Olivia is 9 Months Old!

Olivia, at nine months old you weigh 20 lb 6 oz.

I don't even know where to begin when describing you.  I think the best way to describe you is my "little go-getter with huge personality".  With this personality, you can accomplish anything.  You never cease to amaze me with what new feat you are working on/accomplishing.  It doesn't take much practice for you to be able to do anything, you just have to give it an honest try (and not be stubborn about it) and you do it.

This month you learned how to clap your hands, pick up small pieces of food and put them in your mouth, push a walker around, and how to walk while being assisted with just one hand.  I knew you were capable of this, but your stubborn attitude always had you refusing to even try...until one day, you thought you would try it out, and ta-da!  You could do it.  You are such a stinker.  Seriously.  Tonight you climbed up our little play slide in the backyard.  No, you didn't use the steps - you actually climbed up the slide and sat at the landing, just like you've seen your older siblings do.  Trouble!  If you are sitting on someone's lap and want to start walking, you quickly reach for their hands that are holding you and push your butt off of their lap so that they are forced to walk with you.  If they manage to free their hands from your grasp and leave you sitting on the ground, you let it be known by screaming.  Sometimes I think you are actually cursing when you are screaming because you get so angry!

If you hear me unloading the dishwasher you usually come and try to help me by sitting on the open door.  Every time I lift you up and put you back on the ground and you cry.  Sorry, I don't want a broken dishwasher door!

You LOVE the outdoors.  If the older kids are outside, so are you.  We have designated "play" pants because crawling around on the pavement is so hard on your bare legs when it's sunny out.

You HATE being put into the car.  If you don't want to go, you cry as soon as you see the car.  Once we're driving you're fine, you just make sure that it's known that you are not happy about the situation.

Your older siblings are fantastic with you.  I think if it weren't for them you would have a lot more bumps and bruises.  If they see you climbing the stairs without me behind you (which happens many times a day!), they drop whatever they are doing and follow you to make sure that you don't fall backwards.  Kayla loves to carry you to me when you are crying, and you never seem to complain.  You get smothered by Nathan, but you typically love it.  You two have started wrestling together, climbing over each other.

All three kids call you "Miss Olivia" more than they just call you "Olivia" (and that's all because of me!  For some reason the kids have been given the following pet names by me: Matthew = "Mister Matthew", Kayla = "Kayla Girl", Nathan = "Mister Nathan").  Not only do I call you "Miss Olivia", but I also call you "Livia".  I'm not typically a fan of shortened names, but yours has twice as many syllables as the other kids so sometimes it's easier to drop one of them to make it easier to say.

You are fairly shy.  You are definitely not quick to give smiles to strangers.  You get excited when Daddy or Grandma walk through the front door; you crawl to them as quick as you can.  You start out fine in the church nursery, but just before the sermon begins I seem to always get paged because your are in hysterics.  That's okay, I don't mind to calm you down and spend the rest of the time playing with you.  All of your siblings did it too!  It's probably the most uninterrupted one-on-one time we get each week, so I don't mind.

You've really settled well into only receiving 3 or 4 bottles during the day.  You get a 6oz one right before your morning and afternoon naps, so around 9:30am and 1:00pm, and then you often need 4oz around 6pm and then you get 6oz again around 7:45pm.  You are still not very good sleeping during the night.  Lately, you've been waking up at 11:00pm AND around 4:00am.  If I try to just give you your soother, you freak out.  You purse your lips together and move your head from side to side so I can't stick it in there.  You do not settle down unless I feed you...so I do.  Ha!  You win!  You probably take in another 8oz during the night.  You're not chubby (yet!), so it's not doing you any harm.  Plus, I don't mind to cuddle you.  I would be a little more enthusiastic to see you in the morning though if I only had to see you once during the night.  Twice is a bit much.  Your Mommy needs her sleep!

{Eating an ice cube that had fallen onto the sand.  What harm could a few grains of sand do?}

You eat the best during dinner.  Your favourite is any sort of Dutch "prukkie" (not sure of the spelling!).  In other words, so long as I mash boiled potatoes with a veggie and add some gravy you are happy.  You have become quite frustrating during breakfast and lunch, thinking that you are done after just a couple bites.  I'm sorry, but that's not enough.  I've started to have to force-feed you more at each of these meals.  I'm trying to figure out what the easiest thing to feed you for these meals is where we have the least amount of refusal as possible.  You have really started to love drinking from your sippy cup.  You sure can chug that milk!  You know how to put the drinking end of the cup in your mouth yourself, but you don't know to tip it yet.

You love having a bath in the "big kid" bathtub.  You always get a bath in the baby tub in the kitchen sink in the morning, but if it's nice weather and the big kids need a bath at night then you also get a bath in the "big kid" bathtub in the evening.  You stand by the tub watching it fill up and are very quick to bend your arms or lift your feet for me to undress you.  You even try to climb in yourself!  You love crawling around in the tub, playing with the different toys.  You don't mind the water being dumped on your head at all.  You also love swimming in the swimming pool.

I think you're going to continue to be trouble as you grow up, but trouble in a good way!  You will never let yourself be pushed around by those around you, and you will always be testing your Daddy and I, as well as testing your own independence.  You will keep us on our toes, that's for sure!  Oh, how I love you dearly!  I could not imagine our family without you in it!

Nathan is 2.5!

Nathan is now two and a half years old, but I feel like he's four.  He's just so big and so smart/mature for his age!  I often have to tell myself that he's only 2.5, so when he's not behaving as well as Matthew and Kayla it's okay.  Poor kid has such high standards set for him because he can usually meet them!

Nathan weighs 34.6 lb and is roughly 39.5" tall.  He is at the end of his size 3 clothes and is into his size 4 clothes.  He wears size 9 shoes.

He is fantastic at playing with either Matthew and Kayla, or with Olivia, or independently.  He often starts with playing with Matthew and Kayla but eventually migrates to the toy room where I'll hear him playing by himself, typically with the Fisher Price Little People.  He's great at setting up one of the scenes and moving people around.

Nathan loves the outdoors - he would play outside rain or shine if I let him!  He loves the sandbox, and loves riding a tricycle around.  He's great at his balance bike, and so the tricycle is to help develop the concept of pedaling.  Once he's a pro at both then we'll switch him to a 'big kids' bike.  Maybe at the end of this summer?  We'll see.

{I love it when he wears his hat backwards.  It's SO cute on him!}

Nathan is a HUGE Mommy's boy.  He typically does not let Jon do anything for him in the evenings.  We were hoping it was a phase and so Jon was just fighting with him every evening, but we gave in and now I do Nathan's night-time routine, in order to save their relationship.  He was requesting that I lay by him in his bed after saying goodnight but that seems to be dying out.

He is very inquisitive, and thinks things through.  We do a lot of talking about who will be babysitting him the day of my brother Jason's wedding in May, and which kids will be babysat with him and which won't.  He completely understands who will be at the wedding and who won't be.  He likes to ask, "Why?" and say, "Even so-and-so?" ('even' being the key word he is using daily).

{He fell asleep on the couch after dinner.  It's tiring being a toddler that doesn't nap!}

Nathan has really begun to sing.  He likes to sing his ABCs and has started to sing "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star" and "Old McDonald Had a Farm."  At least one of my kids is willing to sing out loud!

When Matthew and Kayla received LeapPads for their birthday he very maturely sat and watched them excitedly open them.  He wasn't at all jealous, but was keenly interested in what they received.  I anticipated that them receiving something so fun would be tough for him, because they are typically always doing the same things at the same time, so I had picked a secondhand one up for him and gave it to him shortly after they received theirs.  He was thrilled.

Nathan knows that Kayla's letter is K, Matthew's is M, and his is N.