Taking a Beating

Boy oh boy oh boy...

Trying to get Olivia to go to bed these last few nights has been brutal. I do not know what is different this week as opposed to last week but it is definitely taking its toll on us. The other night she was up until about 10:15pm when Mike got home and was able to bounce her to sleep. Recently I have felt that we are moving backwards as we are finding that we have to basically swaddle her to get her to sleep. There is a definitely frustration and tension that is starting to arise. Olivia can be pretty cranky too and it is hard to figure out what she is really wanting. Time to do some more research? It is just before 9pm right now and I just got back from taking a walk to knock her out. I am going to wait a little bit longer to then attempt to move her to her bed without waking her up. Wish me luck!

I am not sure if she is doing squats or pull ups in this video but this is the night that she was up very late.

We did have a decent day today. It started with me moving to the couch with her in the middle of the night after she woke up. Olivia and I woke up and tried to keep it quiet so that Mike could sleep a little bit longer. As we were hanging out, I felt a rug burn that I got on my elbow the other day as I was chasing her around the living room. So , I decided to hold it out to her and asked, "can you kiss mommies booboo?". And she did! It was the sweetest thing! Well, kisses for her is with her mouth open and her tongue half way out. HAHA! But I will take it :-) I took a picture of her doing it a second time but I will not be sharing it because if someone scrolls through and only looks at the pictures, one day think that it is a picture of her nursing... OOPS! Please know that I will not post a picture of her nursing. That is a private bonging time for me and her.

When Mike woke up we were already late for church but we went anyway. Olivia is much faster than the last time we were there. She was probably one of the loudest kids there. She was also the ONLY kid with a binky. I told Mike that we probably need to start limiting binky time to just at home or just sleep time; nap or bed. Yeah, we will see how that goes too.

I had a really sad realization today... Olivia will not have any other little ones (and I mean kids within a year of her age) at her birthday party in September :'(  We just do not know anyone who lives close. We have had a couple of play dates but it has been a while since we had one and I have been too tired to go out and try to make some. Does that make me a bad mom? Probably not, but I sure feel that way some times. Maybe her second birthday will be better. I think we know that she really needs to be in daycare at least a couple times a week so that she can learn how to interact with other kids her age... well maybe that should be other kids her size. She is a big girl! I have seen kids who are a year who are the same size.

TOOTH WATCH: There are not signs of new teeth :( So sad!

Her tears glisten as mom takes too long to get the food to her mouth

Make sure that you get it all!

Success!! It is 9:32pm and I just moved her to her bed. Hopefully she will stay asleep. I would love it if she would stay asleep. Another thing that I am wondering is if she is trying to ween herself. As sad as it would be, maybe it is time. I will continue to pump so that she is getting breast milk but it may be time. We will have to do some research into it. She does have an appointment on the 9th so we can always ask. We already know that the gal we see will be praising us for still breast feeding. She did last time! Which reminds me of a conversation that Mike and I had! There are times that I will be changing Olivia's diaper and will say, "Yay! Poop!" (when she does). There are times when she will go a couple of days in between, so yes, I get excited! Mike heard me say it one time and chimed in with, "how ridiculous would it be if OUR parents still praised us for EVERYTHING we did?" HAHA! Yeah, it is pretty funny to think about. 'Yay! You went to work today! Yay! You pooped!' Every little thing that we do during a day :-) Sometimes babies just need a little praise :-)

Okay, Okay... Here are some of the other photos from a couple of weeks ago:

Okay, these first several were from Mother's Day...

From the weekend with the grandparents:

Look at the love that they have for each other! <3 <3

Dad had to "burrito" her for a nap while we were at the park

Meeting great aunt Heather for the first time! <3

Exploring an old fridge at grandma Sheila's house

I call this one: THE DEATH GLARE

And this one is: THE DIVA

I will end with her DIVA pose tonight. HAHA! I posted more pictures than I thought but there are so many others that I would like to share. Until next time (hopefully tomorrow!).