Mother's Day

I had my first Mother's Day on Sunday and it was nice. I hope all you other moms out there had a great day. John and Olivia gave me some flowers, very nice cards, and a gift certificate for a massage, manicure and pedicure. I'm very excited for that! On Friday, when I went to pick Olivia up from day care, they had a gift for me too. It is now on our fridge. Pictures are below. Last week our little scooter decided she wanted to crawl as well. I don't know what did it but she now crawls at times, though she is not nearly as fast as when she scoots. She is getting really good at sitting up from laying down and we find her sitting in her crib looking through the slats all the time. It's like she's a little jailbird. I really do need to get a picture of it. As her hair gets longer it gets more and more crazy. I just couldn't pass up the chance to get some pictures of her crazy hair after a nap one day.

Olivia loves to be my little helper and one day I'm sure I will pass off many duties to her (I can't wait!). Below are pictures of her helping me "sort" the laundry. Apparently I don't do it right so she is redoing it for me.

Unfortunately O got sick over the weekend. I don't know if it's from the new day care or the water fountain/playground a friend and I took her to on Friday, but I'm thinking it's the day care. I'm not really surprised that she got sick since it's a new place with kids she'd never been around before. She kind of felt warm Friday night and Saturday, but then she woke up Saturday night at about 12:15 a.m. and when I took her temperature it was about 100 degrees. This continued through Sunday and she also had a sore throat (she would cry every time she coughed - poor thing) and something in my gut told me I should take her to the doctor. So I worked a little bit from home on Monday and took her to the doctor where they told me she has strep. Strep! Usually kids don't get that until they are at least past 1 year of age. She's on antibiotics once again. I stayed home again on Tuesday and it was an extremely rough day. O was very fussy, and though she isn't having a problem sleeping, she still doesn't seem to get enough time in bed, but when you try to put her down she screams. It was not a good day. Poor John came home to two people crying.

I'm busy planning O's 1st birthday party on June 13th. We were going to do it on June 6th but we're not sure if my dad is going to be in town. We figured there is a better likelihood he'll be in the country on the 13th, so we're doing it then. It's going to be a ball party because she loves any type of ball - soft, baseball, koosh - it doesn't matter. I'm going to make her a smash cake and I hope she really gets into it. It's going to be great! I can't believe she is almost 1 already!

Teeth!

Olivia cut her first teeth this weekend! Well, actually, I don't know that it happened this weekend, but Saturday was when I felt them for the first time. They are her two front bottom teeth. It only took her 10 1/2 months. =) We took her to the Diamondbacks game on Saturday and while she was sitting on my lap she grabbed my finger and stuck it in her mouth like she always does, and there they were! You can barely see them so I don't have any pictures, but as soon as they come in a bit more I'll make sure to try to get some good shots.

Not much else going on so this will be short and sweet. O starts at her new day care on Monday. My friend Andi is going to watch her for half a day on Friday. Andi is due with her first child on May 30 so this will be good practice for her. Hopefully O won't change her mind on wanting to have a baby, though she really has no choice at this point. Thanks Andi!

Belated Las Vegas

I realized this week that I had not put a post up about our trip to Vegas for my friend Jenn's 30th birthday at the end of February. I also realized that I told Jenn I would send her the pictures I took and I have yet to do that as well. Sorry Jenn! In lieu of rewriting the whole post over again check out the post that I put on our Traveling Friends blog.


This weekend we are taking O to a D-Backs game. She went to one when she was about 6 or 8 weeks old and was very good, but this time will be fun because she'll pay attention to all the people and noise and lights.


My sister just got in to town today to sit with O today and tomorrow. My mom was here Monday through this morning to help out. She'll be back next Monday to do the same thing next week. Then we start at the new day care on May 4. We'll see how that goes.

Easter

I hope everyone had a very nice Easter. We had a quiet one, though we did manage to get up and out of the house for 8:00 a.m. mass in about 20 minutes after O woke up at 7. We didn't want to be at church during her nap time at 10 so we pushed it to get to the 8:00, but we made it. She did awesome! We sat in the cry room but probably didn't need to. She didn't cry, though she did babble a bit. We did have to leave early though because an hour and 5 minutes into it, when we still hadn't had Communion yet, she was getting antsy. So John walked outside with her while I went and got Communion. She looked absolutely adorable in her beautiful pink dress and ruffled socks and ballet slipper shoes. You can really get an idea of all the hair she now has in these pictures. Her skirt was so poofy that we had a hard time getting her into her car seat. I had to take some pictures of once we had her in. Luckily her dress didn't wrinkle because of all the tulle!The Easter Bunny did bring her an Easter basket. She got some cool little Koosh balls, some squishy sports balls, a bunny, a flower, a hat and a pen with some feathers on it. She doesn't really get to play with the pen much though because we don't want her to eat the feathers, but it's so funny to watch her face when the feathers tickle her nose. She also got one of those collapsible bunny toys. The ones where you push the bottom up and the elastic relaxes and the bunny collapses then stands up again when you release the bottom (does that make any sense?).

I had to take the next picture because when I walked in to check on her before I went to bed last night she was asleep like this. She is on top of her blanket and monkey, which is not out of the ordinary, but I loved that she was out with her foot through the slats of the crib. I don't know how this is comfortable.
We took O to the Coyotes final home game last Saturday and she did awesome. She had a lot of fun looking around at all the people and waving to the two boys in the seats behind us. Tomorrow is her last day at her current day care facility. I am so sad about it. She loves her teacher there, and while all the teachers have been placed at other locations, her favorite is not going to the one she will be attending (though there will be one of the other teachers there). She doesn't know that she won't see this woman again. She won't understand what is happening when she goes to a new day care and doesn't know anyone there and I feel terrible about it. And she'll have to do this twice! Our new facilities infant room is not scheduled to open until the end of May so we are going to put her at a temporary place for a few weeks starting May 4. My mom and sister are going to come out the two weeks in between and help out for a few days each watching her so John and I don't have to take any time off work. It just totally sucks!

I still very much want to stay at home with O so I have started looking into work from home opportunities that I can do on a part-time basis so that John and I can get some supplemental income to help make additional payments on some debts in order to get them paid off sooner. This will allow me to stay at home permanently. One day! I did start my own work from home business marketing for an international wellness company. I do two things. I introduce people to the company and their products and help them set up their accounts (no selling involved!) and I help other people set up their own home-based business. It's great because the products are really impressive - all-natural everyday necessity products that you buy anyway but that are healthier for your family and home - and it allows me to set my own hours and only work as much as I want to or have time for. It's really up to me how much I want to make. It's not a bad gig.

Hurricane Livi

I don't believe that my blog title requires much explanation. Now that Olivia is extremely mobile (still scooting) she is everywhere. Examples are below. The first four are of our guest bedroom/office where I work on Fridays. I keep her in there with me and this is only part of what she does. She even dumps over the trashcan and pulls everything out. She ripped the back paper cover off the dictionary after she was done "reading" it. The bottom two are of our living room. We now have all of her toys in a laundry basket that also gets dumped over and sorted. She has decided that she loves to pick up every toy and toss it into the air over and over again. They land everywhere.

Olivia is now 10 months old, and while she doesn't have any teeth yet, we think she is very close to cutting that first one. I hope it happens soon. She gets little blisters on her toes from all the scooting she does so we're having to watch that but it really doesn't seem to bother her. She is a little roly poly when we lay her on the bed and she loves her stuffed animals. She'll carry them around as she scoots all over the house.

Saturday is the last home game for the Phoenix Coyotes this season so we will be taking her to the game. Some of our friends gave us a cute little Coyotes outfit that we are going to try to put on her. It's a 6-9 month outfit but looks like it may fit her. It looks like a little cheerleader outfit. She loves going out and looking around at all the lights and activity. I'm also going to take her to John's office on Friday. It has been a long time since his coworkers have seen her so that should be fun. She has gotten bigger and has gotten a ton more hair since the last time we were there.

My birthday was very nice. Thank you to everyone for the birthday wishes. I appreciated them. I took the day after off from work and went and had a massage and facial. I don't know why I hadn't done it before. After that I went and got John and we went to a Spring Training game. It was a nice relaxing day. My parents and sister came into town and we went to an awesome dinner at Fleming's on Saturday. It was so good. Especially the creme brulee. I could eat that every day. My parents also got me our area rug for the living room which we badly needed. I also ordered a zebra print rug for our bedroom. It's going to look so great against the dark red of the comforter. I can't wait for it to come in!

For those of you that hadn't heard, the day care that Olivia is currently enrolled in is closing effective April 17. It is State subsidized for State employees, which is why we get such rockin' rates, but with Arizona being so deep in the red they are cutting all sorts of stuff. The day care is one of those things. The company, La Petite, will be honoring our current rates (substantially lower than regular La Petites) until September 1, which is great. The only problem is that the school out near us does not currently have an infant room but is in the process of starting one. They had originally thought that it would be open in time for our April 20 deadline, but it will now not be done until the end of May. And that's an estimate. It could be sooner than that, but it could also be longer. It is so frustrating because now we have to put O into another day care for 6 weeks or whatever it is going to be and then move her again. We just can't afford to leave her at another day care permanently because they are all so much more expensive. And of course I don't find this out until yesterday (about the infant room not opening yet) so I'm all stressed out about it. But I do know that our original second choice day care does have openings so we can get her in there and not have to worry about missing any work. I just wish there was some way I could stay home with her.

9 1/2 months

Olivia has passed the 9 1/2 month mark. And with that milestone came another ear infection. This one is a double. She had a fever for about 5 days before we were able to find out what the problem was. She has been on antibiotics for a week now and is feeling MUCH better. You can really tell because she is in a good mood all the time again. Her 9 month check up went well. No shots this time, thank goodness. She weighed in at 22.8 pounds (94th percentile) and was 28.5 inches (74th percentile). She is still scooting around like crazy and is a clapper. The pictures below are from the first day of her fever. I got a call from the day care saying her temperature was 102.9! But when I got her home it had gone down and we had her Dr. appointment the next day anyway, so they just said to wait and bring her in then. She acted like she felt fine.
We've taken O to a couple of Spring Training games and she has really enjoyed being out in the sun and watching all the people, but she is so fair skinned that I worry about her getting burned. Lots of sunblock goes on the girl and we try to keep her in the shade as much as possible.
John made sure to get the following picture because O is wearing her Cubs shirt and he said that this is how she feels about the Cubs. Sorry Erin, it reminds me of you in your Cowboys stuff.
This weekend I got some pictures of her in the bath. Her hair is getting really thick and longer. For a while there I thought we were going to have a baldy. This is her sweet mohawk.
As far as John and I go, we're doing fine. Same old thing with our jobs. I'm hoping there won't be another round of layoffs come July, but it's a possibility. The Coyotes are still looking for investors so we don't know what will happen there either. It's pretty up in the air. I have picked up a work from home job to help supplement my income. It's pretty nice because I can work the hours I am available, and how much I make is really dependent on how much I want to put into it. It's taking some time and effort to really get started but it's worth it if it means that at some point I'll be able to quit working and stay home with O.

Oklahoma

A couple of weeks ago John and I took O to Oklahoma so that she could meet the Dickey side of the family and all of her cousins. This decision was a good and bad one. It was good because she had so much fun and loved everyone - especially her uncles. It was bad because she is getting to the age where she is a ton of work and taking her on an airplane was not the best experience. Going out wasn't too bad because the plane was empty so when she got fussy we could walk around, but on the way home the plane was full except for maybe a couple of seats. The seat between John and I stayed open because no one wants to sit next to a baby, and I am so glad that it did. We needed that extra seat because O was not a happy camper. She didn't scream too much but she was extremely fussy. John and I decided that we were going to hold off on any more plane rides until she's older. It's just too much work.

We flew in on a Friday morning and went to John's mom's place and relaxed. Eventually everyone made their way over and we had a nice dinner. Everyone loved Olivia and kept commenting on her beautiful blue eyes (I am so glad they have stayed that color!). Here are some pictures of her with her cousins and Uncle Adam:

Uncle Adam and Billy (who is almost exactly a year older than O)
Courtney is going to be 4 in September. Look how big O is next to her!
Olivia loved her Uncle Adam and especially his hat. She loves hats and glasses. She takes my sunglasses off my face every day.

On Saturday we went to our nieces' and nephew's pig show. I had never been and it was quite an experience. Those animals are huge! O was indifferent to them but I think when she gets a bit older she will love to run around after them. It was a very cold day so we bundled her up, and of course she wanted Daddy's hat to wear too.
With Uncle David at the pig show.

We also went to see one of John's good friends, Micah, who was a groomsman in our wedding, and his wife Pebble, who just had twin girls in December, Avery and Pebble. They also have a son who is almost 6. They were adorable and so small! Well, at about 2 1/2 months they were both over 11 pounds, but light as a feather compared to our chunkster. Here is Olivia with Avery. O is not the gentlest child so we were careful with her around them. I love the look on Avery's face.
Olivia got to spend a lot of quality time with her Granny which I know they both appreciated. We left Sunday afternoon after a wonderful long weekend.
Erin and Ryan were recently in town for Spring Training and went out to Mesa to see the Cubs play. While there they picked up a little something for O, much to John's chagrin. We surprised him with her in it and he wasn't happy. She looked so cute though!
We have her 9 month check-up this Friday, although she was at the Dr.'s office last week and the week before. She weighed in at 23 pounds 6 ounces last week. I'm not sure on length but I think around 30 inches. She's getting so big! Turns out she had the flu, though we really thought it was only a cold. She was in a surprisingly good mood for having the flu. She just couldn't shake a cough she had had for about 2 weeks, but I think we are finally getting over it. She slept through the night for the first time in 2 1/2 weeks last night and it was awesome!

Spring Training!

Baseball season is officially starting! Well, not regular season, obviously, but Spring Training, and I am so excited! The first games will be played tomorrow. John and I are so ready for it, and now that there are 3 new teams in the Cactus League we have a chance to see more players in action. A new facility for the Cleveland Indians opens this year about 2 miles from our house which is great because we won't have to drive very far to see a game. The unfortunate thing is that they are charging for parking (our favorite ballpark in Surprise doesn't) and ticket prices have gone up. I am planning to spend some of my Friday afternoons out at the ballpark. Come join me!

Furlough is a 4 letter word

I think we can all agree that furloughs suck. I've never experienced one. I've heard about them but have never been through the process. Last week our agency laid off 18% of our work force - that's 138 people - because of the budget crisis Arizona is in. In addition to that a furlough pilot program was rolled out so that furloughs could be implemented before May 1, which is when the legislature's furlough program goes into effect. The pilot program gives agencies the ability to furlough covered and uncovered employees. Previously, covered employees could not be furloughed. Without getting into it too much, a covered employee is covered by the State's personnel rules, while uncovereds are not. Essentially, uncovered employees are "at will" employees.

The good news out of all of this is that I was not one of the 18% laid off and it also looks like we will not have to institute furloughs at ADOA. Can I just say what a relief that is to hear. I was really starting to worry about having to take unpaid time off. It would really hit our budget hard. So right now I am still a full-time unfurloughed employee with the State of Arizona. Thank goodness!

Olivia has another cold I think. She started getting all snotty last Thursday or Friday and then was coughing in the middle of the night last night, though it didn't wake her up. She and I went for a walk on Friday and I made sure she had her sunglasses, though they didn't necessarily stay on her face. John called her "Hollywood" when he saw her with the glasses on. She doesn't seem to have a problem wearing them.

John found O in her crib during her nap with the blanket wrapped around her head. She was sound asleep. And totally sweaty when she woke up. It was hilarious. I'm surprised I didn't wake her with my laughing when I took the picture. She is a piece of work.

8 months

Olivia is 8 months old today. I am so sad. She is getting too big too quick.