Merry Christmas!

All is merry...

 

All is bright...

 All mommy & daddy want is a silent night...

From our crib to yours....

Merry Christmas & Happy New Year!

The Olson Family

5 months old & First trip to South Dakota

On December 15th Grace turned 5 months old. I know I say it every month, but how is it that she is 5 months old already?! Here is her monthly picture with Pooh bear.

Daddy trying to get her to smile for the camera.

This last weekend we headed to Deadwood, SD to see our good friends Tommy & Ashley get married. Grace did great on the car ride. I just tried to entertain her in back while Brian drove us ladies 400 miles each way. While we were there we had some time to do some sightseeing and took Grace to see Mount Rushmore - her first national monument. It was a cool, clear day and there was hardly anyone there - it was great! Here are some photos.

Now those who read this who knew my dad know that he was quite the well, smart a** and jokester. So years ago when I was probably 10 or so, my parents took Katie & I to South Dakota for a family vacation. Honestly I remember that trip a lot. We saw Mount Rushmore, went to Bear Country USA and did a bunch of other stuff, it was a lot of fun. Well while there dad had Katie & I standing in front of Mount Rushmore with our arms in the air and one finger pointing up. He kept telling us to move a little left, a little right and we were like seriously dad take the picture already. Well in those days you didn't see the photo until it was developed, when mom got the pictures back dad was quite pleased with himself. You see the photo shows my sister & I picking the noses of one of the presidents, he thought it was hilarious! At the time I just rolled my eyes and was like whatever dad, but I have to say now that I laugh about it. So, to honor Grandpa Phil, Grace helped me pick the nose of Abe Lincoln. I told Grace Grandpa would be proud!

And now on to the wedding. How cute is she in her dress?!

Looking good daddy!

And finally the happy couple, congrats Tommy & Ashley!

Of course coming up this week is Grace's first Christmas. Judging by the boxes arriving for her lately she is sure to be spoiled! She doesn't know how lucky she is to have such wonderful friends and family.

Hope everyone has a great holiday!

The Santa Photo

It is a scanned copy so it isn't great quality, but it is sure cute!

A week of holiday fun.

Grace is soaking up the holiday air. She celebrated her first Chrismakuh with her honorary aunts. When my good friend Marissa had her daughter 3 years ago we all decided she should know about both Christmas and Hannakuh as two (Marci & Rachel) of our group are Jewish. Since the kids are still pretty young it really is just an excuse for the 5 of us to get together and catch up and have some fun with the kids. Marissa now has a son as well and now I have Grace and next year Marci will be adding a little one to the celebration as well. Our little group of kids is growing fast and I can't be more pleased to see our little family that we chose grow. Nothing is better than amazing friends.

Here is Grace with Avery & Ben after they opened their gifts.

On Saturday Brian & I took Grace on her first visit to Santa. She was in a great mood that morning and tolerated the line, which thankfully only took about 10 minutes to get through. The photo we bought is pretty cute with Grace gazing at Santa, but here is the one photo we were allowed to take. I am going to see about scanning in the photo we bought at work and get it up here some time this week.

And meet Sophie. Sophie is a teether I heard about. When I went to look it up I found out it cost $20! But it is made of BPA free products and safe to chew on. So while I was doing some shopping on Amazon for Christmas I saw that Sophie was on sale, so I splurged and got it for Grace. She LOVES Sophie. When Grace saw Sophie for the first time she looked at her, smiled, then grabbed her and began to chew on her. Grace loves to go to town gnawing on Sophie to bring relief to those gums that are bound to sprout some teeth soon.

Coming up this week, Grace's 5 month birthday and a road trip to South Dakota to see some friends get married. It will be a fun and adventurous week!

Baby, it's cold outside!

Let's just say the Olson house is ready for some warm weather again. It has been around 15 degrees and lower the past few days. It makes getting out of the house pretty difficult. Grace has a minimum of two blankets wrapped around her, a hat on and some mittens, all loaded up in her car seat. But alas we have to work so we have to go out. Here is hoping it warms up soon!

After Thanksgiving we put up the tree and Grace helped decorate. Here she is hanging up her first Christmas ornament.

And posing with the tree, she likes looking at the lights.

Someday when we get a house we will have a tree bigger than 3 feet, but for now this works.

Along with Christmas come Christmas cards. I haven't done them in years, but now that we have this cute baby to show off I figure we had better send some out. Here are a few of the runner up photos. I'll let you wait to see what we picked when you receive one in the mail (and I'll post it here closer to Christmas).

And this one is priceless...I imagine she was saying something like "Geez mom, are you serious?! I don't want to pose, I want to play and I am SO not smiling for you." :o)

Lastly, an eye update for you. I took Grace to see Dr. Oliver on Thursday. He said things are looking good right now, from what he can see. He can't always get a good look since Grace moves around and also gets mad pretty quick with the bright light n her eyes. He however wants to do yet another exam under anestesia in January to make sure the retina is still attached and check the eye oil and a few other things. I was less than pleased to hear this as we hate having to have her have anestesia again, but here is hoping that when he goes in all looks good and all he has to do is look and not fix anything. I joked with him that maybe he should do the surgery before December 31 so that I wouldn't have to start paying our insurance deductible again with the new year since we are beyond max on it now, but he didn't think it was funny. I had to assure him I will do whatever for our baby, but if we can make the bills less that always helps. I thought it was humourous, but maybe you have to know me that I joke around during stressful times.

Otherwise Grace is doing well. She, Grandma G & I survived my work conference last week and we are getting excited for a visit from Aunty K and Nana this month.

Stay warm!

Happy Thanksgiving!

The Olson Family went and saw Grandma G for Thanksgiving in Fort Collins. It is always nice to go "home" for me and have mom's home cooking - nothing better. Here are some photos of Gracie as the turkey and checking out the turkey.

Cutest little turkey

Checking out the done turkey

What is that thing?????

Eating dinner

So Grace has begun to roll over. We missed the first time - I was in the bathroom and Brian was at the Broncos game - I came back to find her fussing on her stomach. Then daycare said she is indeed rolling. Well I finally witnessed it along with Grandma G on Friday, we were very excited. Brian is still waiting for a sighting. I am sure she will be rolling a ton soon. We will try and capture it on video. Santa visited us early and got us a video camera (thank you Grandma G) and we are in the process of figuring out how to use it and getting it charged up. Stay tuned.

And finally Grace getting ready for her first black shopping trip with GG. Notice Grace's shirt, it says "What Santa doesn't bring me, Grandma will." :o)

Happy Thanksgiving!

4 month stats

Today we took Grace for her 4 month check up. She weighed in at 11 pounds 12.5 oz (23 percentile) and 24 inches long (53rd percentile). So she is a bit small in the weight department, but average on her height. I was concerned she wasn't gaining enough weight, but the doctor said she is staying on her own personal growth curve and that is good and as long as she stays on that she is fine. So we just have a little mini lady on our hands.

She got her shots and it was hard seeing her cry, but she is doing well and is off at daycare. When we dropped her off she was sleeping, I'm sure she will do plenty of that today. And the doctor said we can start cereal if we want and if Grace is interested in it. We might try in a week or so during the Thanksgiving break when I am with her more and not at work.

Otherwise, she checks out great. We have a healthy happy baby!

Grace loves her thumb

Here is Grace sucking her thumb. It is one of her new favorite things to do and it is so darn cute.

Also, if you want to order any of Grace's 3 month photos, here is a link to the Snapfish album. Enjoy!

Snapfish Album

One more photo...

Grace is very into the TV lately. Here she is staring at the football game daddy was watching today instead of playing. The funny thing is she looks pretty amazed. This was taken when the Redskins faked a punt and got a first down - she liked that play! :o)

Happy 4 month birthday Grace!

Today marks Grace's 4 month birthday. It is hard to believe she is 4 months already and that we are approaching her first Thanksgiving. She is startng to play more and more in her exersaucer and is very close to rolling over. On Wednesday we take her in for her 4 month check up and some more shots. Here is her monthly photo today with Pooh and shock of shocks I caught her in a smile.

Here is another photo I got of her smiling a day or two after her last surgery. It is so exciting to finally catch her smile on camera - it's the small things in life.

Grace is also starting to drool like crazy and is constantly eating her fist.We have even seen sightings of her sucking her thumb. Grandma G caught it on camera so as soon as I have that photo I will share it here.

We went for our one week post-op appointment recently with Dr. Oliver and he says all is looking good so far. We get a break from seeing him for about 3 weeks, which is nice. We now have to patch her good (left) eye to get her to use her right eye. She only sees light in that eye right now and nothing is in focus since she doesn't have a lense right now. We have tried the patching a couple of times and she has made it about 5 minutes so far. She gets pretty upset that she can't see everything. Grace is a trooper though and did her best to look around and stare at the light. Hopefully as we continue to patch she will get used to is and last longer and longer. The cutest thing though was when I took the patch off of her eye the first time she was pretty mad at that point and had both eyes closed tight - I told her to open her eyes a few times and when she did and realized she could see everything again she gave me a huge smile. It was so sweet and made me even more thankful that she at least has the one good eye.

That is all for now. Annie

Update

Grace had surgery number 4 yesterday. She did great as usual. For once the doctor did NOT find a new problem which is a huge relief! Dr. Oliver had to remove scar tissue from her retina which is a very meticulous process and so the surgery took about 3 hours. He also had to remove some eye oil that she had to more of than she should. There is a 30-40% chance that both the excessive oil and the scar tissue can come back, so we aren't out of the woods yet, but there is no talk of a surgery in the near future yet which is nice to hear. As she gets older though it is interesting to see how she reacts to the anestehsia. This time around was like she was after her first surgery when she was only a month old where she was way more out of it. Come to find out they gave her some morphine this time - apparently since she is older and weighs more they can give her this. She is still pretty mellow and fragile today so I decided to stay home today with her while Brian is at work making us some money to pay these hospital bills. I am very thankful for a great boss at work who is understanding of me needing to take time here and there so soon after my maternity leave.

So, for now Grace is doing well. We have to keep a patch on her eye for the next week and do some eye drops and will go back for a check of the eye next week. Dr. Oliver is hopeful that she will get some vision, but he isn't sure yet how good it will be. Right now we know that some light is getting through, but since she doesn't have a lens in her eye nothing is in focus. We will soon begin patching her good eye to get her brain to use her right eye even if all she can see is light. Dr. Oliver is great in knowing that it isn't realistic to patch Grace for long periods since she will likely get pretty mad when we cover her good eye and we appreciate the Doctor realizing this - it makes it easier on us as we work with her. And eventually we will try a contact again to hopefully get items into focus once her eye heals from the recent surgery.

Otherwise, not much else to report. She weighed 11 pounds and 10 ounces yesterday. She is likely still pretty small since babies typically double their birth weight by 4 months from what I've read (which means in a couple of weeks she should be around 16 pounds - probably not going to happen), but we will chat with the pediatrician about that in a few weeks when she has her 4 month check up - hard to believe she is almost 4 months old!

We thank you for your prayers for Grace and keep on praying that she doesn't have to have surgery any time soon and that when we do start patching her good eye, that she will use her bad eye and help make it stronger.

Happy Halloween!

Here is our little Winnie the Pooh.

And a little pumpkin too.

Surgery Update

So it looks like Grace will be having her next surgery on Wednesday, November 4th. We don't have a time yet as Dr. Oliver is not an official pediatric doctor at Children's so he has to fight, if you will, for surgery space and time. We likely won't know the time until the day before as her surgery will go in as an "urgent" case to get a room. So, no matter what keep Grace in your thoughts and prayers on Wednesday.

On another note, I got another snow day yesterday (sadly Brian had to work) and Grace & I played all day. Grace has been full of smiles all the time lately. It has been great! She even has a little giggle now. Of course when I brought out the camera to capture them - she stopped - the little stinker! She also tried out her exersaucer yesterday and seemed to like it. I am sure she will spend many hours in that thing down the road. Pictures to come of her playing.

Have a great weekend!

Snow Day!

Well today is Grace's first big snow. So far as of 2:30 this afternoon we have around 8 inches of snow here at our house. We are supposed to get another 3-6 tonight and another 3-6 tomorrow. Both Brian & I got to come home early so we are now enjoying some family time and Grace likes watching it snow. Here is a photo of her checking out the snow.

Grace decided it wasn't so fun to watch it snow so we went and played.

Brian & I are hoping for another snow day tomorrow! Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow...

Finally a good day...

Grace appears to finally be getting used to daycare. Yesterday she drank about 9 ounces which is pretty much twice as much as she normally drinks during the day and she smiled at our daycare provider Margaret for the first time and was talking (cooing and such) to the kids for the first time as well. We are so happy that she appears to finally be adjusting to being with Margaret all day now - 3 and half weeks later, but hey at least it's happening!

A couple of weeks ago we had Grace's 3 month photos taken and couple of family photos. If you want to see the photos here is how you do it.

Go to:

http://www.tameraeagarphotography.com/

Click on Client Access

Enter 10172009 as the password on the bottom right corner and the gallery should come up.

The photos came out great and the photographer even captured the one smile Grace gave us. Grace our little stinker always stops smiling the second a camera comes out so at least we have one documented. Enjoy the photos and let us know what your favorite is as we figure out what to order.

Here is a cute little picture of Grace after bath time for your enjoyment.

Happy Birthday Daddy!

Monday marked Brian's 33rd birthday. Here he is in his new favorite present from Grace & I...

That's right Iowa Hawkeye overalls. I really wanted to find baby ones to match Brian's, but all of my google searching came up empty. Brian & I went out Saturday night with some friends and Brian celebrated the Hawkeye win by showing off his new favorite outfit. Doesn't he look great?!

Who is cute, adorable and loveable?

That's right - little Gracie. Check out some new photos.

Sleeping at Grandma's house.

Posing with Pooh for my three month photo. I'm getting so big!

Baby Mohawk

Playing on my tummy is hard work.

Surgery Rescheduled

So since Grace has had a cold the past week the anesthesiologists at Children's Hospital are recommending that we delay the surgery for at least 4 weeks. So, no surgery tomorrow. I will keep you updated on when we reschedule the next one.

On another note we had Grace's 3 month photos taken on Saturday. We think the photographer got one or two of her smiles, but otherwise she was pretty serious as usual when the camera comes out. I hope to have a link to share the photos with you soon because I know I'm dying to see them! With any luck the photographer will have them up for us this week. Stay tuned...

Have a great week!

Happy 3 month Birthday Grace!

Grace is 3 months today. We can't believe she is 3 months already...here are a couple pictures of her playing today. She loves to bring her hands together now and watch them. She is growing up so fast!

A week of firsts...

Well this week Grace saw her first snow and got her first cold. Thankfully this cold is just a cold and not the flu, but she is cranky all the same - it's rough when you are three months old and it's hard to breathe.  She is slowly getting better and now Brian & I are fighting this cold too. And thankfully the first snow was just under an inch - we aren't ready for winter yet!

Here is a picture of Grace checking out her first snow.

A few weeks ago Grace had her first outing to 3 Jacks (where Brian & I met) to watch some Bears football. As you can see she found the game very exciting.

Brian & I had a lot of fun showing her off to our friends and enjoying the game. It is nice to know that she travels well.

And finally an eye update - we found out today that her next exam under anestehsia will be on Tuesday, October 20 at 1:30 pm. Hopefully the doctor just goes in and makes sure she is healing fine and finds no other problems! Keep her in your prayers that day. We will let you know how it goes.

Welcome to our blog!

So Brian and I thought an easy way to keep you updated on the happenings of our growing baby is to start a blog that you can check out when you have time. It is our goal to update this about once a week with Grace updates and even maybe a little about mom and dad. Life is busy right now so if we miss a week, don't get too mad! We know you will enjoy seeing great photos of our little one and hearing how she is as we continue our long road of getting sight in her right eye. So please bookmark this site and come back for updates and fun pictures of our little Grace who is Growing up Olson!

Mom's current favorite picture of Grace - she looks like a little Gerber baby!

Speaking of updates - Tuesday we went and saw Dr. Oliver (a retina specialist) who did Grace's last surgery. This appointment was a one week post-op check. Grace is healing quickly and Dr. Oliver was happy to see that she reacted to light being shined into her eye. This is a good sign that she can hopefully get some sort of vision out of that eye. The most recent problem they found is called Persistent Fetal Vasculature Syndrome. Click on the name of it for more information and explanation. With this new problem and since they found she had a detached retina, it is going to be a long road of seeing if she can get sight in her right eye. Our next step is another exam under anestehsia to check how the back of her eye is healing. The doctor can't see the back during a normal exam so back to Children's Hospital we go for yet another surgery. We don't have the for sure date yet, but we expect it will be the week of October 19 sometime. Please continue to keep Grace in your prayers as she heals.

We just got back from a fun road trip to Omaha, Chicago and Burlington. Here is Grace riding along in her carseat with her shades on.

Grace was a trooper on the trip and only gave us a few fits. She did pretty well for only being two months old. This week Grace started daycare and I started back to work. We are all adjusting to this new schedule of having to be out the door at a certain time! Grace seems to like Margaret our daycare lady and has gone from hardly sleeping at daycare, to sleeping all day to now taking some normal naps. I am sure it is a big adjustment for her, but she seems to like to watch the other kids (anywhere from ages 1-4) and I expect she will learn a lot from them. And I am surviving work, but I sure wish there were naptimes here!

Stay tuned for more updates and fun pictures. Next weekend we are going to get some family photos taken and Grace's 3 month photos, including her in her Halloween costume - I can't believe she is three months already! It feels like I just had her.

Here is one last picture of Grace today hanging out in her Bumbo seat in her cute overalls that I just had to buy her. Enjoy!