Mommy and Daddy Feast with Olivia at Day Care

Daddy giving Livi "a lift" in her Little Lambs classroom.

Olivia is now a pro using her sippy cup but you wouldn't know it from this picture. She's holding it upside down.

Her cranberry sourpuss face.

I swear she really loves turkey. Sorry we're still working on the not-showing-your-food thing.

Just chilling with my folks.

The week before Thanksgiving, Olivia's day care, Excel Learning Center in Palm Harbor, had a turkey feast for the families. David and I were able to meet there and join Olivia and her classmates for the fun.

At first, she seemed very confused when Mommy arrived in the middle of the day and then when Daddy got there she really couldn't figure it out. A moment later, though, it didn't matter why we were there, just that we were there. Her big toothy grin prevailed. After David and I made a trip to the main building to get our food we rejoined Olivia. We sat in tiny child-sized chairs while she sat in a car-shaped walker. She sampled turkey, green beans, corn, mashed potatoes, cranberry sauces and even a little taste of chocolate cake. The only funny face she made was when the cranberries hit her tongue and instantly she had a sourpuss expression.

It was a fun lunch hour until we had to give Olivia an emergency bath. We'll spare you those details.

Our Little Pumpkin Blossoms in the Fall

Olivia eating the plush pumpkin Auntie Beth sent from Massachusetts.

A chilly fall night in St. Pete with Pops in the Park with friends, Michele and Katie.

Olivia being all chill.

The whole family waiting for the Great Pumpkin.

Never mind Waldo, where's Olivia?

Oh, here's she is.

The cutest little pumpkin of all.

Little Miss Muffet and the spider who sat down beside her.


The girls and the bull-riding cowboy who stole our hearts.

Olivia crawled more quickly into her eighth month. I know I say this every month but seriously it's been eight months since we became parents already? She's been cruising a bit and that comes along with bruising. Lots of it. Our daughter has facial polka dots on a regular basis. Please nobody call DCF, I swear we watch her closely and still she gets at least a bump or two a week. But who doesn't love a colorful child?

Her new tricks this past month include drinking from a sippy cup, feeding herself puffs and Cheerios, waving and saying DaDa (Hmph! Why couldn't it be MaMa?). And just a couple of days ago her fifth tooth popped through her bottom gum. She's also mastered clapping and on many mornings that's how she starts her day. Wouldn't the world be a better place if we all awoke clapping? Anyway, Olivia is really moving along in so many ways.

Being that it's fall (even though it still feels like summer most days in Florida), we made the obligatory trip to the pumpkin patch. Our little pumpkin seemed to enjoy being surrounded by all those colorful gourds. She was all smiles for her big photo shoot but drew the line at us taking her picture at a sign that said "Pumpkin Crossing." Oh well, we got plenty of great shots and bought her a baby pumpkin.

After our little outing we continued on to St. Pete to meet some friends for an evening of Pops in the Park, where Olivia not only survived her second fireworks display, she actually seemed in awe of it. This was a far cry (pun intended) from the terror she experienced on the 4th of July when we learned just how loud she could scream. Like I said, she's come a long way.

For Halloween, we chose an adorable spider costume and Mommy wanted to be in theme with her sweet daughter, so she went as Little Miss Muffet. Daddy wasn't part of the theme as a bull-riding cowboy. Olivia first dressed in her costume for our annual Halloween party. The hat didn't seem to bother her. She didn't even make a peep when we put her in the warm costume. For a couple of hours she went along with the whole thing with no tears or whines. We made sure we aired her out now and then. It wasn't until we took off the costume that we realized her true feelings of it: She clapped. She went from being a quiet baby, to her outright cheering/cheerful, vocal self for the rest of the evening.

She transformed into spider a second time for school where they paraded around all the costumed babies. We hear she got lots of oohs and ahhs and that she was the favorite. Again, we're going to pretend they don't say that to all the parents. During the day on Halloween, Olivia dug showing off her fang pacifier, cracking up strangers throughout Tarpon Springs. Finally, Halloween night came around and Olivia must've known she was going to wear the costume one more time. Instead, just as our first trick-or-treaters were walking up onto the porch, she crashed on Mommy's shoulder more than an hour before bedtime - something she never does.

Oh well, there's always next year - and she'll have more teeth for all those treats so Mommy and Daddy don't have to eat them!