Bad Bloggers!!

Ok, so its been a while since we've blogged. Usually that means that our days have been busy and time has gotten away from us and of course that's exactly the case.

Lots happened in the last month. The biggest of course is that Livy's transitioned from a creepy crawler to an all out walker.

We're not exactly sure when we can say that Livy was 'walking' since she's been taking multiple steps for almost 2 months now but when she finally decided that walking was faster than crawling 100% of the time was about 10 days ago.

On another note, we have a new addition to our family. Last week we welcomed Wilma, our live in care giver for Olivia. Wilma hails from the Philippines and though there's been a few juggling acts as far as scheduling is concerned, we all have taken to her quite quickly.

On a different note, we can comfortably say that Olivia is now talking. Of course it consists of one syllable, one word sentences but she's saying words with meaning. The two that she says are 'bubble' and 'out' (to the dogs...and sometimes Dwayne and I).

Her words have been part of her vocabulary for a few weeks now and we were even able to get video of them.

Livy's sign vocabulary has expanded as welll with her using the sign for milk (something she does far too often with mom that coupled with a very satisfying smile on her face) and the sign for 'please' (though this one takes a bit of coaxing to get out).

The wonderful thing is we know what she wants and many frustrations are avoided because of the 4 simple words she knows (more, finished, milk and finished).

I'll be adding a few videos and I hope you enjoy them as much as we enjoy watching the little bug each and every day. It keeps getting better but in a heartbeat I would start it all over again.

Little Miss Manners

Well, she didn't learn it from us but she learned something along the way.

We'll see though how long these good habits stick...

Walking on Sunshine

We're not exactly sure where to mark one of the biggest milestones Livy has reached so far. We're not sure if its the first step she took between Dwayne and I, whether its the first 'voluntary' step she took from the dinosaur to the shelf. Its a very hard milestone to measure when there are so many variables in between.

For us, after weeks of Livy doing a two step warble, mixed in with a few 4, 5, 6 steps between Dwayne and I, we determined the moment she 'walked' was when she took 2 steps, turned around 180 degrees and then took 4 more steps to grab on to her dinosaur.

This achievement took place on Sunday, June 13th when Livy was exactly 1 day shy of her 10 months.

Today, June 15th I finally got around to setting up the camera for a little video. She's still wabbly and will still crawl over walking but a few times a day she chooses to take a few steps before sitting down and crawling the rest of her journey.

Here's our video of the Bug and some of her first solo steps.

We had an epic day...

with taking videos. Livy was at her best for performing today and so out came the camera time and again to catch her in action.

Here she is dancing.



Playing with the Receiver - at least the knobs she can reach...



Here's a clip of Livy signing away (with a bit of encouragement from myself and Livy's cousin).

A few more pics of the Bug

Here's a few more pictures of Livy. She's growing and getting more adventurous - taking the odd unassisted step (though not even close to walking) but she is pushing her boundaries and as of a couple of days ago she's back to standing (voluntarily rather than mommy making her) on her own unassisted.

Here she is being daring. She climbed on her bike backwards the other day and though my first instinct was to get her off before the bike took off from underneath her, my second thought was to grab the camera to get a shot because its hard to believe she was able to climb on the bike (backwards nonetheless) without it rolling out from under her. By the time we got the camera ready she was already trying to dismount.























Here's a few more shots of the new set of teeth (making our lives more of a challenge as Livy decides to bite everything to test them out). She tries to bit our hands/arms while we're changing her, bites when she's feeding and bites our legs when she's roaming around. Her new name - Chomper.

























She's also doing this tongue thing (finally caught on camera) where she sticks her tongue off to the side in what we're only guessing is a spot where her new sharp little teeth aren't scratching it. Its somewhat disturbing to watch her crawling around with her tongue hanging off to the side for so long.
























Here's a pic of Livy and Daddy hanging out way past little Livy's bedtime.

























Here's Livy in her "little" outfit made by her auntie Heather...it finally fits and is one of the few pants she has that are big enough for her to crawl around it. Yes, our 23 lb'r stretches the limits of her 18 month clothes and she doesn't fit jeans/pants too well so usually she's limited to wearing dresses with leggings (and even the 18 m leggings look too small).