Olivia the Artist

I have been neglecting this blog for quite a while now. Bear with me, I'll probably be posting quite a bit over the next few days. Don't worry, I'll try to be brief.

We had quite a few fiascoes because of Olivia back in September and October. When she pooped, she would take her diaper off and "paint" the walls, the carpet, and even some toys (which were simply tossed out). We resorted to taping her diaper, but then she figured out she could go up the leg of her diaper. With this new realization, she decided to paint the t.v.

Her favorite time to "paint" was always at the worst time possible (not that there is ever a good time for this to happen). One time she did it just as Paul had to leave for a meeting, which left me to clean it up by myself. Another time she did it just before my parents were to arrive for a visit. And she did it once just before we were to leave town, which caused us to get there later than we would have liked.

I finally decided I needed to document Olivia's murals. This definitely was not her most magnificent masterpiece, but it's a masterpiece all the same.

Fortunately this was the last of the "painting" fiascoes and the phase has since passed.

Halfway to 1 Year

Ethan turned 6-months on September 4. I can't believe it! I think time goes by quicker for the second child than it does with the first. We received a good report for his health and development at his appointment. Here are his 6-month stats:

Height: 27 inches (I thought it was weird he didn't grow in 2 months, but the doctor said he was 26 inches at 4-months and not 27 like I had thought. Oops. That means is was in the 77th percentile at 4-mo and 63% at 6-mo.)
Weight: 17.7 lbs. (50%)
Head: 43.5 cm (48%)

Since Ethan is now 7-months old, the following will emcopass the time period from his last update I posted up to the present and not just up to 6-months.

-Ethan sits up well on his own. Obviously he still loses his balance some, so we still have to be near him when he sits.

-Ethan is terrible at eating solids. He just doesn't seem to care for them. It's not the taste or texture because there have been times he scarfs it down, but most of the time he will barely open his mouth for you. It's a little frustrating and I hope he gets an appetite for it soon.

-He may be a bad eater, but he's a great sleeper.

-He started trying to push up onto his hands and knees around 6.5 months. After a fews days of trying, he has become an expert at it and is now rocking on them like crazy. He hasn't started crawling yet. He tries to move both legs at the same time instead of one at a time. Within the last few days, he has mastered rolling around to get where he wants to go. It's crazy to think that Olivia was pulling up on things and had been crawling for almost a month at this age. It's funny to see how kids develop differently.

We love our little guy so much. He is the cutest boy on the planet! Don't believe me? Just look at this picture and you'll agree :)

6-months Old

Cute Kiddos

Blogger overload! I know I've been posting like crazy, but I have lots of catching up to do. I'm almost done! Anyway...

Here are some random shots of Olivia and Ethan in August and September.

Before church one morning

Ethan was ready for a nap, but I wanted him to wait another 45 minutes so that his nap would overlap with Olivia's. I need that alone time! Apparently he was really exhausted and didn't want to wait. I felt so bad!

O & E like to play on our bed while we get ready in the morning. They were especially cute this particular morning.

We had the Perrys over for dinner/FHE one evening. Olivia enjoyed feeding the brownie to Joe. We kept joking around saying, "She already has boys eating out of her hand!" Ha ha!

I work at a drop-in nursery once a week just to get out of the house and it's fun for Olivia. We had a cleaning day where we all deep-cleaned the toys and rooms. Olivia must've been taking notes because she felt the need to clean her bath toys and the bathtub the next night.

I found Olivia making her tunnel into a tent by brining her pillow and blanket inside with her.

Olivia's hair was wild after a nap one day. (I don't know why it's sideways because it's not like that before I upload it. Weird!)

"You, Tarzan. Me, Jane."

 

Ethan is such an easy baby...most of the time. He's perfectly content sitting in the Bumbo playing with his toys.

Olivia asked to hold and feed Ethan for the first time in a very long time. Ethan was more interested in smiling at, talking to, and touching Olivia. She sat there sweetly looking down at him. And then it happened. The sweet moment was over in the blink of an eye. Ethan's super grip grabbed the skin under Olivia's chin. Olivia looked up at me with a distressed face saying, "All done!" while trying to push Ethan off her lap.

Yeah for Birthdays!

When I really stop and think about it, it just doesn't seem real that I'm married, have two kids, and I'm 28 years old! On my birthday at the end of August, I just kept thinking that I still feel like I'm 21 instead of only 2 years from being 30. Crazy! If you're only as old as you feel, then I'm in good shape. Ha ha!

We pretty much celebrated my birthday for 3 days. It was great. My birthday was Thursday, which is the day of the week we usually have play group. My friend, Kerry, hosted and she made lots of yummy treats and asked another friend to bring chicken salad. It was all so delicious! They even sang "Happy Birthday." I just wasn't too happy about the trick candles. Ha! Sadly, I don't have any pictures. I think someone had a camera, though. I'll have to hunt them down :)

There happened to be a girls' night out scheduled that evening (coincidentally, not for my birthday). A bunch of us got together for soup, bread, and chatting. They got me, though. I was in the middle of a conversation with someone when everyone suddenly burst into the birthday song for me. So sweet of them!

Friday evening, Paul took me to a Braves game for my birthday. Even though the Braves lost, it was a fun game to watch and we ate way too much food! Thanks to Kerry for watching the kiddos for us!

I've been wanting to go out to breakfast for a while now, so we finally decided to do it on Saturday morning. We tried a new place called Egg Harbor Cafe. It was amazing! We want to go back again and again. If you live in Atlanta, I definitely recommend it.

Yeah for birthdays!

Rice Cereal

We gave rice cereal to Ethan for the first time back in July. It didn't go over too well.

"What's about to happen?"

"I'm not opening my mouth for that."

"Fine..."

"Ew!"

12 Days of Myrtle Beach

Olivia, Ethan, and I had lots of fun spending time with family in Myrtle Beach. We were sad Paul wasn't able to spend all those days with us, but he did fly in the last Friday we were there, so we were able to spend Saturday morning at the beach before driving back to Atlanta.

Victor gave the kids horsey rides around the house.

Tiffany finally told her hubby he needed to get the kids to wind down, so he read them some books.

Olivia and Ethan with their cousin, Liam

Olivia "helped" Granddaddy wash the car. Her version of helping was to wash herself instead of the car. She thoroughly enjoyed the suds.

Matt's family came into town the weekend of my parents' welcome home party and we were able to have a fun day at the beach with them, my dad, and Uncle Eric.

Big contrast, huh? Uncle Eric walked up to my dad and said, "You look like you've been out west." Ha ha! (FYI: they're brothers.)

We also had a pool day.

The kids were pining for the pool on Sunday. Sorry, kiddos! It's the Sabbath.

Ethan and his great-grandma Stalvey

My parents took me to eat at my family's favorite seafood restaurant, Sara J's. So good! Olivia enjoyed looking out at the marshes and watching some people fish off the dock.

Uncle Eric, my cousin, Jared, and my cousin, Perry, and his family came over to my parents' house for a pool day.

Perry's drink is as big as little Lucy!

The kids and I went over to Elizabeth's for dinner one evening and Ethan met his granddaddy Crolley. Unfortunately I didn't get a picture of the kids with Aunt Lib. Next time...

Our last beach day before our trek back to Atlanta.