Family Visit and Whistler

Last week my parents came up from California to take Olivia and I to Whistler for a week long vacation. Our long time family friends the Wimmers also came out from Philadelphia to join us in Whistler. Charlie decided to stay home and look after the dogs.
The night before we left we made some homemade pizzas and Olivia decided to join us at the table. She is becoming such a big girl!
Our first day in Whistler!
The ride up to Whistler after you leave Vancouver is extremely beautiful. The road hugs next to sheer rock faces while overlooking a beautiful strait with snow cap mountains in the background. Here is a pic of one of the sheer faces of a Snoquamish Mt. taken at a gas station. I guess there is 51 rock climbing passages up the rocky face.
Whistler Village and some ski runs on Blackcomb.
This is a view from our condo of the village. Each day on the weekend circus performers would perform various aerobatic and acrobatic tricks.
Everyone got a chance to take a nap with Olivia. As you can see Louise is sleeping like a baby :)
As Olivia's shirt say "Berry Cute"! I love the binky resting on my mom's arm, they always seem to work their way out of Olivia's mouth while she sleeps.
And of course I couldn't resist! This was right after a whole day of skiing. I was so happy that I got to ski the last week of the season. The snow was kind of slushy, but pretty good for the end of May. They ski the glacier all year long while the lower half of the mountain has been made into mountain biker courses. It was kind of strange to see skiers walking next to bikers in the village.
My parents and the Wimmers golfed at this beautiful course. Olivia and I stayed back in Whistler and took a run with the BOB to a lake.

This black bear was roaming around the gondola when I came down from skiing. The whole time we were there we had three bear sittings.
While I was skiing my parents took Olivia up the gondola and chair lift to check out the sites and snow. Supposedly she sleept most of the time.
I love these next couple of pics of my dad carrying Olivia in the baby bjorn. He seems such a natural at it. I can't even get Charlie to use it, I am impressed.

She loves her pop pop!
The gang about to go up the gondola.
On one of our last days my parents, Olivia and I hiked up to a waterfall.
The view from on top of the waterfall.

This is just one of many beautiful scenes in Canada. Can't wait to hopefully go back this winter to do some more skiing with my Brother and Sister-in-Law!

Olivia's Fifth Month B-Day & Mother's Day

Well here we are, 5 months old! Everyone says it goes by fast, but this is ridiculous. It seems like yesterday she was born. Since time has been flying by at the speed of light I am doing my very best to soak in every moment. It seems like everyday she does something knew and I just can't keep up.

As you can see above we were playing tummy time, which she seems to do the best on her changing table. She is really strong and can hold her head up that high for a couple of minutes. No rolling over yet, but the doctor thinks she could do it any day now due to her strength.
We were getting ready to do a 5 month photo shoot and it seems she is already starting to pose.
Thank you Nina for the cute dress and hat.
Olivia was trying to pick the flowers off her dress. Sorry babe those flowers can't be picked off.

I though she was just trying to pick a flower later to find she had hold of the entire branch. Guess she felt the plant needed some pruning.

Olivia and her wagon of plants.
Trying to pull a plant out, if you haven't noticed she loves to pull at plants. It seems she has acquired her mommies green thumb, at least I hope.
For Mother's Day we decided to take advantage of the beautiful day and take a hike in the HOH rain forest, which I have been bugging to do for some time now.

It was a beautiful hike full of ferns, moss, lichen and countless wildflowers. It reminded me of Lord of The Rings.
Olivia was a champ for her first hike. I don't know if you can notice but she sucked on the front on the baby carrier the whole hike, which explains the large wet spot in the front.
Taking a break next to the HOH river.

It was a great day!

Just Hangin Out!

This past month Olivia has started to really get the hang at grabbing things. She especially likes her rings that hang from her bouncy seat. The middle ring plays songs and she gets excited when they come on. Most of the time she bangs the rings together or bounces her seat to make them swing violently. Lately she has been falling asleep while holding them. I think it is so cute, she just can't let go even for sleep.

Another development is the blossoming relationship between Olivia and the dogs, Sunny and Milo. The dogs have always been interested in her, but not the other way around. Olivia just seemed to be completely unaware of their presence. Now she can't keep her eyes off of them. Her favorite thing to do is pull their ears and fur, which can be quiet funny. Sunny doesn't seem to mind, but Milo is another story.
It seems Sunny found a way to control the grabbing by pining Olivia's arm under her paw. It seems a dog out smarted a baby. Things are going to get interesting once Olivia can walk. Poor pouches don't stand a chance!

Olivia's Four Month Checkup

Olivia had her four month checkup today! She did great! She weighed 13.5 oz, which is three oz more than she was at two months, putting her in the 50th percentile. Her height was 25 in, putting her in the 75th percentile. She also got shots and x-rays. The x-rays were to see how her pelvic bone was developing due to being breech. The shots once again where horrible and by the time of the x-rays Olivia about had it.

I felt so sorry for her that after our lunch with my friend Jen Santos I decided to take Olivia shopping. What girls mood doesn't improve with a little retail therapy. To my delight we found a new baby boutique that opened about two weeks ago in downtown PA. Ever since I knew I was having a girl I have been keeping my eye out for a pink tutu and guess what was hanging in the store right when you entered, but a rack full of baby tutu's. I swear no child of mine is going to be without the necessities of being a ballerina and yes that just might have to do with the fact that I am a dancer :)). No pressure :))

Unfortunately right when I put her in the tutu when we got home she spit up all over it. And let me tell you trying to clean spit up out of tulle is no fun. The picture above was when I was cleaning it up and she keep wanting to examine this new texture.
Here is her sucking on this new texture. Gotta cover all the bases!
It was such a wonderful day that we decided to take some pics outside.
Tutu close up!
Sunny and Milo wanted to get in the action and ride the pink elephant too. Thanks Mom for such a cool rocker.
Action shot of Olivia spitting up. I guess this teaches us to not do a photo shoot right after she had a bottle.
Poor elephant took the brunt of it all.
These next two photos are my absolute fav!! I love her facial expression, it is like "come on now this is getting ridiculous".



Another purchase we made during our shopping spree was this adorable dogie coat, were the hood is the dog face with ears and the back is the tail. It is a little big, which will be good for next winter and hopefully the winter after that. I am banking on her being a small girl since I am not very large and she has only grown out of two outfits so far.
The below pics were taken this past month and I just wanted to include them for your viewing pleasure.
This was taken before we went to the pool to go swimming. The one shoulder retro swim suit is too cute.
I am so posh!
One mourning before a run I just had to capture the silliest outfit Olivia has ever worn. I was in such a hurry that I just put a hat on her head on these socks we bought that have rattles on the toes.
Lately she has been into sucking on and playing with her spit up rags, therefore I thought it was time to give her a blanket that expresses exactly how I feel about her.

Happy Easter!

We celebrated Olivia's first Easter by going over to our friends, Jen and Larry Santos house for dinner. But before we left we took some pictures of Olivia and I in front of our house. We just had to get pictures of her in that cute dress that auntie Erica bought. It was a sunny, but windy day.

Jen made Babka a polish sweet bread to go along with dinner. Her dad is polish, as is mine. My dad would be so proud, as he is in the middle of writing a book about his polish heritage.
Jen and Larry also made cakecicles dipped in chocolate, which were so yummy and of course good for you. I made trifle (not shown), one of my favorite desserts my mom used to make.
Larry carving the ham with precision.

Olivia checking out all the food we consumed. She is in awe!
Jen got Olivia to smile.
...And laugh.
.....And smile some more.
Larry decided he wanted to try holding the little monster.
Trying out different positions.
Jen taking a stab at it. I see a kid your near future ;))))
Olivia's favorite pass time, eating her dress.
How much of my dress can I shove in my mouth! I just love that little tummy.

Olivia's First Laughs

Tonight Olivia made her first attempts at laughing. She has been smiling for some time now, along with cooing, but never has she made a laugh. We were so excited that we didn't have time to get the camera to record it, so we used Cha's phone.

Hope you all enjoy listening to her little laughs as much as we did.