An update on the three of us

Olivia's Latest Accomplishments

She sits up with support all the time and loves to be in the upright position. She prefers to sit up on the couch and play with toys rather than lay on her stomach or back. She can sit up for a tiny bit on her own without any support, but quickly falls forward and ends up sucking on her toes.

Speaking of toes, she loves to grab them now and often puts them in her mouth. I especially like to dress her in outfits that have cute things on the feet, that way she has something to look at when she's interacting with her toes.

She has also been talking a lot more lately. She has started using a very quiet voice when talking to her toys, but continues to use a louder voice when talking to me or Chris.

Olivia constantly chews on her index fingers. She usually has one or the other in the side of her mouth and chomps down on it until her heart is content. When she pulls her hand away from her face, her finger is bright red, but she's as happy as can be. She's also been sucking on the backside of her hand lately, and yesterday I actually caught her sucking her thumb!

She seems to like the cereal we've been giving her. She's had it three times now and is getting better at swallowing while sitting up. She likes to stick her hand in her mouth with the spoon though, which leaves a nice sticky hand to be smeared over everything it touches during the feeding. She also tries to talk while the spoon is going in, so she blows bubbles in the cereal and it flies everywhere. Sunday evening she blew it all over Chris' face!

She still doesn't have any teeth and we can't see that any are ready to come through - so we'll just wait patiently.

She's rolling over from time to time, but isn't that interested in the process.

Michelle's Dilemma

I went to the place I used to work this week just to visit and say hello to everyone. Low and behold, there is a social work position available and it seems as if everyone wants me to return. While I completely loved the work I did and enjoyed going to work each day, I also love being at home with Olivia. I enjoy watching her grow and develop each day, I like being able to do things for Chris while he's at work during the day, and I like the quality time that I get to spend with my daughter. God has blessed us greatly with allowing me to stay home. However, it does get lonely and I yearn for adult interactions on a daily basis. I know my colleagues enjoyed having me at work, as did the administration...and I enjoyed being there. But the thought of having to find (and pay for) day care out here seems daunting. We don't really have any family friends who she could stay with all day, so that's not an option either. Plus, we're still hoping to move in June (if we sell our apartment by then) so if I did go back to work, it would only be for four months - and that's not very fair to the agency or the kids I would be working with. I keep going back and forth between my options...and I just seems to confuse myself even more. I'm praying about it so that God can grant me the wisdom to see His plan for me, but if you could pray for me too, that would be great.

Chris' Achievement

Chris and I have been attending town meetings where we live to discuss parking arrangements in front of our apartment building. Chris (my over-achiever husband) drew sketches of the streets, buildings and parking spaces to show the village committees his thoughts and possible solutions to the problem. Well, in doing this, the Mayor took a liking to him and personally asked him to the join the Village Planning Board. This is a Board of professionals in several different fields who get together and make decisions about Village projects and proposals. These board members are appointed by the Mayor and chosen specifically because of their talents and expertise in the areas in which they work. I'm very proud of him for getting a personal invitation from the Mayor to do this!