Atlanta!!

We picked Olivia up early from her first day of school to head to Atlanta for the weekend. We drove to Gainesville and walked around the mall for a while to give Livi a break from the carseat. Then we loaded back up and arrived in Valdosta around 7:00. We had dinner at El Torreo which was one of my favorites when I lived there. By the time dinner was over, we were all exhausted and decided to go ahead and call it a night there and head to Atlanta Friday morning.

We were meeting a couple that we have been friends with since Auburn. They have 2 children (22 months and 2 months) and we hadn't seen them since last fall when I was still pregnant and her youngest wasn't even conceived. :) Amazing the change that can take place in just a year!

We had a great time seeing our friends and the highlight for me was taking Olivia to her first

official Braves' game. I say "official" because she actually went last July - she just didn't see much of the game from my belly. :)

Here are pictures from the trip:

Enjoying the chips at El Torreo

Ready to cheer on the Braves!

First Marta train

First Marta bus (with my new friend EK in the background)

First time at Turner Field!!

Laid back with some puffs and watching the game!

First family picture at Turner Field

(my family has countless pics at Fulton County Stadium as well as Turner Field so this is a very special picture for me)

Eating lunch at Zoo Atlanta

Pretending to be a meerkat with EK

Looking at the parakeets with Dad and EK

Refusing to make eye contact with the HUGE owl next to her. :)

Family picture at the zoo - not sure who the fourth member is...

Saying good-bye to her friend...hopefully we'll see them again soon!

First Day of School (8/13/09)

Today was Olivia's first day of school. I am not working yet, but wanted to go ahead and take her so that she could start adjusting to the new routine and her teacher and classmates. :)

She was fine when we went in, let the teacher hold her, and then got down on the mat to play. I gave her a kiss and let her keep playing and I snuck out.

Around 11:30 I called to check on her and at the moment she was okay, but she had had a rough morning after realizing that I was gone. I picked her up around 2:00 - she was sleeping when I got there which I thought was a good sign. Maybe she was getting used to it....

Meet the Teacher (8/11/09)

On Tuesday, August 11th, we went to the church for Olivia's Meet the Teacher. Her teacher is Mrs. Bea and she is very nice and loving and we were really excited to meet her. She held Livi several times and it went great. Olivia played on the mat with the toys and was very happy there.

I was still very worried about leaving her on Thursday, but felt better after seeing her classroom and meeting all of the staff.

Picture Catch-Up...

These are pics of Olivia at Hutchinson Island as well as an old one that I found. It is Olivia with her great-grandparents (my mom's parents) and in that picture there are 4 generations represented with my grandmother, mom, me, and Olivia.

Better late than never...

Olivia has teeth! It has taken a lot of time and drooling, but she has two little bottom teeth. The first one popped out a couple of weeks ago. She had a couple of days of relief and the one next to it started to come through. That one finally came out over night last night, but now another bottom one is trying to come through so I don't think she'll get any relief this time. So far though, she is being a trooper. There were a couple of rough nights, but for the most part other than a ridiculous amount of drooling :) we wouldn't even know it was happening.

No pictures yet, but I'm trying.

Hutchinson Island and Lake Placid

After a week of relaxing (and relaxing is used very loosely here because it is actually not very relaxing to chase a crawling, climbing 8 month old around the house all day), Olivia and I packed up and headed to Hutchinson Island to visit her Nana and Papa for 5 nights and then we would drive from there to Lake Placid and meet Robin and some friends for the weekend.

I am waiting on Olivia's Nana for pictures from Hutchinson Island. She had a great time there though. We played in the condo and on the beach and in the pool and she got a lot of quality time with Nana and Papa while I got a lot of reading time in at the beach and pool. It was a GREAT week!

At Lake Placid, Olivia went on her first boat ride and cheered on her dad in a triathlon.

First boat ride - notice the stylish life vest/bathing suit combo. :)

Go Daddy!!

Congrats Robin and Aaron! This was Aaron's first tri!

We had a great time, but are definitely glad to be back home and in our own beds and rooms. I am now trying to spend as much time with Olivia as I can before school starts back in a couple of weeks.

Crawling and climbing everywhere...

After the beach trip, we had a quiet week at home where I chased Olivia all over the house. :) She is crawling very quickly now and climbing on anything and everything...tables, couches, walls, her bouncer, people - if it's taller than her, she's going to try to pull up on it. Here is a picture of her and her friend playing with some boxes.

4th of July and Hilton Head Island

We had a quiet couple of weeks and then on July 4th we left for a week to Hilton Head Island, SC. I spent 3 days making lists, doing laundry, and packing everything we could possibly need. I'm not sure what I was thinking...it wasn't like we were going camping in the middle of nowhere...we were staying in a condo with a Publix 5 minutes away, but I was determined to have everything prepared and taken with us. So we got up extra early on the 4th, loaded the car

(and I mean LOADED) and left Orlando around

7 AM. Olivia did great in the car - we made one short stop in the morning for a diaper change and then about an hour away from HHI we stopped for lunch at Cracker Barrel to kill time (we couldn't check in until 4) and because I love Cracker Barrel. This picture is Olivia playing the game that's on all the tables:

We arrived too early anyway and waited by the pool and Olivia enjoyed watching everyone swim. When we were able to get into the room we tried to do a late afternoon nap in hopes of keeping her up for the fireworks, but she was NOT interested. So we took a family photo in our red, white, and blue and Olivia went to bed at her usual time and skipped the fireworks this year.

It was a great week of relaxing at the beach, pool, and doing a little sight-seeing. Olivia sat in restaurant high-chairs for the first

time and really enjoyed having access to everything on the table and is LOVING bread and crackers. I wonder who she gets that from? :) Here are a few more highlights from the trip: