Father's Day 2009

Dear Dada,
This Father's Day I am 11 months and 1 week old. Here are some of my favorite things to do with you:

• Run through the house with you when you say "Ready? Go!"
• Read books, especially Mr. Brown Can Moo
• Crawl and have you crawl after me
• When you throw me in the air.
• When you drop me on the bed.
• Tickles
  
• Kisses
• When you sing "The Itsy Bitsy Spider" and I flap my arms up and down
• When you roll me around
• The things you teach me like "Bye Bye", Dada and your Itsy Bitsy dance.
  
• Riding in the stroller when you run - it makes me so relaxed.
  
• Riding on your shoulders, especially int he mall.

Happy Father's Day, Dada!
Love, Oliver

I'm so thankful that I get to parent with Paul. He is such a caring, attentive and fun dad.

Happy Father's Day, Dad

If you knew my Dad, you'd know that if you have a good mechanic, you can keep an old car running for a LONG time - and that definitely beats a new car payment.

You would know that you should find a job you enjoy and do your best at it, but that sometimes employers don't have your best interest at heart. Because of that, you should always find things outside of work that give you purpose and that remind you of your true value.

You would know that sitting down to drink coffee is an essential part of every work day.

If you knew my Dad you'd know that having time for your family is better than taking the fast track. Time with family, serving, and being reliable, responsible and trustworthy is far more important than money, wealth, fame.

You'd know someone who has won over scores of high school students with one verse of "Single Cells".

You would also know the best real-life Tetris player in the world. He can pack a van, a relo-cube, or a trailer better than anyone else.

If you knew my Dad, you'd know someone who doesn't let you down, who's there in the tough times, and loves my Mom more than anyone else.

You'd know all these things because of what he does, not what he says.

Happy Father's Day Dad!

(a Father's Day post for Paul to follow - the other VERY important Dad in my life)

Look What I Can Do!

I think you will be impressed with Oliver's waving, one-armed "So Big" and bouncing. If not, just be impressed with my 3 posts in two days!

11 Month Highlights

Last year at this time I didn't know how I could stand to wait another whole month to meet little Oliver. I can't believe his one year birthday is just around the corner. We have made some great progress this month, so here are just a few of the highlights:

• regularly and appropriately says "dada" and "mama" - "dada" came long ago and I've been trying to get a video of it to declare the news, but I still don't have one!
  
• waves bye-bye and occasionally says "baba" along with the the wave
• raises at least one hand when saying "How big is Oliver?"
  
• sometimes stands without holding onto anything, but only when he forgets what he's doing or really, REALLY wants a toy or food in both hands
• has cut all 8 of his front teeth and from the looks of today's ear-rubbing and gum-poking in the back of his mouth, the molars are on their way
• he loves to climb things, so stay tuned for a slide show of all the dangerous things I've caught him climbing (and trusted him enough to snap a picture before helping him down)
  

Here is one of his favorite activities:

Fun with Friends

One of my favorite things about being Oliver's mother is watching him interact with other kids. Today we had a busy house with a sweet 15 month old girl that I watched for our friends, and this little boy (in the picture above) and his mom who came over this morning.

When I picked Oliver out of his crib after his nap and turned to the door, 4 little eyes were watching us intently - they looked very happy to see him. The little boy, G., is always a sweetheart with Oliver. He lets him use his shoulder to pull himself up, he laughs when Oliver crawls over him, and he is so good about sharing toys, snacks, and a lap when reading a book. And I have a soft spot for their matching outfits. Oliver loves to follow him around and check out everything he is doing and gets excited as soon as he sees him. He practically jumps out of my arms and starts crawling after him.

The little girl, S., always calls Oliver baby, though we have been trying to teach her to say "Baby Ollie". Today, out of nowhere she pointed at Oliver and said "Oler". Then she climbed up the chair to my scrap book, pointed at a picture of O. and said it again. She gives Oliver lots of kisses and he doesn't mind a bit. They were both getting sleeping at about 1 today, so we all piled onto the recliner and read lots of books together.

I didn't notice before how much babies like other babies and kids. Oliver doesn't need me to do a thing when we are around other kids, except maybe protect them from his pinches and grabs. He is so curious about what they are doing and the things they are playing with.

Out of the Woods

I took little O to the doctor on Wednesday because the ear infection from the beginning of May seemed to still be around from all the symptoms of not napping, being extra fussy and clinging and rubbing his ears a lot. As it turns out, he tricked me!! In all of my concern for his ears, I forgot to stick my finger in his mouth to feel one last little tooth coming through before the molars arrive. The ear infection fussiness turned into fussiness from a cold which turned into teething fussiness. Ahhhh. Now I can breath!

I am always surprised how tired and worn out I am when we go through a bout of sickness, teething, or a new stage. I feel like I'm already tired because even though I can honestly say Oliver is sleeping "through the night" and sleeping consistently well at night, we still have a 5am feeding. (I think that crying that one out is just around the weekend for us.) Its the missing naps that just put me over the top. I rely on them for a little breather, or a chance to get ahead on my internship or work around the house. Nap time is essential to me. One of my friends has quiet time every day where her school aged kids lay down and just have some rest and independent quiet play. I am totally taking that idea - Thank you Jenni!

Tonight I am looking forward to scrapbooking with a friend. Last week 3 of us got together and I finished 15 pages!! I had lost enthusiasm, but working together with someone makes me really motivated, and as I put the book together, I think about how much we are going to enjoy looking through it and reading about this family adventure when Oliver is older. I'm already forgetting so many details and memories that I'm glad I'm writing them down right now. And it is so fun to remember moments like these...
And as a point of comparison...

Good Enough

The dishes are done...but not dried or put away.
The floor is swept...but not mopped so it's still sticky.
The living room is picked up...but has needed to be vacuumed for at least 3 weeks
My scrapbooking, VBS craft planning, thank-you note making is covering the dining room table and every surface around it.
We have lots of food in the house but nothing to use for making a sandwich except PB and J.
The laundry is washed, dried, folded and put away...except for a load of darks that will be two by tomorrow morning.
I give up!!!

I love how his mouth is stuffed with banana and is double-fisting it, waiting to fill the next available nook. A boy after my own heart!

Oliver's Favorite Song

I took video two different days to show that he does the same thing every time he hears this song. He looks up at the speakers, mouth open, not moving a muscle. The first time we put the CD in, we thought it was a fluke, but now we know it really is his favorite. I cut out parts of the video because he is just doing the same thing the whole time, except when he decides to crawl closer and pull himself up next to the speakers. My favorite part is when he sings along at the end.

Story-Linking

I'm reading the book Real Kids, Real Faith by Karen Marie Yust right now and discussing it with my internship mentor. I just read a chapter that was fantastic and I want to share a bit of it here. Her work here is inspired by Walter Brueggeman, one of my favorite Old Testament commentators. The idea is that kids need to embrace stories from their faith tradition so that they see that the story is about us. He wants them to see the connection of the biblical story to their daily lives. The idea of story-linking is that children can connect their faith story with everyday stories. When I write this, it sounds obvious, but I don't think it is. If it was obvious, or easy to execute we wouldn't have so many teens, young adults, and older adults finding the stories of their faith irrelevant. We also would have churches and people of faith who are growing and changing and not stuck in the mud. I think the five aspects she lists show a holistic approach to telling the stories of faith.
Five Aspects of Story-Linking
1. Children need to be receiving the spiritual story of love and redemption through the compassionate care of their parents and faith community.
2. Children should be hearing the story of their spiritual tradition regularly in connection with the stories that make up their daily lives.
3. Children must be celebrating their stories of faith and personal spiritual stories through special holidays and the recognition of acts of charity and compassion.
4. Children need opportunities for telling spiritual stories in their own words, both to others and to God in prayer.
5. Children need ways of becoming "history-makers": people whose words and actions contribute to a more just and compassionate society an encourage others to do the same. (pg. 43)

I finally figured it out!

Oliver is very focused on his new discovery of how to make the tractor sing.

Daddy's Tasty Nose

There isn't much I can say about this video except that I think it's hilarious!