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.

Quick Pics

Got an angry call from a Grandmother saying that she had been "refreshing and refreshing and refreshing......." We will fill in captions later.

For the die-hards

Here's a long, slow video of Olympia sorting her new bath toys from Nana and Grandpa last night. We did it again for a very long time this morning and she's doing it right now as I type.

Notice in the background what we got Oly for her Birthday- the box from our new Television. She's a lucky girl.

Jasper and Olympia's Birthday

We traveled up to Ithaca to visit the Reading/Farmers for Jasper and Oly's Birthday.

Jasper is exactly one year and one day older than Olympia- they would have shared a November 15th birthday but we took too long to drive to the hospital and had to be induced on the 16th instead. One day difference is close enough.

This picture was only slightly staged....

Huge pile of presents!

Opening up a baby doll from Silly Grandmom

Making beautiful music on Jaspers new harp

Their cake made of prunes, wheat germ and carrots:

Having a snack with Grandpa the next morning. It was a two Grandpa week!

Driving

Some happy Grandparents:

More of the same:

Jasper: "Nooooooooooo Ohweeee don't touch!"

Going for a walk Sunday morning through the 'back forty' on their property. The entire weekend was unseasonably warm and gorgeous. I had been picturing their birthdays in the snow for an entire year so I couldn't leave the house on Saturday, it was too weird.

Various degrees of Reading women:

It was a great coupla' birthdays! Congratulations Oly and Jasper-guy!

Sneak Peak...

Apparently it's Naked Time

Grandpa Mac Miscellany

Here are a collection of pictures that are cute that for some reason haven't been posted yet.

At the Chiropractor's office pretending to be a little baby. Thanks to crawling, Oly has thinned out enough to fit into a Bumbo again.

Snacking on some lettuce. All of this ended up on the floor.

At a fabulous mexican restaurant for lunch.

Oly had some tortillas.

Proof that he was actually here at our little house- and proof that maybe I should rake the leaves in the back garden.

Having a milkshake an hour or so ago....

A video showing a few of Olympia's dance moves. She's usually much more focused, but in this one she's distracted by puffs.

Washington's Crossing

Today we visited the spot on the Delaware where General George Washington crossed the Delaware river in the middle of the night to surprise attack the British in Trenton, New Jersey.

But more important than that crucial step towards American Independence is Olympia having her first bite of Chocolate Ice Cream today.

The First of the 1st Birthday Parties

Oly had Rosemary Olive Oil Cake with strawberries and whipped cream.

At first I gave her plain whipped cream without any sugar- but that was no good and Papa and Grandpa made me sweeten it.

Now she's a fan.