7 Months Old

Happy Birthday, Olivia!!! It's hard to believe you are already 7 months old! We love watching you grow and your personality develop. You are such a special part of our family. The enjoyment and love you bring us are more than we could have ever imagined. We love you, Olivia!
Love, Mommy & Daddy

The Rundown

The Ackerman trio have been rather busy lately. Here's a quick rundown of what's been happening in our lives.

Teether

3/9/09 We've felt some teeth bumps on Olivia's lower gum. Soon some teeth will be showing!

Visiting Grandma & Grandpa
3/9/09 Olivia is quite interested in petting Kissa, Grandma & Grandpa Smith's retired greyhound!



Fits of Laughter
3/10/09 Olivia loves to let out shrill shrieks and bring her little fists up to her mouth when she gets excited. It's quite cute. Here she's laughing with her favorite person, her Daddy.

Play Time

3/11/09 Playing on the floor continues to be Olivia's favorite activity.

Uncle Roel's Birthday
3/13/09 Olivia and I went out to lunch at Red Robin to celebrate Uncle Roel's 26th birthday! Olivia wore her cute ladybug outfit for the occassion.

Cannot Be Contained!

3/13/09 We officially have a crawler on our hands! In the afternoon of March 13th, I witnessed Olivia pull herself forward on the carpet. She only moved about an inch or less, but it was the official start of her crawling days. That evening she showed Daddy her new moves. She started by just reaching and pulling with her hands, but now she is getting along with a more fluid arm pull, dragging her legs behind her and sometimes using her knees and feet for a push. Regardless, she is on the move, and her movement is no longer just restricted to rolling over.

"I love veggies!"
3/13/09 Olivia loves all the veggies that she's tried, and she does rather well being fed with a spoon. Here she's sampling some parsnips for the first time, which has since become one of her favorites!

Bottle Fight
3/13/09 Feeding Olivia a bottle has become a chore to say the least. She is extremely squirmy and tends to fuss and feud through the entire feeding. She flails one or both of her arms constantly, likes to turn her head from side to side at any distraction and arches her back. If the bottle slips out of her mouth, she will often clamp her gums together! Here, Daddy seems to have pinned her in a position that limits her squirming. I think she just is a grazer and would prefer to eat several small meals throughout the day instead of a normal 6 oz. meal at each sitting.

Success!! Olivia finished her 6 oz. bottle. It looks like the 6 oz. combined with all that squirming wore her out.

Sleepy baby...time for bed! Too bad it was only 6:15 pm!

Swimming with Mommy
3/14/09 Olivia's second swimming lesson proved to be a fun experience for us all. Olivia was more playful in the water than her first week's session. She splashed her hands, kicked her feet on her own and enjoyed holding onto a small yellow duckie.

Floating on her back...notice her crossed ankles, I guess it was pretty relaxing.

She's got the arms and legs down.

Active Child
3/14/09 We have a live one on our hands!

3/14/09 Can you hear her say "Dada"?

"I have the tickets!"
3/15/09 We took Olivia to her first Griffins hockey game! Although the loud cheering and music sometimes startled her, she did well and enjoyed the excitement. She found the people behind us and their nachos, though, slightly more interesting than the actual hockey game...go figure!

Grandma & Grandpa Time
3/15/09 After the hockey game, we stopped to visit Grandma & Grandpa. Olivia loved the attention. Grandpa read her a story, and Grandma made her laugh hysterically on the floor.

"I'm an exersaucer pro!"
3/16/09 Mommy likes to put Olivia in her exersaucer while she is working in the kitchen, and Olivia loves to jump and make the sounds go off!

Little jumping feet in action!

Afternoon Stroll
3/16/09 Once we discovered Olivia trying to sit up in the bassinett of her Bugaboo, we agreed she was ready for the stroller! This afternoon was her first time trying out the seated stroller. It was warmer out, and Daddy was able to come home for lunch to accompany us on our walk. Olivia was a little irritated to be strapped into the stroller, or maybe it was her coat that was bothering her since the straps were extemely loose. Anyway, you can tell by the look on her face that an afternoon stroll was not what she really wanted to do. Too bad!

Her attitude seemed to improve.

She's a special little girl to have Daddy take her on a lunchtime stroll.

"Where's your green?"
3/17/09 Olivia celebrated St. Patrick's Day in style! She wore her green in more ways than one...spinach for lunch.

Leprechaun Gold
3/17/09 Grandma stopped by after school to drop off a special present for Olivia. The leprechaun had stopped at her kindergarten room and left some gold!!

Mystery Solved
Before this picture was taken, Grandma had discovered some small bluish ink stains on Olivia's fingers. We couldn't figure out what she had gotten into (Grandma thought a pen, but I suspected one of her stuffed toys...maybe chewing on it caused the pigment to bleed). But after we took these pictures, I saw that Olivia's lips were green colored! Mystery solved!!! That meant no more green tissue paper for Olivia!

Mohawk Baby
3/18/09 Olivia tried out a new hairstyle...what do you think?!?

Baby Food Extravaganza

Sunday, March 8, we met Grandma and Grandpa at Meijer in the late afternoon. On the Meijer agenda: shopping for baby food. I decided to make food for Olivia, hoping it would be healthier and cheaper and expose her to a variety of flavors, and since my parents made their own food when I was a baby, they said they would help me with the task. The vegetables will also taste the same when she eats them whole, and she'll hopefully continue to enjoy them as she gets older. Grandpa picked out sweet potatoes, butternut squash, spinach, carrots, peas, green beans, parsnips, and lima beans for Olivia's baby food menu. While shopping, Olivia enjoyed laughing and smiling at Grandma from her cart. She did have a brief moment of crying, though, when Grandpa bent down to get some groceries off a shelf and went out of her view! We then went back to their house and started cooking. We ended up with about 10 1/2 ice cube trays of food, which we calculated down to about 14 cents a serving (probably even less since we didn't use all the carrots and it was a rough calculation)...not bad, since Gerber 1st foods are 98 cents for 2 servings. While Grandpa and I cooked, Olivia was trying to go down for her second afternoon nap, but she ended up crying every time she was placed in the Pack 'N Play. Daddy wanted to let her cry herself to sleep, but he had a hard time doing so with Grandma and Grandpa nearby listening. They seem to have already taken little Olivia under their wing of protection.

Daddy lets Olivia try some peas that were just made.

An example of our work...lima beans and peas, I think.

Grandpa feeds Olivia some peas, and she likes them!!!

Play time on the floor while Grandpa & Mommy cooked.

While drinking her bottle, Olivia finally fell asleep in Grandma's arms. She must've been worn out from crying!

All that cooking makes one sleepy baby!

Little Lady

Isn't she cute?!? Sunday, March 8, Olivia took time to pose in her ladybug sweater and jeans outfit, complete with red ladybug shoes. She's not a huge fan of keeping the shoes on her feet, though.

Cousin Play Date

Saturday, March 7, we went to Grandma & Grandpa's house to visit with cousin Oliver. He was being babysat there while his parents were working. Olivia and Oliver had fun playing with toys, reading books, and spending time with Grandma and Grandpa. Here are some pictures of our visit.

Standing Tall

Oliver loves to pull himself up to stand. He is very sturdy and can stand on his own by holding onto the edge of objects.

"I can do it too, Oliver"

Olivia is not standing yet, but she does love to be held so that she can dance and kick her feet. Here, Oliver is admiring her moves.

Storytime

Grandma & Grandpa reading stories, but it seems that both Olivia and Oliver are interested in the other's book.

Grandma & Oliver

Play Time

"Oliver, you look silly with that fishing pole in your mouth!"

Olivia liked playing with Oliver's toy train. It was funny to watch them play together. Oliver would carefully press the button with one or two fingers to turn the train on, whereas Olivia took the "whole hand slam" approach.