oliver jack is 18 months old...

this month not only introduced our family to the newest addition, but also welcomed oliver jack to his 18th month. he has continued to be a complete joy...even in the moments where he is completely impossible he manages to maintain the most fun disposition. well, most days. :)

he is beginning to put 2 and sometimes 3 words together. he says, "find harper", "hit it", "snack please"...all the important phrases are covered.

he has also taken advantage of the new level of distraction i find myself in. every time i am nursing or bathing finley, jack finds something to get himself into. after giving finley rose a bath one evening i walked into the kitchen to find jack next to the counter on a chair (which he had pulled up to the counter) and eating a peach. he was quite pleased with himself. so pleased in fact that he repeated the task the following morning while i was feeding the baby and even decided to elaborate on his mischief a little more by taking a few bites out of every single peach in the bag.

another day he walked into the living room, where i was nursing the baby, holding a container of bleach. he walked up to me proudly displaying his bounty saying, "milk! milk!". awesomely, oliver jack has learned how to undo the baby proofing that we have done.

yet another feeding led me to find jack in the workroom sitting on harper's desk coloring with markers. as i rounded the corner, he looked at me and shook his head and said, "no desk." that's right, jack. we do not color on the desk. he was, once again, super pleased with himself.

if any of my children are going to get into mischief it will be jack. in fact, i have taken to expect mischief from him on levels that kyle has not yet grown to expect. for instance...i know the minute he disappears that he has either climbed something or thrown something in the toilet. i also know that if he peeks around the corner at me and grins that he is planning a covert snack attack on the kitchen.

he, surprisingly, is the most attentive to the baby. he wants to hold her all of the time. he wants to kiss her and he is very concerned about her umbilical cord (which has recently revealed a sweet little belly button). he helps bring diapers and burp cloths and sings to her when she is laying on the couch. he is possessive of her and dares anyone to try and take her out of his arms before he is ready. he has completely surprised me with his cool approach to this whole baby thing. i am not sure why it surprises me really though, because he has always been laid back, but i never expected him to take this so easy.

in fairness, he has had many more tantrums and moments of irritability. those moments have not been fun, but considering all he has recently adjusted to we have been more than pleased.

he is so much fun...even though he cannot be trusted.

he is so sweet...

he is so in love with all of his family

and we are so in love with him!

an explanation...

the reason i had four children was so that i could always have an excuse for having a dirty house.

here's the story...

(calvary seizes an opportunity)

(my four couch potatoes)

so everyone says that every birth and every baby are different and for the most part i would have thought that i agreed...that was until i had a birth and baby that was truly different than every other baby that i have had...and considering that i now have 4 small children i have a considerable knowledge base from which to pull.

i went to the doctor on my due date, june 14th, and was informed that my body had made absolutely no change or shift towards labor. they asked me to come in 4 days later to see if there was any difference. i ate spicy food, i bounced on a ball, i pulled 2 children and all their stuff in a wagon up to the pool (sorry harper...somebody has to walk), and prayed that my body would welcome this baby. still no change. the doctor scheduled me to be induced starting sunday night.

kyle and i headed to the hospital sunday night and everything just felt so different. the difference made me nervous. i knew what to expect with all the others. i came into the hospital early friday morning and had a baby sometime that day. but it felt weird going into the hospital that evening with all of the staff sitting at the desk looking at me and me knowing that we were all going to make this baby come out...even though my body clearly had decided otherwise. the next morning i was hooked up to the pitocin and we just waited. and waited. and waited. i walked around and stood up until a little after noon when i decided i would get an epidural. again, it felt so weird because i was so aware of what was going on. once the epidural set in i figured she would come soon. but we waited. and waited. and waited. the epidural was crazy. unlike any other i had, which again, made me nervous. i thought i knew what epidurals felt like but apparently some epidurals felt like the one i had that day which meant that i would feel nothing. i could barely move my legs at all because they were almost completely numb. at one point my right leg brushed against something and i looked down to see what was in the bed. it was my other leg. with every other baby i knew when it was time to push and i could feel everything associated with knowing it was time to push...however, this time the nurse and doctor came in and said, "i think it is time for you to push...yep. you're ready." all i could say was, "okay." i still could not feel anything. i just told kyle as everyone got into position that, "i guess this is what we're doing now." about 5 minutes after the doctor came in and told me it was time to push, i was holding finley rose in my arms. she was beautiful and looked exactly like calvary...with much more hair.

the rest of the evening was spent visiting and waiting for the feeling to return to my legs. finley was born at 5:30 in the evening and was not until almost midnight that i could walk. it was nice not feeling anything, but if this had been my first baby i think i may have been totally freaked out and left not knowing how to push or what to do because i had absolutely no instinctive desire to push whatsoever. i just did what i had done before.

thankfully we have amazing friends and family that helped out with harper, calvary, and oliver jack and kyle and i knew that while we were at the hospital they were having the best time. calvary and oliver jack were spoiled by nana basically making her house into summer camp with swimming and parks and lots of activities. harper spent the time with our newest, but feel like oldest, friends playing with the boys, making concotions out of berries, riding four wheelers, swimming, and falling asleep with the tv on...they had so much fun that we were all still in bed at 9:30 the morning after they got home.

this week we have spent transitioning into our new life. kyle has been home so it has been a bit unrealistic for me so far. we'll see the reality after this week. but so far finley just fits right in. harper, of course, adores her. calvary, surprisingly, adores her. and oliver jack, when he remembers that she exists, adores her.

so far so good...

she made it home...

anticipation is not my friend...

her bed is waiting...

her little wardrobe and baby seat are waiting...

her teeny, tiny nursery is waiting...

her tiny clothes are ready to be filled with her tiny body...

her car seat is waiting to take her home...

her bassinet is waiting to cradle her while she sleeps...



but....

she is still in here!

if she doesn't come soon, this smile will fade

sweet summer...

watermelon is one of my favorite parts of summer. i can pretty much down a whole melon by myself in one sitting. i knew that my girl would love it as much as i do and oliver jack loves just about anything edible...i thought if i could get the sweetness on calvary's lips he would figure out how delectable it is and that he would soon be as asphyxiated as i am.

however, calvary is far too neat for a treat like watermelon. even cut up and put into a bowl proved to be too juicy for my sensory sensitive boy. he opted instead for an apple, cut up of course to keep any juice from dripping down his arm, and placed into a baggie.

the only thing calvary despises more than walking is a mess so he refused to get into the wagon or be anywhere near the dripping, sticky mess of the melon.

sigh.