Dear Olivia,

My sweet sweet girl! Guess what you started doing? Clapping! You are months ahead of your brother in this department. I think the first time you did it it was an accident. Dad actually caught it on video! But now you do it a lot! Sometimes you'll even clap with us! I love watching your little hands com together and how excited you get! You also dance to music. Which is hilarious! You shake your head and clap your hands and wiggle your arms. I love watching you go crazy as you dance to whatever is on!

Love,
Mom

Dear Olivia,

Yesterday you finally did it! You army crawled. And much to my dismay, it happened just like it did with your brother. You're even the same age as he was when he crawled! I tried so hard on my days off to get you to do it, but you are not one to be rushed. I walked in the house last night and your Dad said "You better get in here your daughter is crawling." I was happy and sad at the same time. I ran in the family room and watched as you scooted your way across the floor. Your army crawling was very impressive to your Mom. I wish you could remember the pride on my face. Little moments like this are so magical and I treasure them. I am so proud of my little crawler! Proud and scared! I'm sure you'll be getting into lots more trouble now! Let the fun begin!


I love you with all my heart beautiful!


Love,
Mom

Dear Olivia,

I feel like I have been neglecting to write you. I am sorry for that. Your Mom has been extremely busy as of late. I'm hoping some big changes will be happening to our family! :)

You are still not crawling. Here you are almost 8 months old and no sign of crawling. I think it's because you've gotten so good at rolling yourself everywhere. I am seriously in awe of how you get places simply by rolling around. You are quite mobile that way! ;) I am anxious for you to crawl though. Hopefully it happens sometime soon! :)

You are such a happy baby Miss Olivia. Everywhere we go people comment on how happy you are. You smile all the time! You have made so many hard days better by just smiling at me. :) I love getting you to smile and do many ridiculous things to get you to! Today, I did nothing. You were watching me do dishes in your high chair and every time I looked at you your face lit up. I can't even tell you how happy that made me!

I love you so much my darling Livvy! I promise to be better at writing!

Love,
Mom

Dear Olivia,

You seem so big to me now. Today I was looking at you and marveling on how much you've grown. I was dancing with you in the kitchen to the song "I Loved Her First" and the line "From the first breath she breathed, when she first smiled at me" I couldn't help but think back to those moments. Think back to the day you were born. When you were just a tiny squirming thing with that little baby cry! You are now at least double that size! You smile, you sit up, and roll! Pretty soon you'll be crawling! I just can't believe how quickly time is going by! I got to hold you a lot today and I couldn't help but marvel at how truly beautiful you are! You are the happiest baby and I am so grateful I have the chance to be your mom! You make me so incredibly happy! I love you pretty girl!

Love,
Mom

Dear Olivia,

Monday 02/17/2014 you got your first ride on a park swing. Your brother and I hiked over to the park and I was letting him play when it hit me that you've never been on the swing before. Your Dad was on his way so of course we had to wait for him! Once he was there we plopped you down in the swing and gave you a tiny little push. You loved it! You smiled and smiled. And laughed as Bently went "Weee Weee" over and over again!!! I loved watching you so happy! I also loved that it was February and we could be at the park! :) I love watching you experience new things little girl! :) You are adorable!


Love,
Mom

Dear Olivia,

You are sick. With a cold. Well we all have it except Dad. Which is strange because your father has the worst immune system. Usually he is the one sick. Anyways, the point is, you can't breath through your nose. For a baby who usually falls asleep sucking on a binky, this is a BIG problem. You were up pretty much every 30 minutes to an hour last night. It was a long long night! I remember half way through I was wishing nighttime was over already. I was so done waking up all the time. I don't blame you sweet heart, but it is exhausting. Mostly I feel bad for you. You're little cry is so pathetic and you look so dang cute with your little red nose. I love you and I hope, for your sake and mine, you get better really soon! :)

On a side note, you love solids! You get so excited when you see food coming your way. It actually freaks me out a little bit because you are starting to nurse quite a bit less. Well maybe I should talk about nursing. I have a hard time accepting that you are growing up. I was nursing you every 2-3 hours and you were hardly eating. I was getting worried till I read online that a six month old should be nursing every 6 hours! Now we don't go that long but I pushed it back to every 4-5 hours and your nursing is so much better. I guess I really just didn't want you to grow up!

I love you so much Miss Olivia. You are the cutest baby a Mommy could ask for! I seriously love you so dang much!

Love,
Mom

Dear Olivia,

Yesterday you got to do another first! We went swimming! I wanted to go so bad but your Dad wasn't very into the idea. I then I asked Bently if he wanted to go swimming. I figured I get your stubborn 2 year old brother on board and Dad will have no choice but to go or face the consequences of cranky Bently. To my surprise he said "No swimmins stay home." I thought all hope was lost but then not 5 minutes later Bently decided he did want to go swimming! So we all got dressed and off we went! I was so excited! We hadn't been swimming for probably 6-8 months!

You looked pretty darn cute in your pink swimsuit! I was dying over the cuteness! I especially loved that we could see your cute chunky legs! :) You were pretty adorable in the water. You at first seemed pretty indifferent. But pretty soon you started kicking and splashing. There weren't very many smiles but I could tell you liked it! :) I was sitting there with you and suddenly I was remembering things I hadn't thought about in a long time. Like I went to that very swimming pool right after we found out you were a girl! That's where I told your Aunt Shawna and Aunt Janaye you were a girl! :) I was so excited that day! Knowing the little thing inside me was a tiny beautiful girl! :) I also remember your Dad and I went later on and we talked about how fun it will be when we have a tiny little girl with us in her pink swimsuit! (It was ironic you were wearing a pink swimsuit last night!) It was a great chance to reminisce about that time. The time where we had nothing but wonder and speculation at to what you would be like. It was truly exciting! With that said I am so grateful to not have to wonder anymore. To know you, to be able to kiss your sweet cheeks every day and snuggle you! I love you so incredibly much! :)

Love,
Mom

P.s. I have been cosleeping you still but I think it's finally time to stop. You fell out of bed again today. This was your 3rd time. I just love sleeping with you! :( I'm going to miss having my little snuggle buddy next to me! But I don't want to risk you getting seriously hurt! Our bed is really high! So it's crib time for you beautiful! Wish me luck! It's not going to be easy!