One year anniversary

It was September 30 of last year that John and I got our positive pregnancy test after 3 months of trying, although I already knew intuitively. I had lots of the signs. We had just gotten back from Dallas for my cousin, Noel's, baby shower and to see my family. We stopped at Safeway on the way home to get some food for the week and I picked up the test because I was a few days late. I didn't take the test until later in the evening and it turned positive almost immediately. I was shaking, John was shaving and luckily didn't cut himself. And I know I've written about this before, but he said "We're going to have a little Troy Switzer!". =)

It's really hard for me to believe that it has been a year already and that we have such a beautiful baby girl. It makes me sad though too because she gets bigger every day and I want to keep her where she is. It goes by so quickly. Too quickly. So many things have changed in our lives in the last year, Olivia being the best one by far.

2 weeks!

Two weeks to go! And Kelley, the answer is jealousy. You know you are.

Teething

We are pretty sure that Olivia is starting to teethe. Yesterday I went out shopping on my own - for Olivia - and while I was gone apparently she was screaming and nothing could really settle her down completely. John was able to get her to sleep but she'd wake up and be fine and then start screaming again. When I got home she was okay but later in the afternoon she started crying again so I took her out in the stroller and she fell asleep. But it wasn't long before she woke up and started up again. So we took her for a drive. Again, she fell asleep like she always does in the car, but once we got home she was upset again. I had put one of her toys with water in it in the freezer before we left for the drive. It was frozen when we got back and she gnawed the heck out of it. That really made me think that she was teething. John had mentioned it earlier on but I didn't think it was time for that yet. Almost 4 months is really early, but it happens. We ended up putting some baby Orajel on and she was happy after that. Although she didn't sleep her best. Up at 11:30 (got a pacifier), ended up eating at midnight, up at 4:30 & 6:05 (again, pacifier) and then up for good at about 7:15. So it was a rough night.

She was great all morning until about 1:15 and she started with the crying and screaming again. But Orajel has again brought peace to the Dickey household. That stuff is great. She is asleep now. She needs her rest. As do I. I really should be napping. To add to the fact that I didn't sleep well, I'm also sick. Blah! Stuffy nose, sore throat, headache, developing a little of a cough. It really sucks.

Anyway, on my shopping trip yesterday I got Olivia some really cute clothes and a little chair/activity center. She is really doing well at trying to sit up on her own but she hasn't mastered it yet. The chair helps her out.

She is fascinated by anything with buttons but especially remote controls. She'll stare at them for a long time. She has really developed the ability to reach out and grab things too. So things are getting extremely interesting with her. She loves to pull my hair and anything around my neck. We're having to keep an eye on her when the cat is around because she has already pulled some clumps of hair out of Elvis. He has been very good about it though.

3 weeks!

3 weeks and counting! For what? you may ask. Ahhh. I'll give you a hint. I know I'll get laughed at but I am so excited. Erin is too. Check out below!

Is this day over yet?!

Seriously. I am having one of those days where everything seems to go wrong. To start with, I got to my car this morning (at 6:50 no less) and the battery was dead. After trying to figure out where my battery is for about 15 minutes, John had me back the car toward the street. So as I did that it started up. I don't know why. I took the car to Sam's to have the battery replaced. Luckily I didn't turn the car off when I got there because they don't carry the battery that goes in my vehicle. So I have to go across the street to Pep Boys and get it changed. By the time I get to my parking garage I am 45 minutes late for work. As I get to the 4th floor to park and take the elevator down I realize my I don't have my badge. I go all the way back up to my car and get it.

Work, work, work. At about 11:45 I get a call from the day care. Olivia is having a rough day and they are concerned because she is extremely congested, won't nap, won't allow them to lay her flat, has been extremely fussy and they wonder if there is something wrong with her ears. She hasn't had a problem eating though. I call the pediatrician and they say they can try to work us in at 2. My boss lets me leave and we agree that I will work the rest of the day from home. Great! By now it's a little after noon. I'm supposed to be giving blood for our blood drive right now. Obviously that's not going to happen. I go over to the Bloodmobile to let them know that I won't be able to keep my appointment. As I turn to leave I step in the gap between the trailer and the pull-out metal stairs and crash and burn. It was not pretty. I fall down two steps, I have my breastpump, purse and lunch bag on me, and I'm wearing a skirt. Thank goodness the person that saw me fall was a woman. So now I have three very large bruises on my left leg and one on my right hand. And now the Cowboys have won. Can it get any worse?

The pediatrician visit was the only thing that seemed to go right. They got us in immediately, nothing is wrong with Olivia, and she weighs 17 lbs. 8.5 oz! It's true. She is only 14.5 weeks old. She is a load. She loved the doctor we saw today. She smiled at him the entire time. John told her that she wasn't allowed to smile at any guys yet.

Olivia has really started talking a lot lately. She is going to be very chatty as she grows up. She has also started to take an interest in Elvis. In the last couple of days she has really noticed him walking by and she'll smile when he gets close. She is getting good at grabbing and pulling hair both on my head and on Elvis so I will have to watch that. In the picture above she is wearing a 6m-9m outfit and it is too small on her. It was pulling at the snaps. She only got to wear it once. Oh well. I have also broken down and put her in headbands. She keeps getting mistaken for a boy! I was dead set against the headbands, but I don't want people to not know she's a girl.

Thanks to all of you that called or e-mailed to check on my parents after Hurricane Ike. Everything and everyone is fine. My mom stayed through the storm and my dad was in Brussels. How he manages to miss all the big storms still amazes me. It was the same way in Denver - he always missed the blizzards. I talked to my mom on Saturday morning about 10 her time. The power was out, they were getting whacked, but the only thing that had happened was a 30 or 40 foot tall tree had fallen into her yard. The fence came down with it but it didn't hit anything so that was very lucky. She left on Sunday to go to Austin to stay with my brother and sister and she is still there. I don't know how long she will end up staying. They are projecting maybe a couple of weeks before power is back on. She did say that there was one grocery store open in The Woodlands and it's by their house, as well as a couple of gas stations. I'm sure it was a madhouse. Luckily she was gassed up and ready to go before everything hit.

Sick baby

Yes, Olivia has her first cold. She came home with it yesterday. She is very congested and snotty, but other than that she seems fine. No cough, etc. She did feel a little warm but she was still smiling and doing fine when I dropped her at day care today. She woke up last night at 11 having a hard time breathing through her nose and she kind of just moaned and whimpered for a while. Her humidifier was on but it didn't seem to be doing much for her. I tried breastfeeding her some which calmed her down and John and I suctioned out her nose. That was a lot of fun for all of us. Right. But it did seem to help. I propped her up on her Boppy for the rest of her night so she didn't have the mucus choking her like it might have if we laid her flat. I did suction her out again this morning but she is still pretty stuffed up. Poor thing. I feel bad for her. I don't know what else to do except let it run it's course. That's what happens when you are in day care.

On another note I realized that some of my shoes are now too small for me. I wore a pair to work this week and my feet killed me. I have to get rid of them. It is very disappointing because I love them and I wear them all the time. They are perfect for work. The things that pregnancy does to your body. It's amazing. Although, I guess this just means that I have to go shoe shopping. Oh well.

Also, I am in two fantasy football leagues and both my teams suck. Just so everyone knows. So if you need a token loser for your league next year give me a shout. I'm your girl.

My mom is not evacuating for Ike. She is staying put all by herself. My dad left on his trip today so Mom is in charge of the house. She was going to go to Austin tomorrow but she said that the roads are a mess right now so she's not going to leave. Let's be sure to keep everyone effected by that storm in our thoughts and prayers. It looks like it is going to be a big one.

Back to work

This is my second week back at work. The 12 weeks that I was off flew by. It's so weird to think that my baby is almost 14 weeks old. What?! Last week my parents were in town to take care of Olivia as I transitioned back into the workplace. I am really glad that they were here. It made the first week that much easier. This week she started at her daycare. And though I am only a short 5 minute drive from there, and I can see her at lunch time, I hate having to leave her there. It's a nice place. A La Petite for State employees only. But still, I don't want to have to do it. At this point, though, I don't have a choice. At least I work from home on Fridays.

As much as I hate having to put her in day care I do have to say that I have enjoyed being back at work. I really like my coworkers and what I do. It's almost like a vacation coming to work. Taking care of Olivia was a lot of fun but it was also completely exhausting. I shouldn't say was. It is. It hit me last night as I was sitting on the couch just how tired I was. She is such an easy baby but she needs us every moment that she is awake and it really does take a lot out of you. I thought I would just be relaxing, sitting on the couch with her, and while that is what we did the majority of the time, I would still have to find ways to entertain her. And there were the times where she did not want to be put down or to sit down even if I was holding her. So we would walk and walk and walk. Luckily she loves mirrors so we would sit on the bathroom counter and stare at the baby in the mirror for a while or we would go look at the pictures on the refrigerator.

At the end of every day though, there she is, waiting for me. I love seeing her little (alright, not so little) face when I walk in the door. She is always so happy and that makes it all worth it. John and I have been very lucky.

I hate this!

I just want to say that I really hate Blogger sometimes. No matter how many times I readjusted my previous post to make the formatting look better it still looks like crap! Ok, that's it. That's all I had to say. Also, I apologize for how crappy it looks, but I'm done trying to fix it.

Baptism weekend

I know. I'm almost 2 weeks late on getting this posted. I've been kind of busy and haven't had the time to sit down and get it down. John has Olivia and they're watching football so I'm going to take advantage of that and finally get this done.

The weekend was awesome! We flew in on Friday morning to Austin. Olivia is a great traveler. She was not at all scared of flying and didn't cry once. I made sure that I fed her when we were taking off and landing so as to help her pop her ears from the pressure and it seemed to work. Most of the rest of the time she slept or quietly sat on one of our laps. John and I decided that she is a better traveler than we are. That weekend I lost my keys (they were on the shuttle for the lot we parked in, so thankfully, they were waiting for us when we got back) and lost my purse getting on the airplane (the woman boarding behind us picked it up and returned it to John). The strap had broken and I didn't feel it fall off. I told everyone that I became a parent and lost my mind. I have told Olivia that I used to be really together and with it. Now, not so much.

Once we got there we went to my sister's house and changed. Danny was there on his lunch break so we got to talk to him for about 10 minutes. Then we went to see Busha. It was her first meeting with Olivia and it went really well. Olivia was very well behaved. While we were there my cousin Mary Beth, Uncle Larry, Aunt Manny, and Erin's boyfriend, Ryan, all stopped by. It was a full house in Busha's little apartment. But it was really nice to see her one on one for a little while.










We stayed in a hotel so we went and checked in and then had dinner with Erin and Ryan at one of their favorite pizza places in the area. Olivia was pooped by that time but we still stopped by Target so that I could get a new purse. I went in for a red one and came out with a blue one. Oh well. Another example of my losing my mind: I left my drink from the restaurant on top of the car when I got in and it fell off as we drove away. I was so disappointed. I never do crap like that!


On Saturday, John, Olivia and I drove to Waco to visit Baylor and to see one of John's friends from his grad school days there. We had lunch at his favorite bar/restaurant, George's. Pat Green is a regular there but we didn't see him that day. My Aunt Manny hosted a happy hour and hors d'ouerves get together that night. Olivia got to meet her cousins Kristen, Thomas, Jason, Noel, and Ellie as well as her Great Aunts Barb and Laurie and close family friend Jan. Grandma and Grandpa had made it in to town by then so we saw them too. It was a lot of fun and Olivia did not seem at all overwhelmed by all the people and by being passed around. She and Ellie are about 8 months apart and they seemed to like each other. I am really excited to see them together when they get older.










Sunday was her Baptism. She was great during Mass and did not cry when the Deacon poured the water on her head. I knew she wouldn't. She loves her baths and we do pretty much the same thing, so she was used to it. She looked so cute in her gown. I didn't put her little bonnet on, but she did have really cute shoes on. Unfortunately, I don't think I got a picture of those. After church we went over to my Uncle Larry & Aunt Laurie's house where we had lunch and drinks. Olivia got to meet her cousins Price and Luke, her Great Aunts Sandra and Robin, and Great Uncles Rich and Andy. Busha was able to make it to the Baptism and the party too. We weren't sure she was going to be up to it, but she was and I am so glad. Olivia got some wonderful gifts. We so appreciate everyone that made it. It meant a lot to all of us.






On Sunday night, Jason, Noel, Erin, John and I left the kids with the grandparents and went to the Salt Lick restaurant. It's a pretty well known barbecue joint just outside Austin in Driftwood, TX. The food was good, but John and I decided that we are Memphis barbecue people, not Texas. The atmosphere was what made the place with long wooden table and benches. It was almost community style but you still had your own separate area.


On Monday we went over to see Busha again and took our "4 Generations" picture and then went down to Erin's house. She took us and my parents to lunch at Shady Grove. It was an awesome little restaurant too. They have a lot of live music there at night and I really want to go back to hear some of it. Monday night, after my parents left to drive back to Houston, Erin, Danny, John, Olivia and I all went to the Round Rock Express game at Dell Diamond. The RR Express are the AAA affiliate of the Texas Rangers. It was hot and humid, but it was $1 hot dog and coke night, so we took advantage. I, of course, got myself a pair of socks as I do at all new ballparks that I visit. Erin said she thought she saw Scott Servais (former MLB catcher for the Cubs and other teams) but I missed him so I'm not sure.


Tuesday we flew home. We were completely exhausted, but I think Olivia could have gone several more days. She did really well in the hotel. She slept through the night, even giving us 11 hours one night. She has been pretty consistent at sleeping at least 7 hours every night since she was about 8 weeks old. Now she usually sleeps no less than 9 every night. She turned 3 months old yesterday! The time has flown by, and she will start daycare on Monday. I will be 5 minutes away so I will probably head over there during my lunch hour on most days.

My brother turned 25 yesterday! Happy Birthday Danny! It's odd to think that the youngest Harper kid in my immediate family is a quarter of a century old. =)

Wine

So my parents are in town and I have had wine every night this week. I told my mom that I never drink this much unless they are here or we go to Texas to visit. And it's during the week! I am so old.

I started back to work this week and it has actually gone very well. It was difficult, of course, to leave Olivia, but knowing that my parents were taking care of her this week made it easier. I will see how things go next week when I actually have to take her to daycare. I'm thinking that I will need John to come with me that first day.

I will do a separate posting about our long weekend in Austin for Olivia's baptism. We had a blast and it just reaffirmed how much we really want to be back home in Texas. One day we will make it!

It looks like we are getting new neighbors soon. The house next door to us used to be own by an investor who rented it out. The story is that he had 6 houses here in the Valley and all of them went in to foreclosure. That was according to the people who were renting it. We're not really sure that is correct, but we're not going to complain. We are just really glad to have the people that own the house living in it. Living next to renters is no fun. Plus they had a dog that barked all the time. Of course, we're hoping to be out of here soon. A couple of weeks ago some graffiti was sprayed on the house on the other side of us and our adjoining wall/fence. It really made me angry and I told John that I didn't care if it made me sound like a spoiled brat or a snot, but I do not live in places that get graffitied. It's sad because this neighborhood was very nice when we moved in 4 years ago. Not that it's not nice now, but with all the investors that came in and rented out homes, it's kind of gone down a little bit. I guess that's just the nature of the market right now.

Here are more pics of Livi. She will be 3 months on Friday! She loves her football and will watch it almost all day with Daddy. Dad is trying to giver her Dallas Cowboys history and get her to be a fan and I am doing all I can to prevent it. We'll see which way she goes.