Let's see... It's been awhile. Well, Olive is doing great, as is the norm for her. She has been eating more stuff now; She's started chewing all of a sudden; she still has no teeth, but she's definitely figured out chewing. She LOVES cheese now. We've been giving her cheese and scrambled egg and she's starting to feed herself. It's amazing how fast she learns. She has also started making this funny little clucking noise. Kristin noticed it at daycare too; I wonder if she learned it from me because I do that around the cats all the time.

Last weekend we met up with friends from Tokyo in DC; they were in town for a Japanese culture exhibit at the Kennedy Center. We went to dim sum in Chinatown and then headed over to the Kennedy Center... I wasn't sure how she'd do, that makes for a really long day for her. But she was sweet and charming and everyone adored her. She ate oranges at the Chinese restaurant for the first time and they were a big success. She also got new shoes for Valentine's Day from grandma Sue (Raley) which you can see in the picture. We are going to register her for swimming lessons at the Y next week; It is saturday mornings and Marc will probably take her... I'm not sure if we can both go or not.

The weather has been cold and gross here, but it'a almost the end of February and in my mind that means it is almost spring. Soon it will be time to plant stuff!!! I have plans to move a bunch of stuff in the front yard around.

Anyway, she's up from her nap so I have to run. More later!

So, 18.5 pounds! All went well at the doctor's visit. She was all smiles the whole time. We are now trying to wean her off the 4am bottle and get her to sleep through the night. Dr. Bodnar said we may as well do it now, because it will only be harder later. Last nigth was alittle rough; We going and soothe her but don't pick her up and then wait 7-9 minutes before going in again. She was probably up for 45 minutes last night, but did end up going back to sleep and stayed asleep until 7. I mean, if someone woke me up at 4 am and said, "Here's a little snack, now go back to sleep for three hours." I'd be totally psyched. I can see how you could get fond of that routine. Dr. Bodnar said she should adjust in a week or so and start compensating by eating more during the day. Kristin said she's been sleeping a lot during the day this week; I think it's probably because she had shots Tuesday. Hopefully tomorrow will be my last day at this DC job... It is going painfully slow, but that's just because it's really intricate painting, not by any fault of ours. We should be out of there tomorrow. Well, it's 8:00pm and I still haven't eaten dinner or done dishes. Gotta get everythign done beofre LOST comes on!!!

Good times to be had at CVS!!!

Holy Crap! Marc taught her to turn the pages of her book!! I know that doesn't sound like much, but it's pretty cool to see her learning stuff. Wow. It kind of freaked me out. She's been very happy lately, very smiley. We are off to the Doctor's office tomorrow morning at 9:00. I'm curious about what she weighs.

Work is the same old same old, but at least this week I'm not in DC again. Ugh. I just vascillate between getting all fired up wanting to quit and do my own thing, to feeling very grateful to have a steady job at all considering all of the uncertainties. It's too hard.

In the meantime I have moved on to coupon fanatacism, which I am discovering is much like a mild gambling habit, only inreverse. There are websites and blogs totally dedicated to figuring out how to get free stuff from CVS every week; and believe it or not, it actually works and I'm totally hooked. (Did you realize you can actually MAKE money doing this?!) Of course, I now have enough bottles of softsoap (3 for 5.00, minus $1.00 coupon), to last me the rest of the year. At least it smells good. Anyway, it's kind of fun just to see what you can get away with... how little you can actually pay for things. You can check out http://www.moneysavingmom.com/ if you're interested. (they have a CVS 101 article) Oh, Come on. Like you'd pass up FREE toothpaste.

If I'm still like this when Olive is in middle school she will be absolutely mortified. I think I need to get out more.