oliver's first haircut

Well, it was getting to be a bit shaggy. Between the fuzz curls in the back and the long bangs in the front that literally blocked his vision on occasion I knew it was time (actually overdue) to have Oliver get his very first haircut.
I considered doing it myself, and let me say I am so glad I didn't take that route. I can see visions of a very squared off nerdy hair style on our little boy. I really don't know what I'm doing with scissors, and taking a pair of clippers to his thin little hair would have probably left him bald.
Sooo the next option was an actual salon or an even better one- our friend would do it that is also a hair stylist. A very good one too.
She ended up coming to our house since it worked out that way, for that day.
It was great- I'm thankful it was at our house as we weren't sure how Oliver would react to sitting still with someone clipping away at his hair. We sat him in his chair that he eats in and we offered him his favorite treat these days- grapes.
He did great! No tears until after, when I asked our friend to get a picture with him. I guess it freaked him out to be in her arms after the long (um, 10 minutes?) haircut.
I saved some of his little curls of blonde hair for his book. I'm thinking one day his hair color will turn dark like Jonah and I, but it will be fun to look back at his baby locks.
Here are some photos from the grand event!
(please ignore the homely picture of me with him at the end, I had taken a shower to get my own haircut and well, yeah.)

happy mothers day! 2012

Happy Mothers day to all the mom's out there! This year is special because we are awaiting the arrival of our second little boy. Being a mom is such a huge blessing. I never would have thought it could be this fun, and fulfilling. God is so good to give us Oliver, and now baby boy #2!

For lunch Jonah asked what I'd like, and like my last pregnancy, banana peppers rank high on my list. Not sure why.
So we picked up some nitrate free meat subs on wheat laden with banana peppers. Yum. Perfect!
Not to mention that my husband made us breakfast this morning, but even before that I walked into the kitchen to discover this gift- an immersion blender! Something I have been wanting for a while now, and he knew that. I'm a bit of a foodie I suppose and this gift was perfect, I'm so thrilled to blend soups, sauces and such with this easy tool!
I am so spoiled by my dear husband, and spoiled by God who gave me not only a wonderful man that loves me dearly, but a godly one that I am honored to stand beside.
My sweet little Oliver was hamming it up for us as always, and we finally had a shot of him saying hi to his little brother in my belly. It's hard to get Oliver still for a shot these days! Now I think it's time for a nap perhaps. Or a bubble bath. Hmm, tough choice, as I sit here and look out at my husband who is fast asleep in our rocker chair with Oliver on his chest. So thankful for them!

New ideas for Oliver/toddlers

It's been a somewhat tiring week. I've battled with allergies, and a little boy waking up at 6ish each day.
Normally Oliver sleeps in until around 7. And I really don't mind him getting up earlier, it's just how he's been getting up.
He's been waking up crying and calling out for me, or for Jonah.
Not sure what is going on, teething? Cold?
It's been getting somewhat cool at night so I'm wondering if we just need to try adding another layer on him. Maybe we will tonight.
Needless to say it's never a great wake up with a fussy little boy. So I am hoping we can figure this thing out!
But we haven't tried anything new, project wise this week.
I was looking at a pin on pinterest though, which led me to her blog, and I am finding some great new ideas that I would like to try out with Oliver.
Knowing I get overwhelmed by too many choices (she has  101 things to do with toddlers- yikes) I thought I would narrow down a few and list them out to give me some focus!
Her blog is here if you'd like to browse through her ideas.
So here goes:
Muffin tin Mondays- making meals in muffin tins (she also includes ideas for meals).
Collect rocks in a basket (oliver would love this, he is always finding rocks and sticks for me)
Toss bean bags in a bucket (need to make some bean bags)
Roll ball back and forth on floor (I forget to do simple things like this with him)
Play with a bucket of water and sponge (or his little pool outside)
Wash windows together
Let him play with sticker sheet ( I have many stickers and a book I no longer use)
Draw on a mirror with dry erase markers ( or our sliding glass door)
Glue shapes on paper

This little list along with our everyday learning times are on my list of things to do next week with Oliver.
I am using some print outs from a fabulous blog I found, and our focus is on camping. So maybe next week we'll make s'mores, or this weekend! Oliver learned some new words and I'd like to show him what they are- like backpack, lantern, fire etc.

Today though I may try to do some of those items above, just for fun with the boy.
Only a few more months until we welcome his baby brother! I hope by that point I will have a handle on our daily schedule, because I know it will probably be completely changed with a newborn!

May!

It's May!
What? When did that happen? I'm seriously losing all sense of time this year. Maybe it was the morning sickness, neverending, four month hiatus. Perhaps.
But here we are in May and that means we will be celebrating our wee boy's 2 year birthday!
Even though he is actually turning 2 June 2, we decided to have his party on Memorial Day- so it's the same week, just at the beginning.
With that being said I have been delaying, um procrastinating on his invite. Now here we are in May and I know they need to be sent so that some of our friends can come!
I set out thinking I could design my own invite on evite.com.
Well that was like a sinking ship from the start.
I'm not sure if anyone else has had success designing their own invites (by design I mean creating everything yourself, its the design nerd in me) in this program.
Frustrating.
That pretty much sums up my experience with it.
I chose the option to design my own- and it gives you choices to upload your own images for the background and graphics used on it.
But it doesn't update, or work correctly.
I would create my own background and upload it only to have them drop in their own.
I also did this for a graphic only to have them place in their own clip art of baby bottles and flowers.
Really?
I tried, truly several times to go through and use what they would allow me, but to no avail.
I'm done with evite. Goodbye evite it's been a useless relationship.
So, I decided to make my own from scratch, turn it into a pdf, and email this way. I know it's not going to have the fields for a quick response from friends but I will just have to rely on the old fashioned rsvp- through my phone.
Here is our little boy's invite- censored to keep out personal info for all those out there in the world I don't know.

a nest

My teacher side (gasp, did I just say that?) has really been taking over lately.
After being down and out for months, I felt so bad for Oliver's sake as I really wanted to start doing some kind of daily activity with him to teach him new skills, objects, etc.
Really all I was able to do faithfully with him was reading, going over his alphabet, colors, numbers and each evening we started going through a Bible verse with him after story time.
I also try to play some music with him daily, and I've been teaching him a song, since he has done so well memorizing his first Bible verse.
You just don't realize what those little minds are truly capable of until you start something consistently with them. Then when they pour out what you put in, you are amazed at their knowledge!
I think it's too easy to say he's too young and wouldn't possibly be able to do that- but how do you know until you try?
I tried to be consistent in some areas, and it's starting to show! He knows his colors, shapes, and alphabet pretty well now. He can count to 5 (and up to 10 but not perfectly) and he's memorized Philippians 4:13! I'm not saying all this to brag,  I am proud of how well Oliver is doing, but I'm saying it to encourage moms who struggle to do 'activities' or something structured. I think consistency is the biggest help to your children.
I didn't take hours each day to plan and organize things to do-ha!  I just couldn't with my morning sickness.
I did make a binder with alphabets, colors and numbers/counting for us to flip through each day (I can share those if you'd like to have a copy). He really enjoyed taking that binder down and going through the pages- daily showing me how much he was starting to learn. I just created some simple printouts, printed them in color and put them in clear page dividers. There was our book. I can keep adding to it with new, and more advanced things for him to learn. Right now that seems to be a good starting point for me, as it overwhelms me to hear words like "lesson planning" and such.
And I'm not a teacher. Ha!
I've found that to be well, not true. We are all teachers to our children. Whether we admit it or not, those little eyes and hearts are watching and waiting to see how we do things, and look out because one day what you say and do, how you react, or don't react to something is going to be mimicked by this tiny 2' person.
What a privilege and responsibility it is to realize you are a teacher to your little ones.
It's so much fun seeing him get so excited about learning. This is something I didn't expect! He loves seeing and doing new things- even if it's as simple as finger paints.
Now where was I? I really went off track there as this post was going to be about a project we did today.
I actually found this blog on Pinterest (yes, I do actually use my pins sometimes :) and found some helpful projects that this lady does with preschoolers. This project is called a nest, with the focus on well, a nest for birds. She recommended you read the book "Are you My Mother?" which I know we have somewhere...but I chose a book we have that actually has a picture of baby birds in a nest. I showed him the letter N, and the nest picture, then we made our own nest.
It was a short little project but it gave Oliver a chance to play with new textures and colors. He had fun collecting the cut yarn and putting it in the cup, and of course was thrilled there was a balloon to throw around. I'll have to post a photo of the dried nest- not sure how long it will take to dry or if it will turn out :) But it was fun to do, and I'm going to keep my eyes open to see if I can spot a real nest to show Oliver. Here are our photos from the project, and here is the link for the lady's blog.
I had fun doing it with him too! Now onto tomorrows project, hmm which remains unknown to me!

alphabet

I have been ambitious this week!
At least I've been doing new projects daily, not on purpose though. My energy is up and my sickness from the baby is down! A great twist after months of feeling so blah.
Yesterday I got it in my mind that I would make Oliver some alphabet cards. Granted I already made some smaller ones, I thought I would make giant cards, and make them much nicer than my smaller ones. He has learned all of his letters, and I thought it would be good for him to start associating pictures with each letter. So I made the alphabet on the front with a word, and on the back created an illustration for each word/letter. He does really well with remembering what pictures are what since he loves books. Picture books are wonderful at this age as he seems to soak it all up in his ever growing memory.
I am still debating if I'll round the corners and laminate. We'll see. It would be nice if they can last to our next son, without getting beat up, bent, and chewed on.
I had a great time drawing and coloring! I haven't illustrated in so long and it felt good to be back at it.
Here are the cards, a few favorites being the umbrella (with Oliver's name on it) and I do like the xylophone.