CAUTION: 9 MONTH POST= lots of photos of Olivia.

Here is my little sunflower playing.

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I love this series of Olivia in her Peruvian hat. I still need to take a photo of both of us with our matching peruvian hats on. So glad I bought that thing when I was there! I didn't even think I wanted kids at that point, but I bought it anyway. Of course all she wanted to do was eat the tassels.

Grandma came to visit for a week at the end of march and beginning of April (she was here for my birthday!)

 

Our happy family. And Franc receiving a coveted kiss.

Her favorite place to be is on Franc's shoulders. and do you notice her touching the wall? She was feeling the texture without ever looking at it. She always does this, she has awesome peripheral vision.

She got to meet Shira on my birthday! Lucky me because Shira, my best friend from high school, came to visit with her husband (they were staying with his best friend) and she got to meet the new love of my life:)

 On the floor of her closet I store my old cd/tape player. She discovered the old tape in the deck and and way too much fun with it. Its a good thing I didn't have her in the 80's. I would been super bummed about my tape getting all messed up! I love this face she was making. she was going WILD.

 She visited with Abuelo Fernando and Nancy. (Franc's step-grandmother)

she did a whole lot of this for pictures. She does it now even when we aren't taking pictures, but when she is just smiling for strangers.

I finally let her play with the kitchen stuff. She loved it all of course.

"AHHHHHHHH yeah yeah yeah" "moma moma"

I had to take this photo because she matched her room decor...

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Her very favorite thing about going to restaurants: drinking out of the straw (we finally bought her some straw sippy cups, because she can drink out of them more easily than her regular cups, you don't have to tip them). She likes to stick her hand in the glass and play with the ice while she is sipping.

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My birthday dinner at CINCO. Olivia with Grandpa Kortman

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mom and I  after our day at the spa. it was incredible.

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Olivia with Abuela Yolanda.

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 How much do you love this photo of Hugh and Olivia???? He is on his side checking her out, and she is looking at me like "mom please just leave us alone!" 

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We went to our town center fountains (they are meant for kids to play in) with some other couples in our apt. complex. Olivia loved them!!!

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So Olivia is incredibly picky when it comes to non-pureed fruits and veggies. She doesn't like the slimy texture on her hands. Of course when we are at a restaurant she will eat ANYTHING. She especially loved the little pieces of Avocado I dug out of this guacamole.salsa

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This is by far my favorite thing she has started doing (besides her super cute crawling). When we are driving around and she starts to get whiny I will hand her a Teen Vogue and she will just "read" it back there. Seriously. She flips the pages and scratches the photos and talks. I LOVE IT!!! (Though I should probably hand her a TIME or NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC or something more educational!)

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Olivia had a playdate with cute little Addie Pett. I cannot belive that Olivia was that age at one time!!!!!! She is so tiny. It feels like yesterday, and yet it feels like so long ago. 

Fun Things about month 9:

*One day while I was feeding Olivia in her chair, I handed her her favorite mini football. She then proceeded to stick in my open mouth. I took it out and handed it to her, and then she did it again. Over and over. laughing about her fun trick. loved it. 4/5/10

*She LOVES puffs (she's been eating them for 4 months, but the fact that she loves them more than any other food is just now becoming obvious). I swear if I only gave her puffs all day long she would be the happiest girl alive.

*She won't touch cut up fruits and veggies. she won't even let me put them on her lips. Unless we are at a restaurant. Yet, she likes them pureed. And she loves meat, bread, and anything crunchy. go figure.

*Right when she turned 8 months she was constipated a lot and she would do these plank/push-ups while grunting and trying to poop. 

*I should have written this months ago, but when she was 5-7 months the magic toy we used to calm her tired/hungry crying while driving was this random teddy bear musical stocking that someone gave us. I was going to throw it away when we were leaving FL, but then on a whim we decided to keep it. THANK GOODNESS. It saved us on more than one occasion. She would go from hysterics to laughing to gaze and sometimes to sleeping, all from a few too-loudly played Christmas carols blaring out of a teddy stocking.

*A few weeks ago I was reading Olivia "Goodnight Moon" before bead and when we got to the part where it says "Good night room" she decided not to turn the page. Instead for 10 MINUTES she looked at the pages.... talking, scratching the objects in the image, laughing, and looking. It was amazing. I couldn't believe how long her attention span lasted!!

* We went to a Mexican restaurant (pictured above) and there was a live cover band, to which she danced in her high chair the whole time. It was so cute that people from surrounding tables were turning to look.

*When I read her books, she sometimes points to the words and "reads" out loud.

* Our favorite new game to play is telephone. We have this telephone (the re-released vintage  Fisher-price one) and I will dial it and talk to "Grandma" or "Dadda" or someone and then I will hand the phone to her. She will then put it to her ear and listen (while I pretend to be that person), look at me, realize no one is there, and then hand me the phone again. We do this over and over and over. I just can't get over it each time she puts the phone to her ear!!!!

* I also should have written this a month or two ago but this has happened twice (when she was a little younger).  We have been out in public shopping and all of the sudden Olivia goes "dada dada." I turn to look and there is a man of similar stature to Franc and with brown skin (though not necessarily hispanic) but its not Franc. She has never done it to someone with white or black skin. Only brown. I find it funny that she realizes this detail about him. 

*and at about 8 3.4 months she finally started crawling!!!! that afternoon i was telling my mom how she still wasn't crawling, and then that afternoon i was taking a nap  while franc played with her and she just did it!!  She has been following me around the house ever since.