Sunday, November 7, 2010

Oliver

Some notes about the newest addition:

The best sleeping baby I've had. Only wakes up a couple times a night (please, please, don't let me jinx myself!) and will nap through almost anything.
October 1st

October 2nd

October 29th; "Do you hear what I hear?"
He actually likes sleeping in the swing...maybe it's the motion? I think it's his second-favorite spot, behind a human chest, of course! The past couple days he's actually slept in the crib for a couple naps; no matter how good of a sleeper you are, you will most undoubtedly be woken up by your 3-year-old brother parking his semi-truck underneath your swing and screaming "HONK! HONK! HONK!" as loudly as possible.

 Oliver has been smiling for almost two weeks now, and laughing occasionally. It took me awhile to finally get some good smiley pics: 

I love pictures where all the baby appendages are blurry, yet the head is still!


Having his parts exposed are his happiest time, can you tell?!


The crazy-wide-eyed look.
Oliver absolutely loves Danny and Isaac already. He'll actually calm down to them "shhing" him sometimes, when he won't for me! And they're amazing with him: they've gone to the swing, when I've had to set him down and he's fussing, and made him happy again. They delight in making him smile, even bragging about it. Sometimes they fight over who gets to kiss him first. They have yet to freak out when he's crying, when even feel like freaking out! They want to be present at every.single.diaper change. They have taken to big-brotherhood like ducks to water. I love it.

"Hi, this is Oliver. I'm a baby, so I can't talk." Danny's narration, not mine!

Oliver loves baths, too. His first three baths, we just had him take in the big tub, with Chris. And he hated it. Finally, I gave him one in the little baby bath, while Danny and Isaac were taking their bath, and he loved it. And has ever since. I think the big bath was just too big and he didn't feel secure enough. There are some better pics, but they all are naked ones, and this is a public blog...


He's starting to hold his head up pretty good, and greatly enjoys kicking and flailing around. He's gotten pretty irritated in the Moby at times recently, I think because he's had enough of the being-held-so-tightly-to-mom business!

And to think we're only 9 nine days from his 2-month birthday! Flying, flying, flying.

Halloween 2010

A dragonfly and a dragon.
Funny how it came about: Danny decided to be a dragonfly way back in summer, when they were plentiful, and never changed his mind. The second Danny decided to be a dragonfly, Isaac decided to be a dragon, and never changed his mind. Fickle children I have not. Must have gotten it from Chris. In the beginning, Isaac repeatedly talked about how he would be a mean dragon, and shoot fire from his eyes. Then something shifted, and he decided to be nice, so we could pet him.

I was so nervous for trick-or-treating. Chris had to work, so I had to go it alone. However...Danny and Isaac were great, neither were scared of anything, and Oliver slept the entire time. We did our neighborhood first; Luna, the boys little buddy from down the street, joined us halfway through, so that was fun. We came back to the house for the wagon and then crossed the street for a little more candy. Danny was the one who made the decision to come home, and Isaac didn't argue. All together, we were gone for 1 1/2 hours. Perfect.


The aftermath of trick-or-treating:

Sugar coma.

Notice the chocolate smeared all over his face...
I gave the boys the go-ahead to eat all the candy they wanted immediately when we returned home. They barely made a dent, I was slightly disappointed!

Our bowl of candy we'd left on the porch was surprisingly still full. I asked the boys whether I should leave it out, or if they wanted to answer the door while I nursed Oliver. They were very enthusiastic about answering the door. So they sat at the table, eating candy, and every time the doorbell rang, jumped down and went to hand out candy. Danny sat a few trick-or-treaters out, Isaac loved doling out the candy to the kids.

As for the pumpkins...we'd done a trip to Pomeroy Farms, way back at the beginning of the month, and promptly carved the boys pumpkins after that (Chris did them, after the boys picked what they wanted). They rotted by mid-month; I thought they'd last longer. Luckily, Danny's preschool class took a trip to Bizi Farms, so they each got another pumpkin. We carved those the day before Halloween, and, surprise, Danny really was capable of doing his own! (He'd insisted with the first pumpkin, but 5-year-old + knife...I just couldn't picture it turning out good.)
This is Danny's "cat" pumpkin; the whiskers are the chunks out to the sides :)
And Isaac's 2nd ghost pumpkin; the kid is obsessed with ghosts. Danny added the nose after I did the eyes and mouth!
And the cutest pumpkin of all!
 Don't worry, the Zeus was not excluded from the Halloween festivities:
ROAR! I'm a dinosaur! ROAR!

Time to start up?

I've been thinking a lot about writing lately. I enjoy writing, and I want to be better about doing it regularly, mainly just so I have this to look back on and remember, in greater detail, my life at this point. These babies are growing too fast, and doing too many things, saying funny things, observing the world around them so astutely...I need to remember this all.

And now that Oliver has made his entrance and things are settling into something of a routine again, I think I may have the time and energy for it again. We'll see :)

Today I was reminded of writing while making breakfast: Danny and Isaac were in watching their ritual Sunday morning cartoons on PBS (the HD antennae wasn't working, alas, so no Thomas this morning; they settled for Dinosaur Train) and Oliver was snuggled up in the Moby with me. I've been pretty lazy with breakfast since Oliver's birth, so I wanted to do pancakes this morning. Danny requested apple pancakes and Isaac helped me make them.

Everything was just so perfect...Isaac helped me so well and Danny was content playing in the living room, so there was no fighting; Oliver was happy and asleep and warm; my coffee was perfect, and with eggnog to boot; I had made bacon wrapped persimmons as an appetizer, one of my fave things; and our pancakes were delicious (sour cream for half the milk, laced with cinnamon, topped with maple syrup); and the late fall sun was peeking out through the clouds, warming up the kitchen so nicely. It was wonderful. It's what makes me happiest and I absolutely, positively, never-ever want to forget it.