Lucky the Baby Squirrel

So I'm on the phone with Lindsey yesterday morning and looked out the back door to see Kitty pummeling what looks like a tiny pink fetus. And its kind of barely moving. So I scream and cuss and Kitty and I'm freaking out trying to figure out what it is that she is torturing. She picks it up in her mouth and tries to run away with it but I grabbed her tail and she put it down. So I grab her up by her collar and throw her inside and I go inside with her to stare at the tiny creature and try to figure out what it is. It is moving its teeny little arm like its waving at me. So sad! Its so new that its eyes hadn't even opened yet, thank god, so at least it couldn't SEE the vicious cat with the sharp fangs and claws. So I concluded that it had to be a newborn squirrel. I quickly googled baby squirrel and "baby squirrel care" popped up. I clicked on it and it said it was most important to keep it warm. And it was laying out on my freezing cold concrete porch. I put a towel in the dryer to warm it up and when it was warm I put my hands in some ziplock baggies and picked it up and put it in the towel. It also said to fill up a water bottle with hot water and wrap the bottle in a towel and place that by the cold baby squirrel. So I did that too. It had some links to some wildlife rescue people but I couldn't get them to work so I called our vet and they gave me a number that I called and got a recording to leave a message unless its about a sick or injured animal and then to call this other number. So I call the other number and also get a recording to leave a message. I left messages on both and got a call back pretty quickly from a lady in Arlington that wasn't home but gave me a number to another lady who is some squirrel expert who is also in Arlington. So I call her and she wants me to bring her the squirrel. I told her I couldn't right then b/c of my sleeping baby and that I was afraid the little squirrel wasn't going to make it much longer. So she said she would come get it. When I initially picked it up it had stopped moving and so I thought it might be gone already but then after it had been in the towel for a couple of minutes I could see that it would move a little bit when I would crinkle the towel around it. The lady finally got here and put it in this little pouch thing and then inside a little plastic cage and took it home. She said it needed antibiotics immediately since it had been in contact with a cat but that she had seen much worse and that more than likely it would be fine. I told her to call it Lucky. Wow, what a morning. Thank goodness all that happened right after I had put Olivia down for her nap so she wasn't involved. Here are a couple of pics of little Lucky. I put the phone in the second pic to show how tiny Lucky is.

Lately

I feel bad that I haven't taken very many pictures these past couple of months but it is so hard to get a picture of Olivia because she is never still! I get so frustrated because I will sit and take ten pictures in a row hoping to get one good one and they all turn out blurry because she won't be still. Oh well. She is getting SO big and changing SO much! Her top tooth is very visible now and she grinds it on the bottom two teeth which drives me insane. And her hair is getting longer every day. She used to be so good at not messing with her headband bows but now she almost always pulls them down around her neck every time we get in the car. Same with her hats, unless they have chin straps. She will eat anything you offer her and she has started drinking from a straw and thinks that is so fun. She is pulling up on everything she can and "cruising" around while holding onto the furniture. I can't believe she will be a year old next month! Here are a few random pictures...

chillin in her carseat

playin peekaboo with her mitten

rear view of olivia watchin elmo on the computer and dancing

front view (excuse the mohawk, i had just used a warm washcloth to melt a dried booger out of her bangs, LOL!)

you can kinda see her new top toofy in this one

this is after i realized i was taking pics of her with a wet mohawk so i tried to lay her hair down with this headband she was playing with. her hair is lookin rough these days b/c its at that in-between stage but we'll work through it :)

Ducks

Olivia loves ducks. Elmo's ducks are her favorite. There is the cutest video on sesamestreet.org with Elmo and his ducks singing and quacking and she could watch it a million times in a row. So lately we've noticed that when she sees one of her rubber duckies or any other type of duck toy or decoration (my mom has some wooden ducks on her kitchen wall) she will point and say DUH. SO since it is raining and 48 degrees I decided we should go feed some real ducks, LOLOL. I didn't realize it was raining until I backed out of the garage, I only had 30 mins til naptime and we HAD to get outta the house for a little bit b/c she was DONE with her toys, her shows, etc... So I figured we could just feed the ducks from inside the car. Which we did. I pulled up to the lake and there were several ducks hanging out inside and outside the water and when I opened my door they all started quacking like crazy and running toward me. It was kinda scary so I jumped back in the car. I was only getting out to unbuckle Olivia and put her in the front seat with me so I just did that from inside the car and then rolled my window down and she stood on my leg and hung out the window with her raincoat on and watched all the ducks. I was only planning on using about 3 pieces of bread but it seemed like ducks kept coming. They were endless. I decided I should take a picture. Ducks don't like being photographed. Every time I took a picture they would turn and run back to the water. It was so weird. But then if I put the camera down and threw out more bread they would all come running back. Olivia loved it and I'm sure feeding the ducks is going to be one of her favorite new activities.

Waffles and Piggy Tails

Meredith told me that when Kylie was a baby she would give her a frozen waffle to gnaw on to soothe her gums while she was teething. I tried that with Olivia and she LOVES her some waffles. She's getting a tooth on the top and I can tell it is bothering her a lot more than those first two on the bottom. But I'm hoping the temperature and texture of the frozen waffles helps with her discomfort.

Olivia's hair has grown a lot lately so I decided to see if she would wear a little clip and maybe some piggy tails. They are tiny little piggy tails but they are cute.

Lovin on Poppy

Olivia, King and I went to my parents house the other day and when my dad got home from work Olivia wanted nothing but to lay on him and hug on him. It was so sweet.

Laying Low

I've been a bad blogger. But there hasn't been a whole lot going on these days. We went to the ranch with Chris, Lara and Hayden for New Years and that was fun. I'll post pics when I get them from Lara. Then we went to Lubbock last weekend to hang out with Jason & Lindsey and the boys. We didn't take any pics though, boo. Except I had Lindsey take a few pics of Nathan, Preston and Olivia all taking a bath together. That was too cute and I'll post those pics when I get them from Lindsey. Other than that, I thought Olivia was sick for the first time a few weeks ago because she got really hot and was not acting like her normal lively self. She had no snot, no coughing or anything though so I thought maybe it could be an ear infection so I took her to the doctor and he said she was perfect. So I guess maybe teething gave her the fever and made her all clingy and miserable. Then she got this awful rash all over her face, chest and tummy and back. It was so weird but I had heard Lindsey and Allison say when their kids had broken their fever they would develop a rash so I thought maybe that is what it was but I decided she got it from being nudey except for her diaper and laying against me with a blanket covering her. Because Johnnie accidentally bought Tide w/bleach and that is what my shirt had been washed in and I think it irritated her skin. It lasted a couple of days and went away but I took a pic of it.

Other than that we've just been laying low, staying home. After being at the ranch for almost a week I didn't want to leave my house when we got home. It took me a week just to get through unpacking and doing the laundry and everything so I hated to even get out of my pajamas or leave the house. We've got a lot of fun stuff coming up this month and next month to keep us busy though so that will be fun.

Sweet & Sassy Olivia

Olivia has changed SO much in the past month! On Dec 8th Johnnie and Chris went to the Tech/TCU basketball game and Lara and I went shopping with the girls. That was the first time Olivia said, "Hi" and how cute that she said it to her BF Hayden. It was really sweet and she's been saying it, usually while waving her little hand, ever since. Its pretty much her only word so she says it about a hundred times a day. Then I took her for her 9 month well check on Dec 14th and she weighed in at 17 lbs 4 oz (25th%) and I can't remember how long she was but she's in the 75th percentile. So she's tall and skinny. And perfect. That morning before her appt I checked her gums for any signs of teeth and there was nothin. That afternoon after her appt I had to reach in her mouth to pull out some carpet fuzz or something that she had put in there and I felt a little toofy coming through! I had just joked earlier with someone in the waiting area at the dr office that I didn't think she was ever gonna get any teeth. Then the next day, Dec 15th, was my brother's birthday. My dad took the day off work and Olivia and I met him and my mom and Lindsay for breakfast at Waffle House b/c Zach always loved eating breakfast at the WH. Linds even got down a cup of black coffee since that is how he always drank it and he always tried to get her to drink it that way too. Then we all came back over to my house so Olivia could take her morning nap and before I got her down she started crawling across the living room floor! Very exciting! It only took her a couple of days after that to figure out that she could pull up to her knees and reach things that were sitting on our fireplace hearth, it's pretty low. Then on January 5th I went in to get her out of her crib in the morning and she was standing up in her crib holding on to the top rail. Since then she has pulled up onto furniture in the living room, King, etc... She hasn't started "cruising" around on things yet but I'm thinking it won't be long. And she's gotten to be a pretty fast crawler too! And she can crawl up the step from one living room into the other. Along with all of these milestones she has developed some serious sassiness. She has started clawing faces, pinching noses (HARD!) and pulling hair. And I'm not talking about pulling hair like babies that just pull hair b/c its there and they like to grab it. She will look me in the eye after I've told her not to do something and YANK the crap out of my hair. For several days I dealt with it not knowing what else to do and just kept on telling her NO but since that wasn't working at all I decided I would give a little tug on her hair to see if maybe she would understand. So she pulled my hair, it HURT, I tugged a little on hers, she looked at me surprised like, "I can't believe you just did that!" Then her surprise face turned very quickly into her mean face and she grabbed and pulled my hair harder than ever! So I tugged a little harder on hers and she got the point that time - I felt awful. Her mean face turned to super hurt feelings face and then open mouth cry face and she just melted into my chest and cried. I felt really bad and was even embarrassed to even tell anyone what I had done. Until the next day, then I told my mom to see what she thought. She said I shouldn't feel bad and that I wasn't a mean mommy. So I told Johnnie, then Lindsey, then everyone else that would listen and I soon realized that I did the right thing because she's only pulled my hair a couple of times since then and when she does it she looks at me and waits for me to say NO and then she doesn't really pull very hard. So she's still testing her boundaries. Now the clawing the face thing I'm not sure what to do about. I promise I won't claw her back, LOL. But I have scabs on the side of my nose and she made my dad's face bleed the other day. What I've been doing is just telling her NO and putting her down by herself and walking away from her and telling her Don't scratch! or Don't pull hair! or Don't hit me! It's doesn't seem to be working that well because she's still doing it but I think she'll start figuring it out soon. I hope. I thought of putting her somewhere as punishment, like her crib or pack n play, but her crib is supposed to be for happy, relaxing, sleepy time, not meant as punishment. And same for the pack n play, so for now I guess I'll just keep setting her down in the floor by herself and walking away and sitting by myself. Since she has started crawling she has developed a whole new relationship with King. It is so cute, she will crawl all over him. She was doing it last night and I went to get my camera and the battery was dead :( He just lays there and lets her pet and crawl and hit on him. We're still trying to teach her not to pull on his ears or hit his face but he is being such a good boy and is so patient with her. He's the best dog ever. Last week we went down to the ranch to hang out with Chris, Lara, Hayden, Jim and Pam for New Years. We were there all week and had a great time. It was a lot more of a challenge for me with Olivia crawling but it was fun as always. I never got my camera out but I know Lara took some pictures so I'll post them soon. Also, just like every new year, I'm tryin to lose weight. I gained 50 lbs when I was pregnant with Olivia and I've only lost 30 of those lbs so I've GOT to get with it. Johnnie needs to lose some weight too and Jason and Lindsey have started a new diet/workout so we are challenging each other to a weight loss contest. Since we are all different weights and heights we are doing it by the percentage of weight loss like on Biggest Loser. We started on Monday and I've lost 1/2 a pound a day so I've lost 2 lbs so far which is a great start. Wish me luck!!! OH - I almost forgot - I mentioned all the sassy but not the sweet! So, after she pulls your hair, claws your face, or hits you she will immediately hug you and say, "awwwww". Its hard to get on to her after that and she seems to know that. Also she will say her sweet little, "hi" as she is hurting you in hopes that that will make it ok. It is also very sweet how she loves her special auntie pillow. Johnnie's great aunt Helen passed away a few years ago and for some reason I wanted to keep her pillow. She only slept on small, long, skinny pillows and I thought that was so funny. So when I was pregnant and "nesting" I came across that pillow and thought it would be perfect for Olivia. So my mom got some baby pink chenille and covered it and in the past couple of weeks Olivia has really made it her comfort item. When I go to get her out of her crib she always grabs for her pillow so it can come with her. And she hugs it and says, "awwww" which is so sweet.