Warm weather OR BUST!!!!!!...

So this weekend Bryce went to southern utah with his friends. Since I had the camera, this blog will be entirely about what Oliver and I did. Bryce had a blast. Nuf said.

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Upon considering a weekend of the two of us at home in this BLASTED snow, we decided to use up some of our skymiles and go see Crit and Mary in SUNNY ARIZONA.

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It was everything we needed and more. Though we missed Bryce terribly. We had a BLAST!!! I was so worried about traveling with him alone. It was just such an unknown---could I handle it? --well, he was an angel baby. I think that we have ourselves a summer boy (takes after his Mom). He was SOOO happy the WHOLE time. I am not kidding. Not one fit. It was freaky.

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On to the travel-logue:

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Here is a picture of Mary's calendar where she drew Oliver and I on February 23. I loved it. Crit and Mary made us feel so at home. Oliver and I had Mary's room all to ourselves. Crit had gathered everything we needed from a crib to a high chair, etc.

Thank you, Critti.

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Here are some good photos on the hammock.

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Oliver was a fan of tha hammock, to say the least.

The other thing Oliver was a HUGE fan of was MARY. He was so enamored with her. He would just stare at her and smile so big. He has been around plenty of children in his short little life, but he was so taken with her. Here they are on the hammock together.

This is probably my favorite picture of the whole trip.

Look closely at Oliver's face.

Now look at where his hand is.

Hilarious.

We got to be a part of a very momentous occasion in Mary's life while we were there. We went with her to get her ears pierced. Here we are arriving at the mall:

It was such a "right of passage" sort of day. Critti made a huge deal of it (as she should). Mary's aunt Jil and Kimmy also came to support her. Incidentally, Jill was who took Crit to get her ears pierced years ago. She took her when she was 8, although she KNEW Crit was not supposed to get them pierced until she was 14! Great story. Jill is amazing.

Here she is with her new earings. Mary was SO brave. I could not believe it. She was totally calm and just flinched when the two women pierced her. It was so amazing to be there.

Oliver slept through the whole thing, by the way.

Here we are at Trader Joe's. I LOVE that store--wish Utah had one! We are buying goodies for our picnic in the desert.

We picnic'd in the desert by a river. It was epic.

Check out our scenery:

It felt so good to be in a skirt and sandals. I live in the wrong state.

Ug...

Here is our summer boy:

On the way back from our picnic, we stumbled across this carnival/rodeo thing. We had to go.

Mary road a ton of rides and had a blast. Oliver and I just watched and took it all in. We had a blast just people watching.

It started to get chilly as night fell. We were all getting a bit cold, so Mary found a great place to warm her hands. I love both of thier expressions:

Thank you, Crit and Mary, for such and AMAZING weekend!

We thawed out and had a magic time.

Feeling better...

Just so you all know, Oliver is on the mend. He is still coughing like a baby seal, but he feels pretty much back to normal and he is no longer contagious. It is good to have his first official SICKness behind us.

Thank you for all of your well wishes and concern.

Oliver's expression in this picture just makes me laugh.

Sick baby...

Here is our sick baby boy:

LONG story short, he has croup---which is baby talk for a bad cold. It has been so sad to see him cough and cough and COUGH. His voice is hoarse (which is actually incredibly cute). He sounds like the "red-rum" kid from "The Shining". It's very cute.

We've done everything (including, but not limited to):
Humidifier
saline drops
steamy bath(s)
holding, lots and lots of holding
AND
Take him outside to breath the cold air (see below):





I have had several mothers and fathers tell me how it is embarassing to admit that there is something nice when your baby is just mildly sick. They need you so much and they are so cuddly. Well, I can totally see where they are coming from. Oliver will be fine. He is totally sweet and cuddly.

Don't get me wrong. We've been up for two nights straight (so far) and he is definately more fussy at times---but he is also so tender and sweet.

Get better baby.

I want to take a moment to wish my sweet little brother Daniel, Happy 22nd Birthday!

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We love you so much, Daniel. Thank you for being one of the most influential people in our lives.

For more stories about Daniel, check out Daniel's website

First food...

So, today we had Oliver's 6 month Dr.'s appointment. Besides the shots, which were highly traumatic---it was nice. Oliver weighed in at 21 pounds 5 ounzes--and was officially delcared a big healthy boy, once again.

The big news came when we were told that it would be okay to introduce Oliver to some solid foods at this point. WHAT???? We were so excited. Oliver has been leaping (in his own way) for our food for weeks now. He is so ready for food.

So, first things first. We bought him a high chair. Here he is in it for the first time.

We prepared his first meal of organic brown rice cereal with such care and brought it over to him. He was SOOO in to eating. We have video, but I have not been able to upload it. :( I am not sure what was more entertaining:

Oliver enjoying food for the first time

~ OR ~

Bryce coming to terms (or not coming to terms) with how messy this whole eathing this was going to be.

Needless to say...eating was a sucesss. It's a whole new world.

Our little 6 month old...

Today is Oliver's 6 month birthday.

When will this get easier? What birthday or milestone will not make us weepy?

We just laid down our sweet baby for the night and there is a part of me that wishes he were still awake.

It is so strange to me to miss your baby when he is asleep.

We cannot help but think about 6 months ago. Every minute today was filled with thoughts of THAT MINUTE, six months ago. It was a beautiful and complicated day.

I guess, the one mantra I am filled with is "I am great-full".

I LOVE our baby, I LOVE my husband.

We have the most amazing siblings, parents and friends.

Nothing else matters.

Work will be stress-full. People will cut you off in traffic.

You will be broke, rich, happy, sad, etc, Etc, ETC!!!

None of it matters as long as we have what matters.

Love.

I know it is SOOOOO cheesy. Fogive me. But it is real.

Happy 6 months, Oliver.

We have loved every minute of your little life and can't wait for all the rest!

Mirror fun...

So....tonight was filled with more fun

We just sat Oliver in front of a mirror and took pictures.

Enjoy...

Random fun pics...

So here are just some good pictures from the past few days.

This first one was taken by Bryce in the middle of the night. You can see here that Oliver has his fat little legs crossed and on his monkey. He even dominates the monkey doll in his sleep. Take that.

Here is Oliver after one of our many walk-abouts.

So I need a little help here. IS Oliver too big for his swing? I don't know how you are supposed to tell. He still loves it so much and sleeps in it really well.

However, has it become unsafe???? He looks a bit big in it. Any suggestions?

Blanket fun...

Tonight we played a ton on the carpet. Yep. A fun evening with the Milne's filled with adventure and high intrigue. :)

Things got really out of control when I broke out a blanket and started taking pictures of Oliver.

So cute.

Long time...no post...

So we have had some technical difficulties with our computer that have prevented me from posting in a while. My apologies.

However, in my posting absence, Oliver has only gotten cuter. We put Oliver in his first set of "big boy" pajamas (pants/shirt instead of a sleeper). It is so cute to see his little belly hanging out.

This is him on an average morning.

Another new development is that Oliver is JUST starting to notice Le Petit Kitton. He watches her so closely whenever she is in the room. She is so wonderful and just lets him PULL her hair. We are really lucky that she doesn't care at all. Here is a sweet morning moment of him pulling at her:

FIVE months old...

Here he is...

Five months,

19 lbs 15 oz

and 27 inches tall.

Oliver in Bryce's hat...

Bryce put his hat on Oliver. Don't ask me why. It was very cute and all, until he found him like this:

Who knows how long he had the hat on like that. But it was really funny. Bryce found him with the hat like this and his arms outstretched and just spinning around in his excer-saucer-thing.

ART: Does the hat look familiar? Maybe it is yours????

We cannot belive how big he is getting.

Our First Christmas Tradition...

I have felt a lot of pressure about this being Oliver's first Christmas. I have felt like if we are going to have any Christmas traditions, we have to start THIS YEAR. The teeny part of my brain that is more rational assures me that one can start traditions whenever one wants...but I don't listen to that part too often.

While I am sure we will come up with many traditions (or at least one more)---i did come up with one that I am really excited about. It is our Christmas Fire.

Every Christmas Day, we will have a fire. If we do not have a fire place, like we do in our current home, we will go out in nature somewhere to create one. In the fire we will add frankincense and myrrh.

You can see a small peice of charcoal in our fire here with the small pieces of frankincense and myrrh on the charcoal.

The last part of our new tradition is that we will take a scoop of the ashes from this years fire and keep it in this small urn/jar that we found. Next year, we will put those ashes in our Christmas Fire that carry all of our memories from the past year and begin a new fire.

We love the idea of having a traditional fire to sit around and reminisce about the past year. The ashes are a symbolic way to us of carrying our past with us from year to year.

Tradition No. 1----Done.

We did not give any gifts to each other this year. We'll have to figure out the Oliver-gift-giving/receiving thing next year. I'd like to get away with giving him cardboard and/or tupperware for as long as possible.

Merry Christmas from Oliver

Merry Christmas from the Milnes.

We thought you'd all enjoy these pictures of our "little" (not-so-little-for-his-age) boy.