Holding my baby a little closer

I'm certain we've all heard about Lisa Irwin who was taken from her home during the night a week and a half ago.  This morning, Good Morning America showed some home movie clips of Lisa cooing and babbling just like my Olivia does and it broke my heart. 

I was so grateful that I was nursing her right then because all I wanted to do was hold her. Sending tons of prayers out to the search for baby Lisa.

Shrieks of Joy

In the last week or so, Olivia has begun to shriek and squeal all the time. She has been babbling and cooing for a long while now but these new noises top the decibel meter.  They're so loud!

She also likes to stomp her foot while laying on her blanket and it makes me glad we're in a first floor apartment because I'm certain our neighbors could hear it if we were above them (speaking of my neighbors, they walk like they're giants).

I've been on the phone a few times with my mom and Russ this week and Olivia has been squealing; she just wants to be an active participant in the conversation. Of course, this has led me to realize how frequently in the future I will be saying, "use your inside voice."

Picture Wall

Several weeks ago, I took advantage of a sale on ArtsCow and ordered ten 8x10s for about $5 (and that included shipping).

It is still a work-in-progress. I thought I wanted to have the center photo pop out but I'm not sure right now... Thoughts?

As a whole, I love the look of it. :)

Olivia Land pictures

Look at those dark blue-gray eyes. Beautiful.

Olivia watching Daddy play his video game.

Olivia watching me in the bathroom mirror - she loves the mirror.

Fit to Serve

This last Saturday, we went to OKC to do the Fit to Serve 5k at Church of the Servant. 

Olivia moved her head but her hat and bow stayed in the same place, oops.

Russ ran the race like it was no big deal. It was only one week after the Redman, which was 70.3 miles total, and he still ran it in about 21 minutes (I'm not a runner so I can't remember the exact time, sorry).

Then he ran the course again to find me and Olivia. We were walking it with my mom, sister and godparents and we were all doing it at the "Olivia napping" pace. Very slow.

Olivia did get first in her age group and she beat me across the finish line by a booty. :)

Three Months

Olivia is three months old. Holy cow!

She has really changed over the last month. She wants to absorb and examine all of her surroundings; she'll study the walls, ceiling, pictures, upholstery, etc. Sometimes, this leads to over-stimulation but it's still exciting to see her so curious.

Olivia has moved into wearing all 3 month clothing but she is sill wearing her newborn socks.... I wonder where she could have inherited small feet? :)

By my informal method of weighing her (weighing myself and then weighing us both together), she's about 13.5 lbs. And I'm not sure about length but I know she's long.

Our sleeping pattens are not consistent all the time but most days Olivia will go 6-7 hours at the beginning of the night and then another 3-4 hours. She wakes up around 7 a.m. most days and then has some awesome "happy baby" time. We try not to distract Russ too much as he gets ready for work. :)

Olivia's hair is definitely getting darker and thicker; I think it may be very dark brown like Russ'. Her eyes are the darkest of dark blue with no brown or green mixed in at all. They look black in pictures but I like to call them indigo.

Happy three months, pretty girl!

Redman 2011

Russ did his sixth Redman triathlon this past weekend. It was a very different experience for me because I normally sit there for the whole race and, this time, I was only there for the start and the end.

I was able to feed Olivia at 5 a.m., put her back down to sleep and go with Russ to help him set up and get started. Then I went back to my parents' to feed her and get her ready for the day; then, we almost missed his finish because he was going much faster the he expected.  In fact, Russ finished only 4 seconds slower then his personal best!

Pretty impressive and totally nerve-wracking for this gal!