A Random Saturday
More scooters
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While Daddy Was Away…
Olivia and Catalina getting ready to go swimming
New scooter when Dad wasn’t around
Olivia and Catalina going to get a smoothie
Weekend Videos
Here are two videos of the girls from this weekend. The first one is from Friday with the older two painting while Teresa watches on. The second is from Sunday with the girls using shipping boxes to play robot.
Olivia’s Haircut
Back in March, Olivia chopped off her hair.
Long hair!
You should have seen it when it was wet!
Olivia attacks!
Who is that?!
Pirate Olivia
We found a photographer that had pretty cheap prices for bluebonnet pictures so we decided to sign up. It never occurred to us that professional photographing of the Squeaker would be so hard. For one, she hates cameras. Two, she had never sat in grass before. Three, is was overcast and wet so the grass was particularly gross feeling. All in all, the photog took 104 pics and she only smiled in 2 and that was when I picked her up so you can barely see bluebonnets. Oh squeaks.
Later on in the day we were sitting at the dinner table and I threw a cloth napkin on O’s head. It eventually escalated to the following pics that you see. Of course still including the napkin. (4.11.10)
Catch Up
We have a lot to catch you up on. Here are some noteworthy milestones and just some of our favorites of the Squeaker birth-7 months.
Just born. (Aug 30, 2009)
First moment with daddy. She’s already sizing him up.
First time seeing grandma and grandpa.
Love this action shot. Those feet were moving fast.
“I am not pleased with this.”
Sunbathing under heat lamps.
First bath. (Sept 4, 2009) I promise those knives are securely magnet-ed to the wall.
First Notre Dame game watch (Sept 5 ’09)
First Mass – Fr. Nowak was kind enough to do a home Mass for us. (9.5.09)
UT game watch later in day. She’s our little oompa loompa.
This is O smiling in her sleep when grandpa was holding her. (9.7.09)
I love this picture but it was miserable at the time. (9.10.09)
One of my favs. (9.13.09)
First walk outside. It was only a lap around the complex but still a milestone. (9.18.09)
The fam at O’s baptism with Fr. Ed Koharchik (10.10.09)
The Padrinos.
This is what she did the whole time. Her baptismal garment and bonnet and booties were made by Sister Stephanie.
Love it. Decorating the Christmas tree at grandparents’ house. (12.5.09)
Our Christmas tree here at home. We were quite proud. Kraft walked it home all the way from the tree lot. (11.29.09)
O’s first wedding, our friends Nate and Amelia. (12.12.09)
When O started being able to get out of her swaddle. (12.19.09)
First Christmas. Midnight Mass. (12.25.09)
How these two rang in the New Year. (1.1.10)
O helping me with laundry. (1.5.10)
Her bear suit. Don’t be fooled, she hated it. (1.8.10)
Before.
After first haircut. I totally butchered her hair. (1.19.10)
Watching Sunday Night Football with Daddy. (1.24.10)
SuperOlivia watching me cook. (1.27.10)
Solid food. She loves carrots. (1.31.10)
First Mardi Gras, woohoo! Check out those pants. (2.16.10)
Kraft becomes a 4th degree Knight of Columbus. First professional family photo. (3.21.10)
Ok, that should pretty well catch you up. Welcome to our little family.
And We’re Back…
We’ve been pretty absent from blogging on this site. But today my mom took a picture that has inspired me to start keeping this more up to date.
Olivia (the Squeaker) is a little over 7 1/2 months and, man, is she getting feisty. Her newest tricks are to spit and scream. The spitting was funny at first especially when you ask her for a besito (kiss) and instead she spits in your face. Where it becomes not funny is when random strangers are admiring her and she decides to spit at them. Just like the man that is sitting behind her in the picture. He got spit on a couple times. It is also not funny when I am feeding her and a spoonful of lentils is sent flying back at me. Other than these occasions, though, it’s pretty entertaining.
The screaming is mostly when we are eating in restaurants and we are not feeding her. My mom just emailed me this picture and titled it: I want food NOW! which I think is fitting.
“I want food NOW!!!”
Stay tuned. I’ll be putting a lot more of the family news on here.
Paternal Leave
I’m beginning my second (and final) week of paid paternal leave. I know how incredibly lucky I am to work for an organization that gives paid paternal leave, in addition to the normal sick/vacation time. Yes, I work for the Church, but after only one week with Olivia, I think this is an example that should be extended to the broader corporate world.
I’ve still been, somewhat, checking e-mail and interfacing with the workplace to put out fires and check on random things; however, being able to focus exclusively on Vanessa and Olivia in this time of drastic change within our family has been a true blessing. I could not imagine having such a random sleep schedule and still clocking 8+ hours at work each day.
Olivia is learning how to sleep without being held. At this point, we have to lay her down, cuddle with her while lying down, then pull away once she’s comfortable. A few nights ago, she would wake up as soon as we moved, no matter how long we waited. I don’t know if this is the right way to walk her along the path of slumber independence, but I’m optimistic with the progress.
Also, we switched to cloth diapers yesterday. Our original intention was to use cloth all the way, but with the first week and trying to figure out everything else, we were more than happy to use the diapers given to us as gifts throughout the past few months, plus the store in town that we’ve been purchasing supplies from had not carried a few things (i.e. covers) that we were wanting to use. I went down yesterday and picked up an inferior model, but it’ll work until the next shipment arrives.
We don’t really have any hardcore reasons for cloth diapers. The financial savings (overall) will be nice. The idea of limiting Olivia’s exposure to plastics is nice, but not a dealbraker. We live the environmental impact of not adding too much to the landfill, etc. We’ll still have disposables on hand–mainly for some excusions out of the home and if she’s visiting grandparents, etc.
As always, more later.
Welcome Olivia!
The newest member of La Casa de Kraft was born! Olivia Rose was born on August 30th at 3:15 p.m. She’s quite healthy tipping the scales at 8 lbs 4 oz.
Both her and Vanessa are doing great. After a short stay in the hospital, both came home on Tuesday, September 1st. We haven’t seen much sleep since then, but I am happy to report that she (Olivia, that is) is currently sleeping for the first time for more than a few minutes without someone holding her. This is a good sign for future sleep.
I’ll post good pictures soon after I get all of the cameras into the same room as the computer, but a few cell-phone pictures are on my Facebook profile.
The full reality of having this child has not yet hit me; this is an amazing blessing with which to be entrusted. More later, mom and Olivia are waking up.