10 Months!

Olivia is 10 months now! The weather was so nice and warm over the weekend that we decided to go up to red rocks for her pictures. I guess I was a little pessimistic when I thought all her photos after the November ones would be indoors, I mean we do live in Colorado! Anyways, 10 months down, only 2 more months until her big party! I've already started planning it and in fact already decided how I was going to decorate her cake even before she was born. I'm not sure if I am up to the task of the cake I have planned, but after spending about 20 hours making chocolate flowers and bugs for Annie's 1st birthday cake, I can't let Olivia down...it's going to be outstanding! By the way, if you come to the party, you better eat the cake, even if it looks to perfect to eat...I just found a paper plate with all the chocolate bugs that people didn't eat in the back of a cabinet...I'm not sure why I kept them, probably because I spent a lot a lot a time on them. So from the photos you can tell that she is standing up now and she will take a few steps if you are holding her hands. I think she may be walking before her 1st birthday. She loves the stairs and if you take your eyes off her for a minute she will crawl as fast as possible to the steps. She's also becoming pretty skilled at the "baby obstacle course that Annie and I have tried out on her a few times. It's really just a trail of random pillows and beach towels that Annie lays out in the hallway that we force Olivia to crawl over, but it is pretty entertaining (mainly for Annie!) Other than being a awesome crawler, she has also developed an interesting eating habit. Every once in a while, while she is sitting in her highchair enjoying a tasty dinner, she will rock back and forth and then slam the back of her head onto her seat back. She'll do it over and over again and she thinks this is funny! I tried not to laugh at her one one of the times she did it to try and put a stop to the habit, but it didn't work. I usually end up putting my hand behind her head to cushion the blow. It really makes me wonder if she has any pain sensors. I mean she had a horrible ear infection for weeks and no peep, and now the head bashing? Maybe that is why she hardly cries...I'm sure she is fine, but you have to wonder sometimes!

Bluelogy...or Me & You and a Dog Named Blue.

Well, it's been a long hard road for Blue the last year and we finally decided it was time to send her to live at a nice ranch up in the mountains where she can run and hike again, spend the days chasing squirrels or swimming, if you know what I mean. If you don't know what I mean, then I will tell you that just about a year ago to the date, Blue started having some very painful issues with one of her shoulders. After a few visits to the doctor and a very expensive MRI that really didn't tell us anything, her doctor let us know that he thought it was a very slow growing nerve root tumor. We decided that amputation or biopsy and pretty much any other treatment (massage therapy and acupuncture) might not even help and would probably going to break the bank so we opted to just medicate her and hope that she would start getting better or at least be stable. Anyways, long story short, last weekend Tim was brushing her and a huge chunk of fur fell off of her and she started bleeding. She had what looked like blood blisters all over her back. I took her to the vet Monday and she suggested that this was just the start of the end for her and if we treated this skin condition chances are we would be treating more and more conditions as the weeks or months passed. After a very sad night, watching Blue and really paying attention to her, it became apparent that we were somewhat in denial about her condition and decided that it was time to should send her up to the big old Mountain Ranch in the sky. So, here's to Blue...best dog in the world (sorry Bailey...it's true). Above is the photo of us picking her up from Cheyenne. Oh, Blue, look at how cute you were, my first baby. And look how young we were, nice jean shorts Tim! In his defense the drive up to Wyoming to get Blue was as impulsive as you can get. It was Memorial day and Tim was working on the house. I was casually reading the paper and came across an ad for Goldens and just had to have one. Thankfully back then Tim catered to my every whim and the next thing you knew, we were on our way to Wyoming! I don't think I gave Tim a lot of time to check his clothing choices. I picked her over her sister because she had the biggest, floppiest ears I've ever seen. I held Blue in my lap the whole way back to Denver, well - until she threw up on my shirt. It stunk so bad that we stopped at a rest area and threw the shirt away and Tim drove the rest of the way home topless. It was a week or two before we settled on a name...I picked Blue because I had heard that Blue was Australian slang for a redhead. I also remember driving her to ice cream stores for snacks in an effort to try and get her to be less afraid of the car (she would get so nervous in the truck that she would have stinky accidents, yuck!). Later in life she would try her hardest to get into the back of the truck whenever possible, even if we weren't going anywhere. Her passion and flare for launching herself into the closest body of water was quite amazing, and in her younger days she would routinely dive into any pond, stream, or lake just to rescue a random stick that happened to be in there...then later when all the sticks where out, she would dive in and try to get all the stones out too. If we hiked for 2 miles, it would be guaranteed that Blue hiked about 10...unless it was a sunny trail, then she would hike directly to the closest shady area and wait for us...and if we were hiking with a group, she would run to check up on the fast hikers, and then run to the end of the line to make sure the slow hikers were still coming, then back to the front...to the back...etc, such a thoughtful little pooch. What a good girl she was...here she is at her finest, with her best bud Bailey (Blue is the on with the mud on her face). Blue fell in love with him the minute we brought him home. She used to play tug of war with him when he was a pup and was so gentle with him. Later on she realized what a pain in her ass he was becoming and would routinely put him in his place...I won't go into details here, it's a little graphic in nature and this is a family blog for pete's sake! Sometimes I think that is the reason Bailey is so lacking in self confidence. Poor Bailey, he's going to be lost without her. Seriously, he gets lost easily. If you take Bailey for a walk he will keep walking right past our house and not realize that it is where he resides. Tim would take Blue out for a run and she would have the run memorized for the next time they went out. But it has been well over a year since Blue has hiked or ran, or even chased a ball. I can't remember the last time she gave a good bark down to those good-for-nothing-kids who always walked by her yard after school. She started having trouble standing up and would sometimes fall down for little reason. She was becoming a bag of old bones, no passion for life...unless you offered her a slice of turkey, then she was transformed and couldn't get over to you fast enough...or if she happened upon a stray diaper, those were irresistible to her. She was definitely not the dog she used to be and it was very hard to see her wasting away, but such is life sometimes, I guess. Oh well, we'll miss you Blue Girl! XO

It's Official!

Now that I have taken Annie's photo for her scrapbook (see above!), I can officially say that she is really, certifiably and officially registered as a 3 year old in our house! We took this photos up in Evergreen at the skating pond and luckily she didn't get too cold until just after we snapped this photo, and good thing too because after this photo, Annie didn't want anything to do with the camera...she's such a Diva! By the way, check out our photo album for more of Annie workin' it for the camera. http://picasaweb.google.com/ReyneeandTim/AnnieS3#

After the little photo shoot we headed up to Echo Mountain to get Annie onto the slopes. It took about 40 minutes to get Annie into her gear and then to the bunny hill....all that work for just 3 runs and then Annie says "I'm done, lets go home". A few minutes warming up in the lodge didn't change her mind, I think she was too busy checking out what kind of snacks all the kids sitting around us were eating.

First Tooth!

That's the news...after about 3 months of swollen gums and occasional crankiness, her first tooth has finally broken through. It's the top right tooth and we shall name it "the Shredder".

Olivia - 9 months!

Olivia is closer to 10 months now, but these photos are from when she was just 9 months. Sorry, I'm still trying to catch up from all the holiday mumbo jumbos and bingo bangos, etc. But anyways, here she is all of 9 months old. We went to her 9 month check up the day before we left for our trek across the Midwest for Christmas and apparently she is a light weight. She is only at the 25% mark for weight (17.1 pounds) but while we were on vacation it seemed like she was eating non-stop trying to catch up with the other babies her age. Now I'm getting ahead of myself...that should be in her 10 month update! Back to 9 months....last month she started dancing! One of her toys will play music if you twist or push buttons. Once the music starts she starts rocking back and forth, which is what I call dancing! She also has started standing up on her own, unsupported. Of course this only lasts a few seconds but she is getting better and better at it. She is crawling like crazy and if I leave the room and no one is holding her back, she will crawl off in search of me. She has started to play a few games too. She will pull off her socks the first chance she gets and then proceed to throw them at you. She really thinks this is hilarious and even more so when you throw them back at her. She also loves to pull off her hat (she hates hats with a passion) and then she'll drop the hat on the floor..then guess what? You pick up the hat and put it back in her seat and she throws it on the floor again...repeat at least 20 times...constant source of amusement! I'm not sure what she will do when the weather warms up and there are no more hats to throw.

She and Annie are getting to be great pals, especially during long car rides. They will often hold hands or pass toys back and forth. It's nice to see them play together, when they are playing nicely...otherwise it is either Olivia crying because Annie took her toy, or Olivia begging someone to rescue her from the well intentioned but mostly too forceful hugs of a toddler. She is eating a lot of different foods now, we gave her some yogurt after Christmas and you would have thought she had gone to baby heaven, she loved it so much...started to shake her head side to side and sang for more. Well I guess that tidbit should have gone in the 10 month update also, so anyways, back to the stats...weight - 17.1 lbs (25%), height - 27.25 inches (48%), and head circumference - 18.5 inches (96% - No surprise there, after all she is a smarty!), hair - still slightly curly, eyes - still brown with green around the edges (come on green!), and cuteness - off the charts!

3 Year Old Forced to Decorate Own Birthday Cake...

Happy Birthday to Annie! I made the cake and she insisted on frosting and sprinkling it herself. Personally I think she went a little overboard with the pink sugar sprinkles, but I guess it was her cake...and apparently it looked too good to resist a little pre candle blowing out taste.