Mothers Day

First time Mom Samantha Nutley received the highest of accolades this weekend on the event known as "Mothers Day". Due to her tiring efforts attending to the beck-and-call of Miss Olivia Nutley, Samantha was awarded the coveted "Best Mommy" award. This prestigious prize included a bouquet of flowers, a singing card and various treats. It was presented along with a tray of a delectable breakfast made by Master Chef Seán Nutley and saucier Olivia Nutley. Most say she was a ringer for the trophy as her hard work all year had critics singing her praises.

Making Progress

Lots of progress in the world of Olivia in the last few weeks.

She's started rolling over from her front to her back. As seen in the video below, she's able to make the full flip and land facing up. It now means we have to be even more careful while she's laying down somewhere because she could roll right off of whatever she's on. Babies don't bounce.

She also grabs everything in her sight. Glasses off your face, hair off your head and even a nostril or two. Even walking by something she'll grab it and hold on. Most things go straight to her mouth such as toys, fingers and newspapers. She tried to eat the comics while I was reading them to her. Maybe her tongue is like a Silly Puddy and will take the impression of the paper. Probably shouldn't test that out.

She also took her bottle in her own hands and drank it. That one was a shock and probably just a rare moment. Pretty amazing to watch though.

Rollin' Rollin' Rollin', let's get them doggies rollin'

Olivia's Christening

Everyone is invited, so if you're available on May 29th, please feel free to join us!
Click the image below to see the invitation:

Invite card made with Smilebox

Livi's First Easter

Happy Easter from our little bunny!

4 Months

4 months ago we were in Peace Arch Hospital waiting for the arrival of little Olivia Nutley. She's grown up so much in that time. Last night I made a DVD of all of our Video Camera footage that we've taken since then. In her first videos, she was a tiny wrinkled baby. In her latest videos we've got her looking around, smiling and her latest squealing.

She does that all of the time now. It's like her version of talking. Just this morning, 6:20am, I'm eating breakfast at the kitchen table by myself. I had just seen Livi and Sam sound asleep upstairs. Out of nowhere a high-pitched squeal from the bedroom. Looks like Livi's up! She does it when she's happy so thats good. She's a very happy baby. Constantly smiling and squealing. 

Long weekend ahead for us. Day off tomorrow which is nice. I think we're going to have a picnic. Sunday is Easter so we're bringing Livi to church and then a quiet dinner at home. Can't wait.

Little Canuck

Olivia in her Canucks "Onesie"

All ready for tonights Game 1 against the Chicago Blackhawks, Livi is wearing her Canucks onesie that we bought her last season. She's outgrown her hat and booties but this shirt just fits now. She may be ready for one of those pink jersey's too.

As I'm writing this, Liv is at her second swimming class with Mommy. She loved it last time and hopefully today gets the same result. Fingers crossed for no poop.

We're working on switching to bottle feeding formula which has had mixed reactions so far. We started off with a full bottle of formula. Big mistake. She wouldn't have anything to do with it. Screaming and thrashing her little head around like a shark with a fresh swimmer. We decided our next step would be a mixture of formula and breast milk. Still nothing. We couldn't decide if it was the bottle or the smell of the formula. After that we attempted gripe water (a gas relieving mixture of water and dill. Smells like pickle chips but tastes awful.) Olivia usually loves that on her dodey and she loved it in her bottle too. She drank it down and almost grabbed the bottle out of Sam's hands. So we deduced that it is not the bottle. We filled up the bottle with breast milk last night and she drank that down too. Looks like we're going to have to try adding a tiny portion of formula to the milk and "tricking" her into drinking it. She'll never know what hit her.

Dolphin Girl

Sorry for the lack of updates. Once again, things have been busy and it's hard to find the time to keep up to date. I promise to make time to keep this going for whoever still reads it.

Liv is doing very well. She keeps growing more and more every day. She's almost constantly a noise machine spitting out drivel that only she can understand. Squeaks, squeals and little yelps is her full vocabulary for now. We're still waiting on her laugh. It's very close.

Today is going to be her first time swimming. Sam is bringing her to SunGod for a Mommy-and-Me aquafit class. Hopefully she thinks it's just a big bathtub and doesn't freak out. Nana Nutley will be there taking pics of our little Dolphin girl. Well I don't suppose she'll be doing any acrobatics quite yet. She'll probably be more of a sea slug.

UPDATE: Livi had a GREAT time at swim class! She was kicking her legs squealing and almost laughing the whole time! She didn't even get upset when we got into the cold water pool for the aerobics (for mommy) portion of the class! I have a feeling she's going to be quite the little water baby! We're already looking forward to next week's class!

Lots going on!

Whoah it's been a while. That's probably the longest blog break I've taken. I apologize for my tardiness.

Little Miss Nutley is doing great. She's grown quite a lot in the last few weeks. Not just in size but in all of the new things she is doing.

• Sucking her thumb/hand. Livi drools a LOT. She blows bubbles and drenches the front of her clothes. This is most likely due to teething. She especially likes to put her fist in her mouth and drool all over that. It's funny to watch because it looks like she's trying to eat her own hand. Sometimes she even tries to get both hands in at once.
• Holding her head up. Not fully yet but we've almost got a 90° angle. We're at like 82° right now.
• Smiling and laughing. She smiles pretty easily. A funny face or smiling at her puts an instant grin on her face. We're at 76% of a laugh right now. She makes a noise that sounds like a grunt kind of and that may be a laugh in her head.
• Talking. She makes a lot of noise. She usually wakes us up in the morning with a quiet scream. Instead of instantly crying she just goes "Ahhh!" but at a regular volume. Sam swear she makes a noise that sounds like "Want out!." When she's happy she talks rhythmically to something. She's being talking to her 3 turtles on her swing mobile. Kind of a grunt/moan every 3 seconds at a regular rhythm.

Last week was full of plenty of activity. Olivia had her first St. Patrick's Day. She had many

outfits so she was wearing green all week. Here's what she actually wore on the 17th.

The next day, Kelly and Kyler came up to Vancouver and we all went to the Aquarium. Liv slept through most of it but woke up near the end in time to see the beluga whales.

Mommy and Liv with the whales.

She even slept through a butterfly landing on her stroller.

Then Saturday was a big day for me as the start of the Vancouver Whitecaps FC season. I snapped a photo of Livi wearing my scarf before I left for the game.

Sleeping Through Downtown

Olivia is 11 weeks old now. Doesn't seem like a lot and I guess it isn't. She has made many changes in that time though. Looking back at pictures of late December she looks very different. Back then she was wrinkly and shy. She didn't move a lot, all she did was sleep and eat. She was tiny and everyone held her like she was made out of glass.

Now she's awake for long periods at a time. She smiles a lot and makes noises trying to imitate Sam or I. She still eats a lot but it's getting to be longer periods at a time. I guess we still treat her like she's made of glass though. That will probably go on for a while.

We're having lots of fun with our little girl. I sat on the floor and played with her for almost 45mins yesterday. She loved it. I went through her entire toy basket seeing what she liked the most. (Proud to say that the guitar was a HUGE hit). She also likes this crazy toy with at least 20 different things hanging off of it. It looks like a mess of a bunch of toys squished into one. There's a few pieces that crinkle when you squeeze them and thats what got her attention.

She also had a bath last night which she is enjoying now. I remember her first few baths when she cried throughout the whole thing. Now she calmly sits back and enjoys the baby hot tub with the two adults scrubbing her down and patting her dry.

She spent last Saturday downtown walking around. Well actually she slept the whole time in her stroller but the day was beautiful and we got some great photos. She finally woke up at the pub when we met Uncle JP for a drink.

Nothing big planned for the weekend. Most likely going to stay in and hang around the house. She finally gets to meet her Great Nana and Aunt Trish next week who are flying from Phoenix. I'm sure they're excited to see her.

Just a little pin prick, there'll be no more aaaah, but you may feel a little sick

Yesterday Miss Olivia Nutley had her first set of immunizations. Sam and I took her took her to a medical clinic in Surrey amid the freezing cold temperatures outside. Once inside she was weighed and measured. We realized we hadn't seen her weight in a while and it was shocking to see that she has gained quite a bit since her last appointment. She is now 11 lbs. 8 oz. I hope she isn't mad that I'm posting her weight to the public. Oh well, she'll get over it.

After that, a nurse brought us into a room and explained all of the disease's that were covered in these three needles and any possible side effects.

Then Sam cried.

The nurse explained that she needed to tell us all of the information so that we were aware and could monitor her for any complications. I was handed the baby being inducted as the official "holder of the baby during shots". The nurse did all 3 in about 8 seconds. She cried and screamed a little (Livi not the nurse) but overall it wasn't too bad. After it was done I stood up and held her against my chest (once again Livi not the nurse). She settled down and we were all done.

After leaving the office we drove over to Nana Nutley's work and visited with the ladies of the FVREB. Then it was time for a lunch out and a return home.

Livi did well and we didn't see any signs of complications (KOW).

Ready for my closeup.....

Photos from Livi's photoshoot have arrived and we love them. A big thank you once again to Jeanie at stu-di-o for the amazing pictures. I'll upload them to my Google album tonight for anyone to look at or you can check them out on Facebook.

Liv is doing very well. She's constantly talking in her baby language and smiling all the time. She's also getting into a good sleeping/eating routine. She eats more at a time but less times a day. We couldn't be more lucky about her sleeping habits too (KOW). Liv goes to sleep around 8:30pm and usually doesn't wake up until 7am. Perfect little angel.

She's got her first immunizations this Thursday and we're not looking forward to that. Hopefully she doesn't scream too loud.

Other than that nothing to report. A very happy little family here.

Lost in Translation

As you can see in the video, Livi is making lots of noise. Right now it's in some sort of foreign tongue and we haven't found an appropriate translator. Perhaps ancient greek?

She's doing very well and we're very happy with that. She's gotten into a regular sleeping routine where she's sleeping a good 8 hours every night. We're very lucky. She gets bundled up in a white swaddling blanket and when I wake up in the morning I often find her wide awake kicking her legs inside this blanket. She looks like a little mental patient in a straight jacket. Perfect character for a remake of One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest.

She's got a day out today with Mommy and Auntie Rachel to visit Nana Nutley. Then tomorrow a visit down south to see Auntie Daryl and Uncle Alex. We're hoping to get to see Kelly and her little one as well tomorrow. It will be her first "other baby" experience. Let's see how she handles it.

Call of Doodie

Sometimes we manage to catch Olivia in such a great moment that it has to be shared. She sat here like this for probably half an hour. Making sounds but no fidgeting or crying. Just staring at me and the screen. Can't wait until she can actually do this. I need my Player 2.

The many moods of Olivia Rees Nutley

There's not much new with the Nutley's in that last little while. Olivia is doing great and so are Sam and I. Trying to get in as much times as a family as we can. Of course stuff like work and sleep get in the way. Hoping this weekend is a nice relaxing time with my girls.

Olivia is getting more of her own personality as the days go by. Some observations so far:

• When she cries it's usually either due to her being hungry or gassy. Hungry = Mom, Gassy = Dad. And I'm getting good. Doesn't take long for her to let it go when I've got her.

• If she's tired, she just falls asleep. She can sleep anywhere. Sitting straight up, over your shoulder, in her car seat. Out like a light.

• She is also very easy going. Completely content with just laying there and staring at a plain white wall. There's only really been once occasion of "ohmygodshescryingwhywontshestop!?!". After a little while she let out 4 massive burps and it stopped.

• She's definitely very happy too. Smiling away while I make noises at her or when she can hear Sam's voice. A very happy baby.

• She also has a fake cry which is just a girlish little squeal. No real confidence or authority behind it. Like a baby's version of "Hey!". I think it's related to paying attention to her. Though she is fine to sit on my legs while I play video games and just stare at me. I guess she just gets bored after a bit.

• She likes to move too. A lot of kicking in a circular motion which looks like she's riding an invisible bicycle. Her arms flail as well. If she's fussy and you're holding her, she'll punch you right in the chin. You cant take it seriously as it's like being punched by a small toy. It is funny though.

A lot of little moods and reactions are making up the personality of my daughter. She is a good combination of both Sam and I. Thankfully the good parts.

Vote for Me

Auntie Daryl entered Olivia into a cutest baby contest in Bellingham so click on the above link and vote for her.

Do it.

Now.

And do it tomorrow too.

And the day after.

First Month

Olivia Rees Nutley is now 1 month old. Oh how the times flies. Actually it feels like ages ago that we were in the hospital.

Over the last month our lives have definitely changed. We feel like the most popular people in the world. Like a movie star couple. "Seamantha" or "Sham".

Then you realize it has nothing to do with us and everyone wants to see the baby. Fine.

It has been a great month having a baby at Christmas dinner with all of our family and friends. New Years and kissing my girls at midnight. A baby shower and get together afterwards that reminds me of when I was a kid and my parents would have people over after any event.

Sam and I were able to get out for dinner last night for a few hours alone. Auntie Rachel babysat and things went great. We sent her a text while at the restaurant to see how Livi was doing. She responded with "she pooped on me and then fell asleep."

Doctors appointment lined up for today and a photo shoot tomorrow. A good friend of Sam's (Jeanie of Studio Jeanie) is coming over to take pictures of Olivia. Then we've got the weekend together as a little family.

As you can see it's been a great month and I'm looking forward to the rest of them.

Our little Canuck

We received Livi's birth certificate last week which means she is now officially a Canadian citizen. Our little Canuck.

This also meant she was able to travel across the border to visit family. We traveled down on Friday and spent the night at Auntie Daryl's and Uncle Alex's house. We followed up the trip on Saturday by doing what Canadians do in Bellingham, shop at Target. We were home Saturday night and just relaxed after a long day.

Sunday was more even more relaxing finished up with a trip to Nana & Grandad Nutley's for dinner.

Thankfully she's getting into a more regular pattern of sleeping which in turn is letting Sam sleep more and more at night and getting a better rest.

3 weeks

Little Livi is 3 weeks old today. She's gaining weight, eating very well and getting into a regular sleep too.

This is a pic of her first bath at home. She cried a lot but due mostly to her being naked and cold. Once she got in the warm water and later wrapped in a warm towel, she calmed down. No matter how annoyed she looks it this picture.

Her baby shower took place this past weekend where we received a number of wonderful presents. I was celebrating across the street at the pub with the other men but I did see all the pics and it looked like a great time. We'll put the pictures up soon since our computer is now back and up and running.

Home Sweet Home

It's been a busy couple of weeks as you can tell by the lack of updates. Our little girl is now 2 weeks old and is doing very well.

Bringing her home has been a lot of fun and very interesting. She arrived at the Nutley house only a couple of days before Christmas. I had a few weeks off so I was able to be home to help as much as I could.

The last few weeks have included a lot of sleeping, feeding and diaper changes. Sleeping is easy. Just lay her down somewhere or on someone. She passes out like me coming home from the pub. Feeding is something obviously I can't do. I would if I could but I can't. So that leaves me as the diaper changer. At first it was a bit tricky. I've changed plenty of diapers before but never a newborn. At first I thought she was so fragile that it took me a long time. After I realized that she wasn't made of eggshells and balsa wood I sped up the process.

We've had plenty of visitors through our house in the last while. She sleeps for most people but some are able to catch her when she's up and alert. She doesn't cry a lot which is good. When she's awake it's mostly staring at the Christmas tree or my beard. Nights haven't been too bad either. Well not too bad for me. Sam wakes up a lot to check on her and feed her.

Now that the holidays are over, things are going back to normal. Not the normal we had before but a new normal with the three of us.