Private vs. Public

You might have received an email from me this week inviting you to be a viewer of this blog. I had a moment of panic when I realized that all my blogging has been open to the public. I didn't really care when it was just Joe and me, but now that Olivia is involved I don't know how much I care for googling "Olivia Iskow" and finding a bunch of her pictures at ready access for any and all to view. According to my stats page we have had readers from....

Russia
Argentina
Spain
Germany
UK
Slovenia
Slovakia
India
and...
Australia!

I know it's my fault for putting the images out there and I might soon change my mind about that initial decision. Anyway, so I decided to make the blog private which is why you needed an invite and account to become a reader. But then I realized that we have agreed to take part in the Su Casa furniture contest (brace for plug now.... Su Casa is the furniture store where we are going to be picking out our brand new sectional couch from this weekend. It is going to be awesome and we are super excited!) and it is essential that people be able to view our blog easily to promote Su Casa. Sooooo, for now the blog will remain public. Sorry for the confusion. You may one day receive an email notifying you that I once again have changed my mind. For now, keep reading world!:) Or just Moms and Dads...

Randoms

Four Months

Dear Olivia,

Today you turned into a big four month old! In honor of your first St. Patrick's Day, we dressed you in green....and you are super kissable even though you aren't Irish!

This month you all of the sudden seem like a real baby to me. You have delicious leg rolls and are always kicking at whatever your feet can touch. You have pudgy little hands that love to grasp whatever is in front of you. Your favorite thing being my hair which is incredibly painful and now I suddenly realize why Moms get the short Mom hair-do. You can support your head fully and if we lie you down, you immediately start doing baby crunches to try and sit up. You no longer have any interest in Mr. Ceiling Fan... you are aware of the big world outside of our white ceiling in the family room and don't want to miss any of it. You have finally stopped spitting up so much but I can't put away the bibs just yet because the drool fest has begun! You found your toes this month and your favorite thing to do while having your diaper changed is to check to make sure they are still there. You laugh if we coax it out of you and every once in awhile you give us a good babble story, but overall you are still pretty quiet.

We moved you to your own room the week after I went back to work and you are starting to get the hang of sleeping on your own. We swaddle you up tight, have some milkies, give you the paci and off you go to sleep. You wake around 2 or 3 am for a little snack and then usually sleep until 7 or 8am. This is a HUGE accomplishment and your Mommy could not be more proud of you for sleeping almost the whole night through.

You spent the night at Grandpa and Nana's house and had so much fun with them. In fact, that is the first time you slept with only one wake up at night. Clearly they have more experience getting babies to sleep than we do!

You are becoming more and more fun as you notice more things and react to our silly songs and voices.

Olivia, I love you every day and I love being your Mom. You are the sweetest baby and I can't wait to do more things with you now that the weather is getting nicer!

Love, Mommy

Wanna Win it!

Pretty exciting news to share with you guys...

If you were following this blog last month you might remember a post about the furniture store, Su Casa located in Fells Point. Well wouldn't ya know....we got picked as a contestant!

We will be heading to the store in the next couple of weeks to pick out our sofa and then will spend a month blogging all about our Su Casa experience. If we are creative enough and have a lot of traffic from our site to the store's website we could win the sofa for free (and if you are reading this, you are one of the people I expect to click on over to Su Casa to up our traffic numbers)!

We are brainstorming now to come up with some fun ways to share our new couch with you. So stay tuned for some pretty funny posts!

3 Months

Dear Olivia,

Today you are three months old! This month has been so exciting to watch you start to do new things. You are constantly trying to shove both little fists into your mouth at the same time. I don't think we will ever have to teach you the meaning of perseverance based on your round the clock attempts to achieve this feat. You smile at every new face you see and when you get really excited you kick your legs furiously in the air. No blanket stands a chance at staying on you. You are holding your head up so well now and you even try to do mini crunches to sit up straight if we lie you down. You are grabbing at Mom's hair and Dad's necklace, which is downright painful but still cute! You rolled over at 11 weeks old and even though you did it over and over again that day, you have only decided to perform that trick for Mommy. Daddy still hasn't seen you do it!

This month, Mommy went back to work. Yeah, you said it.. work is the worst. It was horrible leaving you that first night. But you have been doing much better than your Mommy since you are home safe and sound with Daddy. He has been taking care if you a lot this week since I had to work the last 5 out of 7 nights... it was a shock to both our systems! I have been told that you listened to music, watched basketball games and learned how to make chicken noodle soup together. Grandpa Jim watched you once this week while Mommy slept and you were so good for him. He was mad when I left and took you home with me in the afternoon!

Even though you haven't slept through the whole night yet, you are managing to sleep for 4-5 hours at the beginning of the night. You love to stay up late because you rarely fall asleep before 10pm.

The daily stresses of life sometimes seem so overwhelming at times. Your Dad is working so hard to take care of both of us so that you can stay home with me during the day and not go to daycare. This week we weren't sure if we were going to survive it. I think we both cried a little when I got called in for an extra shift. But your happiness is the most important to us Olivia. And thankfully you are happy and content almost all of the time. And when we see your face light up just because we have made a silly sound or a silly face at you, all of the stress from the day just disappears. Holding you while you sleep is now my favorite thing to do. I get to smell you, rock you and whisper to you while you dream. My arms ache for you when I am not with you and are the sweetest little girl a Mommy and Daddy could ask for.

Thanks to Holly, Becky and Misty for all of her wardrobe choices for this month's photo shoot!

I love this one because she is playing with her tutu!

Joe says this is her Zoolander face.

She has mastered Blue Steel.

Ohh, the rolls!

Because they all can't be perfect...

Did she bite into a lemon??

Test it. Blog it. Win it.

This is a notice to all my fellow bloggers out there.

Su Casa, one of my favorite furniture stores is located right around the corner in Fells Point. If you love well made, gorgeous and unique pieces of furniture for your home, you should check them out. And if you blog, you should consider entering the contest they are promoting on their website right now. If you enter and are selected, you get to choose a piece of furniture to have in your home for the month of June. All you have to do is blog about it so that others get a chance to see what's it's like to own a little piece of Su Casa! One blogger will be chosen to represent each furniture category. In July, one blogger will be selected as the overall winner and will get to keep their furniture for free. The other bloggers will have the option of purchasing theirs for 50% off.

I am hoping to be selected for the sofa category, but let's be honest... I would be happy to be selected for any piece of furniture because they are all so nice. But here is my favorite sofa if you want to see what I am competing for! But I like this one too!

Good luck if you choose to enter!
But not too much luck if you like their sofas:)

My life in pictures

Here's what Olivia has been up to the last month....

Had a sleepover with some friends.... Can you find her?

Had to take a meeting.....

Tackled a giraffe...
I realize her foot looks like it has been twisted around. She is wearing a slightly too big 6 month old onesie because she has outgrown the 3 month old ones. And yet this child is only 11 weeks old!

Discovered hair flair...

Had some pizza with Dad....

Guess she loves pizza!...

Met Mommy's friends from work....

Blew some bubbles...

;

Well.....here she just looked cute. That's all.

Showed Grandma her new floors....

Hung out with Grandpa on his floors...

Had a laugh with Mommy...