Amanda & Brian's Trip Through Parenthood: 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.