Ollie, Oliver!

The title of this post is dedicated to the song that Gavin invented for his new little brother, Oliver.  It goes like this:

Ollie
Oliver!
Ollie,
Oliver!
Ollie,
Oliver!
Ollie,
Oliver!

Pretty much like that.  Over and over and over in a chant sort of way.

So Oliver is like the best baby ever.  No but really, he is just a total angel baby.  He hardly ever cries unless he is super hungry and even then once he can see me getting ready to feed him, he'll stop crying and wait for his "food" to emerge.  After he has eaten, he'll smile and stare and just "be" until he falls asleep.  It has been amazing.  We all love him so much.  Sometimes Gavin overly loves him with his gigantic head or laying on him but it all comes from a good place so we can't really complain.  Constant vigilance is what we have to do around here.  I can't believe he is already 2 months old.  It seems like just yesterday we were in the hospital worrying about whether or not he was ever going to be hungry and try and latch onto me.  I want time to slow down.  Sometimes we get so caught up in the day to day stuff that we forget to just sit down and let the kids hold him in their awkward and dangerous ways (how else will they improve?) or just all hang out together.

I promise at some point I'll get to his birth story but for now, I'll just say that we love him and we're so glad he is in our family!

Happy Fall Y'all

It will kill me until forever that we'll never know what these apples are called.  They are the most delicious apples.  They are crispy but not hard, tart but not sour and they make the best applesauce in the world!  I don't even think I have ever followed a recipe for applesauce.  I just add cinnamon and little water so the apples don't scorch the bottom of the pot and then that's it.  No sugar even!  My favorite fall dessert is gingerbread with applesauce and cinnamonned (made that word up) whipped cream.  Doesn't get much better than that!

I think they will be mourned and missed every Fall once we're out of Canada.  Until then, we'll be enjoying lots of applesauce, apple crisp, and baked oatmeal with apples.  Yum, yum, yum!

Service Time

 

It was the annual food drive again this year and we finally got down a good routine.  Chloe was excited to play a bigger role in running from house to house while I drove slowly with our trunk open and the hazard lights on.  Tati was finally big enough to get out and help too and she even lasted longer than we expected her to.  Gavin on the other hand was just happy to watch a movie and eat some caramel popcorn.  We were a bit bummed to see how few people donated food this year especially since we put the flyers out with more notice than we did last time but I guess we should focus on the food we did get and the effort we made.  Plus, we can't forget about the good influence this whole program is on our kids and teaching them the importance of service!

2 Months Old!

 

Oh my goodness Oliver just cracks me up in that right picture!  He looks so dorky but cute and hilarious.  So what can Ollie do this month?

• He follows your voice with his eyes.
• He breaths fast when he gets excited.
• He moves his arms all around crazy when he gets excited.
• Smiles.
• Nurses lying down.

Other than that, he's just so mellow.  Sometimes I think he's dead because he is just so quiet and sleeps and sleeps or I think he's asleep because he's so quiet but then I notice he's actually awake and just chillin and taking in the world around him.  I just love him so much!  I wish I could have like 50 more of him without having to get fat and then have a c-section to make it happen.  ;-)

Sunday Sanity

 

Maybe it is just our family, but it seems like Sundays are our worst days.  It feels like it shouldn't be that way especially since we go to church and really make an effort to devote the day to the Lord, but that is the truth.  It is the day the kids seem most out of control and the day that me and Greg seem to most annoy each other (which could also be greatly influenced by experiences like this one pictured).  Gavin is in a very difficult phase right now.  Everything seems to be life or death to him and he will cry and cry and whine and whine and be so irrational.  So I'm just putting this out there for those of you who can relate to this picture.  You're not alone.  I know I'm not alone but sometimes it feels good and helpful to myself to admit it that I know we're not the only ones who struggle with our kids or with Sundays.

But let's all just not give up, ok?

Handsome Hair

I cute Gavin's hair and I was so THRILLED at how well it turned out!  I love him and his cute smile and even though it is annoying at times, I love how he'll never look at me in the eyes when I'm trying to take his picture.  He just wants to keep it real all day long.  ;-)

The frustrating thing about this success is that I really feel like I didn't do anything different except that it turned out so much better.  Let's hope I can pull it off again in a few months (if his hair can last that long)!

Our little artist

 

I just love this whole series of pictures because this is just so Gavin.  I asked him if he wanted to paint while he was still in his jammies.  Then he came downstairs naked and said he was ready.  I tried to convince him to put clothes on and a painting apron on top of clothes to protect his clothes from the paint when it dawned on me that if he painted naked, I didn't have to worry about any paint spilling on his clothes. (We have a BUNCH of craft paints from old projects and even some I picked up from church and sadly they are not "washable" so even though I think painting is fun, it kills me how quickly they can ruin the kids clothes.  I want to buy some kid/washable paints but I can't bring myself to waste all these perfectly good and still pretty full ones.)  So I let him go crazy and it made him so happy.  And since he is very unhappy these days in his wonderful mood swings, I thought I'd enjoy some "Happy Gavin" time.

Smiler

Finally caught his first smile!

1st Day of School

I know I still haven't written about my newest child, but my two oldest started school today.  I forgot how much work it is to get out the door on time.  We did a lot of prep last night:  outfits, school supplies, backpacks, snacks, water, extra socks in backpacks, etc.  Even still we were cutting it pretty close this morning.  It seemed like we were just going to make it with time to walk to school when suddenly Gavin decided to puke.  All. over. the. carpet. in. his. room.  And it was a stanky puke.  So we had to bag the idea of walking and pray that we'd even be on time driving.  I knew that I needed help.  I couldn't take Gavin into a kindergarten class with who knows what germs and possibly puking again.  Greg couldn't help because he HAD to be at school for a meeting.  Luckily I was able to snag a friend at the last minute to stand next to my car and guard my baby and watch Gavin play on the grass with his car while I ran inside with Tati and had a quicky kindergarten orientation.  Tati was bursting with excitement as we walked across the field.  She and Chloe made plans to meet at recess and Tati couldn't wipe the smile off her face.   I was worried about abandoning Chloe to walk to her new classroom alone but she was excited to not have a parent with her.  She said, "Don't worry Mom.  I'll tell you all about it later.  You just go be with Tati."  We finally got to the bustling classroom and Tati enjoyed getting her name tag on and seeing her cubby and hanging up her sweater and backpack and putting on her "inside" shoes. 

I gave her a quick tour of the bathroom and told her to go and sit on the rug and then, suddenly, she burst into tears.  She was trying so hard to make them stop or slow down but she just couldn't.  I knew I needed to keep it together for her sake but I was really sad too.  She seems so grown up now.  The teacher was so great and had Tati come and be her "special helper" and distracted the other kids who also started to cry.  Then I, along with all the other parents, left.

I had to rush home and feed the babe before I took him for a doctor's check up.  And thankfully, Gavin didn't puke any more.

I couldn't be there to pick her up but Greg was able to pick her up from school after his morning meeting and they had some great bonding time walking home from school together.  Once we made it home, she told me how much she LOVES school and how she only cried for like 2 or 3 minutes after I left.  And now she is excited to go back tomorrow.  They even played freeze tag.

Greg picked up Chloe from school also.  She loved seeing all her old friends and assured me that she didn't forget how to understand or speak French over the summer.  Phew.

The only down side of Chloe's day occurred once she was home and eating an after school popsicle.  She had a nosebleed.  It was quite a hot and dry day and she was rubbing her nose ("Julie style"--if you know what that means.) and it started.  It was fast and furious.  She knows how to handle a nose bleed and can usually do it without panic but this time something horrible happened:  she started to bleed out of her eyes.  It was hard for me and Greg not to freak out on that one.  Thanks to google, we discovered that it can be a common side effect of a bad nose bleed.  "During a severe nosebleed, don't be surprised if blood starts dripping from the corner of your eye next to your nose. The lacrimal duct there is connected to the nasal sinuses and blood can flow out of it during a bad nosebleed."  But as soon as the nose slowed down, the eyes stopped.  But it was scary and gross and freaky.  I'm just glad we didn't have to go to the hospital.

Afterward, she was a bit weak and queasy (And so was I.) so she just relaxed the rest of the evening and even chose to go to bed early.  Luckily when she woke up today, she was all good.  We started up the humidifier in her room so hopefully we'll be able to stave it off.