I choose you.

When I was pregnant, I had several people say something like, “you will just find the time.”  I can’t say exactly what this comment meant to each person who said it, but in my experience I have been very unsuccessful at “finding time.”  Instead, I have become acutely aware of the seemingly small number of hours in a week.  Work is an inflexible constant.  For the remaining time, the only way to make the math work for me has been to subtract activities so that I can add in time with Oliver.  It occurred to me this weekend that there are several things on my subtraction list that I miss like pedicures, yoga, massages and facials, pottery, getting my hair cut, shopping for me, dinners out, and sleep.  But, it is not that I don’t have time to do these things.  Joe is always offering/encouraging me to take a Saturday morning and go to the spa or yoga class.  It is that whenever I have to choose between one of these activities and spending time with Oliver, I always choose Oliver. 

With a kid this cute, fun and lovable, can you blame me!?

Happy Mother’s Day!

I am lucky to have a loving and supportive mother as well as a wonderful mother-in-law.  As a new mom, I cannot help but have a new appreciation for all that my mom did for me growing up.  Thank you mom!

I was spoiled with both gifts and love on my first ex utero Mother’s day.  I have to admit, I hardly felt like I had earned all the attention given what a privilege it is just to be Oliver's mom.

It was a beautiful weekend in DC, which means we were able to celebrate Mother’s day doing some of my favorite things.  We spent lots of time outside: picnicking, walking and playing in the grass.  We enjoyed lunch out on both Saturday and Sunday, picked out fruit and veggies for making baby food, visited the National Aquarium, and bought a couple new books at the bookstore.  The best part was spending time with both of my boys—a pretty perfect first Mother’s Day weekend.

5/8/12 -- Nine months old

Oliver is nine months old today.  The past few weeks, Oliver has been a busy boy.  He started crawling, significantly increased his babbling vocabulary, and continues to charm us with his developing personality.

I love my baby Oliver and my heart bursts just thinking about the past 9-months we have spent watching him grow.  But, I am finally starting to let go of my sadness about him not being a baby for much longer and I am starting to embrace him growing into a little boy.  As his personality develops, I just want to get to know him and let him become the person he is meant to be.  I am grateful for every milestone and every connection his mind makes.  We are so lucky to have this amazing little person in our lives. 

Happy Birthday Grandma!

We spent the weekend in Wisconsin to visit and celebrate Mom/Grandma’s birthday (a week early). Oliver enjoyed lots of love and attention during our visit.

On Friday, Oliver got to visit with his Great Grandma, Aunt Sheila, Kate and Claire. He also had a play date with August, Brent and Angie’s 6-month old little cutie. 

 

 He had his first Gator ride on Saturday morning and picked some dandelions with Grandpa afterward.  We attended a bridal shower in the afternoon where he got to meet some of his second aunts and second cousins.

On Sunday he had an extra special treat: between thunderstorms we visited the animals at Aunt Sheila and Uncle Jesse’s house.  He was a brave little man and took it all in.  He giggled at the pigs, admired the horses, and petted the chicks.

While in Wisconsin, Oliver advanced his crawling skills to the real deal.  He now crawls with his belly off the floor, and he practiced a lot of pulling himself to standing using every chair, coffee table and pant leg he could get a hold of.  Among other things, he also enjoyed playing peek-a-boo (Oliver now takes the lead and does the hiding/peeking), watching the birds from the window, napping in Grandma’s arms, giggling with Aunt Sheila, and playing with a big boy toy car Grandpa gave him. 

It had been a couple months since O’s last plane ride so I was a little nervous about how it would go now that he is more mobile and vocal.  He did great.  As usual, he totally impressed me with his patience, good nature and ability to make the best of whatever the situation.  He is a really great baby.

A Sunday at the Park

Joe had to work so Oliver and I got to spend some extra time—just the two of us—together his weekend.  After a difficult couple of weeks at work, today was just what I needed.

I love this little boy.  He was such a trooper for the whole day even though I tried to cram a weeks worth of mommy and me time into one day and he is teething again.  He was patient, sweet, and wonderful. 

We woke up, ate and got ready for church.  However, Oliver passed out and slept too late for us to make the 9:30 service.  When he woke up, we changed and walked to the DuPont Circle farmer's market.  Then we walked to a nearby bakery for a latte and pastry.  Oliver and I found a nice spot in the shade in DuPont Circle and spent a couple hours reading, walking and playing in the grass, looking at the ducks in the fountain, eating, napping, and people watching.

 Next stop, the bookstore.  Afterward, we stopped at the little city park that Oliver goes to with Sheryl pretty regularly.  She has told me stories about how much he loves going on the swing.  This week she said that another woman at the park told her she had never seen a baby giggle so much while swinging.  People often ask her if he has ever been on a swing before.  I got to push him on the swing for the first time.  I learned something new that I love about Oliver, he really does enjoy the swing like it is his first time, every time.  It was non-stop giggles for the full ride.

We stopped at Whole Foods and then got home where he promptly ate and feel asleep.  The rest of the evening was the usual, play/read, eat, bath, and bed routine. 

Oliver started essentially crawling about a week ago.  He does not lift his belly so it is more an army crawl, but he is fast.  He also figured out how to sit himself up a couple days ago.  He pulls himself to standing in his crib.  Yes, it has gotten very scary, very fast.  Tonight, I was blending up some mango and eggplant for his meals this week when he “crawled” from his toys on the living room mat (where I can watch him from the kitchen) into the kitchen with me.  After picking up the cat bowls and quickly wiping down the floor, I let him stay with me in the kitchen.  He made a move toward an extension cord in he corner.  I said “Oliver”, and he turned right around (spun on his belly) and looked up at me; smiled and went back toward the cord.  I said “Oliver, no-no”  He spun around again and smiled.  One more time, except this time he looked at me and shook his head no-no (did not say it) and crawled away from the cord.  We did this routine 2X tonight.  I have to admit, I was totally impressed that he (1) so clearly knew his name and (2) understood “no, no.”

I wish I could have more days just like today, but I also know I am so lucky to get every one of these wonderful days with this amazing little baby boy. 

What a Zoo

Two weekends ago we had the most beautiful weather.  It seemed like the perfect day to head to the zoo.  Being practical, I figured Oliver would have a short amount of attention and only be interested in a few things.  My plan was to see the elephants (hard to miss) and turtles.  And maybe see some big cats if we had the time and interest.  I’ll keep this short by saying, elephant exhibit was closed and the line to the reptile house was at least an hour long.  The place was a zoo!  Obviously, heading to the zoo on a beautiful Saturday afternoon is not the best idea if you want to avoid the crowds.  More disappointing was the number of grumpy parents and crying kids.  So after a Metro trip to the zoo, we quickly surmised that this was not the relaxing afternoon we had in mind.  We found an empty park bench where Oliver had some milk and took a nap while Joe and I did some people watching.  I wanted to leave the zoo, but I had no desire to get back on the Metro.  So we decided to walk home.  It is about 3 miles and it turned out to be so much better than the zoo.  The walk was filled with lots of trees and flowers to stop and see—we literally stopped and smelled the roses. 

Oliver had his zoo hat on and was a total trooper for the day’s adventures.  As for the zoo, I think we will save the elephants and turtles for an overcast Wednesday.

You know you are working too much when...

you come home to find:

The explanation:
Oliver had a diaper blow out and after the clean-up, he decided he did not want to put his clothes back on and all he wanted to do was look at his planets book.  So after holding him still for the diaper and just one sock, Joe gave up and let him have his book.  Enter Bonnie, home from work to find the scene shown in these photos.