The Siva Crew

Our Little Halloween Fairy

One of my friends, who was pregnant at the same time I was, had her child, on October 27th, so decided to have a Halloween costume birthday party.  We were two hours late, between a nap, barfing all over ourselves, a big poop at the last minute and all the pictures we had to take.

Our hostess didn't mind a bit.  She was just glad we showed up, which I am sure was doubtful at that point.

Our hostess, who is the proud mother of boys, grabbed Olivia right up and didn't give her back for a good 20 min.  She is dying to have a girl at this point, but another baby doesn't work into the plan, right now

I took the opportunity to take lots of pics of all the people at the party.  No one seemed to be taking pictures by the time I got there, so it seemed a good idea.  I already mailed them off to her on a CD.  Look at that turnaround time... astounding for a mother of a ten month old... but I don't hear any applause.

I guess once you start to hit the toddler stage, no one really forgives you for forgetting everything anymore.  

Ooooh The Pretty Camera

This morning Oli was literally "climbing the walls."  She was kneeling (we wont get into how she can kneel and not hold onto anything at all) and trying to hold onto the wall and stand.  I wanted to get a pic of it for this here blog.  I wanted a post called, "Literally, Climbing The Walls."  

But like so much that you try to plan with a child, it just goes the other way.  I pulled the camera out. I have this lens.  It is the best lens I have ever shot with.  The pics are great.  Even under the worst of circumstances it can usually come up with something worthwhile.  The specs say it weighs three pounds though, and let me tell you, that by the time you get a flash, batterygrip, and body on there, you are talking 6 pounds at least.  

All that is to say, that pulling the camera out, isn't like pulling some micro thing out of my pocket, but Oli moves fast and so I need a camera that can keep up with her, make a nice bokeh (gotta smear out my crappy housekeeping) , work in low light, be able to be blown up to large prints, and all sorts of stuff.  

So that took all of 30 seconds and she was no long climbing the walls but in a dead run (on her hands and knees) over to me with that thing, the thing with all of the... the... BUTTONS.  

Figuring I would just work with it, I zoomed all the way out and held the camera out as far as I could from the two of us and started shooting

At the beginning the above happened, at the end this occurred. 

That would be Oli smothering the camera with her fingers and mouth. Because damned if that thing be the size of an Iced Venti Latte and three pounds, she is going to get it in her mouth:D

Why Having Grandparents Is A Blessing

Every other weekend, on the weekend I work, my Dad and UnStepmom, Gpa and Gma F.  take Oli for Fri and Sat night and bring her back Sun afternoon.  

I usually  miss her terribly when I get home and when I get up nn the morning, but I tell you when I get up at 10am, on that Sat and Sun morning, because she is with her Gma and Gpa, I am not complaining, at all.  

There are women at work and men for that matter, who get no break at all.  It is constant and they are EXHAUSTED.  They also have less positive feelings about their children than I do.

Breaks are so important when you are a parent.  Sometimes you get so pulled up in your rountin and just adjust to being exhausted that you forget it is okay to feel overwhelmed and need a break.

Lucky for me my breaks are scheduled for two days every other week.

Always Looking Her Way

Oli doesn't look any one way for very long at all.  But there is always one place I am looking and that is at those chubby little cheeks, those rose bud lips, that little mullet of curls.

It is amazing how one little person can grab every single moment of attention you have.  How they consume your thoughts and everything you talk about.  

When I was pregnant with HG, I never thought about how I would love Oli. I just thought about getting the pregnancy over with, which is a common thought for all women with HG.

But now that she is here, and is all I am left with from HG is PTSD, I have almost no thoughts that don't surround her, and when she is in the room, I want to know where she is at all times.  Not because I am constantly worried, but because I love to know where she is.  Because I love to look at her.  Because I love her chubby cheeks, meaty little thighs, and almond shaped eyes.  I love to hear her throaty growl when she is really concentrating.  I love to watch her ATV herself over any obstacle as she develops her motor skills, or pull her binkie in and out of her mouth and marvel at it, as if it were some precious jewel to behold.  

I know someday, she will tell me, "Mom, STOP STARING AT ME."  But until that day, or even after that day, my eyes are on her.

My Little Vampiress

You can see above where Oli is in the BRIGHT SUNLIGHT, that she is quite unhappy.  You might think she is unhappy because we are trying to make her touch a pumpkin.  I can assure you this is not the case.  

We went to visit a pumpkin patch this weekend.  We dressed Oli in her cute little orange beanie, with the green stem top.  A little onsie with a pumpkin on it that says something cute. We thought she would LOVE it.  She loves little people.  There would be lots of them there.  She loves to balance herself on things and stand.  There would be lots of pumpkins to balance herself on.  She loves textures, we thought she would love to put her hands in the dirt.  

Well, it turns out there is a lot of October sun at the pumpkin patch and Oli HATES sun.  Anytime we found a tad bit of shade, her whimpering, or out right screaming stopped.

There was a harvest festival at the place we were going to as well. Most of this was covered by shading eucalyptus trees.  So we popped her in the stroller and lo and behold this is what ensued....

 

As you can see she is much happier here in the shade of her stroller, which I must say, has a larger shade, than any other stroller I have ever seen.  It goes almost all the way to the little tray in the front.  This was about 5 minutes after we tried TO MAKE HER TOUCH THE PUMPKIN.  

This all leads me to believe she is a vampire and whatever is in her veins, was made to curdle by the sun, and caused her severe pain.  Why else would she cry bloody murder by merely being in the sun?

While in the shade we did get a few cute shots and we able to obtain our much wanted photo card. None of them have her signature flirty smile on them, but hey what can you ask for, when your "blood" is slowly uncurdling from your recent life threatening experience in the sun?

Mornin' Cup O' Olivia

Mornin' Cup O' Olivia
Originally uploaded by greensunflowerRN

Every morning, I get up, while Babe sleeps (in his defense he works until like 3am), and I sit on the couch, after giving her a bottle, while she cruises around her alphabet pad, stands at her little activity center, and then notices me on my laptop and MUST PRESS THE KEYS.  This is her popping her little head up, trying telling me, she MUST PRESS THE KEYS.  In her perky little way.  

Her hair is in that pebbles like style, because pigtails are an absolute chore, and he hair comes down to her nose.  And although her face is quite cute, when she looks up through her hair squinting her eyes to see through her hair, I take pity on her and tie it up.

Did you notice how she says, "a boom," when I say "boom" after she falls.  I have to watch this more to see if she does it consistently.  We may have a new word on our hands.

Enjoy the squawking.

This Was Only The Start

Back when Oli was a mini, and barely 3 kilos, she could cry like no other.  I knew to make it through HG, she had to be a fighter.  Then when she made it through meningitis, just barely escaping with her life, I knew we had a stubborn little fighter on our hands.

It is nap time right now, and I was unable to put her down.  Daddy had to do it.  It seems that I have on too many occasions taken her out of her crib, deciding she wasn't tired enough to nap, and restored her to her former happy state of play.  Now she thinks if she cries enough, I will do so again.  But if I know she is tired enough, while the hell would I do that?

She doesn't know the difference.  She just knows that maybe if she makes a fuss with Mommy, she might get out of her crib/cage.  Today she put up quite the fight.  We never restored her to her former state of play.  We gave her a bath, changed her clothes, changed her diaper, held her, but never took her back to all her toys.  

I need to be more careful now about the message I send.  Oli is really learning our behaviors.  She is our learning patterns, and who will do what and when.  Smart little booger that she is.  I swear we just had a full on tantrum at 9 months.  What will 18 and 24 month hold.  I better stand strong now.  I cant wimp out at this point, or we are going to be in trouble later.  I just didn't realize how much she was taking in.

I look at this picture though. Oli crying because I used the flash and she has always hated the light directly on her eyes.  She has never in her life, been shy to tell us what she does and doesn't like.  She is just finding more pronounced and subtle ways of doing it. Good thing I am no dummy, or this child would get away with murder. But I better pull my SMRT cells out.  I am going to need them for the next 23-25 years. AT LEAST.

She Had Her Hand On The Lens

hand on the lens
Originally uploaded by greensunflowerRN

I was down on the floor taking pics of Oli and she was far away at first and I was zoomed in, but as she noticed the shiny surface of my large lens, she moved in closer and closer, until I was zoomed all the way out.  Oli loves the camera, she is fascinated by it.  Which is a good way to get great pics of her all the time.  

I did get a finger print or two on the lens.  

About two weeks ago, Babe woke up to Oli standing in her crib. We thought it was so cute.  Little did we know that in a short week, it would lead to climbing up steps, cruising the furniture, going everywhere, and becoming extremely mobile.  She is a young nine months, and I see walking in the not so distant future.  Yikes!  This is the same Oli who was a preemie and had meningiccocal meningitis at 5 months.  The same one who has an appointment with the early intervention pediatrician in November because they expected her to be delayed after all of that.  Well delayed she is not.

The other day the two of us were looking in the mirror at ourselves and she waves to us and says "bye." Then yesterday, when at my Mom's, I walk in the and the dogs are playing on the ground and she waves at them and says "bye" over and over again.  I don't think she gets that bye is more than just a salutation, but at some point she will.  It is just cute.  And I am so excited for her development in the speech arena.  

She has about 4 words.  Mama, nanas (for food), NO!,  and bye.  She definitely understands the word Baba for bottle, so I am sure that word is not far behind.  

She can use a sippy cup, though she doesn't always understand that if the liquid is at the bottom, to bring it to the top you have to tip it considerably more.  She loves to feed herself, but is considerably more picky about what she will feed herself, than what she will have fed to her.  

She is doing great.  For all the health concerns and where her development could be, she is a champ.  We go for our 9 month check today.  That means vaccines, but it also means that she is 3/4's of a year old.  How can that be. How is that possible.  I remember the day I gave birth to her as if it were last week, or yesterday even.  Now she is standing at her Leap Frog table banging away, pulling her binkie in and out of her mouth, as I type.