Olivia's First Trip to Houston

(September 2012)

It didn't really seem like it had been that long since we'd been to Houston. Then, we started to really think about it - I hadn't been to Houston since my baby shower for Jack - August 2009.  Tommy had been back once since then to pack up some things at from his Mom's house and bring them back to Dallas.  Much too long not to have visited a place that we consider home and where we still have so many close friends.  We had a couple of reasons for finally making the trip back.  The first was a very sad reason, the passing of Greta's dad, Lee-Roy Hurta.  I had only had the pleasure of meeting him a couple of times, but listening to the memories his family shared and seeing the number of people who came to celebrate his life, I know he must have been a very special man. 

This was also a special occasion because Olivia got to meet her Aunt Em and Uncle David and Aunt T and Uncle Rob for the first time.  After the funeral, we all went back to Mr. Hurta's house to visit for the afternoon and the kids got the chance to play with their aunts and uncles they see far less often than they should.  Taking a bunch of pictures didn't exactly seem appropriate given the circumstances, but looking back now, I'm really sad I didn't get any of Olivia meeting so many family members for the first time. :(

After spending some time with the family, we spent the rest of the weekend visiting friends we hadn't visited in way too long.  We stayed at Sarah and Jeff's new house - a really nice place!  The next day, we had a leisurely morning with Sarah and Jeff before meeting Scott and Oscar for brunch.  This is when it becomes obvious that we hadn't been to Houston in far too long.  Baby Oscar was born way back in December and we just met him for the first time.  Olivia thought he was very interesting!

After brunch, we headed to the Museum of Natural Science to meet up with Cynthia and see some dinosaurs.  We hadn't been to the museum since we got married there a little more than 8 years before.  It was fun going back, remembering that day, and sharing such a special place with our kids.  For some reason, I think everyone visiting the museum remembers the giant globe out in front.  Jack thought it was pretty cool:

He was also really excited to get into the museum and see the dinosaurs:

As the big boy, Jack took the responsibility of introducing himself to Oscar and holding some very one-sided conversations.

Since we'd last been there, they had built a pretty amazing dinosaaur wing.  The photos we took really don't do it justice - it was HUGE!

That evening, we attended the other event that brought us to Houston in the first place, Austin and Amy's wedding shower.  It was held by some friends of Austin's parents back in good old Katy. On our way home, we drove by both of our old houses.  The trees were bigger, but they really didn't look all that different.  Memories.....  Sadly, we didn't take any pictures at the shower either - not good.  Amy and Austin got tons of amazing gifts and Jack and Sierra had a big time playing and helping pass out food to everyone.  Fun night.

We had to get back to Dallas on Sunday, but no trip to Houston would be complete for us without a trip to Lupe Tortillas for the No. 29 and the Three Pepper Cheesesteak.  Scott, Cynthia and Oscar met us there:

And Jeff and Sarah, of course:

I was also excited that Catherine, Jeff and Alexandre could join us.  Catherine has been one of my best friends since we worked together on Tractebel before Tommy and I got married.  I'm ashamed to say that this was also the first time we got to meet Alexandre, and he was nearly a year and a half old!  It was so good to catch up with Catherine and to hear about her new job and life after Deloitte.

We even got a fairly decent photo of our little family:

It was a bittersweet trip back to Houston, full family and friends, fun times and fond memories of a life well lived.  We promise, Houston, we'll come back soon.

4 Months Old!

(September 2012)

The week we returned from Tennessee, Olivia had her 4-month checkup with Dr. Le.  Her first birthday was the day of Grandma's party, so sadly, in the midst of all of the excitement, I failed to get a picture of her in her car seat.  On the bright side, we have a ton of pictures from that day.  Here's one for comparison:

Hi!  I'm 4 months old!

Here I am when I was only 3 months old:

I think she looks a lot more alert in the first picture, but once again, the month-to-month changes are more subtle and harder to see.  Compare these to May 1st, though, and it is very obvious how much she's grown!

At her 4 month checkup, Olivia was perfectly healthy and on-track developmentally.  Here are her stats:

Height: 25 inches - 75th percentile

Weight: 13 pounds, 7 ounces - 50th percentile (getting close to doubling her birth weight!)

Head: 16 inchees - 50th percentile

Just like her brother at this age - tall and skinny!

Right around her 4 month birthday, Olivia hit another big milestone, she rolled over from her back to her belly!  While Tommy questioned the validity of my videos of Olivia rolling from belly to back last month, there was no questining this time - we have a roller. Way to go Olivia!  During her fourth month Olivia will experience many other exciting firsts.  It will be an exciting month - stay tuned!

Suprise!! Happy 85th Birthday Grandma Rose!

(September, 2012)

 

By September, Olivia had met all of her great grandparents, except Great Grandma Rose.  We knew it was time to remedy that.  Luckily for us, Great Grandma Rose was turning 85, a giant birthday party was being planned in her honor, and she had no idea anyone was coming!

 

The big party wasn't until Saturday, but we decided to arrive a day early to have as much time with the birthday girl as possible.  The Davis family had already arrived and suprised her earlier that afternoon, so we arrived and added to her first day of suprises!  

 

We introduced Great Grandma to her only great granddaughter and they were fast friends:



Olivia had lots of other new people to meet.  She met Great Aunt Beth and Great Uncle Roy:

And she met Uncle Ian, who couldn't make it to Kansas for the July festivities:

It just happened to be Uncle Ian's birthday on the day we arrived.  The boys were excited to help him open his presents:

The next morning was the big day, but Grandma Rose still had no idea what everyone had planned.  We woke up and headed to Grandma's house from the hotel to have breakfast.  Great Grandma was able to get in more Olivia snuggles:

Livi was bright-eyed and ready to go:

With three little boys around, a mess is never very far behind.  They managed to spread Great Grandma's key collection all over the floor of the livng room before moving on to car racing:

Shortly after that, we headed over to Uncle Roy's house to prepare for the big suprise.  Jack made the entire party laugh when we were counting down before Grandma's grand entrance.  Uncle Roy was counting down 3...2....Grandma was taking a little longer than expected....2 1/2...Jack interrupts the silence - "I'm 2 1/2!"  Yes, buddy, you are, and pretty adorable too.  And finally the big moment arrived - SUPRISE!!  HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!

The look on her face was priceless!  She had no idea!  Some of her nieces and nephews drove in from as far away as Oklahoma. It was the very least we could do for this amazing woman who has touched so many lives in her 85 years - I am so fortunate that mine is one of them!

Miss Olivia had gone back to the hotel gotten all dressed up for the occasion - in a dress from her Great Grandma Rose.  Of course, they were buddies once again:

Four generations of amazing Heatherly women:

And here is Grandma with her 4 granddaughters and one great granddaughter.  Funny how the Bitler girls match in blue and the Heatherly girls in coral - completely unplanned!

My beautiful sister and I:

And we finally managed to round up John for a picture with all of the cousins (I still find it hard to believe sometimes that he's my baby cousin!):

Yay!  Someone actually took a good picture of Tommy and I - that rarely happens:

Always the life of the party, Jack had a wonderful time.  He and his cousins loved playing on the stairs, which terrified both mommies because they were so steep!

Cousin David was a good sport, definitely a better one than Mommy would have been:

Grandma spent a long time reading her cards and opening gifts - heartfelt messages and gifts from close friends and family.

Of course, we had to do the group pictures on the stairs.  Here's Grandma Rose with the Bitler family:

Here's the whole crew:

I love this one - everyone in the family is doing something silly and Grandma Rose is staring straight ahead wondering what kind of crazies planned this party for her.  Crazies that love you very much, Grandma Rose.

Unfortunately, as wonderful as the party was, the weekend went downhill quickly from there.  To the best of everyone's memories, the outbreak of food poisoning can be traced back to the pizza we had the night we arrived at Grandma's house.  Very few people were spared.  Tommy spent most of the rest of the trip as close as he could be to the hotel bathroom.  Poor Grandma got hit worst of all and spent a few scary days in the Jackson hospital. 

The little guys, who were not fans of the meat lovers pizza, emerged from the food poisoning incident unscathed.  Ian and I, who had rather light cases of the yuck, and cousin Sarah, who was luck enough not to be present for the pizza meal took the kiddos to Casey Jones village to see the trains and burn off some energy:

And eat some ice cream:

Despite the not-so-pleasant last day, everyone will agree that Grandma's party was a rousing success.  I am thankful for each and every moment I am able to spend with my beautiful Grandma.  This party was a tiny way for everyone to try to show her how much she has meant to each and every one of us.  We love you, Grandma Rose!

Back to Work Again...

August 22, 2012

I know I was really lucky compared to most working Moms.  I took almost exactly 4 months off of work when I had Olivia - all paid.  Nice, right?  Despite that, when the morning of August 22nd rolled around, I found myself desperately wishing that I would have added another week or 2 of the PTO that I lose every year onto the end of my maternity leave.

Alas, it was time for me to return to work.  I struggled to find the perfect outfit for her to wear on her first day of school, as I'm sure I will for so many years until she decides that she wants to pick out her own first day outfits.  I love all of the sweet girl outfits, but I must admit I find the sheer magnitude of options to be a little overwhemling.  Don't get me wrong, it is still fun to have a little baby girl and to buy her buy frilly dresses and bows, but I do get ever so slightly stressed out picking out those clothes.  On top of that, you can't send a 4-month-old to daycare in anything too fancy, because, if you do it will come home covered in poop or spit up.  Guaranteed.  Anyway, this is what I came up with for my little girl to wear to her first day of school ever - at exactly 3 months, 3 weeks and one day old. Wow, that sounds so little as I type it.

 

Here's the one we took with the nice camera:

And here's the one I took with my phone - I couldn't decide which one I liked better.

Hugs from big brother, all dressed up for splash day at daycare...

I'm not sure if this first day was easier or harder than it was with Jack. I don't think I shed quite as many tears, but I think I had more dread of actually going back to work, because I knew how hard it would be, especially when busy season rolled around yet again in a few months.  I had some big decisions ahead of me in the not-too-distant future, but we'll save that for later.

Livi settled into her first day at daycare quite nicely.  With both of my kids, I think that first day was much harder on me than it was on them.  Everyone proclaimed how much she looked like Jack, which is funny, because I really don't see it most of the time.  Jack was the proud big brother, showing his little sister to all of his classmates and telling anyone in the school who would listen that this was sister.  It is so hard to believe that when we moved to Frisco and Jack started at Kids r Kids, he was just a couple of months older than Livi on the day she started.   Time marches on, sometimes I just wish it would march a little slower!

Savoring Every Moment

August, 2012

On August 1st, Olivia turned 3 months old. Maternity leave had just flown by, and as much as I know I'm not cut out to be a stay at home mom, I was not relishing the idea of dropping my baby girl off at daycare and heading back to work, so I really tried to savor every moment and every cuddle in those last few weeks of maternity leave.

Here is her three month photo:

I can't say that it looks too different from her 2-month picture - maybe she has a little more hair. :)  Anyway, there was no 3-month doctor visit, so I have no stats to report, but Miss Olivia was eating well, happy and growing - what more can I ask for? 

Olivia did reach one very important milestone this month - she rolled over from her stomach to her back!  I did manage to get a video of the occasion, but Tommy told me it looked more like I set her on her stomach them nudged her until she toppled over.  Looking back 10 months later, he's more correct than I'd like to admit, but I maintain she really was rolling over. :)  Yay Olivia!!

I love her bright eyes in this picture!  They have since changed from that steel gray/blue color to more of a hazel color, but they are as big as ever and beautiful!

In an effort to get as much as I possibly could out of my last few days of maternity leave, I kept Jack out of daycare on the Friday before I started back to work and met Brandi, Ryan, Lincoln, Nana and Papa at a really cool splash park in Trophy Club.  It was huge, with so many fun things to climb on, slide down and get sprayed by, like this super cool boat:

And this cannon and island:

Miss Olivia got hot really fast and spent most of the day covered up in Jack's giant t-shirt, but we did manage to get a few pictures of her in her cute swimsuit before it got covered up - I couldn't decide which one I liked better, so I just added both!

Jack and cousin Lincoln had all kinds of fun spraying each other (and the parents) with water cannons, sliding, and generally being little boys.

For some reason, sitting on these water spouts was a favorite activity for both :) :

I was really proud of Jack for being brave enough to try the big slide.  The first few times, he wanted Mommy's help:

but then decided that he could do it by himself with Lincoln.

This may be the only girl grandchild for Nana, so she knows she needs to enjoy the dress up!  Not sure what Livi thinks about it, though...

Papa got in his cuddle time, too!

This is my very last post of maternity leave (boo hoo!).  Stay tuned as I begin a new chapter as a working mother of 2.  Wish me luck!