Six Months

Olivia turned six months old yesterday- so amazing. And so crazy to think we have known her for six months! She posed well for her 6 month photo shoot- here are a couple of our favorites:

"What's the big deal Mom?""Why do you want me to hold this? What is it?"
"Hi!"

We love the drool!

And this was from the first time we gave her rice cereal...immediately followed by a bath:) She goes to the doctor tomorrow where I am eagerly waiting to find out her weight and height officially- she seems SO big to me compared to what she was. Her 3-6 month clothes are getting tight- especially if she is wearing a cloth diaper. This month has been another month of travel for Olivia- hanging out in State College, over to Hershey for my surgery, to Sandy Cove for a week in MD where she met her Uncle Matt for the first time! They seem to get along very well!, to NJ for Kimmy's bridal shower, back to MA for her Papa's 60th B-day and home again. I think we will be staying put for awhile:)

She continues to be a really happy baby. She is full of smiles- especially if you are giving her attention. She loves people. She loves playing peek-a-boo and sometimes if you catch it right, she will LAUGH so hard- its awesome. Just last night I noticed she was fascinated by tags! Not taggies of course, but the actual tags on her toys. And she loves spoons. And straws. And plastic bags (though we don't actually let her play with those). We have given her rice cereal and apple sauce so far and she has enjoyed trying to eat them, though I am not sure she has actually digested much. As I posted before, she started sitting up some too. Its amazing to watch her grow! She has been a real trooper this last week by coming to lots of meetings with me as we prepared for freshmen to arrive this week. I am still figuring out my place as a mom with my heart for students. She is pretty easy though and often just comes along for the ride without too much fussiness. We continue to be thankful for her and the joy she brings!

Our New Bed

This is our bedroom last summer, just after we moved in. This is to document our old bed. I had gotten it for free prior to us getting married. We moved it from PA to MA to PA... its a well traveled bed. We have been watching a lot of DesignStar on HGTV and that got Nate thinking about making us a new head board. Since I was doing so well after my surgery, Nate went Craigslisting...and came home with this:

After some washing, sanding, painting, and staining, our new bed is:

We feel like grownups:)

First Cold and Sitting Up!

A few days ago Olivia got her first cold- we have a hypothesis who to accuse...but we love him so we wont name names:) She doesn't seem too bothered though thankfully- she is just kinda messy with her runny noise...

Despite her cold, today I decided to test her sitting up ability. In the past when I have tried this she has almost immediately fallen over. Its really cute to watch. We try it on the bed, so its a soft cushion and she is totally unfazed. So today I tried it, and she actually started to catch herself to re balance before she toppled over! I was so impressed! And I wanted to show her Dad after dinner.. well, lo and behold, she sat up all by herself when he came to watch! Not for a super long time or anything but she did it! Yea! Our baby girl is growing up!!! The lighting is totally awful in this pic- but here it is anyways:

Olivia is FIVE months old!

I think this has been the month of the most changes for Olivia so far- she really seems more grown up these days and things really are happening fast. She can now grab and hold onto toys and often, if within reach, she can pick them and often put them in her mouth. Early in July she found her feet- and when waking up from a nap, she is often playing with them. Changing her diaper can be an issue because her feet are often up in the air. Not only does she put thinks her mouth- but she can do fun things with her mouth. A friend taught her to make Indian Like "Ah Ah Ah" sounds- when her mouth is open and we put a finger over again and again. This last week she is making all sorts of rasberry sounds- which also means a lot of drool! And this last week a few times we have taken something away and she has gotten upset- Nate and I are not ready for this! She still sleeps really well overall which is wonderful. She didnt mind when I had my surgery - she had a great time with Grandma. And even the week after when I wasnt supposed to pick her up- she played in her swing and jumper and on the floor and waited for Dad to get her when needed. We love her more everyday! She is a JOY!

I think you can go and see more pics from the month here:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2080721&id=2102720&l=99a5236422

Caroline Recovering Well from Surgery

Caroline's thyroidectomy was today. She did great.

We were asked to be there at 7:30am for pre-op. We checked in and went to the room where she got in her hospital gown and had an IV put in. (The nurses had to try 4 different times because Caroline was so dehydrated. That happens when you're asked not to drink or eat after midnight the night before surgery.) We were hoping that was it for the day's mishaps. Thankfully it was.

I got to stay with Caroline until they brought her down to surgery shortly after 10am. The sign indicated she was in surgery at 10:42. I waited with my friends Randon and Kelly Willard who were in the area and offered to come by.

Somewhere around 12:30 pm, the surgeon came to find me with the good news. He was short and to the point, but this is what I learned:
1) The surgery went very well.
2) They were able to completely remove her thyroid.
3) They were able to identify and preserve her parathyroid glands (near the thyroid, regulates body's calcium levels).
4) They were able to identify and preserve the nerves that lead to her larynx (so her speech was not affected).
5) They were able to look at her lymph nodes and keep them in as well (doesn't look like the cancer spread).
6) She'll be on a pill a day for the rest of her life to replace her thyroid hormones.
7) She'll be checked periodically to ensure that the cancer doesn't reoccur.

Then the real waiting began. I wasn't able to see her until around 3pm, and I'm still not exactly sure why. But when I finally was able to see her, she looked tired and sore, but generally OK. She quickly perked up after getting some pain meds (Tylenol with Codeine) and a glass of water.

We spent some time together, and after Caroline had an early dinner (turkey, stuffing, roll, cake, etc...), I went to check on my mother-in-law and Olivia. They were doing well, we went out for a quick bite to eat, then back to the hospital. They hung out for a while, I brought them back and went back to the hospital for another couple hours. Got back to the hotel in time to help Olivia fall back asleep (I guess she woke up after only being asleep for an hour or two.)

Olivia did AWESOME today, by the way. Bev said they had a great time together.

For those of you that have been praying for us, thank you so very much! We do feel that this whole thing went better than expected. Please continue to pray that Caroline continues to have a smooth recovery. She's staying the night, but we expect she will be discharged early tomorrow morning.

We go back in a week for a check-up and to get her prescription for her thyroid hormone replacement meds. In a couple of months Caroline will undergo a radioactive iodine treatment to kill off any remaining thyroid cells throughout her body. We'll keep people updated on that as we learn more ourselves.

Hospital for Surgery 7:30 AM Tuesday

Just a quick update that we are in Hershey PA for my surgery (Caroline)- we head to the hospital at 7:30 am, so I think my surgery may start an hour or so after that. My mom is here to help us take care of Olivia which is great. Nate will try to post updates as he can- he may be a bit busy taking care of Olivia and me:) Thank you for all your prayers and sweet notes and calls, they are not missed and MUCH MUCH appreciated. I feel SO covered in prayer. Thank you!

Trip to DC

Apparently I am not good at updating the blog on a regular basis, but more in chunks- oh well! Not sure exactly who reads it anyways, but I hope you enjoy none the less:)

Even though we spent a month in MA visiting people, there were others a bit closer to home in PA we still wanted to see. Two weekends ago we got to Nate's college friend Mark and his growing family- since we last saw them, we both had children- our first and their second son. It was AMAZING how small he was- he was only a few weeks old, but only 4 months younger than Olivia. I cant believe how small she once was! Time really does pass TOO fast!

This last weekend we made to the DC area and it was a blast, though tiring, especially for Olivia. We got to use some frequent flier miles for hotel in the area- it was a BLAST staying in a nice hotel for FREE. As you can Olivia made herself at home!

We also made it to the air and space museum and walked along the mall.

Olivia found some comfy chairs along the way too- this was actually the first time we saw her shake her rattle! Seems like there are new things everyday!

On the way home we had lunch with another of Nate's college friends, Ryan in Baltimore. We actually visited his church first and got to hear him preach, something Nate had been wanting to do for a long time! Then headed through PA to see Andy and Emily Otto and their new house. Apparently Andy was VERY excited to meet Olivia- his facebook status before our arrival read:

"Any minute now, I get to hang out with Olivia Daman. I'm so excited I'm a little embarassed. Critics can say what they want, I think she's got really bright future. So original, unconstrained. They tell me she doesn't talk much. Hope that isn't awkward. Just going for eye contact really. I'm hoping to get pictur...es with her, but I left my camera in Philly. Anybody have conversation starters for a 4 month-old?"

Now we only need to meet the Paine's and Willard's and I think all of Nate's college friends will have met Olivia...now on to mine! haha. That might mean a trip to CA...maybe someday soon...