The Olson Family Gazette

Our Fun Morning

So Abbie's teething. I know I've said this many times before (well, I've at least though it), but this is it. She cried every half hour last night, chews the snot out of her fist and mine, and there's a waterfall coming out of her mouth. Needless to say, we haven't gotten alot of sleep the last couple nights. And Abbie is exhausted. She nearly passed out while I was holding her in my arms this morning, but when I put her down in her crib, she spent an hour and a half not falling asleep.

This is, of course, after a 2 week long cold, followed by a double ear infection (for which we are still taking antibiotics). I think we got 2 nights of good sleep before she started back up with the teething this time. And to add insult to injury this morning, she decided that for the first time in 4 months, she was going to wait until her diaper was off before peeing all over her last pair of clean pants. So after she didn't nap for one and a half hours, I just brought her downstairs in her sleepsack, so that her legs wouldn't get cold while her laundry is drying. So when I went to feed her some rice cereal, we got to fasten Abbie into her 3-point harnessed high chair somehow with a sleepsack on. Given the morning thusfar, I was not surprised to find out that mushy just wasn't her thing at the present time, and she didn't want to eat her cereal nicely. And she's always trying to grab for the bowl and the spoon, of course. So I decided, "to heck with it, let her have it."

The photos are on Flickr. Enjoy.

Oh, and We're Awesome

http://www.businessweek.com/investor/content/nov2008/pi2008117_238652.htm

6 Month Update

Abbie is officially half a year old! So here's a little bit of an update on her latest antics:

She is trying REALLY hard to crawl. She's getting up on all fours and pushes off of her knees (sometimes her feet), and has just recently figured out that she needs to pick up her hands to get everything moving, too. But she just can't seem to get everything to work together yet. Not that she isn't getting around a bit, though. She rolls, scooches, and wobbles her way around the living room rug. I even found her underneath the piano bench the other day!

She's pretty much mastered sitting up now - the problem, however, is getting back down. 3 times last night, I woke up to a crying baby and found out she was sitting up in her crib and was stuck that way!

We also seem to have a budding musician, but I'm afraid she's leaning towards percussion instruments. She has a blast banging away on her little toy piano now (thanks Nanci!) and also likes to listen and watch someone drum on the floor with their hands.

Unfortunately, the last 2 weeks or so have been spent dealing with a bad cold, so her solid feedings were at a stand still for a while, but we did manage to try some sweet potato today. She didn't seem adverse to it, but there was definitely more on her hands and face than in her stomach. Hopefully, she'll get used to it and swallow more tomorrow. On the plus side, I found out how much I like pureed sweet potato (very tasty!). So leftovers won't be a problem.

Oh, and she also definitely found her voice and has discovered that she can get a response by using it. However, she's got the same sound for "I'm happy", "I'm frustrated", "I'm tired", and "I have a full diaper" so she doesn't always get the response she wants.

Due to her cold (and resulting double ear infection), she won't have her 6 month checkup until the day before Thanksgiving, so I don't have measurement updates for you. Oh, except that she's 17.5 lbs now (yikes!) and is firmly transitioned to the 6-12 month sized clothing. I've gotten quite a few questions on that, by the way: 6-12 month for winter, 12-18 month for spring/summer is probably what she's going to need.

And I promise to use brute force shortly if Marc doesn't get more photos up on Flickr soon.

Any Opportunity to not Get out of the Car

OhMyGosh - when is this coming to our Meijer grocery store?
http://www.meijergroceryexpress.com/

Hair Loss

Abbie and I have an unwritten agreement: She holds still while I cut the fingernails on her hand if I let her attempt to pull my hair out of my head with her other hand. And as she laid there today holding a tuft of my separated hair with a triumphant look on her face, I decided it was time for a new deal...........

Camping Trip

Mr. Tony is absolutely right - I completely neglected to mention that Abigail has now been camping! (Marc will upload pictures shortly - I saw them on his computer last night, so I know they're there!) Tony was kind enough to join us for the first night. Marc & Kahlua slept in his tent, and Abigail and I were in our smaller tent. This is when we learned that we can't just put Abigail on top of her little air mattress and hope she doesn't roll off - we were waking up all night!

Abigail just loved sitting outside during the day and just staring at all the nature, Kahlua liked smelling and licking all the nature, and Marc and I liked doing absolutely nothing of importance for a weekend. :-)

Five Month Update

Miss Abigail turns 5 months old today! This last month has definitely gone alot faster than any of the first four. So, in honor of this milestone, here's an update on all of her little antics:

Abbie's new favorite toy is the dog. She likes to grab a handful of Kahlua's hair and pull - we're lucky to have such a good natured pet. Kahlua just stands up and walks away when it bothers her.

For some reason (probably because of teething), Abbie likes to stick out her tongue and blow raspberries all over the place. Between that and the constant drooling, I've learned to appreciate my mother's advice to keep bibs on her constantly.

She's not able to go from laying to sitting up on her own yet, but she's trying really hard (you'd think she was constipated the way she grunts), and when helped up, she loves to sit up and can stay sitting up on her own for a limited amount of time. She's rolling over (both ways) just fine now, but she prefers to roll onto her stomach and then complain until Mommy picks her up.

Abbie had her first solid food on Friday (10/10). It was a mixure of rice cereal and breast milk - she lapped it right up (but not without the usual spitting mess, of course). We're hoping the addition of solid foods will help her sleep better at night, because recently she had gone back to waking 1-2 times a night to eat.

And speaking of firsts, Abbie had her first night away from her parents last night - Marc's cousin got married yesterday (congrats, guys!) and so we left Abbie with my mom for about 24 hours. I was definitely not prepared for how much I was going to miss her, but funny thing - she came back to us in one piece and she was even still smiling!

She's also become a much more social little girl in the past couple weeks - she'll smile for anybody and everybody who smiles at her. That's also added to the sleep issues - socializing is so much more fun than napping!

She can also now go from sitting in my lap to standing up on her own, but she immediately falls over, because she doesn't have any balance without something to hold on to.

That's about all I can think of for now. When she hits another milestone, we'll let you know!