Happy 29th, my darling birthday boy. I love you.
Unfortunately, I was out of town for Kevin's birthday last Friday. We had a delicious birthday dinner a few days before, and his birthday present was a tasty little trip to NY, which you can read about here. Still, I really hated to miss it.
I thought I'd celebrate with a montage of some of my favorite pictures.
xoxo
Did I really give birth ten months ago?
Sometimes I watch Olive play and just cannot believe that she was once a hurled mass--kicking and poking around inside my tummy. I know that today is proclaimed "Mother's Day," but it will truly fall on July 7th for me. Yes, in two more months, Olive will celebrate her first birthday. She will most likely destroy a cake and consequently fight the afternoon nap. And I will just sit back, smile, and beam over the day she made me a mom.
Speaking of the little kicker...
Lately, Olive has had a really weird sleeping habit. She ends up doing this almost every single nap/sleeping occasion. It's kind of ridiculous. I mean how uncomfortable does it look?
I guess she is just trying to maintain that incredible flexibility!
So maybe I am addicted to going to the pool lately.
It feels like it's been about a million degrees with the humidity, so the pool is a nice respite from it all. It's a great reason to get out of the house for a little while as well. And it's conveniently located across the street at the school...what's not to love?
Olive also loves the excuse to get out of the house. (This picture is not a good representation of the rapture she feels when she's in the water.) She squeals just about the whole time. She is a water lover for sure. She loves splashing and looks surprised every time she gets water in her face. She loves to kick her legs in the water too. We may have a future swimmer in our hands.
She is crawling and is most recently trying to pull herself up. Sometimes I'll put her down for a nap and she'll be quiet for a while and then she'll start crying. I peek in and find her on her knees (stuck apparently) in an attempt to get up. She has no balance whatsoever and will not be walking anytime soon--so I think it's a frustrating stage for her. She wants to go everywhere and her body isn't cooperating.
Eating has also been frustrating for her because she doesn't want us to feed her. There is no point giving her a bowl and silverware yet (unless I would like to mop the floor and re-bathe her). She has enjoyed [playing with and] eating cottage cheese. I just slop a spoonful on her tray and she attempts to get it in her mouth. She misses a lot.
Oh and you should probably be jealous right about now. Sunday evening we walked along the beach at sunset and the water was pretty dang warm. Like bath water. And it's April ya'll. Woot woot!
Nine months in the womb, nine months out. And she just gets lovelier all the time! She is such a happy and social baby. At the grocery store she just eats up all the attention she gets from the old people and nice store employees. Olive is SUCH a daddy's girl. She babbles a lot, but most consistently says DAD. DAD. DAD. We have our little comedy routine--I plead with her to say "Ma Ma" and she always says, "DAD."
At her most recent weigh-in, she came in at 19 lbs. (Those clothes sure aren't fitting as well as they used to.) She wears a 12-18 size...ha ha at least for now. I caught some of her "babble" while she was going down for her nap. I only captured a little snippet on video, but she was doing it a lot when the camera was turned off.
Kevin has been living at the law school library, but for the few minutes that he is home for food or sleep, he always finds time to play with Olive. And isn't she thrilled?!?!
Is it just me or does her scream sound like a police whistle?
Kevin's birthday isn't until May, but I wanted to send him to New York for a couple of days for his birthday present. Spring Break seemed to be the best time--especially since we don't know what he'll be doing for the summer. Kevin has missed NY a lot--especially the delicious cuisine. Here are some of the memorable meals he re-lived:
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| Burger and fries from Shake Shack. It is a really rich-tasting burger. (You can basically taste how bad it is for you.) I have posted about their burgers before--I always get mine topped with a portobello mushroom that has been stuffed with cheese and deep-fried. It is gooey deliciousness. Thank heavens there is one in Miami! |
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| Real ramen from Ippudo. I think Kevin usually gets the garlic ramen that has pork and egg and in it. You have never tasted anything like it before. It is exquisite. I am so jealous he got to eat there. |
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| Cookies from Levain Bakery. They are monstrous cookies (I can only usually eat half before I'm sick) that are TA-sty! |
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| Hot and sour dumpling soup from Yunan Flavor Snack Shop in Brooklyn. It was a couple blocks/avenues away from where we lived. The food is incredibly inexpensive and delicious. I probably miss this most and yearn for the recipe! |
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| Pizza from Lucali's in Brooklyn. The neighborhood it's located in is serene and beautiful--just how you imagine Brooklyn should be. You must get fresh basil on the pizza--it's the best. And the calzones are amazing too! |
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| The chef at Lucali's makes the food out in the open, by candlelight, using a wine bottle as his rolling pin. Talk about an incredible ambience with incredible food. |
I am so glad we could send Kevin back for such a fun little trip. He had a good time running around town with Andrew Veenstra. (Thanks for putting him up during his stay!) Someday, we will all go back for a little family trip!
And of course, no blog post would be complete without pictures of Olive. Here she is with Daddy!
Kevin is TERRIBLE at taking pictures off of his phone...so I finally did it today. But before I show them to you, here's a video of Olive's "scooching." I'm not really sure it can be classified as crawling, but she can get where she needs to.
Olive is being serenaded here by the lovely guitar player and singer at Mazzaro's. (It's a lovely Italian market that we adore.) When you walk into this place, you smell fresh pepperoni and other spicy meats. There is a sandwich counter that is always packed with people but really worth the wait. Then there's fresh pasta, pizzas, and just about any Italian ingredient you could think of. Kevin is partial to their bacon strips dipped in chocolate (though it doesn't sound too "Italian" to me). This was the day and place where we were told by two different sets of grandparents that Olive was way cuter than their grandkids. (Ouch! She's cute, but you don't need to compliment her at the expense of your poor grandchildren.)
The next picture is just classic! Kevin and I went to Target while we were in St. George at Christmas time and had fun chasing a bird around the children's department.
This is "Mother Olive." Isn't she charming?
Olive is incognito. I think my profile looks a lot like my mom's in this picture. (I think my mom used to have bangs like this too.)
Santa Claus brought me a pasta maker for Christmas. Here we are, breaking it in by making homemade chicken noodle soup.
Here we are on our way from the parking lot to the entrance of Busch Gardens. Olive's expression kind of reminds me of the cross-eyed kid in "Dennis the Menace." "Uh, uh, an apple."
And that's it for now! I feel a little bad there are no pictures of Dad. We will remedy that soon.
Um that's right...another new nephew to blog about! My sister-in-law, Clare, was induced last Wednesday and gave birth to this little sweetie. It was perfect timing (fortunately and unfortunately for Clint) since Clint just had his appendix removed the weekend before and was told he couldn't return to work for a little over a week. (Eeek to appendix removal...we're just glad it hadn't burst yet and that he's doing better.) Isn't that just the sweetest picture?!
It was a really exciting week for my brother, Tom, and his family. His wife, Carly, went in for a C-section on Wednesday and gave birth to a beautiful baby boy. They decided to name him Carson. Do you think big brother Jace is excited? Talk about a gorgeous baby. And so far, I hear he is a pretty chill baby.
My other sister-in-law, Clare, is due any time now. We all are wishing her good luck and a smooth delivery!
Olive turned 8 months old last week and is doing really well! She is such a joy in our lives. She currently weighs 18 lbs. 11 oz. and is 27 1/4" long. We went to the cardiologist last week and apparently her heart murmur is still there, though very small. The small hole is supposed to close on its own, and even though hers hasn't, there is absolutely no need to worry about it.
I think she will be crawling very soon and is figuring it out, little-by-little. Here is a little video of her "attempts."
Kevin and I got our tax return a month ago and put almost every penny towards paying off credit cards. YAY! We did, however, use a small portion for Busch Gardens annual passes. For us locals, the price is the same as going once. No brainer!
We finally went Friday afternoon for a couple of hours. Olive got to see alligators, turtles, chimpanzees, gorillas, and elephants.
And Kevin and I took turns going on a couple of rides. We really liked the Sheikra roller coaster.
I am looking forward to going again soon before it gets much more humid! (It's been 80 degrees lately.)
Oh and this morning Kevin went to the ER with a nasty kidney stone. He didn't know what it was at the time, but luckily it passed after a couple of hours. Once the nurse told us it was going to be a couple of hours, Kevin sent me and Olive home. The dummy was supposed to call us to pick him up but he didn't want to wake Olive up again and walked several miles home instead. Hopefully he can get some sleep and feel better.
