4/52

4/52
Watching his imagination come to life brings more joy to my days than I can describe

 "A portrait of my child, once a week, every week, in 2014"

Long, cold days indoors this last week have brought out the creativity in all of us; building forts, playing Play-Doh, baking muffins, playing in the sink, and running rope lights around the house after dinner. We've even become avid watchers of Wheel-of-Fortune before bath time. After dinner, Avery grabs our hands and leads us to the couch ready to watch the wheel spin. As the contestants shout out letters, Avery shouts them right back at the screen. It's an alphabet learning game! He loves it! 

Linking up with Jodi and some pretty talented mama-photographers HERE

Baby's Quilt - Finished!

I just wanted to pop in and share a couple photos of baby boy's finished quilt! I've been spending most of Avery's napping hours working on it over the last few weeks and although I'm glad to cross one more thing off my list, I will miss the therapeutic time spent working on it. 

My second quilt not only went much more smoothly than the first, but it's also much more straight and square. (Avery's quilt was quite a learning experience...) I used the same pattern (pattern found here) but chose a very different color scheme, one that matches baby's nursery perfectly. Here's a sneak peek of the quilt in it's new space, more pictures to come (hopefully it will be complete very soon!)

As my list becomes shorter, my belly certainly continues to grow and baby boy is making himself much more of a presence. Avery finds it very funny that my belly button is more of a real 'button' these days and he takes every opportunity to press it and giggle :)  Beep beep!

32 weeks!

Project 52: The beginning

1/52
Avery's 'Whoa!" Face

2/52
Giggles... I'll never get enough of his giggles

3/52
Avery does tricks!

"A portrait of my child, once a week, every week, in 2014"

 

Let me start off this post by telling you that once baby boy #2 arrives (in less than two months... what?!), I am going to be focusing on one thing: simplicity.

I'm not going to overwhelm myself with projects I can't finish and I'm really going to focus on living in the here and now.  That said, there are a couple of projects that I'm going to hang on to and hopefully stick with over the next year. They revolve around documenting and archiving those everyday fleeting baby (and toddler) moments that fly by at a ridiculously fast pace. 

When Avery was born, Wednesdays became 'photo shoot days' and I took a photo of him every Wednesday for his first year of life. I LOVE the 52 pictures that show my little baby's crazy fast grown so much that I will be beginning that project with baby boy #2 come March. I really believe I learned a lot the first time around and became much more efficient in the 52 weeks of photos, so hopefully it will be a low-pressure project.

Recently, a friend introduced me to the 52 Project and at first I was reluctant to get on board with it (simplicity, simplicity, simplicity...) but I realized that it is essentially exactly what I'll be doing with baby boy and the 52 project would be a great way for me to continue to document Avery's growth and development during this time of great change and transition. It will help me to take a few minutes every week with my first baby and help me to keep my blog more updated. I'll also be linking up to the 52 Project on this website to hopefully keep me on track.  Notice that since I'm three weeks behind in starting this project, I've posted 3 pictures all taken in the same day. I'm giving myself a free pass this time, but plan on keeping up weekly!

This project with Avery will definitely be a challenge for me because he is anything but

Did I mention Avery is becoming much
harder to photograph these days?
Believe it or not, this was taken
AFTER his nap!

sedentary and therefore very hard for me to photograph (especially indoors in the dead of winter). He has become VERY aware of the camera and our photo shoots usually consist of him either whining to hold the camera himself or wanting to only look at images of himself on the screen. Hopefully this challenge will make me a better 'mama photographer' and give me 52 priceless images of my big baby that I know I will treasure at the end of this crazy year.

Once baby arrives, I plan to make photography and blogging more of a priority. For now, I'm in full preparation mode over here finishing baby boy's nursery, filling my freezer with meals, finishing up loose ends around the house and doing silly exercises to get baby to flip around to be head down for his delivery in 2 months! I am thisclose to finishing his baby quilt (I've made this my main priority during naptime and after bedtime this last month, and am having a blast with what may be my last 'creative outlet' project in a while.) 

Thanks for hanging in there with me, here's a recent belly shot at 28 weeks. I'll be taking a new one tomorrow as I will be at 32 weeks! This pregnancy has flown by, I still can't believe in a couple of short months I will have a wobbly, wiggly, cuddly little boy in my arms again - we just brought Avery home last week, I swear!

Snow.

On Saturday morning, we woke up to a winter wonderland here in Indiana! It was a beautiful 32 degrees outside, so much of our day was spent outside making snowmen (and making up new verses to "Frosty"), crunching our tracks in the snow and sliding down the driveway.

It was such a beautiful, peaceful day - exactly what our little family needed.

Avery had a blast in the snow, playing until his little cheeks were rosy and he was out of breath from falling and picking his bundled-up self up time and time again. He even worked up the courage to take trips down the driveway in the sled all by himself- practicing up to spend some time on Grandpa Jim's sledding hill in a week!
It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas around here!

Avery @ 18 Months

Avery is quickly becoming quite the little boy. It's hard for me to believe that my baby is already a year and a half old. How he's changed in such a short amount of time!!  He's still the sweetest little guy ever and brightens my day every day, but has started showing many 'toddler' behaviors for which he has now learned what 'time out' means and often knows that's he's done something bad before he even does it... He's learning so many new things every day- it's such an amazing thing to watch. His speech is starting to blossom, his imagination is in full force and he's

How he greets me after his nap ;)

already showing some interest in potty training (crazy!). He naps/sleeps at night like a champ (something I'm so grateful for and am taking full advantage of for the next few months while I can!) and runs us both ragged during his waking hours :) I still don't know if he's ready for his world to be turned upside-down by a little brother in 3 months, but his sweet temperament tells me that even if it does take him by surprise, he'll still be such a good little helper to me and a great teacher for baby boy. Until then, I'm going to snuggle him extra tight, read him anything he crawls into my shrinking lap with, and teach him to be as independent as possible in the process.

 

Avery's favorite things: Music & dancing, using his step stool to be a big helper in the kitchen, playing in the sink, running, reading books, cleaning things, hide and seek, playing with the vacuum, 'talking on the phone' ('phone' being a calculator, remote, piece of tinsel, his hand - whatever he can find), hearing the garage door open knowing 'dada' is home, chasing Bella, hugging Bella, 'helping' Bella eat, (pretty much everything about Bella), snack time, coloring, vehicles of all kinds, Sesame Street ('B-Elmo' is his favorite), getting his way, bouncy balls, hammering things, climbing, flipping through magazines, hearing the doorbell ring, hiding under blankets, flashlights.

 

Taking photos of this rascal has become quite the challenge. I tried four different times to dress him in cute outfits and put him in front of a background to take some photos to document this fleeting age. Fail x4. The day I took these shots, he had just gotten up from his nap and was so happy just playing that I just took advantage of it. Pirate t-shirts are just as cute as striped button-ups, right? ;) Plus, this pretty much sums him up at 18 months!

I often miss the days of sitting him in the perfect light and shooting away while making funny faces and rattling things. These days, it's more of a workout for mom and a funny game of keep-away for Avery ;)

I'll leave you with a couple of cute videos from the last couple of months - excuse the bad lighting, sometimes I just grab the camera and start recording so as not to miss the moment :)
 

Avery's very serious (and apparently, private) phone conversation - one of about 40 a day:

 

And Avery at the pool - being brave and exploring the 'deep'!

My Cup Runneth Over.

I've been seeing so many 'thankful' posts on Facebook and such lately and although I'm not one to make daily posts, I thought I'd collect my thoughts and write a little list here of some of the things that I'm insanely grateful for and thank God for every day.

I'm thankful that I've been granted the title of 'mama'.
It continues to be the single most rewarding experience of my entire life. There are no words to explain the power of motherhood.

I'm thankful that 'mama' is also my current job title.

I'm grateful I get to be the one to see my baby's smiling face when he wakes up every morning, read him stories before nap, and kiss him goodnight every single day. I'm grateful that I get to be the one to make him breakfast, lunch, and dinner and we get to enjoy them together at our own pace every day. I'm grateful that I see and hear every giggle, new words and discoveries and kiss his tears away every day. I'm grateful that I get to be the one to teach him things and watch the outcome of those teachings every day. I know not everyone is able to experience these things so I'm forever grateful that we are in a place financially right now that makes it possible. The job doesn't come without its long days and daily struggles, but it's totally worth it.

I'm thankful for my crazy awesome husband. I'm still not sure how I'm so lucky that I get to spend my life with Justin, but every day I'm reminded of what an awesome choice I made. He is seriously a rockstar at his job (I can't even explain the awesome asset he is to his company...he's a true natural at what he does) and he works so hard every day so I'm able to stay home with Avery. He's hands-down the best father I could ever imagine and Avery adores his 'dada'. (The excitement that fills this house when the garage door opens at the end of the day is absolutely priceless.) Walking into Pizza Hut for that job interview six years ago has turned out to be one of the greatest decisions I've ever made - who knew?!

I'm thankful for my happy, healthy, tender-hearted little Avery. I know not every parent is blessed with a healthy child, so I thank God every day for Avery's health and pray that he continues to grow and develop as well as he has been. I love everything about him and his blossoming personality, I'll never get enough.
 



I'm thankful for the healthy baby that's growing inside me. With all my attention on my attention-loving toddler all day, it's easy for me to forget that baby's even there sometimes but his strong movements lately have reminded me he's growing ever bigger and stronger daily and continues to be healthy. The process of baby-growing is a pretty amazing thing.

I'm thankful to have vision in my left eye. I was driving yesterday and thinking about just over a year ago when I got smashed in the face with a baseball and how scary it was to not have any vision in that eye for about 6 hours. Having and using our senses is something that we all take for granted every day, but having one taken from you - even for a short time - is a humbling experience.

I'm thankful for the love and support of an amazing family. It's really hard being so far away from all of our family. But, even though we aren't close geographically at the time being, we manage to make the best of the situation and take the time to stay close. I'm thankful for the technology that allows us to do this and for the ability to share photos of the rapidly-growing Avery that they all love so much. 

I'm thankful my teacher training. Being an art teacher is the perfect fit for me and although I'm not currently using my degree, I don't regret the blood, sweat and tears that went into becoming an educator. All my college training and hours spent with kids have helped make me the person that I am and the two years I spent teaching 7th graders gave me an invaluable set of skills that I use every single day in my 'mama' role. I can't explain how crucial those two years were to my personal development and the profound impact they had on me, and I look back on them fondly often.

I'm thankful for our amazing friends who have become our 'Indiana family'. We moved to Indiana not knowing a soul and were on our own when it came to making connections and meeting new people. Luckily for us, moving into our home in this neighborhood turned out to be a God-send. We have met some of the most warm, friendly people that we are blessed to call our close friends and they have welcomed us into their families with open arms. We are all raising our babies together and have created a very strong circle of support - truly like a family. We love them all so much and can't imagine doing life without them.

Of course I'm always thankful to have our health, food on our table, an amazing home in a safe neighborhood and reliable vehicles to drive. We have more than enough and are so blessed in so many ways. Life is good. I hope you take a minute to count your blessings this season too :)
Happy Thanksgiving!

"He-man Avery"

It's so bittersweet to me that Avery has been doing so many more 'big boy' things lately, but I absolutely LOVE to see him react to new situations and experiences. Seeing things

"through the eyes of a child" is the greatest thing EVER. Here are a couple great ones I got photos of this last month:

Finding a 'fuzzy wuzzy' caterpillar for the first time: He literally SQUEALED and screamed

when he saw it. He loved to pick it up and watch it curl and uncurl in dad's hand. (He had also just found some Nerf darts that he was holding onto for dear life)

And this may be one of my favorite quick photo snaps of all time: His primal screaming/muscle showing during bath time one night. He sometimes gets downright delirious and crazy wild. It. Is. Hilarious. The photos are a little blurry from my phone, but his facial expressions kill me. Bath time is usually a highlight of our day, this one was one of the best :)

 I can't get enough of this child. He makes my day - every day, he's so funny!!

In other news: We recently got a new fridge and Avery has gone about re-arranging it approximately 9,234 times. Apparently I need to start teaching him about the term "energy bills"  (I'm such a sucker for that little face)

Baby Olive's close-up!

Today was an exciting day as we got to see our new little Olive via ultrasound, which means we've already made it halfway through pregnancy! Crazy! I remember with Avery, it seemed like time went by soooo slloooowwwllyy and my brain had a hard time focusing on anything but the little baby inside me, but this time I'm so busy chasing speedy little Avery around, time has just flown by!

Baby was a perfect angel during this ultrasound, just cuddled up in there as comfy as can be lightly kicking his legs stretching out- the ultrasound tech was so happy with all the awesome pictures she got of all his parts because was lying so still for her.  (I see his calm nature today as a sign of his future temperament :) 

 I'm so amazed at all the amazing things that we can see on an ultrasound, from every individual finger and toe to all the chambers of the little beating heart (and the cute little sticking out tongue!) I think I could sit and watch all day :)  The tech made a point to comment on what LONG toes he has... just like big brother (and daddy of course!)
 

We didn't get a good face shot because baby kept his hands up there the whole time (which is totally OK, fetal faces always look a little creepy to me anyway) I think the picture below makes him look like such a thinker :)

And, also like big brother, he gave us a perfect view of his BOY parts - Avery is going to have a baby brother! They will be such good buddies, I'm looking forward to seeing them together already :)

The tech noted that she couldn't be much more sure that baby is a boy - she gave it 99.9% because of the great views she got down there :) 

We found out that the placenta is placed in the front, which explains why I haven't felt quite as much movement as I did when I was pregnant with Avery, but last night both Justin and I got to feel a very powerful dance party going on in there, so he's a mover and a shaker like big brother! :) Overall, baby has all his parts and is growing perfectly, measuring in at 19 weeks 6 days, which means his due date of March 16 is spot on!

Happy Friday!

Exciting news for the Olive family!

At the end of July, we took an amazing family vacation to Maine to visit Justin's sister and family. While we were there, I felt quite a bit nauseous but just blamed it on all of the flying and driving (I'm no stranger to motion sickness) 

The day after we returned (August 1, our 4th wedding anniversary) I woke up still feeling pretty nauseous and decided to pick up a pregnancy test. Lo and behold, there were two pink lines staring back at us :)  Because I had no idea how far along I was, I got an early ultrasound a few days later that determined that I was already 8 weeks along! 

So come March 16, 2014, Avery will be upgraded to 'big brother' status! It's taken quite a while for it to sink in for me (we weren't necessarily 'expecting' a new baby yet, but God has other plans for us!) but now that I'm starting to pop a belly and am feeling some early 'flutters', it's becoming more real. 

It's hard to believe that I can ever love anyone as much as I love my Avery, but I've been told time and time again that a mama's heart just doubles and the love just multiplies. :)  I'm also very much looking forward to Avery being a big brother and having a little playmate. He is fascinated by babies (right now anyway) and is so gentle and kind I know he will be such a good little helper once baby makes his/her appearance. I am scheduled for another ultrasound on October 25 and on that day we will hopefully find out the gender of this new little one!

I've been trying to capture a few more videos of Avery lately because he's in such a fun stage right now and does so many things that pictures just can't capture. Here are a few of my favorites:

Avery the little fish! 
(I'm SO proud of how brave he is in the water!)

Bella is Avery's absolute favorite.
He is ALWAYS cuddling with her on the floor and gives her lots of kisses.

Unfortunately for Bella, he also enjoys getting her excited ;)

And, as a result of us visiting so many neat parks this summer that allowed Avery to feed different animals, he now feels that he should 'help' Bella with her dinner.
(bless Bella for being so patient and kind with Avery when all she wanted to do was eat ;)

Avery @ 15 months!

Hello again!

Avery turned 15 months old exactly one month ago today. I've been trying my best to 'unplug' a bit and enjoy what's left of these last hot summer days with my ever-curious, rapidly growing little boy. I realized the other day that I've also been leaving my camera in the bag for far too long (Avery is moving around so fast these days that I try my best to keep up with him and the camera is usually left behind) so one day a few weeks ago, we took a trip to the park for a photo shoot. Naturally, Avery gave up some pretty sweet faces for the camera :) 

Seriously people, I can't resist this sweet, sweet boy and all his silly faces. I'm so happy to see him becoming such a confident little character with a personality all his own. I find myself more and more smitten with him every day. Everything he does is the most hilarious, cute, magical thing ever. But everyone feels that way about their own babies, right? ;)

Every day Avery does something new and is soaking up everything around him, you can just see him learning. Lately, he's starting to say a few more words and usually tries new ones when prompted, waves at everyone we come across, throws straight-up temper tantrums (whew!), climbs up and down the stairs, climbs up and down the furniture, climbs in and out of the car, gives kisses (oh, the kisses!!), eats with a fork, drinks from a straw, shares with his little friends, makes the cutest 'whoa!' face when he sees something

exciting, hoards collects rocks and other small objects, 'vacuums' with anything that resembles a vacuum cleaner, is becoming a great golfer, hates getting his diaper changed, eats whole tomatoes straight off the vine, is such a good helper, brushes his own teeth, runs everywhere, gets skinned-up knees, 'swims' on his tummy in the bath, blows bubbles in the bath (this swimming-instructor mama beams with pride!), LOVES swinging, is an avid people watcher, spots bugs and follows them all over the yard, 'mows' the yard and driveway (the main source of the skinned knees), dances and wiggles to his own tune, reads books, would love to play in the refrigerator all  day moving items from shelf to shelf, sweeps the floor, loves to watch Shawn the Train with daddy after his bath, cuddles, and is just a generally kind, loving little boy.

It's hard for me to truly explain Avery in words. He is just turning into this amazing little person and I'm constantly humbled by him and am so incredibly blessed that I get to be his mama.

The Results Are In...

Since birth, Avery has had skin problems.

When he was a few months old and started to move around a bit, he lost his soft baby skin and has since been plagued by a rough, red, blotchy rash on his arms, legs, and the back of his neck. His pediatrician diagnosed him with 'seborrheic dermatitis' (pretty much a form of 'cradle cap' -dry skin- that affects other parts of the body) and said it should clear up on its own by the time he turned one. Until recently, we were able to deal with the rash pretty easily by slathering Avery in lotion numerous times a day and bathing him with a skin calming wash. Then the itching began. For both Avery and his mama this was like a form of slow torture. Avery got frustrated because he can't quite soothe the itch by scratching (the scratching only making the rash that much worse) and his mama was going mad watching this cycle continue.

When we took a trip to Tennessee for 4 days in May, Avery's rash miraculously cleared up for the time that we were gone. Then we returned home and within 24 hours and it had returned. This got us thinking that there may be something else causing Avery's skin irritation - something clearly environmental and something in our house. We brought this up to his pediatrician at his one year appointment and allergy testing was suggested. This was somewhat of a foreign concept to me as neither Justin or myself are allergic to anything, so the fact that our child may have one didn't seem very likely but I was willing to do just about anything to get some answers.

So to the allergist we went.

Spot #29 is the control (it was supposed to cause
a reaction). Spot #3 on the left is peanuts
and spot #19 is dog.

We'd heard horror stories about this scratch testing business, so I was a little apprehensive about going through with it (but like I said, we NEEDED some answers). To my surprise, Avery handled it very well, only crying for a few seconds and then was back to his happy self (it was comparable to how he reacts to shots). 

He was tested for 12 common allergens: 6 high-risk foods, dog, cat, and 2 types of dust mites. We then wandered around the office/waiting room with a semi-naked baby (who was extremely good-natured due to the fact that he was semi-naked :) for 15 minutes or so to see how he reacted to the irritants. After a few minutes, we started to notice one of the spots clearly showing a reaction. When we wandered or way back to the nurse, she informed us this spot was... *drum roll*...  PEANUTS. Of all things. (He also reacted slightly to dog. Thankfully, not enough to cause us to find a new home for Bella.)

We are now the parents of a child with a peanut allergy. Deep breath. I will resist the urge to place my child in a bubble for the rest of his childhood and/or never leave our home to venture into the dirty, peanut-infested world. Deep breath.

I wouldn't in a million years have guessed peanuts. #1 because we don't really eat many peanut products and #2 because I don't know a single person in our family blood line with a peanut allergy. (seriously, what IS it with the crazy increase in peanut allergies in recent years?!) The allergist assumes that his exposure is from my breast milk and/or from coming into indirect contact somewhere in our house. Since his reaction to the test was so severe, he sent us home with an Epipen and instructions to clear our home of all things nuts. (all peanuts AND tree nuts for now, until we can better narrow it down) Since he's never actually ingested any peanuts/peanut butter, we really have no idea what would happen. His rash may just flare or he may have trouble breathing. Yes. Peanuts may cause my baby to have trouble breathing. (...Deep breath...)

So, as we allow this information to sink in, I'm doing my best to do some research, read food labels, watch what Avery eats/touches, wipe down everything, and am doing my best to not become a crazy worried, over-protective, peanut-fighting mama ninja who views every outing as a possible catastrophe.

I give parents of children with allergies (or other conditions that are affected by environments they can't always control) a ton of credit. Parents have enough to worry about without having to think about the fact that coming into contact with a little nut may potentially cause babies to stop breathing (Ok. Enough doom and gloom already, there are FAR worse things we could be facing.)

Anyone out there dealing with a child with a nut allergy? I guess only 20% of babies grow out of it, so it may be a lifelong thing for Avery but my hope is that it continues to be mild and only irritate his skin (and our Epipen remains unused.)

On a good note, Avery's skin has been beautifully clear and smooth for the last couple of days! I hope this is a sign of how it will be now that we've pinpointed the problem :)

Chicago!

Last week, we made a day trip to Chicago to spend a day at the beach with Aunt Janessa and Eric! (It was a surprise to Janessa!) Unfortunately, the weather didn't cooperate with those plans but we still had an awesome day exploring Navy Pier and Millennium Park (our first time to both!) and any time spent with Aunt Janessa is always a blast. 

Avery had the best time walking the pier, dancing in the park, and flirting with himself (and a fancy little girl in pink) at Cloud Gate! It made my whole week to see our little man having so much fun toddling around such a big city :) 
His favorite thing?  The manhole cover!