Merry Christmas

A few pictures from our Christmas. Olivia had a great time and so did the rest of us.

We spent Christmas Day at Steger's and had a great time eating too much, opening presents and visiting. All the kids had fun and Olivia was loaded down with "Elmo" things and other toys and really nice clothes.

18 Months and right on target...

Finally, blogger.com is cooperating and I can get a new post out.
I tried to get this out on the 20th because Olivia turned 18 months old on December 20th.

At a year and a half she has completely caught up and is right on target for where standards are set for American babies. Her gross and fine motor skills are normal and her communication and social skills are right where they need to be. She is experimenting more and more with new words but cannot talk back yet which we are not in any hurry for. She is getting really good at feeding herself both with fingers and with her utensils. She does get a little picky with certain foods now and knows what she really likes. Right now her all time favorite food (believe it or not) is cottage cheese. I think she would eat it for every meal if we let her. Seems kind of strange to me but it is good for her so that is OK. When she is older she probably won't be able to look at cottage cheese and will be so sick of it.

She is getting bolder all the time and does try to be the one in charge of the house sometimes but we try to keep a handle on that and not let her get away with too much. She will hit the "terrible two's" soon enough.

She has quite a few toys but has not had anything new to play with for quite a while. She is very content to play with what she has but I cannot wait for Christmas when she gets new things and we can play with it all.......I mean, SHE can play with it all!! She will have so much fun.

If I can't get another post out before Christmas....
From our family to yours we hope you all have a very safe, happy and Merry Christmas. Enjoy the holidays and God Bless!!

First Christmas Tree

Olivia has her very first Christmas tree and has not tipped it over yet.
She actually leaves it alone. She so far likes to look at the ornaments and see her reflection in the shiny ones but just goes along with the flow and accepts that we have now put a tree up in the living room.
She has no idea that in just a week she will be overwhelmed with gifts to open and parties to attend. For now it is quiet and relaxed and she is happy as can be. We were sure to put the breakable ornaments close to the top so there is not a lot of damage she can do to the few ornaments within her reach.
We had to get a picture of her with Jenny's hat and gloves on. Olivia is always putting our things on and loves to prance around the house wearing whatever she can get her hands on. Everyday she has to be wearing someones shoes and stumble around the house in either one or two of them.
We are really looking forward to a lot of fun with her this Christmas.

Eat, Eat, Eat....

Olivia will be 18 months old in a couple of weeks and is right on target as far has her development. She can feed herself certain foods either with fingers or with her utensils. She can still make a pretty big mess but loves to practice. She is also still very fond of eating just about anything. I'm anxious to find out what she weighs at her next doctor check up. She has a mouth full of teeth and can chew up a lot of things. She is very neat about carrying around crackers and snacks, biting them off and won't let even the smallest crumb remain on the floor.


She is so smart and learns so fast it is almost a little scary. She knows a handful of alphabet letters and can say them or their sounds. She has a bunch of words she will say but has not added many to that list lately. She knows exactly what we are talking about though when we tell her to get things or "play in your kitchen", "shut the drawer", "Be Nice To Kitty!!"

She and Misty still battle for attention but have fun playing together too. Since I've been sick she has not had any experience playing in the snow but I think she will enjoy it more next year when she is older and can tell me if she is cold or not. Right now I have no interest in trying to bundle her up enough to get into the cold and snow.

The progress with my Mono is getting better each day. I think the pneumonia is completely gone but the Mono continues to hang on. There is still a lot I cannot do and get very tired very easily but I can also tell there is progress and a light at the end of this tunnel. Soon I will be back to taking care of Olivia and the house full time. Hopefully by Christmas it will be much better and I can enjoy the holidays. Right now we just take one day at a time.

Coming Back To Life

It has been a little over a month since my last post because I spent the month of November being very sick. After doctor visits and a four day stay in the hospital I finally came home (after missing Thanksgiving) to recuperate from a severe case of Mono and I also had developed pneumonia while in the hospital. It has been and still is a long road to full recovery but thankfully I am seeing some improvement everyday.
I can't thank my parents, sisters and friends enough for all the help they have given me and my family since this all came about. They all took the time to come over to help with Olivia, cook meals and just support us during this very difficult time. Grandma Manning has been spending most of her days here with me since I have not been able to take care of Olivia on my own. Olivia has become very attached to her Grandma which is great except for me getting a little jealous. As I can do more now she is coming back to Mom which is nice and makes me feel better.
Thank you Grandma for all your help and your continued help and support !!
We were even able to pull off a nice dinner for Jenny's 12th birthday on December 4th. We had a real nice meal that Steve put together and even a cake thanks to Grandma.
Since I am getting better I will be getting back to posting updates and pictures. Olivia is doing great and getting more goofy and funny all the time. She has been an incredibly good girl through all of this and through all of the different people taking care of her. We are so lucky!

Thanks again to everyone for all the help and keep checking back for more updates!

Giddee-up!

Olivia can get on her little horse that is on wheels all by herself now but still prefers the more exciting ride on the big bouncy horse in her room.
It will be nice when she can get on and ride it by herself for as long as she wants and I don't have to keep it moving for her. When she is done riding and I get her off she pats her horse on the nose and pretends to brush him.

She also loves her dogs and they love her. As old and sore as Smokey is she is always very gentle around Olivia and seems to know she isn't any threat even when she pats her a little too hard on her arthritic back. Olivia has a blast trying to pick the little berries off of the tree by the house and feed them to the dogs, although she needs to learn how to let go so they can have them. She usually ends up squeezing them too hard and the dogs just lick up her fingers.
All the drooling she has been doing has been paying off. She is getting all kinds of teeth in. Looks like she is up to at least six on the top and six on the bottom now. We had to give up the bottle long ago when the last nipple finally ripped. She had no problem with it and learned very quickly how to use the sippy cups even before Mom was ready to give up feeding her with a bottle. She is 16 months old now and can hang on to cookies and crackers, biting off what she wants all by herself. She is pretty good with her plastic utensils too but makes a pretty big mess so we don't do that on a regular basis yet. Her hair is growing really fast too which is fun to do different things with it now and she doesn't complain too much while waiting for me to get done messing with it.
More words and sounds are slowly coming. She loves to go through all of her books everyday, all day and is beginning to give her own babbling version of some of the stories. Her concentration has really improved and she will sit through all kinds of books now.

The Halloween Ladybug

HAPPY HALLOWEEN & BIRTHDAY !!

Not only is today Halloween but it is also Aunt Lynn's birthday. Of course, what else would a little girl adopted from China be for her fist Halloween but a ladybug!

Olivia was so cute in her ladybug outfit. We went trick-or-treating around home on Sunday and at first she seemed very overwhelmed and confused as to what we were trying to accomplish. But, it didn't take long for her to figure out all she had to do was stand in the doorways, pick out whatever candy she wanted and move along to the next house. After the first few houses she caught on though and was practically trying to run to the next front door. She seemed absolutely amazed that she could just take some candy and leave, and people just handed out those sweet, chocolate, chewy goodies. She is really learning what a "sweet tooth" is.
Today we got dressed up again to stop in to see Aunt Lynn at her work to give her candy and a balloon to wish her a happy birthday. Aunt Lynn then took Olivia all around her workplace to show off and trick-or-treat. Again it took Olivia a little time to figure out what was going on but finally started to loosen up after getting a really good cookie with purple frosting and a sugar buzz.
I'll be trying to add some more Halloween pictures but for now......

Happy Birthday Aunt Lynn and thanks for the fun morning and all the Halloween treats!!

Taking It On The Road

My niece, Michelle, has a parenting class at her high school and they have been talking about adoption. Michelle happened to mention that her (favorite-sorry Lynn) Aunt had just adopted from China this year. Well, the teacher asked if I would bring Olivia in and give a presentation to her classes on the whole process we went through. At first I was a little hesitant but decided to do it and it turned out to be fun.
Everything is still very fresh in my mind so it was easy for me to put everything together. I also took along a lot of our souvenirs to set out for the kids to look at. I even took along our DVD's of Gotcha Day and of the orphanage visit for them to see.
We did this yesterday morning, Tuesday, October 23rd. There were two classes, one right after the other and Olivia was perfect. Grandma Manning went along to help which I am very thankful for. I had a lot of things to take into the school and Olivia was very comfortable sitting by her Grandma while I gave my hour long presentation, twice. She did venture away from Grandma and Michelle a couple times though to wander around looking at all the things in the room. She also liked to hide behind my legs and peek out at the students.
She was so good. She never cried or whined the entire time. Some of the students didn't seem too interested (it's hard to tell with teenagers) but most of them paid attention and a couple even asked some questions. The girls all said she was so cute and she gave them a lot of smiles. At the end of the second class they even got to hear her say "Ah-Da! She was fascinated with all the students in the hallways and we even ran into her older cousin Ryan among all the students.
Michelle seemed to think I did a pretty good job and the teacher also video taped one of the presentations so she can show it to some of her other classes. She promised to make a copy for me so I can be my own critic on how we did.
Thanks Shelly for thinking of us and asking us to do this! It was a lot of fun!

Big Shot

A couple weeks ago Olivia got to see where her Dad goes to work everyday. I took her down to see him at work and some of his cooworkers got to meet her for the first time.They had been asking for me to bring her in for a visit.

She loved the pictures on his desk but was a little shy around all the new faces looking at her but managed to flirt a little too. Her favorite part was, of course, the computer, the telephone and the calculator. She thought she was a real big shot sitting at his desk.

Steve then took us out to a really nice lunch. It was a real treat for all of us.

Testing More Pictures

Here are a couple more pictures just to see if this new site will work. If so, I'll keep adding to this one. Enjoy!

Our New Blog, October 2007

Trying out the pictures.

I've created a new blog with the idea that the old one was getting bogged down with old archives, pictures, etc. I was having a lot of trouble just posting anything and had given up on loading any pictures.

Hopefully this one will start off fresh an I can continue on with our saga of "The Olivia Files".

Keep checking back with this new address www.oliviapitz.blogspot.com. At least it is shorter than the old one!