6 months and counting..

Ok, here it is , the latest pic of "the belly". I seem to be carrying very similarly to how I carried Olivia (low and straight out in front) so we'll see what we end up with... any guesses?

xxoxoxox

Caving...

Ok, I admit it .. before I had a baby I believed that I could run my household and do my daily activities without the use of T.V.... AHAHAHAHAHAHA!!! I must have been out of my ever-lovin' mind.

Peer into the Barber household from 5:30-6:00 (prime-time dinner making hour and of course the "witching" hour for Olivia) and you will usually find either Toy Story, Finding Nemo, or an episode of the Muppet show playing in the background.

I do try REALLY hard not to turn it on ( by "it" I mean the boob tube) during the day but let me tell you, there was a day not too long ago that "America's Next Top Model" marathon was playing the background pretty much the whole day... boo on me.

I haven't caved in yet with the car/airplane DVD player yet... but at this point I will never, EVER, rule anything out when it comes to 10 minutes ( or even 5 min. ) of peace and quiet.

Amen.

My own personal studio...

I had an epiphany last weekend....I was determined not to take Olivia to get her pictures taken at a place that would "for sure" over charge me ( ex. Picture People, J.C. Pennys, Babies R Us) and where I couldn't be sure she would behave long enough to get any good pictures.

I decided to take matters into my own hands and try to take some semi-professional pics myself... I think that some of them turned out ok....you be the judge.

Plus.. I had plenty of cookies on hand at home to bribe her with.. hahaha

xoxo

Early "Summer" Fun

We have had some really beautiful weather here in Southern Cali the last few weeks... this past weekend Olivia spent quite a few hours playing outside with her bubbles, balls, bowls...:-) I filled her bowls with water and she LOVED pouring all the water from one bowl to another and also transfering water with a big spoon.

Sometimes stuff from the kitchen cabinet is better than any toy you can buy in a store...

A Sentence!

Every morning when Olivia and I walk into the kitchen, we make some coffee for Chad and I always ask what she would like for breakfast. Recently, she has started to actually tell me what she wants... 99% of the time it is "oatmeal" or "Oat-mo" as she calls it. This morning I asked her and very plainly , in the clearest voice you can imagine she said " MaMa cook egg".

I almost fell over.

I knew that she could say all of those words , but never all together in a sentence....Amazing.

Every day is a blessing and a suprise....

xoxoxo

" To Class or not to Class" ?!

Ok, so I have quite a few friends now with kids and I seriously am like the only mom who has never enrolled their child in some sort of "class"; examples: Gymboree, Kindermusik, My Gym, etc.... My reasons were always very simple.. she spends 3 full days a week socializing with her cousins and I didn't feel the need to spend the money to put her in a class where she was basically doing the same things she was doing with them. Now that she is getting older I feel more pressured ( not by any of my friends) to enroll her in "something". How do all you mom's feel about this subject? We are on an EXTREMELY tight budget but I know there are some local "parks and rec" programs that I could try...*sigh*.

I would appreciate any suggestions or advice regarding this topic.....I feel like she is learning stuff everyday but maybe I am not giving her enough variety with what she is learning? Ai ,yi, yi,.....

A Year and a Half..

Olivia is 18 months old! She has been in our lives for a year and a half....and it seems like she has always been here. She is funny, sweet, snuggly, persistent, opinionated, and happy. She has a vocabulary of about 50 words and adds new ones almost everyday now. She eats with a spoon and fork and can color a picture with crayons. I never knew before having my own child how wonderful it would be to watch each milestone and ponder at how quickly she has gone from infant, to baby, to toddler. We know that she is going to be a great big sister!

Grumble, grumble..

Don't you just hate it when you get all the way back to work or home and the drink you ordered is the wrong one?

I ordered a Diet Pepsi today for lunch ( I know, I know.. caffeine..but I really "wanted" it..)... and didn't try it until I was back at the office. They gave me "regular" Pepsi..

blah.

I have been trying to sip it.. but to no avail.. it is just too sweet. I think it's God trying to tell me I should not have been drinking a Diet Pepsi to begin with, so off I go to re-fill my sippy cup with water....which is what I should have been drinking to begin with.


*sigh*

Attention Blog Stalkers!!!

Did that get your attention? I recently ( a couple of months ago) put a counter on my blog site so that I could see how many hits/visits I was getting. Boy was I shocked to find out how many people, be them random, friends, friends-of-friends, etc. visit our site! Please, please, PLEASE leave a comment letting me know who you are... I love meeting and talking with new people. I will admit that I am totally guilty of doing the same thing sometimes, so I promise to comment on other people's pages too... :-)

Oh, and...

HAPPY "V" DAY! Even if it means you give your loved ones 2 kisses instead of one..then it means something. I don't really buy into the whole "Hallmarky" aspect of Valentines day but everyone loves a little extra "love", don't ya think?!

xoxoxo
Melissa

Father-Daughter Dance!

Last Saturday night Chad took Olivia to her first Father-Daughter Valentine's Dance. It was held at Bel Air Presbyterian church from 6-9 pm ( although they only stayed until about 7:30 pm or so...). Chad said that she really had a fun time... they danced to some swing music, visited the arts n' craft table, and had some refreshments ( fruit and punch). The beautiful blue dress she is wearing was made by my sister-in-law's mother ( Thank-you Linden!), and it actually matched her cousin Hadley's dress. It's so hard to believe that she is already old enough to do these things... how time flies. xoxoxo

Don't tell my midwife...

Oi! I just ate half a bag of Trader Joe's chocolate covered pretzels. The baby made me do it... yeah, a likely story.

The baby is kicking like crazy whenever I am sitting or resting. Chad is able to feel him/her moving now which is soooo cool. When I ask Olivia where the baby is she lifts my shirt and pats my tummy. I have decided not to ask her that question in public anymore... :-)

Olivia's new word for the week is "icky". Except she says is more like "ee-ee". Yesterday she saw the dog going poop and said "Dog-a pooh ee-ee no-no". I think the no-no at the end was because I told her last week "no touch" when we were out in the backyard and she saw a pile of poop.

Yeah, that's the exciting news in our house right now....Trader Joes Chocolate pretzels and dog poop. Fabulous!!

I will post some great pics soon of Olivia and Chad at the Bel Air Presbyterian Church Father/Daughter dance. So fun!

xoxo
melissa

18 week portrait

We had our 18 week ultrasound yesterday and the baby put on quite a show.... "its'" favorite position seemed to be with its' arm thrown back touching its' forhead. So cute... :-) It took a while for the technician to get all the pics she needed cuz the baby was wiggling around so much and was quite comfortable curled up in a little ball ...after I got up and moved around a bit, it seemed to unfurl and give us a better view.. so funny! This pic is a profile with the arm back up over the head...the ribcage extends out to the right and up cuz its' legs were actually curled up above it..... crazy baby!! Enjoy!

A Messy Lesson!

Olivia has been practicing the last few months to use her spoon in the "proper" way. Today for lunch I gave her some homemade tomato-basil soup and she absolutely had a blast dipping her toast and "using" her spoon. Enjoy!

Rainy Day Fun

We don't get many rainy days in So. California but when we do , BOY does it come down! It poured all day today and since it was Chad's day home with Olivia he decided to pull down some new toys that we had saved from her birthday in September. Her favorite was this school shaped "tent". I have never heard her so happy. She pulled her blankets and stuffed animals into and kept trying to coax Cassie to come in..( she did walk in and out a couple of times, much to Olivia's delight!). Anyway, it is a great toy and will also be fun to play with out in the yard when it is dry out! Even Da-Da went inside to play!!

My Little Table

A couple of weeks ago we found this table at Pottery Barn Kids and decided to buy it for Olivia's room. Normally I would not even think of buying anything there ( too expensive!) but it was the floor model and MUCH less than the normal cost. It matches the nursery perfectly and Olivia is absolutely delighted to have a little table her size. She loves to push the chairs in and out and put all her stuffed animal friends on top of it. Here are some pics of her enjoying it!

Almost 18 weeks....

Here's a pic of the "baby belly". It has definitely grown in the last week or so.... I actually had someone ask me how far along I was today.. so that's a good sign...:-)

Vegetable Baby!

Hurray! The "baby" is the size of a healthy avocado! I love the vegetable and fruit comparisons that "babycenter.com" gives. So funny....

I promise I'll post some new pics of Olivia soon...her favorite new pastime is saying "no, no, dog-a" and wagging her little finger at the dog. Hmmmmmm...maybe we need to stop discipling the dog in front of her.

That's all for now!

xoxox

Olivia-ease!

Olivia pretty much has words for everything now.. unfortunately we don't always know what they mean.. which is VERY frustrating for her. Usually I will just distract her with something else if I don't figure it out.. *sigh*. Anyway, here is a sampling of her "extensive" vocabulary.

bye-bye= ba-bye!

dog= dog-a!

mom= mama

dad= dada

cat= da!

blankie= ban-kee

elmo= elmo ( she has actually nailed that one)

all done= ah dun

no= NO!

milk= ma

bath= baa

K.C. ( her cousin)= ti-ti

Hadley ( her cousin)= Haaa

Aunti Jen= Jun

Uncle Keenan= Unca

Aunti Sarah= RaRa

Papa = aPa

Unfortunately she has no vocal name for her Grammy or Gamma yet...when I ask her to say those words she just laughs hysterically... hmmmmmmm.

Bye for now... :-)

Ramblings...

Well, this morning I had to put on a pair of maternity pants for work...*sigh*. I am only 15 weeks and already my pants don't fit. Thank-heavens for best friends though, cuz Jamie gave me a huge bag of maternity clothes to borrow .. :-) At least this might mean that I don't just look "fat" anymore... maybe I'm starting to look pregnant? My mom would be a good judge of this fact but too bad she lives 2 hours away and can't give me her honest opinon xoxo...

Olivia doesn't like to ride in the stroller anymore for our "usually" nightly walks with the dog. She likes to walk now.. which I think is so cute...but the walk usually takes us about double of what it normally would. We walk down our street and around the local elementary school.. about 1/2 mile or so...The other night just her, the dog, and I were walking and she turned to me and said "Ma-ma" and then looked at the dog and said "dog-a" and they kept saying those two words over and over again until she had made herself laugh. So funny...

By-the-way, the not riding in the stroller thing is great for nightly walks , not so great for trips to the mall, Target, etc... *arhhhggg*

Olivia and I took down the Christmas tree the other day and I was a bit worried as to how she would handle the ornaments as I took them off... amazingly she took each one that I gave her ( only the non-breakable ones) and placed them in the container. It was sooooo sweet ..until....she got a hold of the glass German Christmas pickle ornament and started running away from me with it in her mouth. ( Not my finest moment as a mom...). Fortunately, I was able to retrieve the Christmas pickle without harm to it or her... Whew!

I am no longer in the "Tater-Tot" only eating phase of my pregnancy. .. I have now moved on to Pick-Nix potato snacks-in-bed-while-watching-the NEW American Gladiators portion of my pregnancy.... so classy.

God-Bless my husband for not having a judging bone in his body....:-)

So long for now.. ;-)

Holidays 2007!

Well, it has been a LONG time since my last post but I assure it was not for lack of things going on in the Barber household. We had a very BUSY holiday season filled with family, traveling, and unfortunately some illness too.

We left on Dec.21st for Palm Springs to spend 5 days with Chad's mom, my mom and step-dad, and lots of other family. The first activity on the agenda was a trip to "The Living Desert" for a seasonal thing they do called "Wild Lights". They basically put up thousands of lights and Santa makes an appearance, there is hot cocoa to drink, and the best part are the wonderful model trains that are running all over. We met family and friends there to hang out and enjoy the cool, crisp , desert night air. Olivia and her friend Bryce really loved the trains. They stood by the fence for at least 1/2 an hour and clapped as the trains rolled by. Olivia was not as thrilled with Santa, but I really enjoyed the "candy" she got for saying hi to him... :-)




Christmas eve was spend at Chad's mom's house with homemade chili ( vegetarian... so yummy), eggnog, and christmas goodies. Olivia, Hadley, and K.C., all had matching polar bear pajamas to open for that night and we had a great time laying out cookies and milk for Santa.

Olivia woke up Christmas morning with 103 degree fever but was determined to open some gifts before a long morning nap. We all enjoyed a tasty breakfast of egg casserole and Cinnamon roll-ups and open presents like we were possessed. It was awesome! Olivia received a modest amount of gifts which included a favorite push-toy and a brand new wagon from her Gamma Ginny. It was a great day despite the illness. :-)






We drove back to L.A. the day after Christmas to meet up with my dad who stayed with us until New Year's Day! It was a great visit even though Olivia was very under the weather. We took a trip to IKEA, played at the park, took long walks, and ate lots of yummy food. Olivia is still asking for her "Grandpa"...so come back soon Dad!!! ha!

New Year's Eve was spent with our dear friends Jamie, Todd, and Rachel. We all noshed on heavy appetizers and after the babies were sound asleep , we watched the "Bourne Ultimatum"... it was awesome!! Unfortunately , we were in bed by midnight sound asleep.. we are just getting too old... j/k. The dog was nice enough to wake us up at midnight after she heard fireworks down the street...:-) Happy New Year!

That pretty much sums it up... it was a busy time and now I have Olivia's illness that she was so kind to pass on ... :-) *sigh* Hopefully there won't be as much of a lag between now and my next post....believe me the intention is always there to write... just not the time!! aghhh!!