On to the fun stuff

Okay, so for now I'm skipping all of the stuff about the pick-up trip. On to the present . . .
Olivia took her first steps alone two days ago! Yesterday she was taking 6-7 steps at a time. She crawls, stands really well on her own and now is starting to walk!
Yesterday I gave her a baby fork and put some fruit on it and she was using the fork to eat the fruit! Can you believe what a big girl she is?!
Today was her first doctor's appointment since she's been home. He said she is doing great. She is 16 pounds (so tiny - still in size 6-9 month clothes), but is developing really well. She's already had most of her vaccines. She has a couple teeth coming in on the bottom, but none have poked thru yet.
Olivia is very smart and clever. She figures things out quickly. I think we're going to have our hands full!
The only problem we've had so far is her temper. She has the worst temper of any baby I've ever seen. When she gets mad (and it happens easilly) she screams and screams, bangs her fists and throws things, kicks her feet, pulls her hair, scratches herself with her nails. It's quite a site! It was really stressing me out at first, but I'm learning to shrug it off. The more we shrug it off the less fits she throws. And, of course, it gets worse when she's tired. If she's doing this now, at 10 months, I hate to see her at 2!
On the bright side, Olivia is sleeping thru the night now - has been for the last 4 or 5 nights. Naps are a little harder, but I'm learning tricks to get them in.
The doctor wants me to start getting her away from the bottle a little now. Olivia hasn't accepted a sippy cup - she prefers straws. So, I will keep working on the sippy cups and went ahead and bought a couple kids cups that have straws. Thru the whole store she was trying to suck on the straw thru the package.
Well, lots to do. I actually got her to bed at 8:00 tonight. She gets up every morning at 7:00.

We're home!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Our flight landed at 10 pm last night. We are sooo glad to be home - especially with Olivia! She is wonderful!! I will write all the details (and there is plenty) soon, but it's very late and I should be getting to bed.

Only about 12 more hours!!!!!!!!!!!

We have only about 12 more hours before we meet our baby girl!!! About 6 hours before the plane leaves Evansville. And 3 1/2 hours before we have to leave for the airport. I was going to try to go to bed around 8:00 tonight, obviously that worked out for me (it's midnight!). Surprisingly, it didn't work out for Ken either. He usually gets to bed long before I do. I didn't get to sleep until about 4 am this morning. It's been like that for about 3 weeks now. I get a few short hours of sleep each night and then go go go all day. I guess I'll be ready now for when we bring Olivia home!

Reservations made - now must sleep

I have just finished finalizing our reservations for our flights and hotel. We are leaving Monday and returning on Friday. And we will be staying at the Crowne Plaza. It seems nice and it was even cheaper than where we were going to originally stay. Now just wish us luck on getting in to the Embassy while we're there!