Welcome to Olivia Mia's Blog!: August 2008

What an incredibly eventful last week we've had - chock full of good stuff! On the 8th Olivia, Karen and Joel boarded a plane for Denver and had a very full (yet relaxing) weekend with the crew, then Karen and Olivia traveled on for a few days with the Reale family. In the span of six days Olivia flew three times - from DC to Denver, from Denver on to San Diego and then from San Diego home. En route she managed to charm half of the country - if she could have juggled to get more attention I think she would have! Thankfully it was all positive attention...well...at least most of it was. Olivia is such a social bee that it's tough for her to wind down in the midst of things going on, so needless to say there was not as much sleeping as her mommy would have liked, especially on the trip back from California! The trip was WELL worth the attempt to keep a very active five month old entertained in a seat hardly bigger than two dozen inches across for 11 collective hours. Read on for the highlights...

We got the royal treatment when we arrived in Denver. A car waiting at the airport (we love you Kristin and Brian!), an afternoon of fun with the Seibold clan (complete with two very talented built in babysitters - Zoe and Mae), and a plush set up at the Steele loft downtown (which closely resembles the W hotel chain) complete with all of the comforts of home for Olivia (thanks SO MUCH Sam!) Olivia immediately bonded with the Seibold kids. Charlie and Olivia spent some quality time playing, and taking turns in the Bumbo while Zoe and Mae made sure to keep them in line with lots of kisses and hugs. Joel and Karen got a chance to wind down with the calmest parents of four kids we could have imagined! Jeff and Nicole give us hope :) Olivia was a rock star, totally rolling with the time change, the airplane ride, the lack of naps and everything else we threw her way and after a bath in Kristin and Brian's stylish kitchen sink she calmly went to sleep - for the whole night! This little one is a wonder to us. We got a chance to wind down, with lots of wine - a visit from Timmy, and some great takeout. What a day! So much better than we could have imagined. The rest of the weekend was much of the same - lots of fun with a very well behaved Olivia. We did early morning coffee (adjustment to the time change was not something that Olivia embraced), brunches with Ari and Sheri, and a fabulous party thrown by Sheri's parents to celebrate Ari and Sheri's engagement. We had a chance to connect with the whole crew and introduce Olivia to many of her mountain state admirers. She hammed it up the whole way through. She also slept like a champ - that elevation does wonders!

Sunday it was time to move on - Karen couldn't have been more nervous to fly on her own with Olivia (Joel returned to DC) but again, all went well. Olivia loves to over deliver on expectations, which we certainly won't complain about! When Olivia drifted off to sleep before we even took off all of the anxiety melted away...until she woke up 30 minutes later, but by then we only had an hour or so left so we were set! Lori and Tobin met us at baggage claim (thank goodness, as a good portion of the anxiety came from how to manage all of the baggage we were traveling with!) In retrospect, it was at the San Diego airport that love at first sight occurred between Olivia and Tobin. You think I'm kidding - this claim is well documented...

We had no idea their reaction and connection to one another would be so strong (of course we are thrilled and have already started banking pictures in preparation for their future wedding rehearsal dinner). The following days were filled with fun and firsts. Tobin WALKED for the first time on his own and Olivia demonstrated that she needs no assistance to sit up on her own. These kids do wonders for each other! We think they were trying to show off for one another as both of these events occurred the morning after we arrived. Olivia loved playing with all of Tobin's toys (much to Joel's chagrin we will be visiting the local Babies R Us to stock up on all new toys today), she continued her remarkable behavior - faithfully arranging her naps so Karen and Lori could lunch in lovely locations. We also hit music class (Tobin was very protective of his lady, clearly staking claim early on in the class), walked along the beach and managed some raspberry mojitos at happy hour with the kiddos. Olivia LOVED her Aunt Lori, who quite possibly is the most energetic and expressive individual she will ever keep company with (Karen was actually afraid that Olivia would strike their departure when she learned it meant separating from Tobin and Lori). All in all an INCREDIBLE trip - we had so much fun and it exceeded all of our expectations! Oh, and in the midst of it all baby Moseley decided he'd arrive early so we had something really exciting to fly home to - WELCOME RYAN!

Until next time - enjoy the pics! Click on the picture below for more photos. We've also attempted to include the link to Lori's photos, hopefully you can see it!

Olivia's cross country trip Aug 08

Link to Lori's Photos

Apparently the third time is the charm. Olivia has been introduced, officially, to the sand, surf, and seagulls. We think her favorite part of it all is the seagulls given the belly laughs that resulted in chasing them down the beach. Who better to do the grand introduction than Grandma - the grand master of beach lovers. The photo shoot of Olivia and Grandma is not to be missed !

Olivia and Karen did record their first official road trip - to LBI to visit the Bush/Chairnoff/Sherman clan, and then on to Grandma and Grandpa's for the rest of the week. Karen is happy to report that the trip was uneventful, in a good way. Joel and Mattingly arrived for the weekend, and we also got to spend some QT with the Farley's - and celebrate Kev's HUGE accomplishment of qualifying for the world championship Ironman competition in Kona, Hawaii this coming October (GO KEV!)

In the last month Olivia has continued to develop her chatting skills - we've moved from very cute jabbering, to raspberry blowing, and have just recently been introduced to noises that we've labeled whining. We're hoping the evolution continues. Check out the video (posted just the other day) of Olivia sitting (almost on her own!) She continues to be so alert and inquisitive - she's reaching with both hands, pulling Karen's hair and anything else she can get her hands on, holding her bottle, and enjoying her playtime for longer periods of time. We're working on the rolling over back to front and other new tricks! She's also found the first love of her life - Mattingly. We are convinced that Olivia could spend hours just petting Mattingly and he has taken to rewarding her with grand licks - on her feet, hands, and face if we don't watch closely! The belly laughs that result are priceless.

At the end of this week we are off to our first grand airplane trip since Olivia arrived home - we'll be visiting lots of friends in Colorado and then Karen and Olivia will travel on to spend some time with the Reale family in San Diego. The next blog posting is sure to be amusing! Until then - the latest pics...

Time with family....