October

Oliver is getting bigger and is beginning to reach for things. He is not quite able to straighten his arms and get them up there but he is getting much better. His O/T has been working with his gross motor skills since we no longer need to focus on his latching on. She is not a physical therapist (P/T) but has done that before. Our P/T doesn't begin until the beginning of November and she thinks that's too long to wait to get his muscles to function properly.

His big brother on the other hand has no problems with grabbing his toys . As he demonstrates here, he is never without some small object to take with him out the door to play with. Ian always has some little item or items in his pockets. I have a basket on top of the dryer that I empty his pockets into before I wash them. The basket is over flowing with a myriad of stuff from legos to rocks. Doesn't he look handsome though? He got so many compliments on his tie that he wore it to the hospital to meet his new cousin, Logan. Although he wore it with a t-shirt and holey jeans, he thought he should make a good impression for their first meeting. I will get a picture to show you soon.


Here we are doing some of Ollie's daily exercises while watching his projector (it cycles through smiling stars, moons, sheep, and a cow). We are supposed to stretch his arms and legs each time we change his diaper. He does love watching the pictures go around. He has just started talking to them, too.





Ian's two front teeth have been loose since the end of May. They finally came out a couple days apart right before Halloween. Ian had been hoping that the tooth fairy would bring him a cheese knife like his best friend Jake got (leave it up to our son to be unconventional influenced by his friend). We asked him what he would do with a cheese knife. He thought long about it and decided he would rather have a pocket knife to be able to take camping. I told him to write a note and ask the tooth fairy if she would please leave him a pocket knife for his two front teeth. She did of course. Who could say no to this face?
Halloween was fun this year. We trick or treated in downtown Burien the Saturday before. We go every year with my niece Amanda and nephew Colin. She is almost 8 and Colin just turned 6. We also go over to my mom's and trick or treat in the neighborhood I grew up in, usually. This year was different. My parents had a house fire in the end of August and they are in a rental house while theirs is being rebuilt. So for the first time since living in this house, we went in our neighborhood. It was really nice. There are a lot of kids around here.

If you can't tell what Ian is, that's okay a lot of people couldn't. He is a flying squirrel. He came up with it on his own. I then decided Ollie needed to be his acorn. I made both of their costumes using things I got at the thirft store, except the fur and hat (although I did make the hat too!). My squirrel couldn't actually eat the acorn because of his missing teeth. So he sang all I want for Christmas is my two front teeth all that week, just like Alvin the Chipmunk.

Oliver's first month or so...

Okay, so I left off with Oliver just being born. He was so squished inside of me that we had to wrap him really tight or his legs would flip up. It was very comic like.

So here he is a few hours after birth. He looked like this for the next month, rarely opening his eyes. He couldn't latch properly and wasn't getting enough calories to allow his body to do anything but just grow. In the first three weeks of life he lost 14 oz. We were seeing his pediatrician, an occupational therapist, and a chiropractor. We tried just nursing, tube feeding, finger tube feeding, tube feeding at the breast, and anything else that would work. At his six week check up, his pediatrician said we needed to do 80 to 90 percent bottle feeding. I had been pumping every three hours since day four of his life by this time. Finally in the beginning of September I had had enough. I told Brock that if Oliver didn't get the hang of nursing by the end of September we would be switching to formula. It was a tough decision but I was so sore.





My friend Sara gave me some good advice. First she asked if Oliver could nurse or if he was just use to getting milk faster from these other devises we had to use. She said "Take one day and just nurse and see if he can do it on his own. He will cry a lot so be warned. " It took me a few more days to get up the courage but I did just that and we are nursing fine to this day. I now look at my pump with disdain and know that I need to start pumping again to build up a supply for going back to work.




Brock put up a tree swing for Ian. We wanted to give him something special for when Oliver came and the attention was no longer on Ian. I can only imagine what it would be like to be an only child where grandparents came to see you, to have a brother born six years later and now they come to see him as well.
Ian is a fantastic big brother and loves to spend time with Ollie.







School started way too soon for me. I guess it was that I was sitting most of the summer. Ian was very excited to start first grade and was put into one of my good friend's class. Ian calls him Mr. A. His last name is Aguilar and kind of hard to pronounce for little ones. Even though I am not teaching right now, Ian is still attending my school Renton Park Elementary. It is about a 20 to 30 minute drive from our house. It wouldn't be such a big deal if I was going there everyday anyway but since I am not right now, it is long to drive there and back in the morning and afternoon. It's not as bad as it sounds because Brock often takes him and picks him up. Brock has decided to go back to school full time to get a teaching degree. I have always thought he would make a great teacher. He is no longer with Starbucks. It has been very nice to have him home during this time that I have been. Oliver is more demanding of attention that Ian was and Brock has been helping a lot.




Brock turned 29 this month. We celebrated with both sides of the family at his parents house. It was a nice time.












This is the first picture of Ollie smiling. He is a very serious baby and when he smiles it doesn't last long enough to grab the camera. He does smile in his sleep a lot. Not the best picture but it does show that he is growing or at least his cheeks are filling out.




So that sums up July, August, and most of September. I will catch up in my next post. I don't want to overwhelm anyone with marathon posts.