Into 2011

These last 3 months have been BUSY. Olivia is now almost 9 months old, and Robin has hit the 2 and a half mark and has begun Potty Training. The capitals are because it's a big deal, and has been all consuming the last week. It's amazing how much the desire not to get pee/poop in anywhere other than a diaper/toilet/potty can motivate a parent. She is doing really well. It's tough to tread that line of encouraging her to use the potty while not pushing her so much that she becomes uninterested. Her first poop on the potty was on Jan 8. I had to make sure I logged that one (ha ha). The other day, Robin disappeared into the front room - she likes to be alone to do her business - and came back excited saying "Mommy LOOK!" as she shoved her pooped-in potty 2 inches from Jen's face. At that moment, I was able to see a very strange combination of horror, shock, and encouragement in my wife's face.


Christmas was busy as always. But for the first time in four years, our family did not go to Fernie snowboarding and skiing between Christmas and New Years and spent the time with family and friends in the city. Robin got the notable gifts of a kitchen set with tons of little pretend foods, a learning tower she uses to stand by the counter with, and hoards of books. Olivia got lots of nice and chewable toys, and books as well as a little scooter to help her with the walking.


Since it's been about 3 months since the last update, here is how Olivia has been progressing:

Physically: She's still one big kid. The "linebacker of the baby football team". And her hair is getting really curly! She's even got these three Astroyboy-ish curls sticking out of her head. (Or maybe more like the Gerber Baby). She's also been our little 6 toothed girl since about 8 months.


Eating:

• 6 months: pretty much just ate off the end of a soother, but most things went down.
  
• 7 months: loved just about all the baby food we could give her, including meat. I remember having to use distractions for Robin to play with to get her to not grab the spoon, but Olivia went in open mouthed for each bite.
• 8 months: Finger foods were no problem, and solids were almost preferred to baby food.
• 8 1/2 months: She suddenly gave up on baby food (the baby spoon became and evil attacker that needed to be swatted away) and only wanted what we were eating, shoveling most all the food down her gullet we could give her. And she lets you know when she's done, with a swat and a head shaking.

Activity: She's sitting with ease and almost crawling. She has even pulled herself to standing a few times. In the last week she has really grown a personality! She goes at everything with her index finger, poking and prodding the world. She turns pages in books when we read them, just like Robin did at her age. Her recent favourite game she just started to do this week is peekaboo. It is, as would be expected, adorable. She's becoming a little jokester just like her big sister.


At New Years we had some other couples over to our place who had kids as well. It was a hectic blast, as we ran after all the kids going crazy. We had all these grand plans of playing board games when the kids went to sleep, but as I've come to realize with children, plans like that are just ideas that you want to happen but wont likely be able to. As the evening winded down, and it was determined that no one else's kids were able to get to sleep, everyone went home. So Jen and I decided to watch Airplane. That's right, you don't lose your edge when you're over 30 and have kids.


So 2011 is going well, with Robin still being our funny little monkey and Olivia growing up fast. This week we stayed in a lot because of the potty training, but Janet has been bringing Robin to a drop in playcentre in North Kildonan and we often go to the Wolseley Family Place so Robin can socialize. I think getting out a lot will be key to enjoying this winter.