My favorite things....

Shiloh Kitty

This baby

That smile

Sleeping babies

Happy Thanksgiving

So Mitch, Olivia and I headed down to Danville to have Thanksgiving with Mitchell's mom's side of the family. Thanksgiving took place at Olivia's Great Aunt Michelle and Uncle Dennis' house. It was pretty low-key and fun. Olivia was, of course, quite the main attraction. Here are some pictures of the day and who was there.

Here is a picture of Mitch driving the super awesome Volkswagen Vanagon. We drove this down and since we had so much extra room we were able to bring Olivia's high chair and porta-crib. He also kept commenting about how everyone was staring at the van, because it's so cool...I thought they might have been staring for less spectacular reasons...LOL! Nah the van is pretty fun and cool I must admit!

There's Olivia in the way back and thankfully slept most of the ride down!

Oh I'm afraid she may walk soon!

Watching the doggy "Sandy"


Munchy face

Excited about seeing little kids

Grandma Sparkle and Great Grandma Anita

Uncle Mike imparting some sort of wisdom or sophistication.

Actually, I believe, trying to get her to look at the camera!



Uncle Mike and Liv

Water break...being the apple of everyone's eye can make you thirsty

Aunty Alyssa...hmmm you know what you did!

Aunties Lyss, Megs and Ash

Acting silly with Aunty Ash

"Uncle" Adam being too cool for school

Aunty Ally

I think Liv has a baby crush on Adam...good thing he's not blood related and not actually related just yet! Watch out Allison...your niece might steal your man!

Olivia's second cousin Colton


Daddy...not wanting his picture taken

Colton with Olivia and his mom "Great Aunt" Michelle

Olivia riding Sandy...this dog is like the sweetest dog ever!

Alyssa

Killing you with her cuteness!


My baby

Dancing dancing

Uncle Mike also known as BrUncle Mike...Mitch also has an Uncle Mike so this means "Brother Uncle Mike", less confusing for Mitch.

Adam aka blonde Val Kilmer

Allison
Cutie


Dancing dancing on Colton's head

Ashley not feeling photogenic

Food time
Yummy yams

I'm Olivia and I love to eat!

cutie face

Mama and baby

THE END

Aghhhhhh I am sooooo bored!

(this is a pic of about 1/2 my movies in Santa Barbara)

I don't know if you know this but I used to have something of a DVD problem. As in I used to buy DVD's like nobody's business. That is until I moved to Santa Barbara and Mitchell made me stop and use netflix instead. Not to mention we sold a lot of the really hard to find ones on Amazon later when we moved back home. We even planned on having a garage sale to sell the remainder of them. Well we labeled them all with $3.oo price tags which looking back on it now was stupid...if they were all $3.oo we could have just said DVDs are all $3.oo. Oh well anyways the garage sale never happened so I still own about 300 or more DVD's which are all at Mitchell's parent's house. I never bothered bringing them back over here...kinda something I outgrew...watching movie after movie. However conveniently all of my DVDs have $3.oo price tags on them so I know which ones are mine :). But see there were about 20-30 I wanted to keep and not sell at this "never happened" garage sale...so unfortunately for me if these movies are ever watched or borrowed by the many people who visit Mitch's parents and remark about "all the DVDs they have" well... I may never see them again. Hmmmm oh well I guess. But after adding "I'm Shipping out to Boston" to my playlist I got a mad hankering for some "Departed" watching. It was one of the movies I wanted to keep. I believe I kept all my Martin Scorsese films...watching any of them sound good right now.









I'm a big sucker for these guys

I guess I am one of THOSE people

I decided to annoy and irritate you all...well those few of you who read my blog...or rather check my blog for new pictures of Olivia. That's right I added a playlist. You see I find this annoying when other people have playlists and they come blasting on as soon as you arrive at the web address. But alas...I guess I feel a need to add a soundtrack to my random ramblings...

Sorry in advance...Olivia likes it! She'd like it better if I added Taylor Swift but I just can't bring myself to do it!

Again...sorry for forcing upon you my musical tastes...whatever.

Mr. Baby

So here is a cute picture of my new nephew Liam. He is wearing Olivia's newborn Onesie and also laying on her jungle playmat/gym. It makes me kinda sad when I see pics of him in Olivia's clothes and using her old toys and baby bouncer seat. It just reminds me that Olivia out grew those things...as in Olivia is growing....as in she's not gonna be a baby for much longer!

Olivia had these onesies in blue, green and pink. Liam has borrowed the blue and green but not the pink....he could have if he wanted to....let me know Katie! lol!

Baby Katie with baby Mr.

If I could turn back time...

This time last year I was nearly 6 months pregnant. This time last year baby Olivia was just plain "miss baby". This time last year my internal baby was getting really good at making her presence known. This time last year I had just moved back to Northern California from Santa Barbara. This time last year I had just moved in with the Benvenistes. This time last year I was still in shock that I was even pregnant. This time last year the belly was resembling a baby as opposed to just too many snacks. This time last year I couldn't understand or appreciate how completely my life would change. This time last year I felt more irritated and annoyed with my "developing" body as opposed to thoughtful about what it was developing and evolving for. This time last year heartburn was my constant companion. This time last year sleep was becoming harder and harder to achieve. This time last year I had to finally buy maternity clothes. This time last year I spent more time in the bathroom than out of the bathroom. This time last year I slept on an air mattress on the floor because my bed was too uncomfortable and Mitch was too hot to sleep next to.......So many things were different this time last year.

This year I find myself missing my baby so much at times it feels like my womb aches. Obviously my baby is here, she is present in my life 24-7... but I miss her in a way that only a fellow mother can appreciate and understand. It hurts my heart to know that I will never carry Olivia inside of me ever again, I will never give birth to her again. I may be pregnant again, I may birth other babies, but never Olivia again. It hurts my heart to know how scared I was almost constantly while pregnant...how reluctant I felt about this journey my body was taking...I didn't plan on becoming pregnant at this time in my life and it made the experience very stressful at times. I cried a alot. I cried in the shower where no one could hear me or see me. I remained rather ambivalent towards my family and steadily mellow towards Mitchell's family. My family not exactly sure of what was happening and how they should feel about it. Mitchell's family just excited to have a new baby in the family. Mitch and I were both scared...but I was the one pregnant so I was more scared.

I look at my baby now. Nearing nine months old and she is so perfect, beautiful, amazing and smart. She is my entire world. I cannot imagine my life without her in it. My mom says she would be my daughter whether she got here now or later...which translates to she would be my daughter if I had waited to be married before becoming pregnant, If had I married Mitchell or someone else, she would be the same and she would be mine. I don't know if I believe that or not. Maybe she just couldn't wait to get here and saw the perfect window of opportunity that fateful night. I think about the precious few pregnant moments, usually a quiet morning waking up to her swimming around inside me and understanding through all the turmoil that she was my baby, she was mine and she was on her way. I always loved her, from the moment I heard her whooshing little heartbeat...but I was very very scared.

I think about how fearful I spent the majority of my pregnancy and my heart breaks. I feel so guilty that I didn't spend more time feeling happy, feeling excited, feeling completely enamored with the little life inside me. I think about how independent Olivia can be and I feel like maybe it's because I didn't connect to her enough while she was inside me. She isn't a real cuddler unless she is extremely tired and I feel like it's my fault. I just think back to being pregnant and I hate that I didn't appreciate every second of that unique and special time. I just carry this extreme guilt about how unknowing I spent those first 9 months together. I don't know how it could have been different considering the circumstances, but if I could turn back the hands of time...I would have enjoyed every second of being pregnant. I got to carry and grow this incredible little lady who has changed me in so many profound ways.

Miss baby...I love you more than anything. You were meant for me and me alone. I thought I wasn't ready for you, but you knew better. Thank-you for letting me be your mama, thank-you for loving me and laughing and smiling for me. Thank you for being my best friend. Thank-you for being born. Thank-you for making me a mother...I love you baby!

Did you know

(These all occupy the freezer in the garage)

That I love LOVE with a capital L-O-V-E making baby food? It drives my mother crazy! And to think it all started with my sister in law loaning me her "Happy Baby" food grinder. I was visiting her family in Idaho and I remember that lovely first churn of bananas...it was love at that first glimpse of the bananas coming up like worms from the grinder. Bananas are, for the record, still my favorite thing to grind, they really do look like little worms.

I don't know what it is but I will be lying in bed thinking of new combinations to make. Sometimes I even get up out of bed to make it while the idea is still fresh in my head. It's an obsession. And I like the idea that I know exactly what Olivia is eating. I also believe that if she is exposed to all different kinds of foods and different textures it will ensure that she will be a good eater and be open to try new things. So far she has not turned her nose up to anything. This girl will eat anything and everything and in addition to the "baby food", she also has had waffles, scrambled eggs, grilled cheese sandwiches drizzled in tomato soup. I try to follow all the guidelines of what foods she should have and what's age appropriate but I admit I have moved her onto other things when I have felt confidant that she will like it and do well with it.

(here is what everything is...)

So what has miss thang eaten thus far?

banana

peaches

pears

apples

cranberry

raisin

pineapple

mandarin oranges

peas

green beans

broccoli

avocado

carrots

asparagus

potato

chicken

beef

tuna

chicken noodle soup

mac and cheese

stoffers stuffing

rice (white and brown)

spaghetti

ravioli

apple juice
pear juice

white grape juice

tomato juice

cottage cheese

lemon yogurt

jello

And she has loved it all! My little gourmand!