Trick Or Treat

This Halloween was the first holiday that Olivia seemed to "get." She was so excited to see people in costumes and ride in her wagon and go up to houses and be told she was cute. She was really interested in her candy. I have to say, this was one of my favorite Halloweens and I have had some great Halloweens. Ryan proposed to me on Halloween 2001. I look forward to all of the holidays to come. Olivia just makes everything better!

Olivia LOVED Rebekah and Julia's costumes.

Rebekah and Julia

To the candy!!

Olivia's first trick or treating house. She even said "trick or treat, thank you, and bye-bye."

She loved trick or treating.

Daddy, I got a lot of candy!

Psst. . .do you have any more Skittles?

Wow, people just gave me candy for looking cute!

Saturday, October 31, 2009 - Update

I think today might have gone down as Olivia's favorite day ever. She LOVED trick or treating! The weather was absolutely gorgeous. But, before our Halloween celebration, we headed over to Grandma and Grandpa Glunt's house for their annual. . . .

LEAF PARTY!

Wow, these are a lot of leaves!

A lot, a lot of leaves!

Olivia and Daddy

Olivia and Mommy ready to run down the hill.

All of the kids had a blast!

Olivia was beyond thrilled!

Our attempt at a group shot.

Live action shot of Mommy.

Live action shot of Uncle Kris.

Live action shot of daddy (stolen from Kim's blog.)

This is a great leaf party, Grandpa.

I could get used to this. . .

Leaves make me happy.

Our family

The Snyders

The "other" Glunts.

All of the grandkids.

The day I see a leaf is a marvel of a day. ~Kenneth Patton.

To me, a lush carpet of pine needles or spongy grass is more welcome than the most luxurious Persian rug. ~Helen Keller

More leaf parties please.

This was the first leaf party that Olivia was able to attend. It was so nice to have everyone together. Tomorrow, I'll share all about the rest of our exciting day. . .

Friday, October 30, 2009 - Update

Isn't she the prettiest cat?

Some days, you just need the love of an animal. . .today was one of those days. Autumn is the most affectionate, sweetest, most loving cat in the whole world. It's as if her purpose in life is simply to sit in my lap. She has even charmed her way into the No Autumn Zone. . . aka our bedroom. Yep, she slept with us last night. She did, however, get kicked out in the early morning because she was ready to play and, well, we weren't ready quite yet. She has been a blessing to our whole family and we are so lucky to have her.

Thursday, October 29, 2009 - Update

Gogum (Gloworm)? Check.
Baby? Check
Unshy bear (Funshine Bear)? Check.
Aff (Giraffe)? Check.
Duh (Duck)? Check.
Lambie? Check.
Bear? Check.
Ankit (Blanket?) Check.
Baba (Bottle)? Check.

Whew. . .I think we're finally ready for bed.

Wednesday, October 28, 2009 - Update

It's almost Halloween!!

Olivia met with an occupational therapist this week. Of course, if the OT would have visited a month ago, I would have had many concerns to share with her. But, Olivia has come a long way in the past month. Her fine motor skills are improving daily. Her delay is most likely due to her sensory processing disorder because of her premature birth. We are going to start working more with things like play doh to strengthen her hands. We are working really hard during "therapy time" each day with stacking blocks, inserting coins in her piggy bank and she is doing amazingly well. I have every faith that she will catch up to her peers. . .it is just a slow process. We've also noticed that Olivia has a really high pain tolerance, which is also common in infants who spent a lot of time in the NICU. The other day, she fell off the chair, landed on her head and did a sort of back flip and just laughed. She rarely cries over bumps and bruises which breaks my heart a bit and makes me worry about her as she gets older. Below is an article that discusses the adult repurcussions of infant pain.

http://www.physorg.com/news173105138.html

Overall, Olivia is doing fabulously and shattering many documented statistics concerning 23 weekers. I'm so proud of her. She is truly the toughest person I know. I don't think Halloween will even scare her at all. . .unless someone is dressed up as an eye doctor or a piano. . .those things terrify her.

Tuesday, October 27, 2009 - Update

After watching me clean ours, Olivia wanted to clean HER potty. I know, you've waited two days for a post and you get one with a picture of Olivia cleaning a toilet. That's how unexciting our life is. :) She is in a cleaning and laundry stage and wants to help me (I'm sure it won't last long.) When she helps with the laundry, it probably doubles the work, but cleaning. . .every little bit helps. She thinks every load of laundry needs towels because she knows where they are, so every load of laundry seems to have a towel or two thrown in. Then, she wants to put all of the clothes in the towel closet, so it's interesting what I find in there. And brooms? She LOVES brooms and went crazy at the grocery store watching someone push a big broom. She should have been a witch for Halloween and could have carried her very own broom. It's interesting to learn what kids find intriguing. Cleaning her own potty was definitely a highlight.

Sunday, October 25, 2009 - Update

Today was a busy day. First, we celebrated my grandpa's 87th birthday. I feel so grateful that my daughter has been able to meet her great-grandparents.

My grandpa

Olivia loved exploring their house. She has to make sure every house has a "poppy." She was happy to find that this one did, indeed, have one.

Izzy and Shelley

They had a blast spinning around in a chair.

My grandpa's new wheels.

Then, tonight. . .Shelley and I headed to Wicked. It would have been an awesome day if I hadn't had this headache for the past 8 hours. Ughhh. . .

Saturday, October 24, 2009 - Update

Autumn just helping out with the insomnia.

I thought I would share a few Autumn stories. We've had her for almost a month now and she is truly the best cat. She BEGS for people food. . .on her hind legs and all. I've started giving her canned food so that she'll leave us alone when we eat. The other night, I was warming up left over lasagna. Ryan's piece was in the microwave and mine was in the pan on the counter. I left the room and when I came back, she was on the counter, eating my lasagna. I shooed her away and told her that cats aren't supposed to like lasagna. . .then Ryan reminded me of Garfield. Oh yeah, I forgot. More than people food, however, Autumn loves affection. I joked once and said that I felt like that guy with the really clingy girlfriend. She wants my undivided attention which isn't possible with a two year old. I feel bad going to bed at night and not letting her sleep with us. She looks forward to those nights when I can't sleep and end up on the couch with her. She literally sleeps facing me with her head nestled under my chin and her arms around me in an embrace. The other night, she jumped into bed with us and I tried to let her stay there without Ryan knowing. She has the loudest purr in the world and it was vibrating the entire bed. The more I tried to get her to stop, the louder she purred. Then, she started chasing Ryan's feet through the comforter and that was the end of that. What a great cat, though. . .just perfect.

Friday, October 23, 2009 - Update

We're planning on moving Olivia to a toddler bed in the not so distant future. I'm not quite sure how you tell when your child no longer needs a crib. The thought of her up walking around the house at night is a little frightening. I'm so excited about redoing her room. Don't get me wrong. . .I like her room okay, but the bedding that we picked out was for Logan and Olivia so it's pretty gender neutral. We didn't have time to make her room really special for her. At 23 weeks, we had two cribs ordered, but we didn't have the room put together at all. After Logan died, we were afraid to do anything to the nursery for fear that we wouldn't have a baby to bring home at all. Then, it happened so fast and she was coming home and we kinda threw it together. I always dreamed of having this special nursery to bring my baby home to. I've come to the realization that Olivia may be my only baby and I missed out on that special thing. I envisioned having her name spelled out in wooden letters above her crib and that has yet to happen. But, it will. I found her toddler bedding today and I almost cried. . .yeah, I don't know what's wrong with me. It'll have flowers and be pink and girly and fun. I want border and curtains and I will have those wooden letters with her name spelled out as well. I feel like this is my chance to make up for what I wasn't able to do and for some reason, that is so important to me. And, I had better act fast because if Olivia had her way, she'd probably have an Elmo room.

Thursday, October 22, 2009 - Update

Miss Mess

Every morning when Olivia wakes up, I ask her what she dreamt about the night before. Yesterday, it was butterflies and water. Today it was Izzy and cars. I have enjoyed watching her language skills develop. We met with her speech pathologist yesterday who was impressed by how many words have been added to her vocabulary. She doesn't put many words together, so we're working on that. Also, she can now say her kitty's name. . .well, sort of. Instead of Ahpple, she now says Ah-TON. I found it interesting to learn that when saying kitty, a lot of kids say kiki because the k sound is made in the back of your throat and the t sound is made at the front. When kids are learning to talk, it is difficult to switch back and forth. . .something we don't think much about. I find stuff like that interesting. . .

Hush Hush

This afternoon, I was talking on the phone and I noticed that Olivia went back to her bedroom and got really quiet. When I went back to check on her, this is what I found:

My first question is. . .Is that really comfortable? My second question is. . .Why in the world did I take her picture and wake her up?

Then, my cousin sends me this picture of his dog. Too funny!

Wednesday, October 21, 2009 - Update

We're pretty boring around here, but there is a lot going on in the micro-preemie blog world. Ellie's mom, just did IVF #2 and found out Monday that she is expecting again. Rhys's mom is also expecting. Please keep these families in your prayers. Both have given birth prematurely and lost one of their children. These pregnancies need to go as smoothly as possible. A few months ago, Coy's mom gave birth to Cydney at 34 weeks after 15 or so weeks on hospital bed rest. Riley's mom also gave birth recently to Peighton around 30-31 weeks. She lost 23 week twins, Ethan and Blake, not long ago. Please keep all of these families in your prayers and may their lives continue to be blessed.

There is also a new blog that I have been reading for a few weeks now. Thanks to Kerry and Emily who told me about it. The Stansel's gave birth to sextuplets a few months ago. They have lost 4 of their precious children. Haley and Rachel are now two months old and fighting hard every day. Please keep this family in your prayers and hope that God allows them to bring their two girls home.

Conversation with Olivia

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Monday, October 19, 2009 - Update

The earliest picture of Ryan and I that I have saved on my computer. I think we had just purchased our digital camera. . .December 2001.

Yesterday, Ryan took me on a surprise date. I had no idea what we were doing. It started off with a trip to Target to buy a cd to listen to in the car. Then, we drove across town and ate at Huhot. It tasted amazing and both of us actually went back for seconds. Then, we headed to a movie. We don't go to movies much anymore. We used to go all of the time. . .if there was a movie out that one of us wanted to see, we were there. Any time out of the house is nice, but time alone with my husband is very special. Thank you, honey, for a great time. I can't wait until Olivia is old enough to enjoy going to movies. Right now, the only way she'd make it to a movie is if they made a feature film of Baby Signing Time or Praise Baby. We don't really sit and watch those all that often either because Olivia has discovered the remote control. We watch them in fast forward or rewind or the same thing over and over. I've gotta learn to hide the remote.

In other news, my sister-in-law, Shelley, got tickets to see Wicked this weekend. I'm super excited and it will be nice to have a girls' night out. Can't wait!

Pumpkin Patch Cont.

We had a great time at the pumpkin patch. Olivia LOVED the slide and squealed all the way down. She is not at all afraid of things like that. I, however, discovered that I have some kind of giant slide phobia. Of course, Ryan asked Olivia if she wanted to go down it with mama and she screamed, "YEAH!" So, I did it, but I was terrified. . .mainly because I had just watched this poor woman wipe out at the bottom and the little girl in her lap face planted into the dirt. I just thought, "Please don't let that be me!" We had a great time, though, and can't wait to go back next year.

As you know, I love comparison pictures. What a difference a year makes!

Oct 2008

Oct 2009

Oct 2008

Oct 2009

Oct 2008

Oct 2009


Oct 2008


Oct 2009

The Giant Slide

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