Play Time

I know, I'm blogging up a storm, but what else are you supposed to do when you're snowed in? And how often do you have such fun pics as when you're snowed in? So here is a quick flick of our little Olive entertaining herself while we're hunkered down. And also a few more fun photos of Belltown, aka Winter Wonderland. Enjoy - and MERRY CHRISTMAS! Stay safe and warm.

Two Months!

So we got to celebrate Olive's 2 month Birthday by finally capturing her smiles and giggles on video, and then going out for a nice, brisk stroll down ice covered streets to dinner at Belltown Bistro after we got DUMPED on - good times!

Un"bear"ably Cute

With temperatures officially dropping below freezing we decided it was time to dress our lovebug in more then just a onesie and baby legs, no matter how cute it is. So luckily we just "inherited" a REALLY cute, fuzzy, full-body bunting from a friend and here is the totally adorable result:



Then we've also been enjoying holiday celebrations - one at our Green Bean Coffeehouse, the other at "Uncle" John and "Aunt" Julie's where there were BEAUCOUP de babies!







You can check out additional pictures here.

And last but DEFINITELY NOT LEAST - she's smiling!!! I got the first real smile at one month, but it's just been within the past couple of weeks that we can sit and have smiley conversations with giggles and coos and stuff. OH MY GOD I LOVE IT. =) Here are a few quick pics we've captured. Usually I'm too involved to even remember the camera (me, not remember a camera!)...

Some More Firsts

Sunday, 11/23 was GORGEOUS and we decided to take an impromptu trip to Bainbridge (both a first for Olive and ME) which included Olive's first bus and ferry rides. Here are some fun shots from that:







Then of course we had her first Thanksgiving! We headed over to Port Orchard to visit with DJ's family and have YUMMY food. The pictures didn't turn out great, but she was super cute. This was also one of her first official "outfits" that wasn't a onesie or footsie. Those babylegs are AWESOME, and I've been more excited to put her in outfits lately, especially as she's outgrowing the onesies and footsies quickly these days (at her 6 week checkup she weighed in at TWELVE pounds and one ounce - can you believe it?!)...

Life Soundtrack

So, more often than not people in my life don't burst into song and dance about in a choreographed number (though I've always wished they would). So that's not quite what I mean when I talk about the soundtrack of my life. As I'm sure most of you have experienced, there are songs that seem to immediately transport us back to a time and a place. Sometimes we can even recognize it while it's happening, probably in large part due to the fact that we choose to listen to said song over and over during said time and place because for some reason it just captures something of what we are experiencing that somehow isn't capturable in any other form. Right now I have two such songs:
"Count Your Blessings" by Irving Berlin, performed by Bing Crosby
"When You Dream" by the Barenaked Ladies
(If you are familiar with these songs you may notice they both have to do with sleep... he he...)
The first is sort of my song for me and DJ during this crazy-good-but-difficult time in our lives.
The second is my theme song for Olive. The first time I listened to it I was still in a fairly emotional place from the birth and pretty much balled my eyes out. Below I have added this song to a portion of the SEVEN MINUTE video of Olive waking up that we took the other day. (Yes, 7 minutes. This is not uncommon when we leave her to her own devices - definitely her father's daughter in that respect.)

1 Month Down... 215 To Go

Olive celebrated her 1st month birthday with a smile for her Mama - woo hoo! And with her first babysitting away from Mama - boo hoo. =(
Her silly parents celebrated with Mama's first week at work and Papa's first week on call (whose brilliant idea was that anyway?). We all survived, though, and hope it can only get better, right? (No really, right? It gets better?) ;)

The view from the office on her first day, and hanging with Mr. Mark from the church staff:



And a couple of random pics of sling time with Papa:

Circle of Friends

This both refers to the other happy babies in Olive's life and the first book I read on my new Kindle. We were thinking, what better way to pass the time while I'm otherwise 'chained down' by breastfeeding than keeping up on my pleasure reading (which I might not otherwise find time for). Realizing a Mom on the go might not want to tote around hardcover novels in addition to the amazing amounts of STUFF that such a wee person requires, though, we got me a Kindle. In case you don't know what that is check out amazon.com's home page, or feel free to ask me about it.

Now onto the non-electronic variety of friends:
Here is Olive with Anna Watrous (and their proud papas).



And here are just a bunch of babies! - Ethan, Abram, Levi (on the butterfly), Evie (on the floor), Anna (in the bouncer), and Olive (in the swing).



Aren't they a great little group of little people? We are so blessed to have this community for them (and ourselves)!

Mini Me and More Pics

So we've been observing Olive's personality over the past few weeks (some of which is witnessed in the videos in the last post) and we've started to note bits of ourselves. Like the following:

DJ-ish behavior = Sleeps hard and long and needs some time to really wake up.
Torrey-ish behavior = When she's hungry, she's hungry NOW, and she eats well (she's gained 2.5 pounds in 3 weeks - 9 lb 14 oz at her weigh in yesterday, up from 7 lb 6 oz a few days after birth).

And the promised "more pics"...

Our Halloween outfits (hey, she was only 1.5 weeks, we did the best we could - at least we got out of the house).




Grandpa finally gets some quality time since the birth.




Olive's first time in her crib. It only lasted a couple of minutes - we're trying to ease her into it...




Tummy time with Papa.





A beautiful day for a walk to Red Robin for lunch.





A brisk Autumn stroll from Hale's to the Fremont Market and back.





Visit with the Aunties. =)




The happy family.

A Star is Born...

Here is our first attempt at capturing our loverly lovebug on "film"... hope you enjoy it! =)

Favorite Positions - A Study