Since I am thoroughly enjoying every moment with my baby, I want to keep track of all his milestones. I've been trying to get a picture of him every month on his birthday. 6 months is a BIG one...but I didn't get great pictures since I remembered after it was dark. Oh well...I have some pictures that are pretty close to the day. And hopefully very soon I will have my friend take some professional pictures of him!
Oliver
Silas
All of us are enjoying every single moment with this new baby. It is such a blessing to attain this kind of love and enjoyment of life. A blessing I know I would not have been able to appreciate if Elsa had lived. <3<3<3
Ollie's six month stats:
Height: 28 inches, 96th percentile
Weight: 18.5 pounds, 70th percentile
Head circumference: 17.75 inches, 85th percentile
Our pediatrician said he was the size of a 1 year old! Haha! He is still a bit smaller than our two other boys were at this age. He's babbling up a storm...so cute! He is social with everyone, but especially with his brothers and Brent and I. He grabs for EVERYTHING. He loves eating solid food and drinking water out of my glass. He started sticking his tongue out all the time, especially when he smiles. He likes to imitate sounds and blow raspberries. He still isn't quite sitting up independently, but he is very strong. He seems to be content to just be held or sit up in his super saucer. He also has NOT cut the two bottom front teeth which he has been working on for months! But he has become a lot less fussy since I started feeding him solids and he is sleeping better at night. I feed him avocado mixed with ground up brown rice every night before bed, and that has done a GREAT job of keeping him full at night.
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| such a sweetie! |
Now's as good a time as any I suppose, to finish catching up from the summer.
4th of July hike:
Just a favorite little lesser-known trail, where truly the wood is between worlds!
Upper Butte Creek Falls
It took FOREVER to drive here
(I had forgotten since the last time we came I was in a cocoon of grief).
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| I brought Brent's parents here while he was at work. |
4th of July party:
it was the BEST party EVER...hosted by the Hartley's. Barbecue, cotton candy, fun and games and TONS of fireworks!
Tara and her sweet little
The babies
sweet kisses!
Tara and Rachel are two friends who are very dear to me. They both supported me in different but crucial ways through the loss of Elsa. Tara was of course, a part of it. Rachel was my Visiting Teaching companion at church. Her baby ^ is only 4 months older than Elsa. Instead of feeling awkward and avoiding me, she went out of her way to find out how she could help me in my loss. She asked her sister who had a previous stillbirth what to do. She made us dinner, brought us a plant (which traveled to Utah and back and is still alive in our dining room window), brought over the book Tear Soup, and sent cards to me every month in the mail with comforting scriptures. I will never forget how she did not run away, but made my burden light.
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| Thank you Rachel |
Some fun and games before the fireworks!
Mt. St. Helens:
still active...ever steaming
from inside the visitors center
arrayed in hues of violet
and surrounded by 30 year old dead wood
with hints of new life here and there
lots of dead wood
a picnic by spirit lake
and a canoe ride for all!
Goodbyes to moving friends:
This really deserves its own post and 6 months ago would've been better, but I'm tired. Sorry friends! Love you! At least I'm finally getting these pictures posted.
Tara, Kate and Katie...aren't we cute?
(one of the reasons I started going by Kate was because of all the 500 Katie's who lived in my ward)
Tara's and Katie's babies who were born 1 month after Elsa
SO PRESH!
Last year at almost the exact date, we had a picture take of the three of us with our matching pregnant bellies...now here we are a year later!
friends 4eva!
Wheeeee-Hooooo! Am I EVER glad that is NOT me anymore.
(hot, hot, tired, sore, can barely walk...about to go into labor any day...yet I'm chillin' at the Pittock Mansion with the fam!)
Since the blog posts are flowing nicely in my mind, I thought that I would continue to catch up on some summer events that I missed.
Toby was too cute to not put this picture in...the kid in need of a haircut!
See, the grandparents came to town...and we took them to the Pittock Mansion, the Classical Chinese Garden and to Mt. St. Helens. Whew!
I just have to say...I feel an overwhelming sense of gratitude today.
At times in the past year since I found out I was having another boy I have thought to myself "3 boys in my family?!? That's not how it was supposed to happen."
I was supposed to be one of those families with 2 boys and then a girl. And then another boy. I have always felt that. And when I found out Elsa was a girl, I expected that to be my life. I have to stop myself to remember that just because she died, it doesn't change that...2 boys, 1 girl and then another boy. But I've struggled with the thought of 3 boys. Not with each child individually, because I love them each fiercely! Just with the idea of 3 boys. It doesn't help that the world seems to frown down upon lots of little boys. People don't want to deal with the energy, I guess.
But lately I've been thinking about how Elsa died...about how nothing really happened that caused her to die. There was no accident or fall or breakage of anything other than her little umbilical vein. Just one little vein and life is over (for now). LIFE is really quite fragile and unpredictable. But it is also STRONG and consistent. But you never know which you're going to end up with. And so with that thought, my heart is won over. I will cherish every single energy-sucking moment with my boys. Because who knows how long we'll have it.
Oliver, oh my sweet Oliver. Today I was holding, squeezing and tickling him and he was squirming with joy and rumbling belly laughs. He is so soft and warm and round and squishy and ALIVE. He is the sweetness in my cookie life. I am SO lucky and joyous that he is here. And so I am not going to let anyone or anything distract me from that joy. No, not the passers-by who comment about my kids or ALL my boys. And for now I feel happy and content with 3 boys...but not just with 3 boys. I've got Joshua, Toby and Oliver on this earth. And this summer I'm going to romp and play like I haven't for 2 whole years!
I really wanted to say thanks to everyone who made an effort to let me know that they're still thinking about Elsa. Your words and kindnesses have touched me, just as they did in the beginning of my new life.
Ollie had his first lovely parky-park swing ride:
And he had some fun swinging with his buddy too:
This last picture is to prove that we do occasionally have crystal clear skies and sunsets
in Portland in the winter.
Yeah, we had nice weather in January...but now we're freezing in February!
