Election 2012

This year is an election year. Justin and I are both registered to vote by mail, but this year is special. This year we have two young American's to show the importance of actively participating in the determining the future of the country we call home. This year we decided we would fill out our ballots at home and on election day we would walk to our nearest polling place -- which happens to be the school across the street from our house -- and have the girls see us drop them off. 

We were so lucky that the polling place volunteers were so nice because they let Avery put our (already sealed) ballots in the official box and even gave both girls stickers. Avery sort of understood what the sticker was for but Olivia just likes having her picture taken. I am so proud to have been able to share this with them.

Instragram: October 2012

Here is a snapshot of our month of October.

Halloween 2012

The Princess and the Giraffe

We have a sitter!

Such a big girl she is. Olivia is officially an independent sitter. She gets tired after about 2 minutes, but she has so much fun being able to see like we do.

Food!

Since Olivia was about 4 1/2 months old she has been trying to snatch food off our plates or out of our hands. Since she turned 6 months old yesterday we decided to give her a taste of solid food. Just like with Avery we started with avocado, but unlike her big sister she actually seemed to enjoy it. She mostly just smashed it around, but she seemed to like the taste and had a lot of fun playing around with it.

Olivia's first swing!

Olivia rode on her very first swing at a part today. She absolutely loved it and laughed the entire time. It was so fun to watch.

6 Months!

Today we had A's 6 month checkup.  J and I both had guesses of how big we thought she would be. He thought 19lbs 7oz and I thought 18lbs 3oz. We both thought she would be 30 inches long. 

We were both off. Way off. Here's her stats:

Weight: 16lbs 11.5oz
Length: 27in
Head circumference: 17in

THIS MONTH YOUR BABY MAY:

• improve her fine motor skills and begin to feel and turn around small objects in her hands She is practicing moving objects from one hand to the other. 
• say vowel-consonant combinations We haven't heard anything like this yet, but that is probably because all her sounds are at such high octaves that it's hard to make out what she is "saying"!
• express unhappiness when a toy is taken away Oh definitely. She also shows her displeasure when you walk out of her line of sight. 
• discover herself and "talk" to herself in a mirror She loves to babble at herself. I'm not sure she quite understands that the baby she is seeing is her reflection and not another baby.
• separation anxiety: understand that she’s a separate being and thus develop anxiety when she’s apart from you Basically she wants you to sit next to her while she plays, but don't you dare play with one of her toys or walk away from her side to do something.
• learn to soothe herself by sucking a thumb or using a pacifier She loves her paci, but sometimes she opts to snuggle her lovey as a soothing mechanism instead.
• explore her environment by putting everything into her mouth (since a baby's mouth has more nerve endings and is thus more sensitive than any other part of her body, she uses it to learn more about the world around her) Every.Single.Thing goes in her mouth. Her feet, her toys, her seat buckle, her hand, my hand, the carseat handle... you get the picture.