Babble

The definition of babble:

1. Inarticulate or meaningless talk or sounds.

2. Idle or foolish talk; chatter.

3. A continuous low, murmuring sound, as of flowing water.

Climbing Into Her Chair

She has spent weeks trying to take something with her into her rocking chair, so she can read while she sits. Here is her technique that she has finally perfected:

Christmas Morning

We have a mini Christmas tree on top of a table so Oly wouldn't be able to pull it down, but she still tried her best.

The two sets of grandparents sent so many presents that we had to clear a shelf of books to fit them all.

Oly rocking next to the hot fire:

Papa in his new onesie!

Both of them enjoying their onesies!

Hallie got a spa gift certificate, but Oly is eyeing the menu.

She found something she likes!

Opening her first present of the morning, a stuffed skunk from Grandma Pony and Grandpa Mac (dubbed "Flyer" because they stink this season):

"Thanks Uncle Jeffrey and Aunt Niki for this awesome box!" (Actually, they got Oly some very cool gardening tools that will be put to good use starting in the spring, but for now, the box will do.)

And on Monday we get to visit the Farmers. We're always up for an extended Christmas. Happy Holidays!

Christmas Eve

Oly and Eydie

Oly and I babysat our friend Magda's baby earlier in the week while her nanny was snowed in up the coast. Eydie is a delightful little 8 month old who was happy to have someone to wrastle with other than her 4 year old brother Xander.

Olympia played very sweetly with her, but in full disclosure I must add that she tried to use her as a step to get up on the couch and also tried to pick her up by the back of the shirt. (Not so coincidentally we're now trying to call her doll a "dolly" and not a "baby". We need to differentiate for her apparently).

She is really into 'playing real life' right now, i.e. feeding a bottle to her dolly, brushing her teeth 10 times a day, and as in this picture- buckling into and then out of, Xander's car seat 25 times.

We even braved an outing to Joann fabrics. Two babies is more than one baby, fyi.

If you have any time at ALL you must go click on their blog, "The Raponi Chronicles" on the right of the screen and scroll halfway down to two videos of Xander singing and dancing. The kid is a creative genius, there is no doubt. I assure you, you will not be disappointed. And remember folks: Santa knows when you're a'sleeping and he knows when you're awake.

Snow!

Uncle Jeffrey and Aunt Niki

She's looking at this picture:

Lunch Today

And this is how we figured out that the dried cherries she was having at lunch were full of sugar....

Signs

Oly's Week

Papa was away for a week on a business trip to Hong Kong. Here is what we did while he was gone:

Rough night Oly? Can I get you any cream or sugar?

First snow of the season!

We needed to go across the street to the Asian Market to buy a garland to decorate for Christmas. We bundled up and she got into the ergo.

Playing under the table is a new pastime. She's about an inch too tall to stand fully and has finally figured out how to duck under the lip when she walks out. That was a lesson I was eager for her to figure out (many, many tears).

She has discovered the doors in the hutch. She opens and closes them endlessly.

And then sometime she climbs in. The first baby to hide in Grandmom's hutch? Perhaps, but certainly not the last.

Tuesday we had a bunch of our friends from Birthmark over.

Here is a moment of everyone playing nicely:

Catie, who is one of the most beautiful babies that has ever lived is a solitary sort. Here she is stacking blocks (!). At only 16 months, I find this pretty impressive.

Tyler wants that stick.

"Got it!"

Tyler is such a sweet little guy. Oly loves him so much but he can't stand it when she touches him. He really only cried twice while he was here. Once when she climbed over to hug and kiss him and knocked him right over to bonk his head on the floor (he's only 8 months). And then she went over to him to point at his nose, pat him on the head, etc, and when he cried because she was near, she patted him on the back to soothe him. How do you explain to a little girl that the baby is crying BECAUSE she's touching him?

And here is Schroeder. I mean Nate.

Baby Loves Disco

So there's this hipster thing called "Baby Loves Disco" that has events all over the country. We went today and it was AWESOME. They rent a dance club out on a Sunday afternoon and kids come and dance their faces off.

They had two of Oly's favorite things: balloons and exit signs.

There was a little corner for crawlers filled with Ikea toys.

This, as you may have guessed, is Oly and Tommy:

This was a serious party, People. Oly was in love with the disco ball, obviously.

They had hundreds of little egg shakers that all of the kids loved. Oly was not allowed to bring any home because halfway through the party she realized she could fit the entire thing in her mouth. Bad club kid.

Things got a little psychedelic at the end...

And she had to be carried to the car.

Oly, dropping it like it's hot:

Improvement

She just does laps back and forth from the front door to the baby gate at the kitchen. Then she looks at me to come turn it around for her.

No Santa Pictures For You

Sorry everyone, no KOP Santa pictures this year. I worked desperately hard to keep her clean all morning, drove her around in the warm car to ensure a proper morning nap, went all of the way to the King of Prussia mall, changed her into her red silk jumper from Nana and the fake patent leather shoes that I bought her just for the occasion then waited in line for 45 minutes only to have her freak out the second she got onto Santa's lap. We didn't even get a crying picture. We even had a chance to watch this first, our friends Xander and Eydie showing us how a Santa picture should be.

Oly and Tommy waiting patiently in line:

Xander giving a thirsty Tommy some water at lunch:

Silver lining? Maybe it would be harder than we thought for a stranger to kidnap her.....

How Olympia Eats a Clementine

Style

5:45 pm, EST, 11-28-09

She took her first steps!

Oly and Tommy

Olympia and her friend Tommy both just learned how to give kisses. They were eager for some practice apparently.

We've all survived the first year.

Olympia has made one full trip around the sun and she seems to be enjoying life quite a bit. She weighs in at 24 lbs 6 oz- if everyone would please get out their charts and plot this most current point you'll see that it's a gain of less than a pound in 3 months. Shocking. And you'll also notice that....... SHE'S ON THE GRID! We have calculable percentiles folks! 95th for height and 93rd for weight! Positively puny. As for head circumference..... well, at 50 cm she's about an inch bigger than the 95th percentile. Everyone mutter something about big brains and be done with it.

Here's the little princess after waking up from a nap on her Papa's chest. In this picture she has had her eyes open for less than two full seconds and she's signing for milk.

So after some milk I tried to videotape her newest trick, animal noises. She does snake, fish and pony- which is just spitting everywhere. Don't get too excited though, you're not going to see any of these because she won't do them for the camera.

Allison's Visit

Allison came for a very special babysitting visit. The week started out with Olympia's fourth 1st Birthday party, this one with her friends at Birthmark. We took very few pictures because we were too busy chatting and refereeing.

Olympia taking advantage of Amelia's temporarily baby-free lap:

Here are, from left to right, Calvin, Ben, Michael and Olympia playing happily together:

After the party we went to the grocery store and Olympia had a lot to say about the woman she heard on the intercom:

We went out to a delicious lunch at a local nursery where you eat in a greenhouse. Here is Oly enjoying some bread that was baked in a terra cotta pot:

Don't worry, her pirate Patch was safely buckled into the high chair as well.

Here are the girls sharing an apple:

And then sharing a kiss:

This kid is trouble (this is her, "I'm coming to get that piece of fancy electronics you have there on the couch!" face:

On Friday we went to Longwood gardens with the bass player from Kings of Leon:

Here is Allison and Oly when we went in April:

Here they are in the orchid house this time around:

Ladies at the Gardens:

They were having the Fall Chrysanthemum show and it was beautiful. See the moss topiary bees hanging from the ceiling?

And yeah, yeah it was fun to hang out with Allison and all... but her real purpose was babysitting Oly while Mama and Papa went on an outing! We were celebrating Oly's birth, my birthday and the 10th anniversary of our first date (not too shabby). First we went for drinks and oysters at XIX (nineteen) which is on the top floor of the Philadelphia Hyatt and had an amazing view.

And then we went to Vetri, the best restaurant in the city by far- and had the many, many course tasting menu. There are no words to describe the wonderful food and how enjoyable the company was!

It was a night we will never forget- not least of all because Allison put the baby to bed with no problem- practically threw her into her crib and then successfully gave her tylenol for her teeth- while she slept! We think the 25 laps up and down the stairs had something to do with it. It will be added to the repertoire for sure.