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