Blissfully Normal

I'm sorry, still slacking on the updates over here, but I assure you, no news is good news.  Life with Olivia is as we could have only dreamed 18 months ago - and that's blissfully normal.  She's flirting with the idea of walking; using this adorable little baby stroller that my cousin Jessica gave her for Christmas.  She pushes it all over the family room and gets mighty peeved if she can't turn it or navigate it herself around an obstacle in her way.  Currently she doesn't seem too interested in saying more words at this point, but instead has developed an almost constant use of her index finger to point to what she wants, it could be an object or it could be an indicator to the person carrying her at that moment to move on to the next room. 

This past weekend she used her little index finger to point my dad on a little field trip around the first floor making sure he stopped at all the places that she wanted to check out before ultimately bringing him back to the family room where I was.  We also confirmed this weekend that she is a great manipulator...of her father.  It was an Olivia/Mommy weekend and I saw a completely different kid than the one that I see when her dad is around.  She was super easy to deal with, listened to instructions - which I'll admit is impressive for a one year old, there was minimal whining and no tantrums thrown.  Then, she gave me the BEST GIFT EVER and slept from about 8:45 on Saturday night until 8:45 Sunday morning.  Yes, she took a bottle somewhere in there, but the point was, I slept for 8 straight hours!!!  I panicked when I finally heard her over the monitor and glanced at the clock thinking I had slept through her cries or something, but there was Miss Livvy in her crib sitting up clearly just waking up with her hair all askew and rubbing the sleep from her eyes.  Adorable!  Needless to say, I think Brian was a bit miffed when I raved about our weekend and then he saw Miss Crankypants once more.  She has not slept as well since our marathon of sleep from Saturday-Sunday. 

Eating is still going so well, she continues to eat just about everything put in front of her.  This week she had Greek food for the first time and chowed down like she's had it all her life.  We're completely on whole milk now and just really trying to get the sippy cup to happen. She is so unhappy to see it regardless of what time of day we offer it up to her that I've sort of put it on the back burner as a priority.  Since sleeping isn't going that great I think I might as well pull the plug on the pacifier at naps and nighttime and see how that goes. 

The only hint that there's something additional lurking in the background as it pertains to Olivia's health is that I have to schedule another cardiology appointment and I know this one will include an echo.  Blech

If you would have told me that sleeping, sippy cup usage and pulling the pacifier would be the biggest hurdles I'd have to face with my one year old Hypoplast a year ago, I probably would have laughed in your face - but it can happen...and Olivia's proof of that.  If nothing else, to all you heart families out there, allow yourself the tiniest bit of hope for some normalcy in your day to day.