olive was first born, I wondered how she could even settle down enough to sleep with so much to see and learn. She must have had complete sensory overload.

As Olive’s gotten older, I wonder if she’s remembering her favorite toys, thinking about the fun times we had that day. Does she have any memory of what we talked about doing tomorrow? Is she thinking about that?

Sometimes I know whatever she’s thinking involves whatever she’s learning at the time. When she started clapping, waving, “counting” by repeatedly pointing, etc., she did the same in her sleep. It was both hilarious and adorable.

Today, we had a really good day. Nothing amazing or out of the ordinary, just a good day. We had a fun morning, visited the Hubby just after lunch, and we ran some errands in the late afternoon before meeting Daddy back at the homestead for playtime and dinner.

Afterward, Olive opened a gift that came in the mail from her great-aunt and cousins. It included a duck bath mit – she quacked non-stop until bathtime, during which she insisted I wear the mit so she could repeatedly kiss it.

In her jammies, snuggled up to Mommy in the rocking chair, Olive once again ran through who knows what in her head. She fought her heavy eyelids, making sure to get in that one last thought before sleep won.

I’ll never know for sure, but I’d like to think she was fondly remembering our good day.

My Little Superstar

The excitement I had from any personal accomplishments before Miss Olive came into my life isn’t in any way comparable to the excitement I have over her accomplishments.

When she first rolled over. When she first learned to wave and clap. When she first said Mamama. When she found her nose.

And today – when she first started walking.

The Ladybug has been creeping around on anything she can pull herself up on for awhile now. For the past week, she’s been more daring about letting go and attempting the occasional “Look Ma, no hands,” move.

But today, while we were about to sit down to make some of our best invisible alphabet soup in her play kitchen, Olive pulled herself up on the ottoman (typical), spun, let go and darted toward me.

I was elated. I jumped up to grab our Flip camera and fumbled to get it to sit on something at the right height to catch her in action. I couldn’t hold the camera and play “catch Olivia” at the same time, and I did a poor job of capturing the moment.

I called the Hubby. I called my mom. I had counted four steps on her best attempt, and I wanted to tell everyone.

The Hubby got home early, and we gave it a shot again so he could see our Ladybug strut her stuff.

SUCCESS! She walked back and forth from him to the ottoman over and over while I perched in the perfect recording spot.

I’m so excited to get to see my little girl through each step of her progress as she grows up. Next week she’ll be 11 months old, and we’re already planning her big 1-year-old birthday. Where the heck did the past (almost) year go? Wasn’t I just preggo, wondering how in the world I was going to figure this whole “Mom” thing out?

I know I’m in trouble once Miss Olive has mastered walking here in a few weeks, but I’m totally up for taking on the trouble just to see what she does next. Did I mention I’m so excited?

New Friends

I’ve mentioned before that I love who sociable my daughter is. The Ladybug loves, loves, love people.

So, a few months ago, I decided to look into joining a playgroup so Miss Olive will have more opportunities to interact and play with other kids.

The Ladybug spends most of her time with me or other family. She has a cousin about 18 months older than her, but her other cousins that we see most often are years older.

Though I love that she gets to spend a lot of time with family, I want the Ladybug to be able to spend time with more younger kids, especially ones right around her own age.

I want her to learn to “play well with others” – share, not hit, not grab. I want her to feel comfortable and confident when she’s one of the group instead of the one and only.

Today, we attended our first playgroup activity, which included playtime, a light lunch and an Easter egg hunt.

Miss Olive was ecstatic. She was giddy as soon as she saw the other kiddos, and she gabbed on and on (and on and on) with everyone there.

I was so proud. Miss Olive was so sweet with the other little ones. She didn’t grab toys. She wanted to share everything – even happily giving some of her Easter eggs to another baby who didn’t have as many.

And as for this Mommy, I enjoyed it a great deal, too. The other Moms were friendly, well-mannered (as were their children), and very welcoming.

There were a few other first-timers at today’s playgroup among the regulars, and everyone seemed to mesh well. It was comforting to be somewhere that I could relate to other women going through the same experiences as me. I felt good about the fact that they seemed to have the same values and visions for their children as I do for Miss Olive.

Very much looking forward to becoming an official playgroup member and taking the Ladybug to hang out with our new buddies again soon.

New Fav Product

I have a new favorite product to share that I would have added to my Top 10 List a few weeks ago if I’d known about it then.

I love brightly colored baby clothes. Especially the summer ones that contrast white against deep blues, bright pinks and oranges.

But, since before Miss Olive was born – when I was doing pre-baby laundry counting the days to her arrival – the colors on some of her clothes run. It was so frustrating because the cutest little outfits she hadn’t even worn once yet were ruined with big splotches across them. Bright patterns would fade onto whites of the same garment.

Alas, my Miss Olive's colors bleed no more. I (somewhat skeptically) bought Shout Color Catcher sheets about a week ago in prep of washing the Ladybug’s warm-weather clothes – including a variety of stark white items with bright, multi-colored embroidery.

These things are great. All I had to do was load the washer with clothes and detergent like I normally would and throw in one or two of the Shout Color Catcher sheets.

I figured I had nothing to lose because if they didn’t work, the colors wouldn’t have bled any worse than they would have anyway.

Amazingly, these little buggers have become my new best friends. Again, they’re great. Not a single spot of color out of place; none of the Ladybug’s new spring and summer clothing ruined.

Admittedly, I have not been brave enough to put all her laundry in one load, nor do I think I ever will. I did my normal load of whites/super lights, typical darks, and a separate load for “wow, it really does have every color”/crazy colored items.

The save-my-laundry sheets were only about $3.50 at Target for a box of 24 – a price I will happily pay again to save Miss Olive’s non-tie-dyed clothes staying just that way.

This sassy dress will be among the next was load of clothes I trust will be saved thanks to these wonderful sheets.

Summer Fun to Come

Today, I proudly took Miss Olive on her first trip to the library.

We went to what is now the closest library to our home. I got a new card, and we checked out their wonderful kids area. The Ladybug was so excited to see all the other kids there, it made me look forward to summer.

This library has many kids programs, one in particular for 1-to 3-year-old kids, and I've been excited since before Olive was born to get to take her. In a few more weeks (a little more than six, but who's counting?), she'll be 1, and I can't wait to take her to play at the kids' group.

I asked a few questions today, and the super-friendly librarians said they event includes singing, storytime and a variety of other activities.

One of the events was finishing up when we arrived, and there was a good crowd of moms and children there. The librarian I spoke with said all the kids love the children's librarian and that she was sure Miss Olive would fit right in.

I have such fond memories of going to the library often with my mom as a kid. I loved picking out a pile of books, usually more than I could carry myself. I couldn't wait to get home to read them over and over and over and over again.

I hope Miss Olivie builds the same types of memories, and I'm really looking forward to building them with her.

Adorable

Tonight The Hubby’s grandfather came over for dinner.

Gramps just recently turned 85. He has five children (one of whom passed away), 13 grandchildren and 17 great-grandchildren. That’s a whole flipping lot of people, but he loves each and every one.

He’s an amazing bank of information, from birthdays to stories of his time at war and from words of wisdom about raising children to details about what’s going on with other members of a pretty large family.

And, my daughter is in complete awe of him.

Every time we see Gramps, which is usually at least every couple weeks, Miss Olive excitedly reaches for him.

Even when she was itsy bitsy, The Ladybug would lay peacefully in his arms staring up at him, checking him out ever so carefully.

Miss Olive's very first visit with Gramps.

One of the many other visits along the way.

Tonight, Olive rode with me to pick Gramps up while The Hubby finished up dinner. She chirped excitedly from the backseat after he climbed in the car and the entire drive back to our house.

As soon as he sat down in the living room, Miss Olive launched herself out of my arms and onto his lap, where she sat still, content just to lounge for a few minutes. “Still,” by the way, is a rarity for my little one, who is typically a bundle of energy.

My snapping a few photos was enough to make her jump from his lap toward the camera, then on to investigate some toys. But, she was determined to show him each thing she picked up. “Ahh. Ahh,” Olive yelled, waving her Little People Mommy above her head to make sure Gramps got a good look at it.

The Ladybug’s attention was kept by her toys for only a few moments at a time before she’d crawl back to the big chair Gramps sat it, climb up his shin, grip his knee and reach either to hold his hands or poke the tip of his nose (she just learned to ID everyone’s nose).

It was, in a word, ADORABLE.

Later this week, her great-grandparents on my mom’s side will be coming into town.

I’m thankful Olive gets to spend time pretty frequently with Gramps, and at least now and then with her other great-grandparents. It sounds weird to say, but I think little ones and older folks often share a common bond that other people just don’t have. I’m not sure exactly what it is, but you can see it when they’re hanging out. They get one another.

Olive is one lucky Ladybug to have walking pieces of history, like Gramps, to learn from.

Miss Olive (whose smiles I could not manage to capture on camera tonight) happy to be hanging out on Gramps's lap before dinner tonight.