Olivia West | Three Years

I feel like so much happened this past year with me going back to work, Olivia starting school, and her transforming into a tiny human overnight that we can have full blown conversations with. I still can’t believe she just turned THREE. I am also so unbelievably glad that quarantine early last year allowed us to spend more time together so that I didn’t miss these incredible moments. 2020 wasn’t great, but it was kind of the best way to transition to going back to work if you ask me, as I could WFH but still got to be with my girl. Although at times it was WILD (seriously I still don’t know how we did it all) I am so thankful for our extra time together.

| STATS |

Since her last update she has had a 3 year checkup where she weighed in at a whopping 34lb (90th), was 38” long (70th), and even had a hearing test which she passed with flying colors. Also. She was such a pro. Just marched up and stood on the scale like she does it everyday, sat through her hearing test like a champ, and answered all of her doctor’s questions. Although when he asked what her favorite vegetable was she said cheese. Which is funny because she actually loves lots of vegetables but her pedi will never believe me. Also given how underweight she was for so long, it’s just blowing my mind she is in the 90th percentile. I never thought we’d see her that high. Girlfriend loves her snacks. Also she’s wearing 4T pants because her legs are so dang long the 3Ts look like capris. My parents are both tall so you’re welcome.

| EATING |

After literally eating veggie tots for every meal for far too long, Olivia is finally starting to get more adventurous with food. I’m also getting a lot more chill and have introduced (gasp!) cookies. I know. I’m a monster. Olivia and I are both vegetarian (and Derek is about 90% of the time) so I always make sure to watch her protein and iron intake. We all switched to oat milk (Oatly is our jam) and never looked back. I was tired of buying 3 different milks for everyone’s aversions so we all just made the leap to plant based milk and she just devours it. She is at preschool full time so I pack her a lunch which consists of a sandwich, cheese stick, fruit, and carrots. They provide breakfast (usually cereal) and snacks. Oh and cupcakes whenever it’s someone’s birthday. And trust me. We always know when it’s someones birthday because that girl is bouncing off the walls when I pick her up. For dinner she has a version of whatever we’re eating, but on days when I haven’t already prepped a meal she rotates between black bean and cheese tacos, chickpea pasta with plant based meatballs, mac and peas, yogurt (with alllllll the fixins), or a smoothie. Now that we’re all on the same schedule it’s so much easier to sit down and eat together as a family, and I’ve noticed that she is more likely to eat what we’re eating if we’re all sitting together. Lately she will ask for seconds or thirds which usually results in a banana or orange slices so that we can reserve some of the leftovers for our lunches at work lol.

| SLEEPING |

Olivia has been on the same sleep schedule since about 13-ish months. However, since starting school we’ve had to start waking her at 7am and have pushed her bedtime back to around 7:00-7:30 so that we can spend more time with her in the evenings. But depending on how exhausted or feisty she is from a full day at school, sometimes we skip a bath and get her in bed by 6pm ha. At school nap time is from 12:30-2:30 and she’s used to at least a 3 hour nap so she’s definitely tired when we pick her up. On the weekends she will sleep in until 9 or 10am and then nap for 3-4 hours just to catch up on all the sleep she isn’t getting at school. Girlfriend loves her sleep. Although it sounds great, it also kind of makes us sad because we don’t get to see her as much (but we wouldn’t dare wake a sleeping toddler woof). Side note: If you are in the throws of an infant (or toddler) sleep schedule (or are struggling with sleep regressions) I highly recommend this post to read about the method that worked for us and in turn created this incredible sleep schedule and happy child.

Oh. And she’s still rocking the crib. Her and no less than 50 stuffies (or buddies as we call them), 2 blankets, and a pillow.

| DOING |

Well with the theme of 2020 there hasn’t been a lot of “doing”. Which makes me sad because she is at such a fun age that I’d love to take her to splash pads, museums, the arboretum, zoo, vacations, etc. But sadly we haven’t been able to do any of those things. For the first half of the year we pretty much just stayed home and made our own fun. We read so many books, went on lots of walks (and talked about everything we saw), did lots of crafts, and tackled potty training (more on that later). Derek and I were both working from home while keeping her busy and would trade off mornings and afternoons, we’d work before she woke up, during naps, and then after she went to bed just to catch up. We took conference calls with her running around in the background which is basically just so normal now. We even broke down and got Disney+ for rainy days or when we both had meetings at the same time. She never really cared about screen time before and would never sit through more than 5min of a show. That was until we introduced her to Frozen. Now that’s our secret weapon when we need to hunker down and work without disruption. Her love for Anna and Elsa runs deep (hence her Frozen 3rd Birthday Party). Her vocabulary exploded around 26-27 months and we can legit have full blown conversations with her now. Which is tricky because she is so smart and knows so many words we have to remind ourselves that she’s only 3 whenever she acts out and doesn’t listen and we’re trying to reason with her (iykyk). In June I had to go back to working in the office so we enrolled her back in school and just continues to learn and grown everyday. Having her in school for a month, then taking her out for three, then putting her back definitely created some behavioral shifts which we weren’t prepared for. She started acting out at school (biting, running, hitting, potty training regression, etc.) to the point where we had to sit down with her teachers and come up with a plan. We bought all of the books, and all got on the same page so that our response at home aligned with what they did at school and within a few months she was back to her happy self. Can you imagine how confusing that would be for these kids? Being independent, then with your parents 24/7, then independent again. Poor thing. All is well now and we are all stronger and closer from it!

| MILESTONES |

Olivia has all of her teeth now, and I definitely think her 2 year molars (which took a while to come in) played a large part in her behavioral changes too. Between 24 - 26 months her vocabulary went from 25 words to over 1,000. I mean she even uses filler words like “because”, “actually”, “already”, and will say “I don’t think so” or “I don’t want to” rather than just “no”. She also loves to practice identifying letters and can even spell and read the word “love” regardless of the font, size, or color of the text she always knows when something says “love”. She can say her full name, which is pretty impressive since most adults don’t know how to say our last name. She can count to 20 and is working on counting to 100 and basic math. She knows her ABCs, but is still working on letter and number identification. She knows O for Olivia, B for Becky, D for Daddy, and G for Geoffrey, and many others (without word associations). She is working on tracing letters and numbers and holds her pencil better than most adults I know. She knows all of her colors, shapes, days of the week, seasons, animals, and we’re working on identifying different types of flowers. We also used our time at home to tackle potty training, which she mastered in about two weeks, but we’re still working on nighttime dryness. She even tells us when she needs to go potty when we’re in public or in the car. Which I am about 1000% against public restrooms even in a non-COVID world yuck. She knows how OCD I am and will literally keep her hands above her head the whole time we’re in one lol. Another huge milestone was learning empathy. This was a big struggle for a long time, and after reading lots of books about kindness and feelings she now understands when someone is sad, to the point that when we were deflating balloons from her birthday she scooped up each one and asked it if it was okay, while cuddling and kissing it. Empathy. She also understands consequences and cause and effect much more now which helps when redirecting, or disciplining her when she could get hurt or hurt someone else by her actions.

| FAVORITE MOMENTS |

We bought a house about a week before she turned 2, so we’ve been able to spend this year with much more space (which worked out since we were cooped up for most of the year). She has her own dedicated playroom now which she just loves and will constantly ask “will you come play with me?” We tried to make this year extra special since we felt like she was being deprived of so many activities and adventures, so once the summer heat started subsiding, we started going to a different park each weekend early in the morning before other families showed up. We would always leave when social distancing wasn’t an option and would hand sanitize immediately. We quickly learned which parks were the least active at any given point. Anyway. Watching her master playground equipment was incredible to see. She has no fear (thanks to a year at Little Gym) and will try any ladder or obstacle. She still doesn’t love crazy slides, but will do the more basic ones all day long (and make us crawl through all the things which makes me feel 100). She now asks us for hugs (Derek more than me) and randomly says I love you and it’s just the best. Meeting Anna on her birthday was also just the sweetest moment, and makes me super excited to take her to Disney World one day. She also loves singing songs she learns from school, teaching us what she’s learned (and literally sits like a teacher with a book and tells us all about it and quizzes us saying “good job mommy, you did it!” when I get it right. I’ve also enjoyed cooking and baking together and she just loves helping so much! The holidays were amazing this year (which made me sad that they were altered due to COVID but we still made sure they were special for her). For Halloween she kept changing her mind about her costume so in the end she was a cat lol but loved trick-or-treating. We only went to the houses where we didn’t have to interact with too many people and she really enjoyed it. Christmas was just magic. She was obsessed with driving around looking at lights, waiting for Santa to come, and hugging every blow up in our neighbors yards when we went for walks. I think my absolute favorite thing though is seeing her sense of humor blossom (which reminds me a lot of my sense of humor which makes me oh so happy). Like for example she has call backs from jokes made weeks ago. She holds onto them and will spit them out and we’re just on the floor laughing like how on earth did she remember that! She’ll also sarcastically give you a thumbs up when she’s not impressed but knows you need affirmation. Dead.

Olivia West | Two Years

Well this post is about two months past due, but luckily we’re officially transitioning to annual updates now that Olivia is TWO. How did that even happen? And then I look back at photos of her being super teeny tiny and I’m like oh yeah that feels like a lifetime ago, and also yesterday. Time is a funny thing.

| STATS |

Since her last update she has had a 2 year checkup where she weighed in at a whopping 30lb (85th), was 34.75” long (70th), and they no longer measure their heads after 2. Also. NO ONE prepared me for the fact that she no longer gets weighed and measured on the giant table, and now stands on the adult scale like a big girl! Also 30lb? No wonder my arms are so sore all the time. If you’ve been following along with her growth over these past 2 years then you’ll understand how elated we are that she is in the 85th percentile for weight. She’s never been in anything higher than 60th, and usually hung out in 30-40th. So we have made huge strides in her first two years of life.

| EATING |

Where do I start? I wouldn’t say Olivia is a picky eater, but she’s not an adventurous eater. She’s also weary of new textures, and will randomly hate something she used to love and then love it again a few weeks later. This is toddlerhood though right? So from 12m until 18m probably, she ate overnight oats every single morning for breakfast and then one day just refused. I assume she just grew tired of them as her tastebuds were expanding and realized there were other things out there. So now breakfast is all over the place from cereal, to fruit, to waffles, to pouches, to fig bars when she just won’t eat anything. Lunch tends to be a sandwich with fruit and cheese, a quesadilla, waffles, veggie tots, bagels, but mostly sandwiches. Dinner tends to be a smaller version of what we’re having, pesto tortellini is life, pizza fridays, mac & peas, and vegan corndogs. When all else fails and we know she is going to fight her meal (usually when she’s overtired or sick) we’ll give her pesto tortellini which she devours every time. We have also learned that a full belly = a happy toddler, so we push the snacks alllllll day. Her eating routine goes something like this: wake - breakfast - snack - lunch - snack - dinner - bed. Without fail. We know within minutes if someone forgot to give her a snack haha. But usually she wakes up from her nap saying “cookie pouch!” which means a fig bar or a fruit+veggie pouch. Or both. I think her first combination of words was “more please” (“mo peas”). Hey at least she’s polite.

| SLEEPING |

Olivia has been on the same sleep schedule since about 13m probably. She goes to be around 6pm, wakes at 9am, and naps from 12-2:30 everyday. I know I know, this sounds like an amazing sleep schedule (and it is!!) so if you are in the throws of an infant sleep schedule (or are struggling with sleep regressions) I highly recommend this post to read about the method that worked for us and in turn created this incredible sleep schedule and happy child. If she wakes early from her nap and isn’t crying (she rarely does), we’ll just leave her in her crib for some quiet time and we can hear her just quietly playing with her stuffies or singing songs. Speaking of stuffies she used to hate anything in her bed. Pillows, blankets, stuffies, you name it. She wanted to be completely alone and unbothered. Now she has to sleep with the whole gang (which she has named) Roo Roo (a lab puppy from Ikea), Foo Foo (a little grey bunny Derek randomly bought for her), Lulu (her Madame Alexander babydoll), and Puppy (a big fat puppy lol). We’ve also since given her a muslin blanket and an afghan my mom knit for her, and a pillow. If anyone from the stuffie gang is missing we have to hunt them down before nap and bedtime. It’s fine. We created this obsession.

| DOING |

Wow so many things have happended since her 18m update. She completed an entire year of Little Gym classes. She started as a Bird and moved to the Beasts class at 19m where she was thrown in with much bigger kids from 19m-2.5y so she started to see what the bigger kids were doing and learned to face her fears and perfect her skills. She literally never cared about the bar. I’d have her try to just hang from it and she’d immediately let go and walk away. Not anymore! At around 23 months she was swinging from the bars with the best of them. To the point where that’s all she wanted to do and wouldn’t do any of the other skills lol. We spent the end of summer, fall and winter going to parks, enjoying splash pads, music class at the arboretum, and exploring our favorite museums. She loves to help around the house, tell us where to sit, throw her own trash away, pick out her own clothes, feed Geoffrey, and practice playing cups (the summer camp cups song that Anna Kendrick does in Pitch Perfect).

| MILESTONES |

Olivia has 16 teeth now! For the longest time she just had the four center ones on top, four on the bottom, and the same 4 molars. And then all 4 of her canines grew in at the same time like a little vampire. Prior to two her vocabulary was pretty minimal and only had about 25 words at her 2 year checkup (which has since escalated but more on that on her next update!) by 2 her words included: mama, dada, hi, night night, Geoffrey (“ghee” - and points at him), ball, yo-yo, nose, no, apple, uh-oh (when she drops something), kitty (“key”), hi, buh-bye, banana, nana, yes, sure, puppy, me, this, bubble, push, moo moo, roo roo, grover, elmo, foo foo, lulu, please, and more. She loves to say “hi” or “buh-bye” with a full arm wave to anyone she passes. Which always makes strangers say it back. Except for when they don’t and I hope she doesn’t notice because she is just so sweet with her little greetings. She also calls any and all bunnies “foo foos”. Even if it doesn’t look like an actual bunny. Like the gold bunny sculpture at Northpark, she pointed at and yelled “hiiii foo foo!” I was blown away because prior to that her only concept of a bunny was my finger shadow bunny I made when I sang Little Bunny Foo Foo. Even though up to this point her vocabulary is limited she understands everything we are saying and asking her. After six months of treatment, she received a clean bill of health from her Ophthalmologist who had us patching her right eye for 12 weeks to help build up the muscles in her left eyelid, which would droop when she was tired. He was concerned that if we didn’t correct her weaker eyelid now, she would need to start wearing glasses to help prevent a lazy eye from developing. Which honestly didn’t surprise us as Derek wore glasses at a young age, but I was hoping that my (not as bad) eyes would help balance things out, and so far so good! That was a huge (and expensive) relief! We’ll still go back annually to evaluate her progress, but so far we are on the right track and her eyelid is stronger than ever. We took our very first flight at 21m to Chicago and while seeing family and my favorite city was beyond fun, traveling with a toddler was horrendous and we won’t be doing it again for A WHILE. We took Olivia to her first Christmas tree farm, and had our first successful photo with Santa! And about one week before she turned two she started Preschool full time! Which she absolutely loves. With me going back to work full time, this was a happy milestone for everyone!

| FAVORITE MOMENTS |

This season was full of favorite moments since it took place during the holidays! Olivia was a carrot for Halloween this year and trick-or-treating was so much fun! We weren’t sure if she’d grasp the concept yet, but it only took about two houses before she quickly learned the drill, and would immediately point at a house and then point at her pail. Christmas was also THE BEST this year, as she’s getting old enough to start to get excited about the magic and sparkle of it all. We gave her Derek’s old easel that his grandfather made him as a child, and she is obsessed with it. She could literally spend hours coloring her little heart out if we let her. Which she calls “bubbles” thanks to a Baby Shark coloring book she got from her Grammy and Grampy and my mom taught her to color in bubbles, so now all coloring = bubbles. We moved out of our temporary apartment into our “forever” home in January and it has been so nice getting to see Olivia (and Geoffrey) really have room to run around. She has her own playroom now and a big yard to play in and is so much happier. You could tell that the 800sf apartment walls were quickly closing in on everyone and we were all ready to spread out. We also loved celebrating her 2nd birthday with (her favorite thing) a puppy paw-ty!! More on that later. It was so cute and she loved all of the puppy themed items.

Olivia West | Eighteen Months

After Olivia turned one, I was going to start doing these posts annually, but SO much has happened in the past 6 months that I felt like we were long over due for another update. I mean she’s grown so much we couldn’t use her coral headband for the photo anymore and had to switch to a big girl bow :(

| STATS |

Since her last update she has had a 15 month checkup where she weighed in at 22lb 7oz (60th), was 31” long (70th), and her head was 18.5” (80th). At her 18 month appointment she weighed in at 25lb 3oz (78th), 32.5" long (75th), and her head is 18.75” (85th). Which pretty much blew my mind. Overall her doctor is extremely proud of her growth, which I was so glad to hear assuming I was underfeeding her yet again. Looking back at her 12 month photo to her 18 month she looks so big!

| EATING |

Where do I begin? Olivia basically weened herself off breastfeeding at around 12.5 months. Which I was totally fine with honestly. It was sad to think we wouldn’t have this special time and connection anymore, but with her 4 little teeth coming in (at the time) I felt like I was playing with fire because she has always had a very shallow latch. She was also way more into her new love of solid foods, and just nursed out of ritual (before sleeping) everyday. So as I started dropping a feeding a day she never looked back. I was relieved to be able to finally pack up my pumping gear and put it away for another time. Moms who EP, I salute you! Because of her incredible weight gain we were able to take her off of her supplement smoothies at 13m and just focus on three square meals with alllllll the snacks in between. Girlfriend loves to snack. So much so that Geoffrey has gained a few lbs himself. She constantly has her cheerio cup in one hand and a cracker or tortilla in the other. Funny story. Olivia starts off every morning with a big heaping bowl of oatmeal. Super easy. I just pour some oats, flaxseed meal, chia seeds, and some milk into a mason jar overnight and in the morning I mix some fruit in! So I was using either unsweeted applesauce or organic fruit preserves (just a small spoonful) to give it a little flavor and vitamins. I started noticing toward the afternoon she’d start coming unglued. Like climbing me like a tree, clenching her fits and vibrating, like she was just really jazzed up. We thought it was so funny and that she was just really excited about life. No. Those fancy preserves had a boat load of sugar in a single tablespoon and I was unknowingly loading her up with sugar. SO now we just mix in the applesauce and she’s totally chill. Oops. So anyway, breakfast = oatmeal, lunch = yogurt, banana, or broccoli tots, and dinner = a version of what we’re having or leftover quesadillas (which are leftovers + cheese in a tortilla), veggie burger, mac & peas, etc. She isn’t eating meat yet so we make sure to provide her with plant based proteins like peas, chick peas, etc. Anytime we make pasta we use chickpea or pea pasta like Banza, Modern Table, whoever is on sale that week. She loves to feed herself with her fork and gets really frustrated if we do it for her. She has also mastered the straw and drinking out of a normal cup. She just hasn’t mastered the setting it down gently every time part. We’ve also started brushing her teeth (no toothpaste yet just water) which she mostly enjoys and loves to do it herself. If we forget before bath time, she is sure to let us know.

| SLEEPING |

Olivia dropped her second nap around 13 months or so. She now naps from 12-2:30 everyday, and on a really good day she’ll nap from 12-3:30. She still goes to bed around 6pm and wakes around 9am. She is definitely her father’s daughter when it comes to sleep. I wish I could sleep that much! When we made the switch to Hello Bello diapers, she no longer leaks through them at night, so that’s nice. She is so conditioned with her sleep though that it’s next to impossible to get her to sleep in the carseat or stroller if we’re on the go. Instead she just turns into a baby alligator. So being a good sleeper has it’s own dilemmas. So nervous about our first flight in October. Also, we’ve been trying to get her to sleep with a stuffie just to have a little company, and every single night we will put a bunch of buddies in her crib and we will watch her toss them out one by one on the baby monitor, and then lay down and go to sleep. This girl. She FINALLY (as of this past week) glommed onto the first stuffie I ever bought her (back when I was still very pregnant) a Jellycat giraffe so now she has a buddy in bed. He made the cut. Oh and if you don’t come get her as soon as she wakes up from a nap she will bang on the wall, which was so startling the first few times and is now just the funniest thing.

| DOING |

SO much has happened in these past 6 months. First of all Olivia is finally walking! She took her first steps on Mother’s Day (about 15 months) so a little later than most, but after a few timid steps she just took off. She immediately could stand up from a seated position (without having to hold onto something first) so basically she wanted to perfect the walk before she actually did it. Respect. She also loves to climb up and down stairs and ramps and walk over thresholds over and over and over. She went from walking to side stepping to walking on her tippy toes to running over the coarse of two weeks. She is now the star of Little Gym and has absolutely no fear. Forward rolls, back whoop-de-doos, wheelbarrows, all things that used to make her cry. She is here for it and the first to volunteer. She’s also the first to let everyone know that it’s time to put the bells away. She also loves climbing all the things. Which I dislike so very much because it gives me heart palpitations, and I blame Gymboree. I wanted to keep her busy this summer so we took a break from Little Gym and switched to Gymboree for a month because they had “open gym” everyday of the week where she could play to her heart’s content in the A/C. Well Gymboree is more playground based so she immediately learned to climb (but also loved the slides!) We ended up switching back for several different reasons, but mainly because we just loved Little Gym more and I felt like she got more out of it skill-wise. She also doesn’t get trampled by big kids who’s parents are just there to be on their phones but that’s neither here nor there. Plus TLG is a block away from where we live. For the longest time everything was Dada (thank you Jimmy Fallon) but now she’s throwing some “mamas” around too. Every time we pass a puppy (or say the word puppy) she waves and says “hiiii”. She loves to open and close all the doors and turn on and off all the lights and fans. She has become super helpful lately too. She likes to help unload the dishwasher regardless of if it’s clean or not, hand me laundry to fold, throw things away (sometimes not trash), she’s even started trying to dress herself. She repeats everything we do! Since it’s been so hot out we’ve gone to the pool and splash pad which she loves. The pool freaked her out at first, but now she’s fine as long as she’s in her inner-tube. Which isn’t allowed at most public pools, did you know that? She still loves dancing (her hula dance) and singing. Lately she gets excited when her favorite songs from her playlist come on, and she anticipates certain parts and sings and dances along with them. Don’t even get me started on Little Bunny Foo Foo. Which isn’t on her playlist I just randomly sang it to her once and now she’s obsessed.

| MILESTONES |

Olivia has 12 teeth now! The four center ones on top, four on the bottom, and the same 4 molars. Which honestly everyone freaked me out about molars and she’s been pretty okay. They bothered her at first but I kept giving her cold applesauce and cold washcloths, and I’d brush her teeth just to help massage her gums and encourage them to cut through which really helped. They also all came in the same week so I feel like that was a little better rather than prolonging it. Walking was obviously a huge milestone and it feels like she’s been doing it forever. She can say: mama, dada, hi, night night, Geoffrey (“ghee” - and points at him), ball, yo-yo, nose, no, apple, uh-oh (when she drops something) and kitty (“key”). She understands SO much that it kind of blows my mind. Even though she' doesn’t talk much yet, she knows what we’re saying, what we’re asking, what we’re telling her to do, etc. She can point to the following body parts on queue: nose, ears, mouth, teeth, tongue, head, hair, cheeks, belly, and toes. She can also point to our noses, and loves to poke herself in the eyes. So fun. I can ask her to put her toys away and she will, I can ask her to bring me a specific item and she will. Crazy. If it’s past 5pm I can’t ask her to do anything, she has now become a different person. Recently she’s been singing gibberish but to the actual tune of the song. I thought Derek’s head was going to explode. She is now wearing size 4 diapers and has moved up to 18-24m clothing, she is FINALLY actually wearing her size, which makes shopping for her so much easier. I mean she has grown 4.5” and 9lbs in 6 months. Some of our friends who hadn’t seen her in a couple weeks were blown away by how big she is now!

| FAVORITE MOMENTS |

I just love that I feel like I can communicate with her now and she understands me, when before it’s like you’re just talking to yourself lol. She gives us hugs now which is the sweetest thing, and allllll the kisses. She loves to kiss any animal in her books and all of her stuffies. I’ll be trying to turn the page and she’s not done kissing everyone yet. I love when she sings songs and gets excited when her jam comes on. Chasing her and pretending you’re going to tickle her gets the best giggles and belly laughs. Lately when we read stories before bed she gets SO excited when you turn the page and squeals at the illustrations when before she would just sit quietly and listen. Now that she can stand on her own her hula dance has become quite the show. Oh and I love how OCD she is, when she wakes up if the correct doors aren’t shut, or the fan isn’t on she’s the first to tell you what needs to happen, in what order, before she can start her day.

Olivia West | Twelve Months

Welp. We made it a whole year! Everyone keeps asking me if time just flew by, or “can you believe you have a one year old?” And honestly, time felt exactly as long as it should have. I don’t know if that was because I was able to be home with her for this past year, or not. Don’t get me wrong, there were moments that felt like time stood still and moments where it felt like it was zipping by (especially her early months), but in the end this year felt full, and I am so grateful to have such an incredible baby girl who feels like a whole new person every single day.

| STATS |

Olivia had her official 12 month check up, and she still doesn’t like her pediatrician’s booming voice. But I was able to bribe her with puffs. He was very concerned about her weight loss (even though she looks like she’s gaining weight) as she currently weighs in at 16lb 8oz (4th percentile) which is down 5oz since her 9 month visit. At the year mark babies are supposed to have tripled their birth weight which would be closer to 22lb (more on that below), she is 28" long (14th), and her head is 17.75” (50th).

| EATING |

As I mentioned in last month’s update, I had been feeding Olivia 3 meals a day with an occasional snack in the afternoon if she seemed to still be hungry. I also nursed when she woke up, before every nap, and before bed. However, she has lost 5oz since her 9 month check up and isn’t walking yet (to burn those calories) so her pediatrician was very concerned. He asked if she was a picky eater (nope) or if she was super active (I mean not really, she crawls all over the place). So he has us on a strict “diet” of 3 meals + 2 snacks a day (no exceptions). He has us supplementing her meals with high calorie weight gaining formula, in addition to breastmilk AND whole milk. He gave us some samples of the supplement drinks (Pediasure), but after reading the zillions of ingredients in “strawberry banana” and not one of them being strawberries or bananas, I did my own research to find the most natural and nutrient rich alternative. This is a very niche market incase you were wondering. But I settled on PediaSmart (Dairy) and so far she really likes it, and it doesn’t smell like chemicals. A serving is 8oz, and he wants her to have one serving a day, so I split it between her two snacks in 4oz increments. I have also increased the amount of food I’ve been giving her in general filling all three sections on her plate with everything on the food pyramid. When before she would just have a small bowl of peas, now she’s having broccoli mac and cheese with a side of baked apples or zucchini with rice and a side of mixed berries. He has us coming back in 8 weeks for a weight check so fingers crossed that she improves and I can take her off the supplements and just focus on nutritious foods. Also, she went from one dirty diaper every couple of days to 4-5 a day sooo that means something right? She also just seems to be more satisfied in general and is a lot less fussy. So once again I was underfeeding my child, yay. Breastfeeding is hard people. I still need to do a whole post on our journey (saga).

| SLEEPING |

Olivia is still our good little sleeper. She has officially dropped her morning nap and now naps around 10am and then again around 2pm. She is kind of like clockwork now, when before I would just let her tell me when she was tired, now I could set my watch to it. If we’re out and about she will gladly nap in her carseat or stroller for HOURS. To the point where we are like is she okay? haha Lately our only sleep issue is that her diaper is waking her up now that she is eating so much more, so we’re having to change it multiple times per night when she used to go 12-13 hours straight. She is even leaking through to her pajamas and sheets with pee, which she never did before. I was thinking maybe we should move to size 4 diapers, but she is still way under the weight range. Any thoughts?

| DOING |

For the longest time Olivia had no interest in pulling up on furniture, standing against it, or taking steps while we spotted her. She only wanted to crawl. I enrolled her in The Little Gym down the street from us and she is by far the smallest (not youngest) in her class. She is the only non-walker, and I think this got in her head. Ever since she started she is obsessed with cruising along the furniture at home back and forth all day long. I used to have to lure here from one end to the other with toys but now she just does it on her own. At first she could only pull up on our laps, but then she started pulling up on the coffee table, and now the sofa (which is about shoulder height). At her first day of Little Gym I had her on the parallel bars and she just stood there on her tippy toes clinging on for dear life. Now she walks flat footed all along them and loves to push and walk with the foam barrel across the room back and forth. She still has a ways to go before she’ll be taking those solo first steps, but she has come such a long way! We also enrolled her in music class which she absolutely loves. She immediately starts dancing and singing and quickly learns any instrument she’s given. Her teacher and the other parents/nannies are always blown away at how musical she already is and I’m just so so proud. I mean we have been playing music for her or singing to her non stop since the day she was born. I am the queen of improv songs about random things we’re doing. Derek is always very impressed. During her first music class she picked up two maracas (one in each hand) and started shaking them and hula dancing like a little Chiquita Banana haha. I also taught her to give me a kiss, where I’ll say “can I have a kiss?” and she will move her face to mine and kiss my mouth. Sometimes with an open mouth and tongue first haha. Lately when we’re out and about and I have her in my Solly wrap, she wants to cuddle up and go to sleep. Even if she just woke up from a nap. It’s like she’s nostalgic for the womb again. She will fuss until you tuck her head under the strap so that she doesn’t have to hold it up anymore. It melts my heart. She also no longer yells for food, and I think this is because we’re finally feeding her enough so she doesn’t feel as desperate for her next meal. Ugh.

| MILESTONES |

She has two top teeth now! And is working on her lateral incisors which has meant lots of runny noses these days. She celebrated her first birthday! We had a fun rainbow themed birthday party with our closest friends and family, and she had a blast. She got a drum from her Uncle Ari and immediately started showing off her drumming skills from music class. It is by far her favorite toy. She did he first forward roll at Little Gym and absolutely hated it lol. I don’t know if this counts as a milestone but Olivia’s hair has gotten so long and she has the sweetest little curls around her neck and ears. I felt like she has had the same hair length from day one and then all of a sudden she’s like a chia pet! She is still wearing size 3 diapers and has moved up to 9-12m clothing, but can still fit into most of her 6-9m clothing. Our little peanut. So many times at Little Gym or when we’re running errands other moms will say “watch out for the baby” to their 10m old haha and then are shocked to find out how old she actually is.

| FAVORITE MOMENTS |

Her birthday party was definitely my favorite moment of this month, and just celebrating how special she is to us and encouraging her with everything she does. Lately when I pat her back to burp her before her naps she pats my back too, and I try so hard not to laugh but its just the best. I also love her little slobbery kisses. She is just so sweet. Our little one year old.

Olivia West | Eleven Months

I can’t believe we are only one month away from Olivia’s first birthday. Compared to last month, her eleventh month was a breeze.

| STATS |

There isn’t an official eleven month checkup, but based on our own measurements she currently weighs in at 17lb, she is 28" long, and I have no idea how to measure her head.

| EATING |

This girl loves to eat. Now that all of the solo fruits and veggies have been tried (and loved) without any allergic reactions we are full steam ahead into the land of finger foods. I prepare 3 meals a day and sometimes a snack in the late afternoon depending on how her naps fall. I dove straight into finger foods, but will use the occasional puree in her oatmeal in the mornings (which is still spoon fed). But after the oatmeal-pocalypse of last month I still only give her oatmeal like once a week. Oatmeal constipation PTSD is real. We have added corn, rice, cheese, sweet potato, black beans, tomatoes, chick peas, and puffs to her menu. Before starting finger foods I wanted to have her practice with puffs so that it was less messy and less wasteful. I did a bunch of research to find puffs with the least sugar and additives, and the most nutrients. Sprout Quinoa Puffs are where it’s at. They only have 1g sugar per 1/3c and the only ingredients are organic flours, real fruits and veggies and rosemary as a preservative. She took to them very quickly and now I just use them as my secret weapon if she gets fussy when we’re out and about. For her meals I just cut up fruits and veggies super small (no larger than the width of her finger) and let her self feed. Since she only has her bottom two teeth, I make sure that everything is steamed / soft enough that I can squish it between my fingers which means she can squish it between her gums (which are freakishly strong by the way). Apples are the “hardest” food she eats and hasn’t had any issues with them. So far she does really well with this method. At the beginning she was just a bottomless pit, but now she’s starting to learn when she’s full. I’m still nursing when she wakes up, before every nap, and we give her a bottle of breastmilk before bed. This whole process has naturally lowered my supply so I feel like she’ll be weaning pretty soon, or I’ll be exclusively pumping. I can see her get frustrated at how little she gets each session. I still pump every night before I go to bed and I’m only pumping 3-4oz now when it used to be 8-10oz. I just don’t know if I’m ready for that transition and if she will nap well without getting to nurse before bed. We still have quite the back stock of frozen milk though so even if my supply plummets we’ll be okay for a while to help her slowly wean. But with the increase of solid food I feel like this is a natural progression and she won’t be as hungry or feel the need to nurse anymore. Maybe?

| SLEEPING |

Olivia is still sleeping like a champ. We have been pushing her awake times lately (especially on the weekends) and she has rolled with it very well. I still let her tell me when she’s ready for her nap rather than having her on a set schedule. She will literally stop playing, crawl into my lap, look up at me and say “mum mums” which means that she wants to nurse and go to bed. For the most part she sleeps for 1-2 hours 3x a day. But sometimes she’ll sleep for 2.5 hours in the morning and then 40min in the afternoon and that’s it. As long as she’s happy and content, I just let her do her thing until she’s tired. Sleep training is a magical thing, but sometimes I’m kind of sad that she is too conditioned to fall asleep while I hold her or when she’s in her stroller. BUT the other day my mom and I were out Christmas shopping and I had her in my Solly wrap and she fell asleep in it while we were walking around for a couple of hours. I could have melted. She hasn’t done this since she was probably 3 months old.

| DOING |

This girl loves to crawl. She is super fast now too! She will dart all over the house trying to find Geoffrey or whoever isn’t paying attention to her really. When she starts crawling after something she breathes really fast like she’s hyperventilating out of excitement. It’s the cutest. While Derek is getting ready for the day she will crawl into our room and “hoo” at him until he looks at her haha. She isn’t pulling up on furniture yet, but if we position her against it she will stand for a long time patting her hands on it and wiggling her butt. Santa brought her a wooden shopping cart for Christmas to encourage her to walk and she has taken a few steps with it so far. She’s kind of having a difficult time with the concept, It’s like her entire torso will contort and she will hang on for dear life before taking a single step to rebalance herself. She’s in no rush and will be ready when she’s ready. She also learned to clap! I have been working on this for months and then one day out of the blue she just started clapping! She mostly does it to music which is incredible, but also when she’s excited. Lately she started yelling. A lot. Whenever she’s hungry she doesn’t cry or fuss she just yells very loudly. I hope that once she get’s older and can reason a little more this will stop, but right now she is very demanding while you prep her food until it’s placed in front of her. Even picking her up or distracting her doesn’t work. Food is the only solution. Please tell me this is a phase.

| MILESTONES |

She is definitely learning what different words mean. I can say “do you want mum mums?” and she’ll repeat “mum mum mum mums” which means she wants to nurse. I can say “are you ready to go night night? and she will say “na na” and rub her eyes. Whenever we say “oh no George!” (her favorite book) she says “de de de de” every time. I can say “clap clap clap” without clapping and she will immediately start clapping. I can say “say bye to Geoffrey!” and she will wave. It’s kind of amazing. Learning to clap was a huge milestone, and basically my favorite thing ever. Also, getting her to enjoy solid foods and self feed has been such a huge moment for us. We celebrated her first Christmas and New Year together, which she enjoyed so much. She met Santa and absolutely hated him. She completed her first craft of hand print salt dough ornaments for her grandparents. She also attended her first holiday symphony and danced the entire time. We took her to the playground for the first time to test out the swings and she absolutely loved to swing! So much so that her Grammy and Grampy bought her a swing for her to use at their house. She said her first word which was drumrolllllllll….. MAMA! She had always just said mamamama or dadadadadada but one morning she crawled into my lap, looked up at me and said “Mama!” and my heart exploded. She is still wearing size 3 diapers 6-9m clothing. Our little peanut. In this photo she’s wearing 6-12m and you can see how baggy it is on her.

| FAVORITE MOMENTS |

Sharing the Christmas season with her was my all time favorite moment this past month. We took her to do all of the Christmasy things and even drove around looking at lights while she “hoo-ed” in the backseat. I love when she claps and dances to music. She comes from a long line of musicians on her dad’s side of the family and this is very apparent even at such a young age. She starts up music class next week and I’m so excited!