Food preferences

Olivia has always been a fan of broccoli. She seems to prefer it, though, to anything else on her tray. Moments ago, with crackers, turkey and a banana still on her tray, she sweetly requested "More brock-ee, pease?" She loves her broccoli.

She has also developed a preference for Grandpa's homemade pear sauce (like applesauce, but with pears). She calls it "Nummies", which is her word for "yummy". "Nummies, pease, Mommy! Pease? Nummies?" Pear sauce is quite a bit messier than broccoli, but she loves it so much that I can't much resist. We also mix it with oatmeal for breakfast, and she LOVES it.

With her two most preferred foods being "Brock-ee" and "Nummies", you can imagine what diapers have looked like lately.

Olivia has recently become very attached to her "Up-Up Elmo" doll. She carries him everywhere. I came into the kitchen yesterday to find this.


She's so proud of herself for buckling Elmo in for his nummies.
Happy Holy Thursday!

Holy Week

I always look forward to this week. There's just something about the Triduum that is so invigorating for me. It builds the emotional and spiritual momentum toward Easter, which (for me) multiplies the joy of the Easter Sunday and the whole season of Easter.

Even with the added distraction of my child in the pew, I can't miss the symbols and the rituals that bring us back to the event that freed us from our sin. Though we celebrate the Last Supper at each Eucharist, it is so much easier for me to reflect and meditate on that event when we do the washing-of-the-feet ritual at the Holy Thursday Mass. It reminds me of the friendship between Jesus and His disciples, and it sets an unmistakable example of service.

Good Friday, no matter how sunny and bright (and it always seems to be sunny), is always an emotionally sober day for me. The Good Friday service is powerful, and it reminds us that Christ had to suffer and die in order to rise. It happened. It was a real event. Good Friday service brings us into the real drama of that day and makes it concrete that our Savior did die for us.

Holy Saturday is, by far, my favorite Mass of the year. I won't go this year because of Olivia's sleep schedule, but that won't keep me from thinking about the lights and the singing and the water and all the beautiful symbols that charge our emotions and make us feel joy about The Resurrection. I also thoroughly enjoy witnessing the initiation of new members of The Church. I usually have to fight back some tears at that point.

Easter Sunday is more low key than the Vigil Mass, but it is still plenty joyful. I look forward to putting Olivia in her prettiest Spring dress and singing songs of joy while we celebrate Our Lord's Resurrection.

Happy Holy Week!

Returning to a state of "normal"

Olivia is fine, Praise God. She was sore for a couple of days and probably had a headache, but the baby painkillers helped a lot. Now she's asking for "Meh-cine" because of the flavor, and I have to deal with the fallout that comes when her request is denied. But that's a small problem to have.

We haven't been back out to the playset. We were busy with church stuff all day on Sunday, and then we had a return to Winter on Monday. Temps aren't expected to rebound until tomorrow, which is our errand day this week. I'm not terribly sad to have a break from playground duty. I'm no longer afraid to try it again, but it helps to have a few days to settle from our recent trauma first. I'm sure the playset will see countless hours of safe playtime...maybe the early accident will serve to make us all a bit more cautious when we play.

Olivia has been suffering from sleep deprivation lately. Various things have contributed...the ER (of course), too-late naps, long errand days. I think the most she has slept over the past week was 8 hours. Last night was the first night that she slept a full ten-plus hours in over a week. It was also the first night in at least a week that she went to bed on time (before 8 pm). And life is easier today.

The crib is history. After her fall on Saturday, we didn't want to risk any further injury by giving her the opportunity to climb and possibly fall out of a crib while suffering soreness and disorientation from her accident. So we put her on her big bed (full-sized mattress on the floor). We lined both sides with pillows so she'd have a warning barrier if she tried to move too much. And you know what? She did great! And it was easier (and safer) for her to get up and find us in the morning. We are on day 3 of bed-only nights and naps, and I'm happy with it.

We still can't get Olivia to go to sleep on her own again. For the past three weeks, she has consistently NEEDED someone to either rock her or lay down with her. I'm not going to stress about it, though. As long as she's fairly active and doesn't nap too long, the rock-to-sleep routine doesn't take terribly long. She'll learn someday. I just don't want to fight that fight at the moment.

We dyed eggs today. Olivia was relatively well behaved as I let her stand on a chair and watch. The dye cups were out of her reach, but that didn't stop her from trying to get to them. I'm going to work on putting egg tatoos on them for the duration of Olivia's nap. I'm entitled to some anti-productive creativity, right?

Rite of Passage

So you bring baby home from the hospital and slowly transform your house to meet the needs of baby. Baby gates appear, sharp-edged furniture disappears. You get the picture. But I don't think you REALLY commit to making your house into a home that screams "A FAMILY LIVES HERE" until you put up one of these.

A neighbor of ours just moved, and we asked if they were taking their playset with them. They agreed to sell it to us for a fraction of what it would cost to put up any similar set. And as a bonus, they only live a couple hundred yards away, so my Dad and my husband and my brother were able to easily disassemble it and carry the parts across the yard. Easy delivery.

"Plus, the parts are so fun to play with!"

It took all day to move and rebuild the playset. Luckily, we had a beautiful day for such work. And the client was pleased.

"Hi Grandpa! Thanks for building my cool slide!"

"My very own bridge!"

"And swings!"

"And did I mention the slide? My favorite part!"

(If you are related to me, don't mention this next part to my Mom and Dad. I don't want them to freak out about what happened next.)

We were still basking in the glow of Olivia's brand new playground...

She fell from the top of the tower. It was the most terrifying moment of my life.

She was playing on the ramp and she kept asking me..."Mommy, come?" She had decided that she liked having me in the tall tower with her. Like our own little clubhouse. So I followed her and she decided that she wanted to slide. I didn't mind her sliding alone because she has learned how to land safely, but she didn't want to sit down. THAT I had a problem with. I was trying to get her to sit down, and all of a sudden she was leaning out the front of the tower, grabbing on the rail and facing the tower, like she wanted to hang on from the outside. And in a second, she was flat on her back on the ground.

I thought she had hit her head on the frame below, and I was sure that she was badly injured. I scooped her up and ran inside, yelling to my husband that we had to get her to the emergency room. She was crying, but not in a "I hurt myself" kind of screaming way...more of a whiny, disoriented way. That just scared me more.

She screamed for the entire half-hour drive to the ER as I worked hard to keep ice on her head and keep her awake. She was mad about both. She desperately wanted to sleep (causing me to be more worried). When we finally got there and saw a nurse, she started crying louder. She has developed anxiety about doctors and nurses because of shots, so she was just inconsolable.

The doctor assessed that she was bouncing back well and that we should watch her closely and return if she started vomiting or if we couldn't wake her up. I was unconvinced. This docile little child wasn't acting like my kid. But maybe that was the exhaustion from crying.

We went to get some dinner. She refused to eat and mostly just sat and stared through dinner. Then we went to get a few groceries. In the store, Olivia consented to hold Daddy's hand and walk. She NEVER lets us hold her hand. She's too independent. A few minutes later, she wanted to be held. And then...the entire contents of her stomach were all over herself, Daddy, and the store's floor.

When we arrived at the ER the second time, we had to wait. Olivia fell asleep for 20 minutes or so. We got a room. By the time the doctor got to us, Olivia was awake and singing her songs and responding to questions in normal fashion. This doctor (a different one) weighed our options but decided that we should wake her at regular intervals and watch her closely and return if something got worse.

So, two trips to the ER and the same basic diagnosis. She had a bad fall and got pretty shook up. She must not have hit the beam after all because she doesn't seem to have a bump.

She slept well last night and woke up crying today. She cried through her bath and sat on my lap for an hour before she felt like herself. I really think that her body just ACHES. She was feeling better when the tylenol kicked in.

Now, she's pretty close to normal. She's still very tired, but I think she's bouncing back well.

New playset, first real trip to the ER. I think we are going to lay low for the next few days and recover.

She has the duck & cover thing DOWN!

Olivia is scared of loud noises. Our TV is hooked up to our Bose stereo so that we can feed the sound through the Bose for better quality. It works great, but you have to turn the TV off if you want to listen to the radio or you'll get bad feedback.

Olivia was watching her cartoon this morning, and she managed to get her hands on the Bose remote. She hit the button for AM radio and was hit with a loud buzzing sound. Instinctively and immediately, she tossed the remote up in the air and dove to the ground, covering her face and crying.

I shouldn't laugh, but it was funny.

It's a good thing she's so darn cute

We all slept better last night. Olivia slept 8 p.m. to 6:30 a.m. Her Daddy and I woke up two or three times thinking we heard her crib rails rattling...a sure sign that she's climbing out. She wasn't...our minds were playing tricks on us. That's what happens when you find your daughter standing next to your bed in the middle of the night. You start to expect it to happen regularly.

Olivia just went down for her nap, and I expect it to be under 2 hours since she has decided to take a stand against long naps. I have a million things to do, so this will be brief.

Just wanted to make note of a few things that Olivia is doing now that make me happy to be her Mommy (despite the occasional sleep deprivation).

We have these two statues outside our front door...Mary and St. Francis. Olivia likes to say "Hi" to them when we go outside, and she has become fond of giving them each a kiss. When I see her kissing Mary, I always say, "Oh, that's so nice!", and now she says it.

"Hi, Fansis!"

*Kiss* So Nice!

I think I mentioned the politeness. I love how she says "Pease" after everything she requests. She has started to become very attached to her pacifier and blanket. "Pacy, pease? Blankie, pease?" It must be a phase of some sort, but she can't go anywhere now without these two things.

This morning, as Daddy was leaving for work, he gave her a kiss and said "Love You." Olivia responded, "Welcome!"

Olivia and Trey played awhile last night after a family dinner. They enjoyed riding Olivia's firetruck together. Olivia was getting tired, so of course she needed her pacy. When she knew Trey would be leaving soon, she chased him down to tackle him in her own style of hug. They are so cute and absolutely love playing together.
That's all for today. I'm going to attempt to mow the lawn before Olivia gets up. I'm relatively sure that I'll come in to find her awake and on top of something tall. What a climber that girl is!

When did this blog become all about sleep?

Life, it has been busy. We've either been out during the day or suffering from extremely short naps, which explains why it's been almost a week since I've been back here.

In my last post, I worried about Olivia's sleep issues and how they would affect her uncle, aunt and cousin, who were kind enough to keep her this weekend while we led our retreat. As it turns out, I shouldn't have worried. Combine her aunt's superstar childcare abilities with the added excitement/exhaustion brought about by spending the weekend playing with her cousin, and you have a recipe for great sleeping. I even managed to get her to lay down Sunday night and go to sleep without climbing out of her crib. I had to stand at her door and tell her to lay back down every time she stood up for fifteen minutes, but still.

Yesterday, I put Olivia to bed at 6:30 p.m. (asleep) because we had been running errands all day and she had only had a short car nap. She was exhausted and was asleep in ten minutes. Score! I had a nice evening of relaxation with my husband. We watched some TV and went to bed around 10:30.

I woke up later with the vague idea that the closet door was moving. Then I heard some tiny footsteps. I reached down and scooped my nearly-silent child onto the bed. I thought it was probably 5:00 a.m. or around that time and I might be able to squeeze another 30 minutes of sleep in if I could get her to be still and relax. But something didn't feel right. So I took a look at the clock. 11:30 p.m. I didn't want to disturb my husband's sleep since he has to work, so I took her to her room to see if I could get her to go to sleep.

We laid on her big bed, tried the crib, tried rocking, repeat. Three hours of this. At 2:30 a.m., I finally crawled back into my own bed, having (finally) successfully put a sleeping baby back in her crib.

Please, God, let her sleep well tonight! Tonight is our family dinner night, which means her cousin will be here, so maybe they'll wear each other out. I hope, I hope, I hope!