Happy 1st Birthday Oliver

We all fall down

Just had to post this because it makes me laugh each time I watch it.  You have to be paying attention, because it happens right away.

We have been meaning to get some videos of Oliver walking.  Mainly so we can remember his first wobbly steps.  Now he has been walking for almost a month and we are finally getting it on camera.

M.I.A.

I will not be able to post much this week.  Too much to do at work.  Too much to do to get ready for Oliver's first birthday this coming weekend.  The main question is, why do we always do this to ourselves and why do I always have to be such a procrastinator?

Well hopefully the absence this week will give us better posts next week!

Shoes

The other week we had the TV on and America’s Funniest Home Videos was on.  We weren’t actively watching it, but happened to catch a few of the clips.  One of the clips was coming on and the narrator says “Something about this just isn’t right” and in the video you see a boy, about 3 years old, pushing a car around wearing his mother’s high heel shoes.  It made me laugh and for some reason I thought of Oliver.

Maybe because he is always playing with my high heel shoes!

Bella’s Report Card

Bella is attending summer school for two mornings a week.  She gets a report card each day she attends.  I read today’s card and I don’t think she could have had a better day, even if she could verbalize what she wanted to do.

Her card reads:

Today is 6-19

At school I….went outside on the swing, rode in the wagon, went to motor group, read Hungry Caterpillar, sang songs

I ate pudding for snack

That is pretty much a perfect morning for Bella!  And she was definitely happy today when she got home.

Busy

I feel like I’m too busy to write an actual post today.  I did want to share this picture of Oliver with you.  He is a big boy now and can hold his own bottle.  He has been doing this for a month or so, but he now usually gets his morning bottle in the bean bag chair, and has recently taken to crossing his legs while he drinks.

I wonder where he gets that from.

I really need to find time to make this child some clothes that stay in place.  It’s been on my to-do-list forever.  I have even bought a bunch of fabric.  Just can’t find the time to sit down and do it.

Happy Father’s Day

We love you and appreciate all that you do around here!  Most days you work yourself to exhaustion and even though we can’t thank you in words, you make us smile and laugh more than any other person.  You are our hero!

The following pictures actually have nothing to do with father’s day, except to show how I believe the kids look more like their father than myself.

Fun In the Sun

Today nobody seemed to want to nap and no one seemed to be happy.  I decided that maybe if I took everyone outside not only would they enjoy it, but it would wipe them out.

Confession – I also went to run errands this morning and was envious of all the stay at home moms who were tan.  I’m guessing they spend quite a bit of time at the pools over the summer.  I know I shouldn’t be envious because being tan isn’t good for me.  Although I would love to spend my free days with the kids lounging around at the pool.  Both the kids love the pool.  But there is no way one person could handle them both by themselves.  This goes for about every single activity you could think of.  Therefore when it’s just me, we pretty much are stuck in the house.

Back to the subject at hand.  I picked up a sprinkler this morning so we could play outside.  Taking 4 separate trips outside to get everything set up and all of us outside (really waiting for the day Oliver can walk on his own so I have one less trip to make).

Oliver didn’t mind the sprinkler, but enjoyed it more when it was off.  Bella loved the sprinkler, or maybe it was just because I was holding her and swinging her around upside down through it.

Bella continued to roll off the towel onto the grass.  She seems to love the grass, she doesn’t mind having her face on it, and always wants to have her feet in it.

Oliver actually had more fun playing with Elle’s ball thrower than he did with the water.  Whatever makes them happy and keeps them occupied!

And they both finally went down for a nap once we went inside.

Tired of Being Tired

I’m tired.

I’m tired of having to talk about the same things over and over.  Nothing seems to change around here.

I’m tired of Bella always being sick, having something wrong, playing the guessing game.

We are going on two months now of every day being a struggle because things just aren’t right with Bella.  We have been in to see various doctors and nothing seems to help.

Most of all, I feel bad for Bella who has been sick for 2 months and no one can figure out why.  And by sick I mean getting fevers off and on, having a continuous runny nose, coughing, waking up every night, having to be hospitalized for pneumonia (not sure that was even a correct diagnosis), missing more days of school than attending, and having to be fussy EVERY DAY because no one understands you.

I’m sorry baby girl, we are trying!

Mostly a little Jesse

But just a little like me.

I spent hours, I mean HOURS, playing in the cupboards rearranging cans of food when I was little.  Oliver’s new favorite activity is to move the tuna cans all around the pantry.  It makes me smile when I go to grab the oatmeal and find a can hidden underneath.  Tricky little fellow he is!

Independence

We haven’t been around kids Bella’s age much, or at least for long periods of time.  We have nieces that are close in age, but most times we are around them they want to play with the adults.  We know that Bella takes a lot of work to care for, and that she is always with us.  What had not been so apparent was just how jealous we would feel.  Recently we have been over to friends who have kids Bella’s age.  On both occasions the kids would be in a separate floor of the house, or just go outside and ride bikes on their own.  In other words at around 5 years of age, they are pretty independent.  And suddenly we realize just how bad we have it.  The constant care that Bella needs.

I have read/seen that a lot of parents with special needs kids will have playrooms set up for their kids with televisions playing their favorite shows.  Because these kids can’t run around or play with “normal developing” toys, the television is an easy thing for them to watch and enjoy.  I am even jealous of them.  Because Bella does not really watch television.  I so wish that their was a show she enjoyed enough that she could watch it for an hour or so a day.  I would feel like she was getting a little extra interaction that did not involve direct mom or dad time.  It would feel a little like she was doing an independent activity.  I know it’s probably weird to wish your kid would watch television.  I definitely don’t wish she was parked in front of it all day long.  But every once in awhile if she would enjoy watching a Disney movie, or something along those lines, would be great in my eyes.

For now she still enjoys waving her toys around while she is on the floor.  I guess you could say this is an independent activity.  But I feel like it must be so boring for her, I don’t view it as playing, but rather something she fills her time with while mom and dad are occupied.  Maybe I shouldn’t view it as that, and then I wouldn’t have such guilt.

At least she sometimes has a buddy laying with her.  I often wonder if she knows they are close by.

From Frumpy to ?

Well I’ll let you decide.  But I’m pretty pleased.
This was my first attempt at “refashioning”.  It’s taking something you already own, or something used and sewing it into something that either fits better, or is more on trend.  Let’s just say I have three whole bins full of old clothes I hope to some day re-sew into things for myself or the kids.
I bought this black short sleeve blouse a year ago, and it was too big.  I should have returned it, but didn’t get around to it.  The skirt I have had for maybe 4 years, and I had worn it a couple of times, but it never quite looked right on me.

Now it’s turned into this.

I’d say it’s just a little bit better!

And just to keep it real.  Jesse makes fun of every single post I do when I have to model something.  I know I am not a model.  I don’t pretend to be.  I try to think of putting my body in weird angles like they say to do on top model, but again, I’m not a model.  It never turns out well, so maybe you too get a chuckle every time you see one of these posts.  Hey I’m okay if you laugh at me, at least we are laughing together!

Happy Birthday Dad a.k.a Jesse

Happy Birthday to the person who makes us laugh the most!

We love you!!

Bella has a new driveway

In the start to our very expensive transformation of our house to become more handicap accessible for Bella, we have put in a new circle drive.  This will eventually allow us to load and unload Bella from our main floor, instead of having to carry her downstairs to the garage.

Oliver was our hired inspector, he diligently watched to make sure they were doing their job correctly.  I won’t comment on his observances yet, he and dad have a long list of punch list items.

Of course we still have to build a new porch/ramp in order to correctly use the concrete drive, especially for Bella’s bus trips.  We can hopefully get that in sometime this summer/early fall.

Down Time

I alluded to a big project we had in the works that would be happening soon.  Well it started on Monday.  It’s a big construction project, and the first thing that happened….the internet went down.  It took two days to get repaired so we are finally up and running again.  I will update soon with the construction project itself, but I wanted to let you know we were still around, just were not able to get online!