Wow I am actually a dad

I’m laying her with Olivia on my chest and it amazes me how time just flew by. She’s almost walking, definitely dancing and always smiling. It’s crazy, I am so fortunate to have such a great wife and the ability that I have to spend a lot of time with my baby girl…Hopefully she’ll read this one day when she’s 16 and takes it easy on me. Either way, I’ll be traking her every movement by GPS.

Elmo then and now

When Olivia was born, Elmo looked like a beast compared to out tiny Peanut.  Now, Peanut’s still tiny, but she’s at least bigger than Elmo!

She did it – she took her first steps!!!

We’ve seen her take a step, but never more than 1.  We were playing with her on Sat, and she was standing in front of us and reaching out for the remote we had in our hand.  All of a sudden she just took a few steps!  We looked at her, then at each other – we both saw her do it (there will be no fights about who saw her first steps).

Of course, we had to make sure we recorded it so we could post it, so we made her do it again…by tempting her with music:

Can she do it again?  Looks like she would rather dance:

Congrats to Kathy and Josh on Ms. Ivy Dean Bartels

+baby makes 4…

Happy Easter, Happy tax day and Happy bday, Dad Fred

04.12.09
Both Easter and Dad Fred’s bday were celebrated on the same day, and his birthday on tax day (April 15), which is why I never forget his birthday!

Here’s a few pics from Easter/birthday lunch

The sun is so bright!

With the weather in Chicago being cold and gloomy, Olivia doesn’t get out in the sun every day.  She hasn’t gotten used to the sun yet, so when she sees it she squints her eyes bc it is SO bright!

So bright

Monsters vs Aliens

We babysat somebody else’s child, Eliza, for the first time about a week ago. Her parents went to see Monsters vs Aliens 3D. (We just saw it this weekend, and it was awesome! We forgot how cool 3D movies were – it made us feel like such kids again!)

The babysitting went well, and they both appeared to get along. Olivia wanted to play with every toy that Eliza played with and even got a bit jealous when she saw her Dad playing with Eliza (cute, huh?) Here’s a clip of one of their conversations. The managed to find this bin of toys and pull everything out of it, play with the toys then even had time to get bored of all of them…in about 10 minutes!

Monkey see, monkey don’t!

Well my daughter got a special hat today… it’s quite funny. Here’s a video and picture for you:

Enjoy!
Brian

Sejal’s request: Raptor’s mini-meltdown

Sejal requested a video of one of Olivia’s meltdowns, so here’s a sample.  This is a really short clip – just extend this little clip for a couple of minutes to get the full affect.

She was just annoyed in this clip bc I wouldn’t let her play with=”eat”  the camera.

Does she take the plunge?

Olivia is now smart enough to know when she can’t get down from something.  She peers over the edge of the couch or bed and assesses the situation.

She does the same thing at the top of the steps; she crawls close to the edge, assesses, then continues on her way.  In this clip we wanted to make sure she would not be daring enough to try and go down the steps…even when we are on the other side.

(Please note that we are only 1 step away from her and withing arm’s reach.  I’m not going to lie, I was nervous recording even though we were within arm’s reach.)