9 Months...and Mobile!

I hope everyone had a great Christmas! Olivia's gift to us on her first Christmas was mobility. That's right! Olivia started crawling on Christmas Day! It didn't take her long to get very proficient at it either. For those of you who haven't seen it, here's a video I took of her crawling on the 29th...just four days later.

Baby-proofing the house will now commence. If the crawling wasn't enough, Olivia has also started sprouting her second lower tooth. I have yet to capture the twin gnawing nubs on camera, but I'll get 'em soon enough. Otherwise, Olivia is doing very well. She also had her 9-month checkup today and she's leveled off in terms of her growth spurt and weight gain. She's 17.4 pounds and is 29 inches long...which is more in the middle of where she should be (below 50th percentile in both cases). She still has a big old melon though. Her head size is in the 75th percentile. Here are a few pictures from the past week or so. Happy New Year!!

We See (and Feel) Enamel!

My apologies again for the long time between posts. The last couple weeks have been really rough and draining on me and I thought I better post one today before the next winter storm comes in on Tuesday and Wednesday of this week. It's been rather active around here the past couple of weeks with me working, Amanda keeping things in order at home, and Olivia getting a little more mobile and trying to sprout some teeth. In fact, Olivia cut her first tooth last week! We felt the evidence of the first tooth breaking through last Tuesday (December 5th). Since then, I've tried to take a picture of it, but to no avail. I'll keep trying, but I'll probably have to wait until it's a little more visible. The tooth that broke through first was the bottom front left tooth. Of course, dealing with the side effects of that first tooth coming in hasn't quite been a picnic. First of all, there's the drool. How does a baby produce so much drool without becoming dehydrated?? Amanda and I have also come to the conclusion that the slime you see in movies must be made from baby drool. That stuff is so stretchy and stringy!!

As I mentioned above, Olivia is also becoming a little more mobile. She hasn't started crawling or walking yet, but she's doing everything else. She'll be sitting on the ground and bring herself forward to the crawling position, but then she'll get out of her comfort zone and push herself back to the sitting position. Olivia can also go from her being flat on her stomach to the sitting position. She really likes standing up too. She's slowly but surely becoming more stable and balanced in everything she does, but the official milestones of crawling and walking are going to have to wait a while longer.

We were going to take Olivia to get a picture with Santa, but the Santa at the mall didn't look very "genuine" and the prices for the pictures are borderline extortion, so we just took some pictures of our own and they turned out pretty good. Before I show the pictures, I want to wish everyone a very Merry Christmas and Happy New Year. Thanks to all of our friends and family for the love and support we've received over the past year. I'll definitely keep the pictures and postings coming before and after the New Year. Until then, have a great holiday season!

Olivia's First Snow

The powerful winter storm that has had such an impact on the central U.S. also dumped a fresh blanket of snow on the Texas Panhandle. By Thursday afternoon, the sun came out giving Amanda and I the perfect opportunity to take Olivia out to experience the snow for the first time. I first showed her the snow and she was quite perplexed as to what I was showing her. She then touched the snow and you could just see the curiosity on her face as she tried to figure out why this powdery stuff was so cold and why it was getting wetter the longer she held onto it. We didn't stay outside too long because it was still quite cold, but we were out there long enough for Olivia's cheeks and nose to get nice and rosy...and the picture I took of her right after we came back inside is my new favorite picture of her. Here are the pictures of Olivia experiencing snow for the first time.

Looking at the snow

Looking at mommy

Touching the snow for the first time

Trying to figure the snow out

Standing in the snow

Those cute rosy cheeks and that cute rosy nose

Crazy Eight!

Look out world! The little hooligan turned eight months old today! She's actually doing very well. She never got the virus Amanda and I got...which is an absolute miracle! She's not quite to the point of crawling...but it seems to be getting closer (haven't I said this before?). She's also still drooling a ton, but has yet to cut that first tooth...but it seems to be getting closer (haven't I said this before too?). You get the idea. She's progressing but hasn't quite hit any of the major milestones. Amanda took Olivia to Albuquerque for Thanksgiving and with the exception of a few crying fits, their trip went well. Here's a couple pictures of Olivia with Grandpa Westmoreland.

And now it's time for a funny story! Amanda is a very caring and loving mother to Olivia. She loves her daughter dearly, but she sometimes has a little bit of a problem letting go of Olivia...even when she's asleep in bed. This has happened four times that I can remember, but I'm sure there have been more instances. What does she do? Quite simply, she goes baby hunting. Now, she doesn't get out of bed to do this. In her dream state, she thinks Olivia is somewhere in the bed and Amanda goes looking for her. So, in the middle of the night, Amanda will roll over and start peeling back my covers trying to find Olivia. As you would imagine, this has a tendency to wake me from my slumber. So, I have to tell Amanda that Olivia is in the crib and she needs to go back to bed. In most cases, that does the trick. Amanda will roll back over and go back to sleep. The other night, however, this little "happening" took a rather bizarre turn. Before I get into this, I'll give you a bit of a background. Amanda loves Olivia from head to toe, but one of the things Amanda loves the most now that Olivia is a little chunkier is her itty bitty boobies. Amanda just gets a kick out of squeezing her itty bitty boobies...maybe it's a girl thing...I don't know. So, back to the story at hand...I was sound asleep thoroughly enjoying the rest when I hear/feel Amanda stir and turn over to me. I feel Amanda's hand land on my chest and I think, "Oh no...here go my sheets again." Sure enough, she peels the covers back...but this time, it didn't stop there. Her hand returned to my chest and sure enough, she started squeezing my nipples! If I had any sense of drowsiness before that point, it all disappeared in just a couple squeezes. Obviously she thought I was Olivia. I would have thought the hair chest would have deterred her, but I thought wrong. Anyway, I tell her Olivia is in the crib and she needs to go back to sleep...which she does. We had a good laugh about that the next day. I'm just fearful of what happens next time Amanda goes baby hunting!
Here's a couple other pictures from the past week.

Have baby, will travel

So close to crawling!

Down With the Sickness

Amanda and I ran into a nasty little stomach virus the past couple of days. Amanda spent most of Sunday night "praying to the porcelain goddess". And just like a set of dominoes, I was next in line. This is a nasty little virus...it just wipes you of your energy and your appetite is virtually zero. The good thing is it doesn't last very long. Amanda is already feeling better...making the duration of this virus about 36 hours. In theory, I should be feeling much better tomorrow, but I'm going to take one more day off of work just to be on the safe side. The biggest concern at this point is determining whether or not Olivia is going to be affected by the virus. So far, so good...and given that Amanda is taking Olivia to Albuquerque (either Wednesday or Thursday), we're just hoping beyond hope that she won't come down with this.

Other than that, Olivia is still trying to crawl and she really likes to go from sitting to standing...with my help, of course. The level of help I give her has dropped off drastically in the past week...and there was one time she knocked some stuff off the changing table, so I put Olivia in her crib. As I'm cleaning stuff up, I hear an unusually high amount of grunting and heaving breathing. I turn around and she's standing up in her crib while holding on to the railing. Scary.

I'm tired and worn out from battling this virus, so I'll make this short. Here are some pictures from the past week. I hope everyone has a safe and enjoyable Thanksgiving.

Bathtime is funtime!

Olivia trying to make the transition from sitting to crawling

Playing with the basketball

Schedules Change and Olivia Progresses

It's been quite busy around here since Halloween, so I'd like to start by apologizing for my recent lackluster posts. If you aren't aware yet, then I'll inform you that after much deliberation and weighing the pros and cons, I've decided to stay in the TV biz for a while longer. Not only that, but I've also gone back to the morning newscast (only three days a week now, but I'll be back on that schedule full time by December). For those of you who don't know, working the morning newscast schedule requires me getting up at 2:30 in the morning...but there are some significant benefits to working this schedule. Once I get back on the schedule full time, I'll be doing the morning and noon newscasts only on Mondays and Tuesdays. On Wednesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays, I will only work the morning newscast meaning I will be done with my day around 8:00 or 8:30 in the morning. The result is exactly what I want: I'll be able to spend a lot more time with Amanda and Olivia. So now, Olivia and I go to bed at the same time. No phone calls after 6:00pm until further notice please!! Thank you!

Olivia continues to make big strides forward, but no major milestones have been reached in the past couple of weeks. She's really working hard trying to tackle the task of crawling, but it almost seems like she's going to skip crawling and go right to walking. If you watched the most recent video, you saw how she likes to stand up...and we practice that everyday. We prop her up against the coffee table and she stands there (without falling back down) and plays with any toys we have on the coffee table. We also work with her on crawling, but after trying for a little while, Olivia does the only thing she knows how to do when she's on her stomach: roll to her back. We are really enjoying interacting with Olivia as she tries to tackle these milestones. I'll sit behind Olivia and put my hands on either side of her. She grabs by thumbs and immediately tries to stand up. She really likes standing up...that's why I think she's more apt to walk before she crawls. When it comes to crawling, we can't even get her to put her legs under herself! Olivia is also drooling a ton (how does she not become dehydrated with all that drool coming out of her mouth??) and she has more frequent bouts of crankiness...so the teething process appears to underway. We haven't seen any visible nubs yet though. I'll keep you posted on the progress. Until then, here's a slew of recent pictures.

Olivia's mischievous look

Isn't she cute??

Having fun in the crib

Olivia is fascinated by the doggies

Olivia and mommy!

Crashed out in the carseat

New Video

I'll have a full update on Olivia coming up in a couple more days. Until then, here's another video to watch and enjoy! We took it today (the 7th) and what you'll see is Olivia standing with a little help from me. I'm doing nothing more than offering a support to pull herself up on.

Happy Halloween!

We had fun taking Olivia around to a few houses before it got a bit too chilly in the evening. She had no idea what was going on, but it was fun nonetheless. Here are a few pictures...

Olivia and Jett in their costumes

Olivia's first trick-or-treat experience

Posing for a picture!

Wrapping up trick-or-treating with a gorgeous sunset

Seventh Heaven

Looking back on Olivia's progress through the seventh month compared to the sixth month makes Amanda and me very happy. She is sleeping much better, she eats like a champ, her "movements" down below have become much more regular, and she has a great overall disposition. We've got a good routine with her now where she goes to be around 8 or 8:30 every evening and, barring any overnight soiling of the diaper (which will wake her up and make her rather upset), will sleep until around 6 or 6:30.
Olivia has been drooling more and has been a bit more cranky recently leading us to believe she's getting close to cutting that first tooth. Wouldn't you know it, just when she started sleeping through the night, she'll probably start teething. She really hasn't started trying to crawl yet though. I put Olivia on her belly and put a toy just out of her reach to entice her, but after a little struggling all she does is roll over to her back. That's okay. At this point right now, the less mobile she is, the better and easier on us.
Here are some pictures from the past week or so...and I'm sure I'll have a few more pictures to post from Olivia's first Halloween later this week.

Olivia playing peek-a-boo with Amanda

Flying baby!

Exploring the edge of the Pack-n-Play

Sitting on the back of the couch

Olivia Video

Amanda took a very cute video of Olivia playing with her new toy yesterday and I thought it would be great time to try Google's video upload feature. It's about a minute and a half long. Take a look and enjoy!

SSSSLLLLEEEEEEEEEEEEPPPPP!!!!!!!!

Hallelujah!!! It has finally happened!!! Since Saturday night, Olivia has been sleeping nine hours straight! That's four nights in a row!! It's a miracle!! It's pretty funny actually...Amanda has so much extra energy, she can barely stand it. Ah, the joys of sleep! So, what finally did the trick? We're not 100% sure, but it seems establishing a routine combined with Olivia learning how to soothe herself back to sleep is what finally tipped the scale in our favor. We'll feed Olivia around 7:00 then she gets a bath around 7:30. Between 8 and 8:30, Amanda will just hold Olivia getting her calmed down and sleepy. By 8:45, Amanda has Olivia in her crib...usually not asleep, but very very close...and Olivia just puts herself to sleep. There was one night earlier this week in which Olivia was rather fussy and did not want to go to sleep, but Amanda stuck to the routine and put Olivia in the crib and closed the door. For five minutes, Olivia cried and screamed, but since we littered the crib with pacifiers (thanks for that tip, Jen!), she found one, and in no time, she had put herself to sleep. We're so happy, we can hardly stand it!!

Earlier this week, Amanda took Olivia to a nice little autumn scene outside one of the business here in Amarillo. Amanda put Olivia in her Halloween costume (a sweetpea!!) and snapped some very cute pictures.




Yesterday, Amanda and I took Olivia to Wildcat Bluff Nature Center. It was a bit breezy and didn't quite go as well as we had hoped. About half way through our outdoor excursion, Olivia started getting fussy. She may still be a bit too small for that large backpack system...so we just cut our losses and called it a day.

Stop for a little snack on the trail.

Backpack trek with dad.

She's got the lean going.

No more backpack ridin' for her until she grows a little more.

Here some other pictures from the past week.

Her first Halloween is coming up!

You guessed it! More crazy hair!!

You Mess With My Bottle, You Mess With Me!

There are only a couple new things to report this week. One, Olivia is starting to understand the concept of holding her own bottle. When Amanda is trying to catch a few extra winks in the morning and I'm responsible for feeding her a bottle, I just position her in the boppy and hand over the bottle. She grabs on and goes to town. It's really very cute and funny because she sees me coming with the bottle and she just gets all excited. Her eyes get as wide as quarters and she starts flopping around like a fish on land.

The other big step this week was to transition the bathing location from the sink to the bathtub...well, more like a bathtub within a bathtub. It's been working out pretty well so far.
We have Olivia more on a routine now and that seems to be helping her sleep a little more consistently. She still wakes up in the middle of the night...usually around 3 or 4. Amanda will briefly feed her (she's feeding her less and less to wean her off the overnight feedings) and put her back to bed. The problem is Amanda has trouble falling back to sleep...so if it's not one girl having trouble sleeping, it's the other. Everything else is going along pretty well. Here are few more pictures from the past week or so.

Too bad OU lost to Texas again this year

Playing in the bed

That cute wide-eyed look

Here doggie doggie doggie!