More Austin Fun

Here are some cute photos from our recent trip to Austin. Olivia had the best time with her bud Chase. They really had fun!

Chase teasing Olivia with her favorite thing in the whole world, a cell phone

O checking out downtown Austin and their labs from Fife and Courtney's

Walking to lunch from Courtney's new office

At the Hagarty's party with Uncle Joel...maybe next time she can do the huge slide

Driving the police car with Chase

At their pool

With Daddy at the pool

Miss Helpful

Olivia has been rather helpful around the house lately :)

Taking all of her dirty clothes out of the hamper each day

Testing out the security of the baby gates

Making sure the dog beds are comfy enough

Unrolling the toilet paper

Clearing off her book shelf

SLEEP!!

I finally caved and let Olivia "cry it out". While she was sick recently, she started getting up sometimes five times a night. I was exhausted! When it was one time a night and I could be back in bed in under 20 minutes after feeding her, I really didn't mind getting up with her. In fact, I enjoyed our night time snuggles. I also didn't have the heart to let her cry it out. I had also read that it is not a problem to have one or two night feedings as long as you didn't mind. Well, I reached a point where I needed some sleep!

Amazingly, it only took one night of "crying it out" to get Olivia to sleep through the night. I was SHOCKED! I did the Ferber Method. That is where you go in after increasing amounts of time to reassure them, but don't pick them up, talk to them, or rock them. This ultimately teaches them to self sooth and fall asleep without your help. I am still amazed this actually worked, much less in just one night! I guess we were both ready. She is sleeping 11-12 hours at night with two hour+ long naps during the day.

This has continued for 4 nights. I hope I am not jinxing it! Friday night was the first full night sleep I have gotten in 11 months! The only problem was that I kept waking up amazed that she was still asleep!

Aquarium

The same day that we went to the zoo, we also went to the Aquarium Downtown to celebrate both my birthday and Nonna's 60th birthday (we share a birthday)!!! Olivia has not really been interested in going out to eat lately. Now that she can crawl, she wants to be on the move and sitting at a table is NOT FUN! So, we figured the aquarium would be great to keep her entertained. She loved it. She really loves fish! Turns out, the food was fabulous, as well as the view. I highly recommend it to anyone visiting Houston.

O's first trip to the zoo

We left Rockport early to be in Houston with Mike's family for Memorial Day. We wanted to take Olivia somewhere fun and decided at the last minute on the zoo. Turns out, that is not the best day for a trip to the zoo! It was truly a ZOO! It was really hot and very crowded! We had quite a fun adventure though.

Giraffes

Enjoying the view from up top in the reptile room (we enjoyed the a/c!)

Sea lions with Aunt Carrie

Pooped!

Memorial Day Weekend in Rockport

All four Stobaugh kids and our respective families went down to Rockport for Memorial Day weekend. We had an absolute blast! We tried to get several photos of all 5 grandchildren and a group shot of the entire family...it proved to be quite a difficult task!

The grandkids with their birth order putting green flags

The Fam

Swimming with her cousins

With Aunt Heather

Checking out the new cabinets!

With Great Aunt Tish at Olivia's first trip to the seafood buffet at the Rockport Country Club

Getting a quick sink bath before we left (better than the pool bath we got as kids down in Rockport!)

Austin Fun

At the last minute, Olivia and I decided we had nothing going on last week and why not go to Austin to visit with friends?! We had such a fun time! We stayed with Olivia's boyfriend, Jake, who is 6 weeks older than she is. It was interesting to see their personality differences. Olivia seems to be a pretty laid back girl. She didn't mind at all when Jake came and took toys away from her. She just went and found another one. We had fun at the park, at the pool and with lots of friends!

At a yummy steakhouse in Steiner Ranch, overlooking the water.

She LOVED this type of swing

Fun at the pool

CSD babies having fun with a cool toy that we later went out and got for Olivia. She loved it way too much not to! She can practice her standing skills and play at the same time!

All the old gang at Iguana Grill! It was great to see old friends.

Stephanie, Jennifer, and Maggie

Olivia and Claire

Doing a little light reading on the car ride back to Houston!

Pulling up already

It seems she went quickly with the latest milestones. She is already pulling up on things and I am NOT enjoying this one! Sharp corners on tables and the inability to get herself down safely means I am on constant "injury watch"! It is cute to see her so determined to get to whatever is on top of tables and other furniture!

Crawling!!!

Olivia finally took the plunge and began crawling on her 9 month birthday! It is really cute to watch. It has opened a whole new world to her and a whole new world to us...we need to baby proof!

She gets faster and faster every day!

3/4 of a Year...Happy 9 Months, O

Lots of changes this month!!! She got 3 new teeth, bringing the total to 6! She has since learned how to take bites with those teeth, so she has a lot more food options than just pureed food now. She started army crawling or creeping and then on her 9 month birthday, actually started crawling. She doesn't seem all that interested in going many places, though. She is content to go a little ways and then stop and play with whatever she finds there. If she can't reach a toy, she just finds another one! If there is something really desirable, like a "not toy" as I call them, she can really move it.

She has also started waving, so cute! It began with waving to herself. Being the paranoid speech pathologist, I thought she was enjoying watching her hands flap, a feature of Autism. So it took one of my friends in Doha to point out that she was practicing waving, DUH!

She is somewhat of a picky eater and has begun shaking her head "no" to foods she doesn't want to eat! She really only loves vegetables and food she can takes bites of (crackers, Puffs, waffles, etc.). She will sometimes tolerate apples and bananas, but hates all other fruit!

She is still NOT sleeping through the night! My round the clock feeding duties continue. I really don't mind too much though. It is only once a night and takes me about 20 minutes. We are both right back to sleep after. I like going in to visit her in the middle of the night...for now! :)

Here are photos of the past month: Olivia's 9th Month Photos

Crib Changes

The other night Mike went in to Olivia's room to find her sitting up in her crib!! She just figured out how to get from a laying down position to sitting up. Daddy arrived in Houston just in time to lower the crib! She is growing up too fast!

Helping Daddy lower her crib

The finished product

Cute bum in the air

Indy with Nana

The day after we got back from Rockport for Easter, Olivia and I boarded yet another plane to Indy to go see my mom, Olivia's Nana. We had a great time and enjoyed being in one place for a while.

With Nana, Grandpa Bill and Abby

Woo hoo for having our own row on one leg on the way back.

Blue Eyes

Interestingly, neither Mike nor I have blue eyes, but Olivia does. We have discovered that Mike's father, my grandfather, and my Aunt Murf all have blue eyes. We were thinking that Olivia's would change, but they just haven't yet. So, we were beginning to think they might just stick around. Well, I recently saw a picture of me taken when I was about 18 months and I had bright blue eyes! So, she may be hazel eyed like both of her parents after all!

Olivia's First Easter

The day after we arrived from Doha (a 16 hour non-stop to Houston) we jumped in the car with Olivia's cousins, Haylie and Aiden and went to Rockport for Easter. We had a great weekend with both the Ray's and lots of Stobaughs. We only made her wear the ears for a little while :) Olivia's favorite part was playing with her mini Easter basket and with her cousins!

With Nonna Easter Morning

Shaking her mini Easter basket

Best photo we got of the cousins!

Dining "al fresco" with Pong Pong

Too Sexy for Doha

I thought this was too funny! I was a store the other day with a friend and we saw this inflatable pool on one of the shelves. Apparently, the mom in a bathing suit is just too sexy for Doha and they blacked her out with a magic marker! I will miss this kind of thing in Canada!

I snuck this picture this weekend of two little Qataris. After 2 and a half years here, I still think the little thobe wearing boys are too cute! Too bad they grown up and become maniacs on the road.

Rockin' Miss O

We aren't going to be able to contain her much longer! All she wants to do now is practice her moves! It is really fun to watch the progression of skills each day.

Belly Laughs

In case you are not on Facebook and have not seen this video, enjoy! We sure do! This was taken in the hotel in Munich.
Too bad I never get laughs like this, only daddy is super funny!