Andrews Family

Since this is a week to recall our many blessings and offer thanks to the Giver of all good things, I couldn’t let it go by without a heartfelt post of appreciation for our sweet little turkey. The last month has brought all sorts of fun for Olivia and it seems that she truly is learning a new trick every day. She can walk along furniture or with someone holding her hands and just today she came zooming around the corner walking behind her Fischer Price walker! I feel like I’m constantly saying, "I didn’t know she could do that!" and JR says, "I taught her that last week!" She’s full of word-like babble, though we haven’t officially recognized her first word. It may be "Hi" or "light" or "no" or "more" - at least those are the sounds that are closest to real words. She’s gotten very good at the signs for more and goodbye, and added eat, all done and light. These new signs have come all of a sudden and it seems like she’ll be picking them up much faster now. Next we’re focusing on please, thank you, want, and brush teeth . Speaking of teeth - she’s got six!  For the longest time, she had just the two on the bottom, but the top front four all came in together.  It looks like she’ll have a gap between the top two front teeth like I did as a kid (I wonder how far braces have come in the last 15 years?). Her new teeth have enabled her to grab something and take a bite - you should see our little mouse nibble a Ritz cracker - super cute!! She is officially done with baby food - just try to give her a spoonful of puree and she’ll spit it right back at ya! She only wants what everyone else is eating and this is encouraging us to make sure we have vegetables on the table!! Last night she ate a whole piece of pizza - a whole slice! And she woud say "Mmmm" with every bite.        

Olivia really is becoming a little person with her own likes and dislikes, things that make her laugh and things that make her cry. It’s amazing how someone so little can already be so complex! She is often content to crawl around the house looking for something to amuse herself and will sometimes realize she’s crawled off by herself and start to cry. I can call to her and tell her where I am and she’ll come find me (usually still crying, but at least she’s figuring out how to get back). If she’s doing something she’s not supposed to (like turning the TV on and off while we’re trying to watch something), we can say, "Livy, come over here." and she usually does! She’ll hand us whatever she has when we say "Give that to me." She also likes to clap when we say, "Yeah." and is getting to be a pro at giving Daddy five. Her new favorite game is to crawl over to Red and steal away whatever toy she has and then give it to one of us to throw so that Red can fetch it. She’ll laugh and laugh and wants to play over and over and over. Red is really gentle with her and always drops the toy when Olivia gets near her (I guess we gave that command enough that she got the idea). 

We’re the kind of family where everyone has silly nicknames and we’ve taken to calling Olivia all sorts of things including: Livy (most common and hereby noted as the "official" nickname), Livy Lou, Little Livy Lou Who, Lou Lou, and sometimes just for fun, Skunky Monkey! We are so content with this little bundle of joy and give thanks for her and all our many blessings, including all of you - our family & friends.

Happy Thanksgiving to all y’all!!