Catching Up

Ni Hao, Y'all!

Let me start out by saying that I began writing this post 2 weeks ago and just finished it up tonight, October 19th!

I'm sorry that it's been so long….life is crazy these days.  We are doing well…..really well.  The last time I posted, I had just returned to work, and we had just celebrated our 3 month Gotcha Day.  Well, today is October 5th, and we just celebrated being home for 5 months.  We have come a LONG way in those 5 months.  Let me see if I can get you caught up.

In early August, the girls had their "official" first day of school.  This is the last year Ansley will be in pre-school.  Next year, she will be in kindergarten!  Here are a few pictures from their first day.

Since these pictures were taken in August of their first day, the day care came to me and recommended we go ahead and move Olivia up a room.  They started her in a room with children approximately 6 months younger.  They quickly realized that she needed to be with children closer to her age.  One reason was for language development.  The younger children were not talking quite as much, and Olivia really needs to be with children who are speaking more in order to pick the language more quickly.  We have seen marked improvement over the past couple of weeks.  She now has about 20 words (goal is 25 by the end of the year), and she is beginning to put 2-3 word sentences together and is repeating after us more willingly.

One thing we started when she moved up a room was potty training.  Ugh.  My least favorite part of parenting so far.  She goes when you take her, but she still hasn't gotten the hang of telling us when she needs to go.

She is still eating well and sleeping well.  The only challenge we have is that we have to still be in the room with her while she falls asleep.  I'm not really pushing the issue.  After all, she's only been with us for 5 months, so we have time.  She is still in a crib, but I think we will start transitioning her to a bed around the first of next year.  We'll see how that goes.  :)

In early August, we took Olivia to her first Titans game.  The game itself was slightly a disaster because of the rain, but we had a great time before the game in the kids area.

At the end of the month, we celebrated our 4th month Gotcha Day.  A week later, Olivia got her first taste of Tennessee football!

Since being with us, Olivia has also learned how to ride a bike (with training wheels).  She learned pretty quickly!!  She loves to be outside, and my Mom thinks she's a tom boy.  She is a climber and still has no fear!

In early September, we celebrated Ansley's 5th Birthday with a fun painting party!  This was also Olivia's first birthday party.  She seemed to enjoy herself, especially the eating!

Olivia really loves all of our family members.  She is comfortable around everyone, even those she doesn't get to see regularly.  We are so blessed….in every way….she is just precious….also mischievous, funny, flirtatious, daring, and often stretches our parenting skills….but we wouldn't have it any other way.  Ansley is doing such a great job as a big sister.  She gets so excited when Olivia does something new or says a new word.  Again, truly blessed.

I will post again about our activities in October.  After all, we are approaching our 6 month Gotcha Day this week!  Thanks for reading….

Jill