11 Months +++

Okay, so I've been slacking on the posting...sorry!! Our little girl is 11 months old and quickly approaching her 1st birthday. Quite a bit has happened in the last 7 weeks...

First, mommy quit her job...yay!! I now work part-time (about 12 hours per week), and still teach (about 3 hours per week), and have the rest of my time to spend with Olivia and work on my dissertation (which hasn't progressed much to date). Not only do I have better hours, but I love my new position working with the Housing and Residential Education department at USF. The people are great, and so far I really like the projects I'm working on. Daddy and Olivia helped me move out of my other office, and Olivia seemed to develop a fascination with the glass next to the door… It made for great photos though!


The new hours have allowed me to continue taking Olivia to Gymboree...she's now in the Level 3 class...and we have added a music class too! So she's getting lots of opportunity to socialize with other kids her age. She was even invited to her first birthday party this past Sunday for one of her friends from Gymboree! It was held at a local place called Kidz Club and Olivia had a great time playing with Cheyenne, Mia, and Malishka, who are all in her Gymboree class.

The best event in the past few weeks has been the finalization of her adoption! FINALLY!! On September 4, 2008, she legally became Olivia Rhianne Kittendorf-Rosengren (yes, we are torturing her with a long last name). Months of stress and anticipation came down to 10 minutes in a courtroom with a judge, a lawyer, 3 bailiffs, a court reporter, us and Grandma. The lawyer asked a series of questions basically pertaining to who we were, where we lived, and what we did, and the question which brought me to tears…”why do you want to adopt this child?”. How do you answer a question like that without crying!?!? They were all so friendly though…one of the bailiffs took photos for us, and afterward they gave Olivia two stuffed animals…a bear with a heart and a duck with an “Olivia” necklace.

After coming home and taking naps, we went to the Florida Aquarium and had a great time looking at all the fish, turtles, birds, rays, seahorses, gators, and sharks! We wanted to do something special to mark the day and thought the aquarium would be a fun adventure. Olivia seemed to enjoy herself and even found a boy to chase (yes, it's starting already!).

Olivia loves the tunnel that she gets to crawl through at Gymboree, so we bought her a princess one to play with at home. She and Leo (our youngest cat) spent about 20 minutes chasing each other around the tunnel the first day. It was really funny! She and Leo have developed a great relationship…he’s very patient with her even when she lays on him!

Olivia is still on the verge of walking. She lets go and stands unsupported, but hasn’t yet ventured that first step. She weighs a little over 22 lbs now, so we definitely get a workout lifting her up and down all day, and her favorite foods are still frozen blueberry waffles, frozen pancakes, cheese, bananas, Cherrios, teddy grahams, and various fruits. She babbles up a storm, understands lots of words and commands, and even understand signs, but hasn’t said or signed anything distinguishable. She LOVES Sesame Street!...you should see the grin on her face when she hears the theme song! And she understands the concept of a telephone... if we say "hello, hello, who's calling please?", she picks up her blue toy phone and puts it to her ear (though not always the right way)... it's so cute!

It's been amazing to watch her development... From the seemingly simple things like banging objects or learning to put things "in" and take things "out", to watching her pick up small objects and balance without holding on. Even her music tastes are developing...she actually smiles when she hears the song "Forever" by Chris Brown that plays in mommy's car.

Her birthday and baptism are just two short weeks away, so there will be more pictures and updates to follow. There was no way to post here all the photos from our recent adventures, so if you want to see more, visit our Kodak Gallery site. Till next time….

Our Happy Giggle Girl

This is my first attempt at posting a video of Olivia and, if it works, I'll start to post more. This was taken on June 21st (3 days before she was 9 months) and captures her giggling. You can hear mommy off camera making funny noises, fortunately you can't see the funny faces I was making too. But it made her giggle, which was the whole point. I challenge you to watch this without laughing yourself!!

9 1/2 Month Update

Okay, okay, so this blog is about 2 weeks later than normal. However, due to my work schedule, our vacation, and the doctor's vacation, Olivia didn't have her 9 month check-up until this past Friday. I wanted to wait and do the post AFTER we had her latest height and weight measurements, and she is now 2o lbs 10 oz and 29 1/4 inches long (still in the 95 percentile for height, and average for her weight). So much has happened since the last post, so here goes...

It's amazing how much a child will change in just 6 short weeks! Since the last post, Olivia has really become a girl on the move. She started sitting up on her own shortly after the last post. Richard went in to her room one morning to get her up and there she was, sitting up looking at him with a "what took you so long" look. She sat up on June 1st, started cruising (walking by holding on to things) on June 6th, crawled on June 9th, and we found her standing in her crib on June 10th. Talk about a quick progression! She is cruising around the living room and will occasionally let go for a few seconds and stand before plopping to the ground. She's also developed the balance to be able to bend over and pick things up while standing. The cruising improved her muscle strength so she has gone from army crawling to regular crawling, and she loves chasing after a ball that she rolled away from her. She has an activity walker that she likes to pull up on and play with, but she hasn't quite gotten the hang of using it as a support while she walks. Though I'm sure that's just days away.

She has developed quite an independent streak when it comes to her food, and with 7 teeth (and an 8th on the way) she's having fun using them. She'll only take about 5 bites of something off a spoon, then all she wants is finger food! She's not even interested in holding the spoon her self, just wants to pick up stuff with her developing pincer grasp. Her favorite item, of course, is Cheerios. She still loves chunks of banana, and she loves cheese, pasta, frozen waffles (toasted, of course), and the Gerber Graduates yogurt melts and puffed stars (they are sorta like baby corn pops that melt in your mouth). She has also started eating pieces of turkey and chunks of chicken (sorta). I also regularly give her carrots and green beans... some days she loves them, others she spits them out. And she still gets a variety of fruit combos with her cream of wheat cereal. She also loves drinking from her new "Olivia" sippy cup that Nonny (Richard's mom) gave her, and will happily let you know she is done eating by ripping off her bib. Definitely opinionated, this one is!

Speaking of Nonny, Olivia took her first road trip to see Nonny and PopPop in Franklin, NC over the July 4th weekend. We spent almost 12 hours in the car each way and she was a GREAT traveler. I sat in the backseat with her while daddy drove, and we played with her toys, sang songs, read books, and slept. I bought her a travel pillow (called a cradler) that prevented her head from bobbing around while she slept, and it was great! When I noticed she was starting to get sleepy, I put it on her and she'd doze off. By the end of the trip, once she woke up from her little naps, she would pull it off herself!

But we had a great time with Nonny and PopPop. We sat on the porch swing quite a bit (enjoying the cooler weather!), blew bubbles, played with a Tickle Me Elmo and Talking Kermit, visited PopPop at the farm and took pictures, and met all kinds of new friends and relatives at the July 4th cookout! Olivia was very happy to see that Nonny also has cats and spent time petting Willow (Patches didn't hang around to be groped by Olivia). PopPop will have Olivia fishing and picking vegetables in no time, and we know that Olivia will LOVE baking with Nonny. We're looking forward to our next trip to NC at Thanksgiving!

In the meantime, Olivia gets to spend some quality time with Grandma (my mom) who cares for her two full days and two half days per week. The half days I work have allowed me to start taking Olivia to Gymboree, and she's just loving it! The first week she was very much a cautious observer, but now she will crawl into the middle of the circle and clap! (yes, she's also clapping now...for everything and everyone!) It's a great opportunity for her to socialize with other babies her age, and for me to talk to other moms. I've even met a mom of an adopted boy named Tyler, and it's always nice to meet other adoptive parents.

And we can't forget to mention Richard's first Father's Day! His only request was a Fudgie the Whale cake from Carvel. Apparently their advertising is quite effective because Richard grew up with the idea that fathers should get Fudgie the Whale on Father's Day. So that's what he got (along with lunch from Carrabba's and the new Lego Indiana Jones video game).

All in all, it has been an eventful six weeks! Unless something really amazing happens in the next two weeks, I'll probably save the next post until she's about 10 1/2 months old. I'm also going to figure out how to post the few videos I've taken, especially her giggling one...it will crack you up!! Till next time...

8 Month Update

It's been a busy month for our little 8 month old. Not only is she sitting up like a champ (once we put her in that position), she rolls, Army crawls (we call her inch-worm), drinks from a sippy cup, drinks from a straw, and is getting really good taking steps while we hold her hands. She wants to stand all the time now, and she has fun walking back and forth between me and daddy, and standing propped against the ottoman. She has also started picking out her own toys to play with from the toy basket we keep in the living room, she turns the pages when we read to her, and we have discovered that she is ticklish when I use my toes to tickle her side, or when daddy chews on her heels. Her giggle is still the cutest sound on the planet!!

She loves eating Cream of Wheat mixed with fruit for breakfast, mashed potatoes mixed with veggies for dinner, and she loves chunks of banana. She has also eaten pieces of toast and cooked pasta. She has four teeth now too! She's a good eater, and at her doctor's appointment this week, she was 19.6 lbs.

We were at the doctor's this week because she had her first cold (which mommy now has). So we had a couple days with a cranky baby who was exhausted but who didn't want to sleep, and who had a stuffy nose. Once we got the humidifier going in her room, we saw a dramatic improvement in her breathing. She still has a bit of a cough, but she is back to her bubbly self.

I had the joy of experiencing my first Mother's Day this year! Richard took us to the new Japanese restaurant at Epcot, and gave me a lovely necklace. The photo of the two of us was taken a the restaurant. It was a REALLY hot day!! It was Olivia's first visit to a Disney theme park, and we entered through the back of the park, went straight to Japan, ate, and left. Thank God for season passes!! Half the restaurant was commenting on how cute Olivia is, and how well-behaved! I still say it's all in the parenting.... :-)

Although she's not talking yet, she seems to understand alot of what we say, and she gets REALLY excited when she sees our youngest cat Leo. We are convinced that her first word will either be Leo or Elmo (who she plays with while on the changing table). We're teaching her sign language too, and can't wait to see what her first sign will be. We know that the next few months will be full of all kinds of new milestones and can't wait to see what she'll do next. We'll keep you posted!

Photos

I've created some photo collages of three photo series I did of Olivia. They are too cute to not post! And it also dawned on me that I never posted her Easter Bunny picture...so that's here too.

Celebrity Photos

One of the nice things about working at a university is the lecture series that we have. Being that I am also part of the committee that plans the lectures, I've been fortunate to have the opportunity to meet many of the celebrities who have visited campus. I couldn't pass up the opportunity for Olivia to meet her first celebrities... Ronde and Tiki Barber! Ronde plays football for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Tiki used to play football for the New York Giants and is currently a correspondent for the NBC Today show. They have also written books.

The guys were both very nice, and both commented on Olivia's cheeks! Tiki is in the photo with me, and Ronde is in the photo with Richard (it's hard to tell them apart!)

We told the guys that Olivia said she would never forgive us if we didn't take her to meet them...they found that amusing! And you can tell she's completely unfazed by their celebrity status... :-)

6 1/2 Month Update

For the past month or so, we've been attempting to introduce Olivia to solid foods. After several weeks of her rejecting the rice cereal, the doc said to go ahead and try fruits and veggies. So began the journey from sweet potatoes, to squash, to bananas, to applesauce, to pears, to peaches...and she ultimately rejected all of them! I finally gave her some of our mashed potatoes one day, and she loved them! She has now been eating them for about a week, and we've even mixed in some sweet potatoes and she still liked them! So we don't know if the mashed potatoes were the miracle food, or if she was just finally ready to eat.

I also decided to give her one of those teething biscuit cookies... although she loved it, there were bits of cookie everywhere! After spending about 15 minutes cleaning cookie out of every crack and crevice of her hands, arms and face, I STILL found more under her neck. I'm beginning to think she bathed in it when I wasn't looking! However, it made for some humorous photos, especially when she turned to look at our cat, Leo, and turned back without holding onto the cookie. Too cute! She definitely enjoyed it though!