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.

Happy Halloween!

This month has always been a very special month for our family. I guess you could say that Halloween is our family holiday. Frankie and I met at a Halloween dance and of course Olivia was born 4 days before Halloween, it is definitely a month that we hold dear to our hearts. We had so much fun dressing our little girl in her ladybug costume. She wasn't exactly as excited about it as us, but she was just so cute. Ever since she was born she has been her daddy's little ladybug, so when Halloween came around we were so excited to be able to find a little ladybug costume at the store.

On Friday Frankie's work had a little trick-or-treat activity at the office, so we dressed her up and showed her off to his co-workers. We all dressed up and had some fun together. We also took Olivia out on Saturday night for a little trick-or-treating around the neighborhood and out to Grandma and Grandpa's house. Here are some pictures of our family fun.

Happy Birthday Ladybug

Well, here we are with a one year old. Boy does the time fly by fast. We are so excited that Olivia is a Halloween baby where we get to celebrate her birthday and Halloween. Last Saturday we had a really fun party for Olivia at her grandparents house in Smithfield. All of her family from dad's side came to celebrate with us, it was so much fun to have so many people there to show how much she is loved. She also had her friends Jackson and Easton came to party too. Daddy and I decorated a Ladybug cake that we had hoped she would just rip into, but she was a little hesitant to play with the cake. We had some sugar cookies that everyone got to decorate. Overall, Olivia had a blast and absolutely loves all of her new toys that she got for her Birthday.
On her birthday, Frankie took the day off which allowed us to spend time together as a family. Because it was such a nice day we took a little outing to the temple grounds and got some fun pictures.

It's Fall

Well here we are in the middle of the fall season. The leaves are changing colors and falling off of the trees. I love to see just how beautiful nature can be with all of her colors. Because of the upcoming holiday, Halloween, we as a family participated in our annual pumpkin carving. Frankie is very much a person who likes to tell a story with his pumpkin so we tried to find some fun carvings that went right along with us as a family. I'm sure that you'll be able to figure out the story from the pictures.

Even though Olivia didn't get to do any of the actual carving, she sure did have a fun time exploring the end results.

I love getting to stay home with our little girl, especially now that she is at such a critical learning stage in her life. She is so close to walking and is getting into everything. She loves our cats, Millie and Winston, and has even attempted to say their names a few times. Of course we have to monitor with the cats because she can get really, really physical with them and hurt them which then causes them to lash out at her. Winston is willing to put up with a lot more discomfort than Millie, but even he has reached his limit. But we have been having some success with teaching her how to be soft and to use one finger with the cats.

This past weekend we were able to go and visit with Frankie's family in Sandy. On Saturday we took a little drive to the property that his parents own in the Okur Mountains. We had a little picnic, did some crafts and went for a four wheel ride. Olivia had so much fun on the ride that she fell asleep.

Olivia's Birthday is just a week away and we are holding a birthday party for her this Saturday at her grandparents house in Smithfield. I'm excited to give her her presents so she can have some fun new toys to play with. Some of her toys are becoming to boring for her, so she finds new ways to play with them. Her old kick and play bouncer chair has now become a rocking horse for her. She loves to just climb on it and bounce and rock away. It is just so funny to watch her with it.

Learning and Growing

It is just so crazy to think that at the end of this month our little baby girl will be turning one and entering the toddler stage. Olivia has just brought so much joy and laughter into our home. An update on our family; Frankie finished classes in August and is now done with his Bachelor degree. Because he is now able to work full time, I was able to quit one of my jobs and work on being a stay at home mom. Even though I really enjoyed working at LaBeau's for the past 5 1/2 years, it is nice to get to stay home with my little munchkin.

Olivia is learning and growing so fast. At her 9 month check up she was in the 84th percentile for her weight and height. Who would have thought that little Frankie and me would have such a big girl. Olivia learned how to crawl on the 4th of July and hasn't stopped moving since. We are trying to get her to learn how to walk, but she just loves crawling too much. This past month she has learned how to climb onto things, mainly our love sac. She is a fearless little devil and has to be watched all of the time. She also loves making messes, especially when I am doing laundry. When she sees a basket with something in it, she just has to pull everything out of it because the basket needs to be empty apparently. She has also recently discovered that she loves to stand up and push things around the floor. We probably should buy her a push toy, but she enjoys pushing our cooler around so much, why bother with the expense right now.

Catching up!

So I woke up to a new sensation today. It wasn't my alarm clock waking me up as usual or the odd feeling of my cats licking my nose or hands to communicate to me their need to be fed. It was the acute sensation of having my mouth and cheek pulled apart by a baby girl exploring her surroundings. All I could do was laugh as she looked at me and smiled that big, toothless smile.




Olivia has gotten to be so big! She had her big 4 month appointment on Tuesday and the doctors pronounced her big, healthy, and happy. She weighed in at 15 pounds, 6 0z, and she was over 25 inches long. As far as passing up her dad, in terms of height, she's almost there; Only 3 feet and 6 more inches to go. She has also discovered her voice recently and man! she sure knows how to be vocal. It's quite humorous to suddenly have her start squealing and cooing in church. Sure makes going to church more fun!

Angie and I are doing great as parents. I have less than a year left of school and Angie is doing great as an assistant manager at a nearby restaurant. She gets credit for being the first person to make Olivia laugh and that doesn't bother me one bit. We have a new car now and life is going really good. Pretty cool, huh!

We're Parents!!!

So, here's the scoop. Olivia Judith Workman was born on October 27th at 1:45 in the morning. As Natasha noted, she followed her dad's example of coming late, but making a big entrance. She had no complications exiting the womb and within minutes found herself bonding with mom for her first feeding. She was 7 lbs, 2 oz, and measured in at 19 inches long. She's now a bit more than a day old and she is absolutely beautiful. When asked how she felt, Angie replied "It's such a surreal feeling to finally be holding her in my arms. She's my little angel and I love her so much. It's so exciting!!" Frankie's response was, well, definitely Frankie, "I'm just glad she wasn't a fugly baby." After taking a slight beating from his wife for that remark, he indicated that Olivia is quite honestly a miracle. She represents absolute goodness and we know that she will be a happy child that will bring joy to her parents and anyone she comes in contact with.

On the 26th, we called the hospital at just before 6:00 am to see what time would be good to come in for the induction and were told to report there at 7:15 am. After reporting, getting checked in, and Angie getting all changed out and ready, she was induced just before 8:30 am. The contractions began within minutes and we were hopeful that she might be quick. By 12:30 however, she still hadn't shown any major progress with her contractions and her cervix was at a solid 2, so Dr. Olsen came and broke her water at 12:30 pm. When her water was broken, there was a considerable amount of mecosium (the baby's first bowel movement) present in the liquid, which could be a potential risk if Olivia inhaled it on her first breath. Dr. Olsen was superb at reading the signs and had Deanna, Angie's nurse, double-check the inventory to ensure that they would be ready with suction bubbles and pumps for Olivia.

At around 2:15 pm the contractions started to get much stronger and more painful. At one point, Angie hit a solid 8 on the pain scale. At 3:00 pm Deanna and Dr. Mortenson (Junior) gave her the epidural. At 4:00, Deanna measured Angie's cervix again. The measurement indicated that she had progressed to a 3+, so all we had to do was wait. Angie progressed a bit slower than normal, but she had no complications and Olivia's vitals indicated that she wasn't under any stress. By 6:00 she was at a 4+ and by 8:00 she had gotten to a 6. By 9:00 she was at a 7 and by midnight she was at a solid 9. At 12:30 am she was pronounced fully dilated and Anngee (yup, that's what her name-tag read), her new nurse, put Angie on rest and descent to prepare for the pushing. At 1:00 am, Angie began the grueling task of pushing, but Olivia crowned so quickly that she had to be stopped so Anngee could page Dr. Olsen. Dr. Olsen was in by 1:30 am and within 15 minutes, Olivia was out. She had no complications during birth and Dr. Olsen did a great job ensuring that her first breaths were clean. Pretty cool huh!