Meet Olivia

Now that we have a beautiful daughter I'm not so inclined to talk about our cats as much. Now I just can't say enough about our little Olivia. This past year has been and incredible year with adjusting to parenthood. Olivia has brought so much joy into our home and has developed quite the personality. Now that I get to stay home with her everyday, I get to see all of her little quirks start and grow. So let me introduce you to the littlest Workman; Olivia Judith Workman, she is also known as Livia, Livs, Livy, Lady Bug, Munchkin, Munch (short for Munchkin), Olive and Olly. Some of these names have been given to her by aunts and uncles, but mostly from Frankie and me.

Olivia is a very pleasant and happy baby to be around, but be aware that she is a baby who will do things her way in her own time. It took a while to learn that Olivia will go at her own pace when it comes to learning new things. From day one she has been teaching us this very thing. We thought that she would come on October 26th, the day I was induced, but no it wasn't to be she would arrive on October 27th. For weeks I tried to help her learn how to roll over, but she would have no part of it what so ever, so I gave up. Then when I least expected it, I put her on her belly and what do you know, she just flipped over with the ease of a rollover champion. It was the same thing with crawling and going down the stairs. She doesn't want to do anything until she knows that she can do it perfect. She hasn't started walking yet, even though we know she is so close, we are just waiting for that day when we just put her down and she'll start walking like a pro, she's done it with all of her other stepping stones, why not this one.
Olivia loves to be where that action is, especially if that involves the chair by the computer. No matter who is sitting in that chair, Olivia wants to be there with that person playing with the computer. Olivia has found that she still loves to play with her kick and play bouncer, just not in the same way. She loves to climb on it and bounce up and down. She has also found that it is a nice chair to lounge in and catch her breath after bouncing so much. She also loves playing in the dishwasher. The minute she hears me open that door to start loading the dishes, she is there, ready to push the bottom tray in and climb onto the door itself. She will then begin to pull out every item that is easy to pick up and pull out, mainly the silver ware and plastic bowls.

Olivia adores Millie and Winston, but they are still getting used to her noisy and very physical attention. It is funny, but Olivia's main way for showing affection to people, she learned from Millie. Because Olivia is down at the level of the cats, she learned that when Millie is being affectionate with someone, she will but her head against you. So now you can know that Olivia approves of you when she buts her head against yours. Both of the cats will take long naps up on our bed, so every now and then Olivia will climb up the stairs to find the cats on the bed. She will then give them a hug and lay her head against their side. Of course that cats don't really like this because her way of hugging the cats often ends up with them being dog piled upon by Olivia. Thankfully, if they get too much love from Olivia, they will get up and vacate the premises. One very interesting thing to note about Millie, is that she has laid claim to Olivia ever since she was a newborn. There have been times that Winston will walk by Olivia and give her a little sniff only to get wolloped upon by Millie because he dared get near her baby. She isn't a very territorial cat in our neighborhood, but if Olivia is outside playing, she will attack any cat that is within 50 feet of Olivia, even if that cat was just wandering by. Poor Winston has been the main one for those beatings.

It is so fun to just see how much of us is in Olivia, and not just in looks. Olivia has definitely inherited her dad's very out going personality. She isn't shy, although she does prefer her mommy or her daddy. She has now problem in letting herself be heard. In fact when she first found her voice, I became a little worried that she would lose her voice from all the screaming she did. It wasn't crying, it was just playing with her voice. Now she just loves to talk up a storm, even if she has food in her mouth. She is also a little daredevil and will climb on things, just like her dad. From me, she has developed a love for music and has a good feel for the beat. She loves to just dance to the music. She has also inherited the trait of talking in her sleep that all of the Wells sister do. It is just funny that in the middle of the night we will hear talking on the other end of the baby monitor. The first couple of times, we went in there only to find that she was fast asleep and talking. Now was just smile and listen as she talks.

Well I know that there are so many more things to say about our little munchkin, and I'm sure I'll write about them sometime, but for now I'll just save it for another day.