5 months and a Day - "Oh the Places You'll Go!"

Today marked the 5th month of Olivia's homecoming. It was 5 months and a day since the SWS placed her in our arms and we introduced ourselves as mom and dad, and we walked away a forever family. Now, months later Olivia is walking and calling us "Mama" and "Papa". In the past few months she went from rolling over, to crawling, to cruising, and now walking. She is determined as ever to get to know the world around her. She has picked up sped in the last couple of days and it has us very nervous. I recently bought a first-aid kit and Polysporin for the diaper bag. hahaha

Not only is she walking, but is definitely babbling more. She has been a "copy-cat" for the last couple of weeks and sometimes we have to be careful what we say now. hahaha. Some of her vocabulary include "Elmo!" - that was a given, "thank-you", "peekaboo", "hi!" "bye!", "bebe!" "oh-oh!" "na-na" (banana). I'm sure there are others we just can't make out what they are. :0P

With her language development and being 1years old (which she can show with her finger), her curiosity and need to explore has us constantly on our toes. Olivia has been and I think will continue to test us. We are still not use to her ignoring us when we tell her "No!". We laugh (even though we shouldn't) at the times when we tell her "no!" and she looks at us first and then proceeds to go and do it anyways. She knows she's not supposed to be there and yet she checks to see if you are looking and only when you check on her she goes ahead and does it. Ugh. We figured out though that if both Martin and I say "no!" in unison, it has a better outcome. Damn, parenting is hard. :0P

She's beginning to show preference now for food, which was different a couple of months ago. A few months ago, we could give Olivia anything and she would eat with no complaints. Now, we definitely know she loves chicken and pasta, greens bean and peas but not broccoli. She loves mostly all fruit especially berries, but not melons.

The summer is off to a great start. The weather has allowed us to go to a splashpad and play in the water (which she loves). We haven't had a chance to go swimming fully but I think it's just a matter of time. I know for sure that I wouldn't be comfortable to go swimming with Miss O by myself, as she is the daring one. hahahah. She would just leap out of my arms into the water if she could. I don't think I would be fast enough to catch this little dolphin. hahahah.

August will be another busy month for us, with more playgroups and trips. Time flies when you are having fun I guess. It'll definitely fly more faster now that Olivia is running, I mean walking.