The Oliszewski Family: March 2009

Friday, March 20, 2009

One year later...

Looking Back: March 17th 2008
Finley's Birthday.

March 17th 2009.
One year later...

Good Morning little good luck charm...

Can you see all the new teeth coming in?! She's grown SO much in these past few months. Her hair is also getting longer and starting to show little curls in the back. So cute. Her disposition gets sweeter by the day if that's possible. She's definitely a "talker". She loves to sign and knows 20ish (maybe more) signs she uses spontaneously. I won't list them all even though the proud mom in me wants to :). But she's recently learned "please" and "thank you" which she uses appropriately and when prompted. I'm so proud. She also says/approximates 10-15 words/phrases including "mommy", "daddy" and "doggy". She also has just started saying "mooo" when she sees a picture of a cow or hears you say "cow". She loves to walk holding onto your hands and has recently started walking just holding one hand. She dances emphatically when she hears music and LOVES books. She'll point to pictures and use jargon that sounds like reading. (Book is one of her signs and words). She has a parade wave that cracks us up and also now gives High Fives. She sleeps about 11-12 hours per night and is finally getting better about napping which usually is about an hour and a half to two hours and we're trying to wean down to just 1 a day to prepare for the Toddler One room at baby school (we're expecting to start her in the next room April 20th)-- yikes! They sleep on cots in there and go outside for play time-- does that sound like big kid stuff or what?! Look how long she is on her changing table...

On her actual birthday (St Patty's Day) Chris and took the day to be with her... It was rainy so we took her to get photos taken... Here she is at her "shoot" :)

After getting some great photos of her we decided to get her some jewelry for her birthday... Get ready for this...

Check out the ears below (and the tears) :( She really did so good. This was maybe a minute afterwards...

Then it was home to play with the neighbor boys and show off the new bling...
I didn't get any photos with the twins unfortunately but Koen and Finley posed for these cute shots below...

Finley now knows "giving kisses" so we told her to give Koen one and she did...

Also notice the feet... this is signature "Finley". She always crosses those feet. Love it.

How cute is this...

Finley and mommy before bathtime. My shirt says "Lucky Me". Truly.

And the 12 Month basket photo... where as an appropriate milestone, for the first time she tried to stand up in it...

One year later...
Looking back on the best year of our lives.
Happy Birthday sweet girl.

The After Party

After hours of fun in the sun and the pool, baby girl took an early evening nap. She awoke to find all these presents at her "After Party" with mommy and daddy. And the fun continues... Happy Birthday to ME!

She loved having daddy read the cards... she would say "Oooohh" like we do when she would open them. She is saying it in the picture below.

She loved opening everything and especially getting to play with new toys and read new books. Mommy loved all the new clothes (see the hat above which came with a really cute outfit and also the gator bow in the top picture(s)). Finley really loved her new puzzles... Below she is playing with one her Nana got her.

What a fun day!!

Wednesday, March 18, 2009

Birthday Girl

Our sweet girl is ONE! Here's some photos from her 1st Birthday Party. It was a beautiful day and lots of fun!

The Baby play area: Trey and Finley playing (claiming) ball above. And below the circle of babies which began with one baby crying because he didn't want laid down which set off a chain reaction that was really pretty priceless.

The Birthday Girl trying to figure out what all the fuss was about...

She LOVED her cake....

and really did NOT love when it got taken away...

Meg, Trey, Finnie and I

We are so blessed to be loved by and be close to so many of our friends and family.
Thank you for loving and celebrating our sweet girl.
What a SWEET day!!

Sunday, March 1, 2009

Gasparilla 15k

I ran the Gasparilla 15k on Saturday... it was a gorgeous day and it was a great run. My goal was sub 1:30 (hour and half) and my official time was 1:28:19. I am really proud of this one because I really wanted to do a Gasparilla run within Finley's first year. I had set my sights on the half marathon back at the beginning of pregnancy but decided when I signed up, I might not be so ready for that. So I signed up for the 15k which was still a great challenge. I started running regularly a few years ago... mostly for health and weightloss. I was really into running when we got pregnant and I ran up until about 7 months of pregnancy with my Dr's okay. I've been a bit slow getting back into it, mostly just because its hard to fit it all in a day now. And there are certainly times when its hard and I wonder "why do I do this??" but mostly, I have found a love for running, and especially the way it makes me feel. I've done a few races now... a couple half marathons, a couple 10k's and a few 5k's. Though this was my first 15k and I ran with a friend who's son is in "baby school" with Finnie. And my awesome husband and baby girl got up really early to go with us. We had a blast. It's truly a spiritual experience for me. Running next to the water, while the sun rises, with the wheelchair racers passing by on their loop back to the finish... it's inspiring, emotional and fantastically humbling. I'm a mom to the most amazing little girl, wife to most genuine man and friend I've ever met, and I live in a place where many people dream of vacationing even just once. As the leader of the wheelchair 15k racers came by and I clapped and cheered along with the other runners, all these thoughts went through my head as I thanked God for my legs, my health, my family, my life and cried.
That is why I run.

After the Run...Finley and Mommy in our "BondiBands"... check them out online. I found them at the race expo on Friday and the woman selling them not only gave me a free one for Finley, but also trusted me to send her a check because I didn't have cash or check on me and her debit/credit machine went down. Good business and good karma should come her way for trusting in the goodness of people. So check them out at www.bondiband.com.

11 months!

Seriously?! 11 months?! Yikes. How long can I count in months?? I can't start talking years... she's my baby!! Well, okay in that case, I just turned 360 months myself :).
Our "Finnie", or as her teachers call her "Fin"... she's all about the table food, has stood unsupported a couple of times, is not afraid of much-- a daredevil it seems, equipped with some drama (hmm... where did she get that from?!) and a talker (hmm again :). She continues to amaze us especially with her language skills... at 11 months (i'm writing this about 2 weeks late) she has about 8-10 words/phrases and 8-10 signs (some of which overlap). The top teeth have steadily been working their way in-- not fun... can you see the tip(s) in the photos??! She's trying to master the sippy cup... we're getting there. She still loves her sleep (at night)-- 11-12 hours and still hates to miss anything at school, taking catnaps. She sways to music and lights up when she hears it. She also has mastered her walker and zooms around the house like crazy. She chases all of us including Brady and thinks it hilarious. She really can scoot in that thing! I told Chris not to paint those baseboards quite yet!! Watch out!!