Happy Birthday Ollie Bear!

Oliver, 

Your one year old birthday finally has come and gone.  It was so bittersweet for me.  While you were sick and cried nonstop for months, your daddy and I would always say "If we can just make it till your one, this will all be behind us. Just a memory. Maybe we will even have forgotten how bad the cries were."  We haven't forgotten, but we certainly have moved forward.  Yay! You are so big now.  You really remind me of your dad.  You observe quietly.  You interact better one-on-one.  You speak big when you have your space, things on your terms, and lots of trust.  And you love Nicky.  You are still very quiet in terms of babbling and talking.  No real words.  Although you definitely make a lot of boy noises.  Grunts.  Sighs.  And demands.  You love to cruise furniture, but haven't taken any steps of faith yet.  You have gotten aggressive with Lola.  We knew the day was coming.  You adore Lola, but when you have had enough- you sure have ways of letting her know.  You also get jealous when I am loving on Lola.  Today you tried to push her off my lap and you sat down on my leg.  Haha- good thing there was plenty of room for both of you!  You are starting to get better about not being such a momma's boy.  You seem to finally be warming up to Nonna too, which I am glad, but it was quite funny.  You also are warming up to your daddy too!  You blow him kisses when he gets home and wave bye-bye to him when he leaves.  You've realized he's a good floor player! 

Right now you have 102 fever.  Not sure what's going on, but hopefully you'll feel better soon!  Next week you have your well child visit so I will know your weight and height and percentage... you also have your allergist visit which seems long overdue.  We can hopefully get some better answers on all these food allergies/issues.  You break out in hives to Milk and it affects your attitude/demeanor.  It seems to be a true allergy at this point.  Seeing how you react to eating bread with a tiny bit of milk makes me understand why you cried so much and felt so bad as a baby on formula that still had milk protein in it.  Makes me sad.  (That was Nutramigen- you ended up on Elecare, amino acid based.)  

So you are still taking bottles, still on Elecare after some concerns with Almond milk, you still wake up for night feedings, you refuse to wear shoes, you rock at sleeping in your bed- so here's the deal: you are still my baby.  No toddler stuff yet!  I have enjoyed this prolonged baby stage.  I know how quickly it goes, so I am enjoying it all.  I even enjoy the 4 am feedings when the house is all quiet and you fall back asleep on my chest.  Your bed is sentimental.  It's where I always feed you.  Your crib is sentimental because you sleep so good in it and it has horrible teeth mark all the way around it.  Your sound machine is sentimental because it plays a horrible vacuum type noise every night and shines an image on the ceiling.  It's very helpful to you.  You are a blanket boy.  You sleep with 1-3 every night and we take one with us now everywhere because it helps soothe you instantly.  It's pretty cute.  Your sister never had a blanket or stuffed friend.  I am glad you do.  Interested to see if you and sis stay opposite or not.  I imagine so.  Hope y'all are sweet siblings and get along.  

Your party was so much fun and everyone was so excited! (Pictures are a mess and out of order and not edited. :(  But hey, they are up!)

(I like to add me in so I can see what I looked like when the kids were young and so was I!)

He LOVES his car!  Perfect present for him!  My online review readings paid off this time! Hehehe-

Faced scratch from a grocery fight with the buggy.  Eeek.

Next up: Lola Lou! 

Well hello-

Let's think.  I find myself having to stop and do that more these days.  Think about what day is it, what's next, what's on the list- so now I realized tomorrow is March 1st.  How did the last year FLYYYYYY by?  I thought Oliver would take forever to turn one when we were battling the colic and allergies and now he's 11 months old.  It happens way too fast.  I get that.  Since Lola is older and so much fun, I am glad he is getting older so they can have more fun together.  But it's also crazy to see my house become shy of a baby again. I love me some babies.  And you know why that's A-okay?  Because I love me some toddlers too.  And preschoolers.  And we'll see how much I love the teenage stage too! ;)  I think I will like it.  As long as Lola and Oliver don't ever lie, actually care about school and people, especially me, and stay away from drugs, alcohol, and too many germs.

Lola told me "Don't aggravate me mom!"  Doesn't that sound a little teenager-ish?  She said it sweetly.  So now that's our new thing.  I tell her the same thing.

I'll do a good updated post of Oliver when he turns one.  Poor Oliver.  Lola's updates were so much better and way more detailed.  I still love reading them and do all the time!

I have been considering switching their rooms.  Crazy.  Me.  Lola has so much stuff.  Way too much stuff.  And she loves it all.  But Oliver only takes his bottle well in his room and still wakes up at night to feed and the twin bed in his room has been quite nice!  I really can't imagine not having it in there.  I sit on it to feed him at least 5 times a day and change his diaper there.  Lola seems a little iffy too, but she doesn't really seem to understand what would go down.  So- I am thinking on it.   I have to be careful not to let the part of the me that just loves to rearrange win for the sake of winning.  Clay thinks a playroom, but that's just another room to clean!  Wait a little while till we do anything...

2012 was the hardest year of my life.  I look back and still feel the exhaustion and sadness carry over.  I try to shake it.  But sometimes that just doesn't work.  I look at my kids, my husband, my home, my family, my work, my faith- and sometimes my homemade cookies- and feel better.  I did make a lot of cookies last year.

I walked into my closet the other day and it was really, really clean and I could clearly see how the wood floors ran into my closet and I smiled.  I remember when I first looked at this house thinking how cool that was.  Hard floors in the master closet.  I don't think I have thought about it since, especially in the past three years.  And the other day I did think about it.  And was quite giddy.  Then I thought about how after a recent vacation, Clay and I walked in real late with the kids and all our luggage and we both looked at each other after walking in like "Is this OUR pretty home?" We loved it.  All over again.  I take my home for granted here and there.  Then step back and realize how great it is.  And how with a little more effort and creativity, I can just make it greater and greater.  Isn't that true for so many things in our life?  Our marriage.  Our kids. Our friends.  Even ourselves.

I love hearing Lola talk about all the things she wants to be.  A home builder.  A nurse.  Those have been top of the list lately.  And always a mom.  She sometimes thinks she can't be both and I always assure her she can.  She used to tell me that when she got married she would tell her husband that they have to live with us.  I told her I didn't think her husband would go for that idea.  Well now she says she wants to be a mom, but not get married and live with me and daddy.  I'll miss these little talks one day.  She said "I'm going to build homes."  I said "That's a great idea!  Can I help?" Lola: "Sure mom!  We can be a team!" Me: "Yay!  And let's decorate them too!" Lola: "Yay! And hang wreaths!" :) Love that my 3 year old wants to build homes, decorate them, and then hang wreaths to complete them! She's been asking a lot of architect type questions lately!  So smart.

Her allergies flared up in the last month, and now asthma seems to be creeping back.  We hate asthma around here.  She ask all the time if she will have it when she is a mommy.  :(  Hopefully not sweet girl.  When it is bad, it really affects her quality of sleep (mostly due to scratching) so she sneaks in our bed.  Sleeping with her at this age, is not at all like sleeping with her when she was Oliver's age.  Whew.

So Oliver is about to turn one and I am excited to throw him a fun party.  And Lola is about to be 4 and we, including her of course, are excited to throw her a fun party.  Been trying to decide what to get her.  A trampoline?  Too big?  A loft bed?  Too tacky?  Just some smaller things she wants?  Too many small things already?  Such a hard decision.  She'll look back at this one day and realize she just got a new barbie and think- what?!  Haha...

Okay well last night I was seriously asleep by 7:15 p.m. and tonight I may not last much longer, although it is almost 9.  Yay!  And boo to periods.  I miss that about being pregnant.  But I guess that wouldn't be a good reason to get pregnant again? ;)  But considering there are millions of orphans, that would be a very good reason to adopt.  For me.  For us.  For a sweet baby no longer an orphan.  Or two sweet babies.  ;)

 



 

My kids are cool. (Old post never published)

My kids are doing way too many neat things not to be a better documenter of them.  So here's a little tidbit of their daily doings:

• Even on the coldest of days, Lola would rather not wear a jacket because it makes her outfit less pretty.  Even pretty jackets don't make the cut.  
• Lola would sleep in skirts and dresses if we let her.  Not just any dresses and skirts though.  She has opinions and likes to see all of them on before she decides which one she wears out, especially if we are going somewhere new. She tried on 3 skirts today before deciding which one to wear to church. 
• Oliver is smart.  You got to watch out for those quiet ones.  It is crazy calling him quiet because for 5 months he mostly cried, but now, he stills cries, cries hard, but when he isn't which is typically the case, he doesn't babble all too much either.  When Lola is at school, it would be really easy to forget another child is home with me simply.because.it.is.quiet.  When he crawls around the house, I have a hard time finding him, because he's quiet.  One day Lola and I looked for a couple minutes trying to find him... I was a little panicked people.  Since he is so mobile now and pulling up- I am learning which parts of the house are definitely not baby proofed anymore hence the panic.  By the way, he was in Lola's closet.  He loves sneaking off to Lola's room.  Lola talked from 4 or 5 weeks on and never stopped so I knew the minute she woke up in bed, I could hear her from any room she was in... Oliver is sly and smart. And quiet.
• BUT Oliver is not always quiet.  He talks, squeals, yells, and cries at Lola.  He adores her.  Not just kind of, but really, a lot.  Oliver has now been waking up earlier than Lola so he's nice and alert by the time she comes and finds us in the den.  Watching Oliver realize his sister is up is better than Christmas morning.  He gets so excited and she snuggles with us and gives kisses and more kisses.  We all 3 love it.  
• Lola can be a smart ass.  Are us moms allowed to say that about our three year olds?  If it was a mean type, I wouldn't say it, only think it.  But it's the sweetest smartass ever.  I should take notes from my three year old.  Me and mom were painting the den and I kept reminding Lola the walls were wet- well, inevitably, she touched the walls and her hands were covered.  I asked her as she went to wash her hands "Where did you touch the wall at? I can't see it!" and she yelled back "Just find the spot where no paint is and that's where I touched the wall."  She didn't say it mean, or cocky- just matter of fact.  My mom couldn't stop laughing and I was speechless.  It's funny, a little mean- but comes from a three year olds mind that has a ton of common sense and a heart of gold.  
• Lola is getting braver.  Less shy.  And expressing her feelings well.  I love it.  When she is anxious or nervous, she says her tummy hurts.  You know the bad kind of butterflies you get when you have to see a doctor you'd rather not, or hang out with your less than favorite people- she gets these and she tells me her stomach hurts.  At first, I thought she was trying to get out of whatever it was that was making her tummy supposedly hurt, but then it dawned on me that she was nervous and her tummy probably did feel funny!! So now when she says that we talk about being nervous and I try to assure her of all her worries. God takes care of the birdies... no worries.
• Not neat, but to document- Oliver did a trial run on foods that contained dairy.  Horrible.  No good.  Not going there again any time soon. Bummer.  Real bummer.

Update: This is as far as I got, before I saved it and then forgot to return it... so I'll post it and move on to a new one....