Wednesday, October 31, 2012

Trick or Treat?

Hi everyone!
I am just getting in under the wire for another October message.  We are gearing up for Olive's first Halloween. See picture with her little angel outfit from the party they had at daycare the other day:
 Our house is full of people trying to kick a cold virus, but thankfully we are getting the upper hand. Last weekend, after being frustrated with a congested baby (for more than two weeks now) and no good advice from the doctor except wait for it to pass... I did what any smart, savvy mom in the 21st century would do.  I got on the computer and checked in with my Facebook mom's group for advice.

What came of this exploration will no doubt keep the vampires away from our house this Halloween!  The solution.... GARLIC. For three nights in a row, I packed Olive's feet with a minced garlic/olive oil poultice. Then I covered her feet with plastic wrap, socks and lace up shoes (in that order).  Poor thing had to sleep with stinky shoes all weekend because without the shoes, the socks would be off in a flash and the garlic/oil mess would be everywhere. She did sleep incredibly well, I must say, and she woke up with a touch of baby-garlic-breath (which smells like normal garlic breath except MUCH cuter :).

(knock on wood) I do believe this home remedy helped -- Garlic has powerful analgesic, antiviral and antibiotic properties.  By the way, I packed my own feet with garlic one night and woke up completely clear in my chest and sinuses. I am sure Jason is now kicking himself now for not putting some kind of "odd use of garlic" exclusion in our marriage contract.

Olivia has been increasingly vocal and active lately. She is loving climbing the stairs and playing on the slide at daycare.  In the food department, she lets them spoon feed her at daycare but won't let us do that anymore at home. She's not terribly picky or messy at the dinner table though she's learned how to feed the dogs scraps from her high chair which isn't great (she does let them lick her fingers clean too which I guess is a bonus!).  Each morning, she eats a scrambled egg with toast and fruit.  She loves salmon and other fish.

Baby Boy is cooking right along (32+ weeks now).  I am getting bigger and more and more ready for this pregnancy phase of my life to be over, though I know this is a small sacrifice to make and it will be over before I know it.  Needless to say, we are all looking forward to December and to meeting our baby boy!

We will have some pictures from a recent photo session to share next time. Love always, claire



Tuesday, October 16, 2012

Energizer Baby

Hi everyone!
We're enjoying a beautiful Fall here in KC though Olive and I are both recovering from the flu that seems to be everywhere these days.

We just got back from a trip to Arizona to visit Jason's mom, Patti. This was the second airplane trip for Olive and she did really well. We bought a seat for her on the plane and brought her car seat. Both ways, we were seated in the very front bulkhead row. On the way there, she didn't sleep at all (darn!) because she was so busy checking everything out, tracking the flight attendant's every move.

When we got to grandma's house, even though it was late (especially considering the 2 hr time change), Olive was absolutely FULL of energy! She was practically race-crawling around the house to check everything out.  All three of us adults fell into bed just minutes after I got Babygirl down for the night.

I've heard that stimulating experiences can help kids advance, and I would say this was definitely one of them. Her level of activity and energy before and after this little 4 day trip has definitely increased. Verbal skills have really picked up as well - we are noticing lots of new words and even phrases.

Here are some pics with a giraffe from the Phoenix Zoo.

She has been the queen of funny faces these days.  When you hold the camera up - she sometimes does this cheesy little smile.

She weighed in at 20 lbs the other day at the doctor's office so she is growing well and getting strong! Walking is probably right around the corner.

Signing off until next time! Love, claire, jason & olive