our fourth of july.

This year was Olive's second fourth of July but first that we did anything special. If you know us well you're probably aware that we don't seem to be "holiday people". We're not anti holiday but we don't go out of our way to celebrate anything too much. We're almost certain that we're not going to do things like santa or the Easter bunny.

So.. like I said.. we're not anti holiday.. If an opportunity to celebrate something were to present itself we would likely be accepting and excited.

Tyler's friend, Luke, invited us over to his parent's house to go swimming and have dinner. We thought we would play it by ear and see what would be best for Olive. After her nap the weather seemed a bit more tolerable so we packed up our swimming stuff and headed to Brooklyn Center.

I was already wearing a blue dress so I grabbed some red shoes. I decided my legs would play the part of "white". ha.



I threw together a somewhat festive looking outfit for Olive but she wasn't very impressed.



I didn't take many photos at Luke's because I was in the pool. Olive did a little floating around in this orange thing and on a big floating raft but she preferred to be right in the water. Luke's family has a lot of dogs and Olive seemed both amused at and confused by the dogs in, around, and on rafts in the pool. After we went inside to eat Olive and I went back to the pool. She did a great job at putting her head under water and also trying to swim. :)



After our last time in the pool we went into a bathroom to dry off and get ready to head downtown for the fireworks show. Olive immediately pointed the toilet so I put her on it and, honestly, she peed more than I have ever seen her go ever before, which was both interesting and shocking but also rather exciting... I'm pretty sure that means she didn't pee in the pool. I think it's just assumed that it happens...

We drove to downtown Minneapolis with our windows open - letting our hair dry in the breeze. :) At this point it was a little after Olive's typically bedtime.



After finding a parking spot in a ramp and walking past the Guthrie Theatre we climbed our way through some praire grass where we found Luke and our blanket.  Our spot was great - on a hill, praire grass all around, far above the river and the Stone Arch Bridge.



Tyler explained to Olive that there were going to be big lights in the sky just over the river and the bridges.



Olive was understandably getting a little antsy.  We pointed out the interesting things around us while waiting for the show to begin.



Olive was engrossed.  I expected her to be interested and impressed.. and she was.



Eventually she wanted to get closer to us so she climbed around the blanket instead of being stuck in her stroller.  For the grand finale she was sitting with Tyler - her eyes glued the sky.  Immediately after it was over and people began cheering Olive starting signing "more".  :)



We got sleepy head ready to go and made our way through the crowd.



Here is a view of some of the crowd dispersing back to where they came from.  We had to sit in the parking ramp for an extremely long time.  We drove Luke back to Brooklyn Center and Olive fell asleep in the car.



I assumed Olive would love fireworks but it was great to see her so interested and happy.  :)

I hope you had a great 4th of July too!

elimination communication { update }

ten months old.

Olive turned ten months old last month. Well, last year I suppose! Christmas, editing for frost on flower, friends in town, and our holiday travel slowed me down a bit and I've only gotten to editing these photos and sorting out my thoughts now. Forgive me? :)

Here are Olive's ten month photos (as usual.. there are a lot!!)... She's wearing an old dress and pair of shoes of mine. :) She's also reading one of my books in a few of the photos. There are a few "classic" Olive shots that I had to include with her arm outstretched reaching for something or pointing at something.















































































At ten months Olive is very mobile. I'm surprised she's not walking yet but she's not yet comfortable with letting go of things which is just fine - she'll do it when she's ready.
At ten months she had six teeth, she now has seven.
Olive gives me kisses. :)
She won't stop pointing at things! She points where she wants us to take her, she points at things she wants, she points to ask what things are. Point point point!
Olive can point to or look at things when you ask such as a light, her nose, a window, Honey, the ceiling, a wall, a penguin, etc.
She is still incredibly interested in food. Baby Led Weaning was definitely the right choice for our family.
A few days ago Olive signed potty and went right away when I put her on. Elimination Communication is going alright but we still miss a lot. Olive seems to go potty frequently and will go nearly every time she's on the potty but doesn't seem to feel the need to hold it in between potty trips.
We got a new baby carrier in December and we've both enjoyed using it.
Olive's sock fell off (as they often do) and Tyler asked her to get it.. so she crawled to it and picked it up. He then asked her to bring it to him so he could put it on her.. and she did!
She had her first needle poke since her newborn screen done at birth. She needed a lead test as we've found that we have a large amount of lead dust in our home. We're still waiting for the results.
Olive said "all done" while signing it once.
It's possible that she tried to say "I love you" after giving me a kiss tonight.
Speaking of kisses.. Olive never used to enjoy getting kisses and certainly didn't enjoy giving them. More recently she has become quite kissy when sleepy in the morning, before naps, and before bed. Because I often give her a kiss after saying "I love you" she now crawls over to me to and kisses me when I say "I love you Olive". It's pretty adorable.
Her sign vocabulary continues to grow although it's rather slow going. Tyler and I aren't introducing her to new signs or using signs as consistently as I'd like to. She picked up on "please" very quickly last week though. I signed "please" with her hand over hand and she was able to do it independently on my next verbal prompt. That was pretty cool. However since then please seems to come and go. If she wants something too badly she can't seem to find the sign. Which is fine!
Olive is really great at matching pitch and I think she has a decent sense of rhythm so far.
She is becoming more purposeful in her play by the day.
She is very social - she waves and smiles and points at everyone.
Olive is very curious - she loves to crawl around the house and look at things that aren't toys and climb into small spaces in which I cannot fit. Which also means that she's quite independent. She will get upset occasionally when I leave her (especially if I leave her with a person). But if I leaver her to play or explore she's generally fine with that. She will also leave me to explore other rooms. I only wish our house was safer so she could do this more easily and more often. We have stairs that are difficult to block and radient baseboard heaters that are not safe. As well as other nooks and crannies that aren't safe.
She's also getting bigger and gaining weight though I still feel like she's so small - especially when she's nursing!

As always I probably missed a bunch of things but that's an overview of where Olive is at ten months old.

And here is a fun side by side of me and Olive. :)