NOVEMBER

November was a wonderful month, full of many firsts. It was abundant in:
- discovery (learning to take her pants off all by herself -- that's Olivienne mind you; learning that the edges of her wooden crib are pretty tasty),
- new words ("no-no" for nose, "reh" for red, "yeh" for yellow, "buwee" for a blue/green combo),
- new actions (pointing at the light, the clock, my nose; learning how to run and chase after her cousins and the dogs),
- new clothes (at 20.1 pounds and 28 inches, she's getting big),
- new books and toys (her 1st birthday after all)
- and of course, turkey.

Olivienne's first birthday was on the 20th of November. It was a great Friday, she woke up all smiles and cheers, as if she knew it was a very special day indeed. Nothing huge was planned for her in Seattle since we were planning a party in Southern California over the Thanksgiving holiday, but I did manage to treat her to a little bit of ice cream. I couldn't really tell if the wide-eyed ecstatic stare was from sheer delicious excitement or brain-freeze. Regardless, she absolutely loved it. She is her mother's daughter after all. We had lunch with Mick, opened a few presents, did a mound of laundry, and went to bed exhausted and happy.

Everyone says babies are like sponges. So true. Not only was she soaking up so many new experiences and really learning from them, she was soaking up lots of new foods and new stains. I say it's all part of the process. She especially enjoyed the Thanksgiving turkey and mashed potatoes we had at Mick's mom and grandmother's house in Orange County. Being down there for a week gave us time with our families, warm weather (hooray for shorts and flip-flops), and seeing the dogs again.

Mick's sister Crescent, her husband Brent, kids Isabella and Ethan, and very furry kid Bodie, were able to trek down from Tahoe to join in on the Thanksgiving and birthday celebrations. It was wonderful to see them again, and great to see Bella be a little mom to Olivienne. She's such a patient, sweetheart of a girl.

Another first for Olivienne was a trip (actually 3) to the Newport hospital and urgent care while we were in SoCal. Turns out she got her first ear and respiratory infections. Poor thing, she really tried to remain as cheerful as ever, even with a fever and barfies. Her being sick only lasted about 3 days, but she was quite subdued for a few days after that.

And because she was sick... we had to cancel her birthday party at the park. But everything turned out alright in the end, as she was thrown a surprise make-up party by Auntie Patty, Uncle Dave and the rest of the Gamboa clan in Irvine. She got soup special made for her and even got to blow out her candle and eat a bit from the cupcake tree. It all worked out.

The Thanksgiving trip also led us down to San Diego where we visited not only the San Diego Wild Animal Park (A MUST!), but also with almost-as-wild-animals Vu and his 3 brothers, Jaymee and her family (we are still raving about the beef kaldereta!), and Shane and Nicole and their near-brady bunch zoo. I really wish we were able to spend more time down there with all of them as a few days is just too short. But we'll be heading down again this spring/summer, so it's definitely a trip to look forward to.

We flew home extremely happy, thoroughly tired, and ready to face whatever the last month of the year would bring us.

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