12 weeks and pictures

Tomorrow marks 12 weeks, or 84 of the best days of my life. I honestly think my heart is going to bust at times....and I tell Livi that when she talks to me with those smiling, flirty eyes of hers. It's hard to believe, but she actually tries to form words, manupulating her tongue and mouth different parts of the alphabet, and they mean something to her becuase there is communicative expression in her eyes. She has a sweet smile and giggle for me all through the day and returns a smile from others.

Well on her way to 13 lbs, she is in the 80% procentile and wearing 6 month sleepers and clothes. Wow! mama's got milk! Not bad for a 40 year old chick....almost 41...yikes. As for me, I've officially lost 30 lbs since the morning of her birth, and am 5 lbs away from the weight I was then I got pregnant....which was still 10 over my usual...so 15 lbs to go to be where I usually am...or at least battle to be at all times.

So.....the time has come to unveil my gift from Stef to commemorate Livi's arrival in our family and all we went through to have her. I wanted a sapphire as a symbol of her blue eyes. A nontreated 1.1 carat, VVS2, perfect color, from the Natural Sapphire Company in New York. It is Olivia's heirloom. It syblolizes our journey.

Next Sunday is her Baptism, with over 50 guests attending, and her Godmother and my oldest friend and her family coming  from Alberta to meet Livi and be here, as well as friends from the States. We couldn't be more thrilled to get our family and friends together like this for this occasion. I will post pictures of that as well. In the mean time, here are the highlights from her third month:

                                                  Apparently, also a bird lover....yes!

Is it bed time already? How do you like my fancy jammies?

Heart throb!

Need I say more? (and obviously a lefty....another yes!)

I have a suprise for youuuuuu!

8week upd8...it's gr8!!

Houston....we have sleeping through the night!! well, almost...we would have if I didn't make sure she was breathing at 5 am and woke her up. Just like the book "Baby Wise" says, she will drop a night feeding at week 8 if you follow their regime...and.... Viola! I am still curious if she would have made it to her 7:30am feeding if I didn't stand there like a stunned mule staring at her. She could just feel it too...she sighed in her sleep, knowing my presence....and then...wakefullness.

"Mosaic" is a cultural event here, where for one weekend every year, all the national clubs rent a venue or open up their own venue to the public, with food, crafts, events and entertainment according to their culture. There are buses running between them, all around the city, and almost every citizen takes it in. We dressed up our little princess last night and took her to the Irish Pavillion, where I danced for 8 years. I'm not Irish, but I had to learn that style of dance - it's a total rush. I last danced there two years ago, and miss it remendously. You can't beat 4 seasoned dancers meeting every Saturday morning, coffee in hand, in a sunlit dance hall the size of an airplan hanger, hashing out "Lord of the Dance" type music and steps. We created many of our own dances and preformed them. We couldn't keep the group going, but it was the best time of my 'dancing' life. Here is a shot from a performance, 6 (OMG) years ago.

Anyways, we had Livi there last night, all decked out in a white denim skirt and silver sandals and ran into so many people we knew, dancers and friends alike. It was so much fun to get out and show her off. I even had an IVF chat with a lady I used to dance with. Turns out she got my blog from a mutual friend and has been following. She is going to the Seattle clinic this summer. Good luck B! It was a great night of running into old friends and reliving old memories. All the way there, I kept telling Livi that someday she'll come to watch mommy dance. I hope that's true.

At our 8 week check up at the doctor, we got the low-down. She has gained 4 lbs and grown 3 inches since she was born. Turns out she's in the 70% percentile for weight and the 75% for length. No wonder she's already outgrown her 3 MONTH jammies! 75% of the kids in this world are shorter than her! and other than my dad, there are no height genes in the family, so it's very interesting. Anyways, all this growing has her tuckered out at the most hilarious times.
Here she is, in the midst of introducing herself to Mr. Sunny Lion

And her doctor asked if she's smiling yet. Well, you be the judge: