Hello world!

Welcome to the blog for baby Engelman – otherwise now known as Oliver. Check back every now and then for more information on Oliver’s story. If you’d like to leave a comment just click on the title for that particular post.

Auntie Rachie’s Wedding!

my dear sister rachel got married to a wonderful man (named erin:)) on october 31st, 2009 at the picturesque don cesar of lovely st pete beach.  little did we know when she came home last spring to begin planning that it had actually been a childhood dream of hers to have her wedding on the beautiful beaches of the ‘pink palace’ of st pete.  it started as a seemingly far-fetched idea, but because of the vast availability due to the planned wedding date, they were able to get some amazing deals and her dream wedding (to her dream partner) took shape and grew into a breathtakingly beautiful wedding.  from the romantic ceremony set to the backdrop of a famous florida sunset to the magical ballroom where the reception took place.  they actually had a platform built for them to sit together during the ceremony, while many loved ones were able to pay tribute in their own unique way to the couple and the journey they were beginning.  my mom actually sewed pillows for them to sit on along with the flowing curtains that hung from the platform.  instead of bouquets, we carried lanterns down the aisle and placed them on hooks to adorn and encircle the platform.  i was so pulled into the ceremony that i didn’t even take pictures of the finished product!  every detail came together so wonderfully, and it was beautiful………but as breathtaking as the ceremony and location was, the bride out shined it all, hands down.

one of my favorite parts of the reception was their first dance as husband and wife.  they practiced for months to do a saucy tango dance, and i loved every minute of it!  they were nearly flawless as they moved together, and with the live latin band, it set the mood perfectly.  i could go on and on because there are so many details to share, but i will let you just look through the pictures and see for yourself.  i was really disappointed with the amount of pictures i was able to get.  with the combo of some chaos prior to the wedding (running a little late), and then taking care of oliver, pictures were somewhat of an afterthought.  so, i wanted to try to describe the best i could because my pictures don’t do rachel or the wedding justice!  if i can track down some more, then i will add them later.  i do regret not being able to toast rachel and erin at the wedding or rehearsal, because honestly i was afraid i wouldn’t make it through more than two words without crying, but let me take this opportunity to say how incredibly happy i am for my sister to have found the love of a great man…….not just that she got married, but married to the right person.  someone who loves her and truly appreciates all the quirks that make her uniquely who she is.  it is wonderful to see her with someone who truly gets how remarkable she is.  so, once again…..congrats to rachel and erin!!

annie

Rachel’s wedding rehearsal

it has taken me a while to get my act together too add the posts about my sister rachel’s wedding, but finally here they are!!  rachel and her now husband, erin, were married on october 31st at the don cesar on st pete beach.  they live in san diego, but flew in, along with many friends and family members, the week of the wedding to put together the last of the many details.  we had the rehearsal dinner at my parents house.  it was very nice, but also low-key and a good time to hang out with everyone before the craziness of the wedding day began!  we also all headed out to a great little jazz bar in downtown st pete called the garden afterwards.  it was great to spend time with my sisters along with many of rachel’s friends that i am rarely able to spend time with.  we also wanted to put oliver in his costume for a few minutes to show everyone, but it was SO humid that it didn’t last too long!

annie

Halloween Costume

Oliver’s first halloween was quite an eventful one with his Aunt Rachel getting married and all of the preparation that goes into such a ceremony. Annie was away for most of the day getting ready for the wedding but a day prior my mom called me and asked me to come over to her house to pick up a couple things she had just bought for Oliver. It turns out that she was going to Old Navy to pick up some things when she saw a long line and was told they were having a huge sale. Everything that was on clearance was 50% off of the clearance price or more – so she ended up getting Oliver a tiger costume along with a few other things each for about a dollar or so. So just for fun I put him in it and brought him over to Abby and Erik’s to take some pictures with Jonah. It turns out that I forgot my camera over at my in laws house the previous night so Abby took all of the above pictures and did a great job capturing their expressions. I just couldn’t bring myself to decide which pictures to put in the post, so you get to see almost all of them. Oliver seemed to like the costume but it made him hot so he became one sweaty tiger for halloween.

Jonathan

Playing with Jonah

One of my favorite things to watch is my son Oliver playing with my nephew Jonah. The way that they exchange looks and follow each other around is great. Jonah has been trying to get Oliver to play with him more and more but since Oliver is younger he didn’t really realize what Jonah was wanting him to do. Well Oliver has now entered a stage where he responds to Jonah. My sister Abby has been gracious enough to watch Oliver while Annie is working some days and on one particular day she took all of the above pictures. I especially like the picture where Jonah is actually sitting on Oliver. For some reason Abby says that Jonah will crawl across the room and just sit on some part of Oliver. I guess it’s his way of trying to be close to him :)  One of the other funny things that happens when they are together is that Jonah will often crawl away from Oliver and look back at him as if to say – well are you going to follow me or what? Oliver now will follow him and Jonah leads him all over the living room. If you look at the pictures above of them playing they also like to steal the toy that the other one is playing with. It’s funny how so early on they already have the mentality to take the only toy in the whole room the other one is playing with. One picture that I particularly like that Abby says was not staged is the one with Oliver playing the guitar and Jonah playing the drum. Jonah’s father Erik plays the drums and I play guitar so what are the odds that they would find the corresponding instrument? Anyways I guess the point in all of this is that I’m really glad that Oliver is going to have the chance to grow up around a cousin that is so close in age. While I was growing up my cousins mostly lived in other states or weren’t close to my age so I didn’t really get to know them that well – but Oliver and Jonah are close enough in age that they will be in the same grade. Hopefully they will grow to be great friends.

Jonathan

Baby Dedication

When Oliver was just about 6 months old we brought him before the church to ask for prayer and to dedicate him. The main reason we dedicated Oliver was to publicly profess that we are going to try to raise him up so that he will have the chance to know our savior. We want to be held accountable as parents and ask for prayer so that we can follow God’s leading and raise him up with all of the love, support and discipline that our heavenly father provides for us. It was such a surreal experience since growing up I’ve seen this done over and over again with my father, the pastor always leading the parents in prayer. Here I was now in front of our church with my wife, handing my son to my own father to pray. I don’t think I ever really stopped to think about what the purpose was until I realized this was something we wanted to do for Oliver. Every night before bed I prayed and continue to pray that God will lead us to be the parents that Oliver needs and that we will be able to listen and respond to God’s calling on our lives.  I don’t think I will ever fully grasp what a huge responsibility it is to be a parent – but I know what a blessing it is and I look forward to watching Oliver grow up and venture out into the world – hopefully with a great respect for Annie and I but more importantly for his heavenly father.

Jonathan

Oliver starts eating real food!

This post has some pictures from about a month ago and also from just a day ago combined since the first time we tried to feed Oliver we didn’t actually take any pictures. We started him out on some type of organic rice cereal that had basically no flavor and he didn’t like it at all. We thought maybe at first it was because he just wasn’t used to his meals consisting of anything outside of milk but after trying the rice cereal for a week or so we realized we might have to try something else since his appetite didn’t seem to change towards that bland cereal. Next we tried some oatmeal cereal since it has a little more flavor and we got the same results. We did some research and found out that some babies are more particular than others and they suggested using pureed simple vegetables. So we moved onto carrots and peas. We had the best luck with the carrots but eventually ran out of our supply and moved onto peas. Man did those things smell!  He likes his food to be warm so we put them in the microwave for a few quick seconds to heat it up and the smell that comes off of those peas has caused us to be on the verge of vomiting. The best part is we have to try to convince Oliver it’s good to eat so that he will open his mouth. He saw right through our attempts and wanted no part of the peas. In fact he would rather lick the side of the chair or suck on the plastic tray in front of him than eat that nasty stuff. I guess I don’t blame him :) The next thing we tried was sweet potatoes and so far he has had the best reaction to those. He still isn’t a veracious eater by any means but he will at least lean forward and open his mouth to eat them every once in a while instead of crying and turning his head. It has definitely been funny trying to find ways to get him to open his mouth consistently though. Usually one of us will dance or make weird faces and noises so he will laugh and then – sneak attack! We put the food in his mouth so he can at least taste it and then comes the face. If he likes it he usually just kind of stares off and munches down but if he doesn’t like it he looks like he is gagging and winces. He’s gotten really good at dodging the spoon too – it never ceases to amaze me how quickly he can turn his head away and manage to avoid the sustenence that he needs. If you think about it pray for him that he will become a better eater of foods outside of milk. We know that with time he will get better – so for the time being we will just keep trying.

Jonathan

Kiddie Pool

This post is basically a continuation of the last one because the above pictures were taken on the same day in our friends Mike and Jenn’s backyard and Jenn was kind enough to send us these pictures. They have a kiddie pool and we put all of the kids together in it to see how they would play. Addison immediately started splashing all over the place and she totally drenched all 3 kids. It was hilarious. Oliver kind of just sat there and did a little splashing himself but he and Jonah almost seemed to be in a little bit of a daze. Addison has a ton of personality and it’s a lot of fun to see her interact especially with Jonah because they are very close in age and have gotten to see each other a lot in their short time in this world. Their parents seem convinced that Addison has a crush on Jonah and I don’t know if I would go that far but she definitely loves to play with him. We always have a great time hanging out with these friends and watching our kids play together. It’s such a weird concept that just a few years back none of us had any kids. Back then times were fun too but obviously just not the same.

Jonathan

Bathing Suit

About a month ago Annie and I visited a few friends of ours Mike and Jenn Rowe along with my sister and bro in law, Abby and Erik so that all of the kids could hang out and play in the kiddie pool. Oliver was all set to go in his bathing suit and was hanging out in their living room when he was watching Mike play with his daughter Addison and Erik with his son Jonah. Oliver was laughing a lot so we took some shots of him in his bathing suit and I have to say I’m glad he’s finally putting on some weight. For the longest time when he had his shirt off you could see his ab muscles. He was putting me to shame, but now he’s starting to lose that for a more normal layer of baby fat. We are hoping this trend continues since the last we heard from his 6 month check up was that he was in the bottom 9 percentile for weight and the upper 89th percentile for height. Nothing to be concerned about but it’s good to know he’s getting enought to eat.

Jonathan

Sports Center

One of our good family friends who we consider our adopted family (the Smoyers) made it a point to get Oliver something fun to play with and brought the above sports center to his baby shower. We opened it up and let him start playing with it as mentioned in the last post in October when he was about 6 months old and he loves it. Whenever we want him to play in a certain area we can give him the bat or the basketballs and he will mostly drool all over everything but lately he is starting to figure out that it’s a good thing to put the basketball in the hoop.  He particularly loves the baseball bat because even before he had this to play with he would sit somewhere and smack his hands on the floor over and over and over again. Now that he has a bat he uses the bat to hit the floor over and over and over again only this time he looks kind of like Bam Bam from the Flintstones because of it. Thanks for the great gift – Ollie definitely approves :)

Jonathan

Babysitting Jonah

In early October my sister and brother in law wanted to go on a date so Annie and I offered to watch their son Jonah. It’s only fair since they have been really helping us out by watching Oliver some days of the week so Annie could work. Oliver is starting to recognize Jonah and wants to play with him more and more each time he sees him and on this particular night I was having a good time watching them play together. Oliver basically stayed in one spot and played with the basketballs from a sports activity set that he has and Jonah just kind of wandered around the living room playing with some of the toys and investigating the boundaries. At one point Oliver was holding onto the little plastic bat that came with the set and Jonah had crept up next to him. Jonah grabbed the bat by the top while Oliver held on to the bottom. It was like the ultimate tug of war test but neither would budge. Jonah was unable to pull it from Oliver and Oliver was unable to keep it away from Jonah so finally they both put it down and played with other toys for a little bit. I was kind of proud of them because they didn’t get into a fight and start crying over it. Eventually Jonah just grabbed it again and they both kept playing peacefully. They really seem to like each other a lot :)  My favorite picture in the whole series is the last one. I kept trying to get them in a picture playing together but Jonah would move so fast that by the time I got a shot he was already halfway across the room or had turned around. In the last picture I finally got both of them to look straight at me and what’s great is that as I took the picture Jonah pushed Oliver over and he fell and started crying – he was ok by the way – carpet is very forgiving :)

Jonathan

Oliver’s Hat

Annie was going through some things and found the coolest hat that someone either bought for Oliver or was handed down to us. Oliver’s name in itself has my brother Dave constantly speaking to him with a British accent as if he was born in the UK and because of the story of Oliver Twist his name has British connotations to it. So when he wears this particular hat he looks the part. I like to think he looks like a little Irish man but either way you look at him he is one cute little kid. The above picture was taken right after Annie and I had just parked and were about to go to church. The hat was originally put on facing forward but in the transition from leaving our condo to getting to church he managed to move it to the side as seen above. When I was getting ready to leave the car and I saw what he looked like I grabbed our camera and took the above picture before running inside.

Jonathan

Camouflage

Annie and I had to run into Target in mid September to pick up a few things and decided to make our standard run through the baby section just to see what all there was when we came across a sleeper that was made out of teddy bear head camouflage. I know it sounds weird but we saw it and thought at once that Oliver had to have this outfit. It’s so strange how excited we get over new clothes or new toys for Oliver almost like we used to get as kids about our own birthday and Christmas presents. So anyways when we brought it home we put him in the outfit and we thought it looked awesome. My son who has a natural mohawk was now sporting camo to bed. Look out world!

Jonathan

Happy Birthday to…

Annie and I took the above pictures because we were heading into the month of September and knew we had a lot of birthdays coming up. Annie has been making personal cards for friends several years now so we wanted to have a special picture to use for the front of those cards and I’m sure we will continue to use these pictures for future cards as well. Anyways, we took Oliver to what would be the back yard of our condo if we actually had one and gave him a poster Annie had hand painted to make the picture. Oliver was obsessed with the poster but we couldn’t seem to get his attention at the same time that he was holding the poster up so there are a ton of different attempts but we loved these pictures and thought we should share them with everyone. So who knows you may or may not get a card with one of these pictures on it.

Jonathan

Kickin’ Coaster

My Aunt Judell was kind enough to give Annie and I money specifically for a gift for Oliver. Annie had been doing some research online and found a particular toy to be rated highly and seemed like something Oliver would really enjoy. The only problem was it wasn’t in any stores around so we had to order it online  and when it came we were pretty excited. It’s called the kicking’ coaster and he loves it. When he sits back in it he can push with his feet against the bottom and it slides him back away from the base causing lights and sounds to go off at the same time. It got him to start kicking a lot more and he would just entertain himself in this little gadget for short periods of time. It was nice to have a safe place to put him knowing that he could be by himself for a little while so we could do things around the house. Thanks Aunt Judell!

Jonathan

Crawling begins …

The above pictures were taken in late August when Oliver was a little more than 4 months old. He had just started rolling from his back to his stomach and pushing up on his hands consistently. He also started the beginning stages of crawling, so of course like any new parent we went crazy with pictures of him. These are a few of the shots taken on this particular day in August and Oliver was really just getting used to the crawling position. It’s funny how much as a parent you want your child to make it to the next stage of development but at the same time you want them to proceed at their own pace. We were glad to see him develop but also knew that with that new stage that would mean a lot more responsibility and having a much more mobile child. He has definitely grown into that title now.

Jonathan

Laundry Time!

i was spending an afternoon on the never-ending task of laundry while oliver was quietly playing with his toys.  i decided that i could use some entertainment and wanted to see how he would like being in a basket full of clean laundry.  i think if i were his size, i would enjoy it.  so, i put him in the basket and let him have at it.  he enjoyed trying to eat the socks and then i had his friend mr ducky join him also so he would have a companion:).  i love spending my afternoons with oliver and with him, even the most menial task becomes enjoyable.  now that i am back to work part-time, i try to take advantage of the time i have with him alone and find ways to include him in some way when i need to do chores.  he brightens even the dullest days with his personality and constant smiles.  what more could a mom want:)?!

annie

Isn’t my wife great? I love that she put our son in a huge basket of clean laundry just to make the task more entertaining. I remember coming home from work on this day and cracking up because as soon as I opened the door to our condo this was the first thing that I saw. One of the things I really didn’t understand before having a child is that they really have the ability to make every little moment something special that you may remember for a long time. I happen to have a terrible memory so I’m hoping that through this blog and all of the pictures we are taking it will help me to remember the little things and isn’t it the little joys in life that make the days that much better?

Jonathan

Mr. Nakey

Every parent seems to have at least one picture of their baby playing in the bathtub and naked. Well here’s our version – Oliver posing as Mr. Nakey! The first time I heard that nickname for a naked kid was when I was hanging out at Annie’s sister and brother in law’s house a few years back. They have a son named Trey and after he got a bath they let him run around the house naked for a minute. When they let him out of the bathroom they cried” Watch out for Mr. Nakey!” To which Trey responded by finding me and roaring like a lion. Needless to say I laughed really hard at this tiny little naked roaring kid who is now my nephew. I thought that nickname was funny so Heidi and William we are stealing it! Anyways, I’ve taken the time to blot out his boypart so no one can accuse me of posting an inappropriate picture since believe it or not I heard a story about some parent getting accused of spreading child pornography for posting a picture of their kid taking a bath online.

Oliver Starts Reading…

When Oliver was about 4 months old I came into his room to check on him and see how he was doing. I had left him in the room to play by himself for a little while. He was at that time not too mobile so we could put him on the ground on his blanket and he would just play with his toys quietly. Well to my surprise I came into his room and found him not only out of his spot on the ground but in his rocking chair and reading to himself! I have no idea how he managed to climb up the chair and compile all of the books next to him but I knew it was something that had to be documented.

In all truthfulness as if you hadn’t already guessed Oliver didn’t actually get up on the chair and start reading on his own – that was something that I actually set up after putting him in the chair to see if he would sit. I put the books around him and had him hold one with his feet. What I didn’t expect was for him to actually hold them with his hands and look at them as if he really was reading. The funniest part is I had just set everything up when Annie walked by the door of his room and caught a glimpse of it.  She thought he looked so cute and as I was taking pictures she said ” Look, he is holding the book and reading!” That’s when I started taking pictures like crazy and Oliver obliged by making all sorts of funny faces as if he was really into the story. What a great kid we have :)

Jonathan

More Personality

As Oliver has gotten older it seems like another part of his personality comes out each and every day.  The above pictures were all taken in late July when he was just four months old and we were really starting to see a lot more of his personality. He started actually doing things knowing he would get a reaction from us. One night Annie was changing his diaper and getting ready to put him in a sleeper like she normally did each night. He grabbed the sleeper and put it in his mouth pretending to eat it just to see what Annie would do and instantly started giggling at the same time.  From Annie’s perspective it seemed like he was trying to joke with her in a way and she thought it was hilarious.  At about 4 months one of the biggest differences I noticed was how often he smiled. I thought he was a smiley baby before but around this time it almost seemed like he was always smiling if he wasn’t crying :).  I can’t really explain the feeling I get when I look at my son and see the way he looks back at me smiling not only with his mouth but especially his eyes. The joy it brings is incredible and a true gift from God. I think it helps me understand in a tiny way how God may feel when he looks at us and we come to him with childlike faith and joy.

Jonathan

On his feet

Oliver was 4 months old at the time these pictures were taken and he was really starting to try to stand up a lot.  In fact it seemed like he was trying to skip the step of crawling, but we have heard that’s not necessarily a good thing. When we would hold him and try to get him to sit he would refuse to bend his knees and just lock his legs. He’s not a very big kid but he’s always been very strong for his size so it wasn’t an easy task to get him to sit when we needed him to. He also seemed to be teething and we thought we saw what might have been his first tooth. He’s now 6months old and still has no evidence of a tooth yet.  He just seems to love to put anything and everything he can find in his mouth.  For the longest time – he would drop his pacifier and get upset until he had it again only to drop it a few minutes later and start the whole process over again. When he figured out he could substitute anything else for the pacifier that’s when his hands became a true weapon.  He would search for anything in the vicinity that he could grab and he’s only gotten better at this as the days have gone by. It’s good to see these changes and progressions but with each one comes a little bit more responsibility as well :)

Jonathan

Blue Eyes

It wasn’t much of a surprise when Oliver was born with blue eyes considering both Annie and I have blue eyes. What I didn’t expect was those blue eyes to seem so bright. In the above series of pictures we had Oliver on the floor hanging out on his stomach laying on a blanket that was specifically made for him by one of Annie’s good friends (Natalia) from Ecuador. At the time the pictures were taken he was almost 4 months old and he had started to lift his head up a little more and got his hands into a good position to prop himself up. He looked so pathetic and tired after a long session of “tummy time” but those bright blue eyes seem so stand out even more which makes me really enjoy these pictures.

Jonathan

Turtle Outfit

My apologies to those of you who like to check up on this blog to see the latest Oliver news. I have been a true slacker when it comes to updating this thing. Mainly because life seems so busy and there is so little time for anything, but I’m going to put one finger forward and try to keep typing and updating this thing as often as possible. It may be a bunch of posts in a day or a few in a month, but whatever it may be I hope you enjoy…..

As many of you know Annie is a little obsessed with turtles – hence the baby room full of all things turtle. Well now that Oliver has been growing and needing some newer clothes – Annie went looking for a few new outfits. Somehow I knew one would have a turtle on it. She brought the outfit you see Oliver wearing above home and said the imperative – “isn’t this cute!!!” I have now grown to like turtles almost as much so I actually found myself slightly excited about seeing Oliver wear this outfit … it’s weird what having a kid will make you think and do…. anyways when Oliver was able to fit into this outfit I knew Annie would want some pictures of him in it so I snapped a few while I had him resting on my lap. Then I decided I would hook up our camera to our new tripod and test it out while taking a few photos of him on our bed. I thought he looked hilarious resting on our big pillow in the middle of our bed because he’s so tiny. All of these pictures were taken when he was only about 3 and a half months old for those of you who are wondering and he at this point mostly just sat and stared at everything. What cracked me up was after putting him on the bed he of course decided to lean to one side a little too much causing the falling picture sequence. Don’t worry – he didn’t fall off the bed and he was perfectly unharmed.

Jonathan

Auntie Rachie Visits!

auntie rachel was here for the weekend of july 18th.  she decided to come to help celebrate our mom’s birthday and to also work on some wedding plans with my mom.  rachel and her fiance erin will be getting married this coming october on st. pete beach.  since she was going to be here, my mom and i decided to take advantage of her quick visit to throw her a bridal shower also.  it was a very busy day with her bridal shower in the afternoon and then my mom’s birthday party that same evening, but as always, i really enjoyed my time with rachel and was happy to give oliver another chance to spend some time with his aunt.  unfortunately, it was a rough day for him and he was pretty grumpy for most of it.  he finally was in a little better mood after dinner, which was when we tried to get some pics of rachel with him.  he wasn’t being very expressive, but i was happy that he at least was no longer crying:)!  it has been such a treat to see rachel so much this year!  between holidays, oliver’s birth, and her wedding plans, i feel very spoiled to have her home so much.  the only downside is that it is easy to become used to having her around, so when it becomes more infrequent i will miss her even more than i already do.  so, anyways, we are very excited to share in her and erin’s celebration and wanted to post some pics from her shower.  she is going to be a beautiful bride!!!

annie

Oliver is a Punk………..Rocker

Before Oliver was born we were graciously given a lot of presents, much needed items and some hand me down clothes for him to wear. One of my personal favorite items is the onesie that Oliver is wearing in the above pictures with the logo of a famous punk bank called The Ramones. If you like punk rock music or even if not you may have heard of The Ramones. They are often regarded as the first punk rock group. Anyways, I think Oliver liked his outfit too but he took the idea of being a punk rocker to the extreme by flashing his middle finger again. Maybe someday he will learn to mind his manners, but I guess that’s probably not what punk rockers do.

Jonathan

Belly Time

Last month I put Oliver on the floor for some belly time and took the above shots at the same time. He always makes a lot of faces in this position, probably because it’s by far the hardest for him to remain in for a while. He has started to roll over though so when he really gets sick of laying on his stomach he just flips over to his back.  I think some of these pictures are hilarious because he looks so different in most of them. I think I might know what he will look like as a scared or excited old man. :)

Jonathan

Bumbo Bee Tuna!

Thanks to Heidi and William Haun – Oliver now has a Bumbo chair to use. Heidi and William passed it on to my sister and brother in law for Oliver’s cousin Jonah and now that he’s too big for it Oliver has been getting familiar with it. The above pictures were taken about a month ago when Oliver was 3 months old and he was fully able to sit up in the chair, however when I went to take the pictures he of course slumped to one side so as not to show off I guess. Lately he has become especially fond of sitting in it and playing with his toys so it’s been a nice distraction for him when he gets sick of doing something else.  He always seems to make some funny expressions when he is sitting in it so Annie and I really get a kick out of watching him use it. So anyways, thanks again Heidi and Willy!

Jonathan

Visitors from the North

here are some more photos from when heidi met oliver for the first time.  trey actually stayed with my parents for a little over a week while william was in honduras and heidi was working.  then heidi and willy met here and hung out with us for the weekend before going back home together.  as always, i greatly enjoyed having time with heidi and her fam.  the first time heidi saw oliver, he was a little grouchy from waking up and just cried in her face.  after a little time, though, heidi was able to have some good quality time with him and he seemed to take well to his auntie heidi.  one funny thing that happened was when we were at david’s bridal with my mom, trey, and oliver where heidi and i were trying on dresses for rachel’s (our other sister) upcoming wedding.  we were in our dresses…..trey was doing well with my mom and oliver was sleeping in his stroller.  then trey wanted to hang with oliver, so he leaned over him and said ‘wake up baby oliver’ somewhat loudly which then caused oliver to start crying loudly.  in the next moment, trey tripped and fell on his face, and pretty much busted his lip so then he was understandably very upset by that.  so, we went from total peace to baby/toddler chaos in the sweep of a couple moments.  i think heidi was in the dressing room changing and i was holding up my dress as my mom and i tried to console our disgruntled kiddos.  it was a little comical to me and such a great depiction of life with babies!

we also were able to spend some time with our good friend sarah who was visiting from north carolina.  she is married to long-time friend of the family jerry, and they have two beautiful little girls – providence and autumn.  so we really enjoyed visiting them for the evening and having oliver meet even more friends for the first time.  i love all these first meetings!  there are still so many dear friends for him to meet, but little by little, he will meet them all.  so, just wanted to share some of these fun moments with treasured friends and family!

ps……the photo session with all the kids was at about 10:00 pm, so considering the late hour following a hectic evening, i think they all did very well!  it was also very entertaining for us to watch them all in action.

annie

Moments Before a Bath…

As Oliver has gotten older he has required a lot more baths and being that they are normally done at night right before bed I have had the pleasure of giving him each and every bath he has ever had. Oliver goes through a range of emotions from the time I prepare everything to the time it’s over and it’s interesting to watch the whole process. First there’s usually the diaper change which he actually likes now. Then we usually have to keep him warm and covered up until we bring him into the bathroom where I’ve set everything up. For the pictures you see above I decided to try and take a few shots before I changed his diaper while he was still in a good mood because I’ve always thought he looks so funny and small in his little baby bath. Anyways once I get him into the water he normally quiets down completely and just stares at me as if to say “why are you doing this to me?” He doesn’t cry or squirm he just has a slightly scared look in his eye. As time has gone on he has gone from that scared look to more of a calm, relaxed expression and now he even laughs and smiles during his baths. The sound of the rushing water usually kind of freaks him out at first but after a few seconds he gets used to it. I have a good time giving him a bath now and can’t wait till he gets older and starts playing with all of the bath toys we have for him. He should have a much better time then.

Jonathan

Trey and Oliver

oliver finally met his cousin trey in the beginning of june.  trey is the son of my dear sister heidi who works as a resident surgeon in macon, georgia.  they moved up there last summer, right before we found out we were pregnant.  it has been hard to be away from them, but it makes the time we have together very memorable.  i was very excited to finally have the cousins together and to have heidi meet her nephew for the first time.  trey was very interested in his new cousin and was anxious to hold him at their first meeting.  i had the opportunity to spend one day with trey and oliver by myself and get some practice of what it would be like to be a mother of two.  i am definitely happy to have just one for now………but i really enjoyed spending the day with two of my favorite boys!  trey was gentle and sweet with oliver and even did some baby talk for him.  i didn’t know it was possible for trey’s voice to be any higher!  so, here are a few pics of the boys enjoying some time together.  i am so thankful for all the wonderful cousins that oliver will have to grow up with!

annie

Asleep with Mr. Frog

One of Annie’s friends came to visit a few months back and she came bearing gifts. One of the gifts was a blanket made especially for Oliver with his name on it and it’s head is in the shape of a frog. It’s a very soft fleece-like blanket that Oliver seems to like a lot. Whenever we take him somewhere we put it in his carseat and he likes to try to eat it. Most of the time we find him asleep clutching it. The above pictures were taken when he fell asleep I think on me – clutching Mr. Frog. I set him down on the couch and it didn’t wake him up so I thought I would snap a few shots really quickly. Thanks for the great gift Kristen – Ollie loves it as you can see!

Jonathan