End of July (19-31)

After we got back from a few days in Philomath, we tried to get back into normal life and get our schedule straight. I was definitely feeling the closeness of Carter arriving, and didn't feel like straying too far from home. I also was a lot less mobile and willing to get on the ground a play, so I did a lot of picture taking!

 

This was just taken in the backyard, where Olivia found a bug. Dad helped her get it onto a stick and she walked it around for a good ten minutes before waving it around violently to get the bug off...oh well!

 

We also spent a lot of time at the park. One particular day we saw our neighbors who have a daughter just slightly younger than Olivia. O loves this little girl, and is always talking about her, even when we haven't seen the family in weeks. This was only the second time we had ever seen them, but the girls were quick friends, and co-conspirators.

Just a quick note: I also found a see-n-say (original) at a garage sale this day. I am always ecstatic to find toys that I remember from my youth, and this one was even better because O fell in love with it immediately.

I just love me some shish-ka-bobs! And I appreciate a husband who is always willing to grill, even when he's on baby duty and has his hands full :)

This evening after some yummy grilled food, Alex and I had an at-home date with a movie and s'mores outside. It was really fun, and I'm craving marshmallows just thinking about it :) I love my husband, and am always grateful when he works to make a fun evening surprise for me, even when we are stuck at home :).

On the 23rd, I packed my hospital bag. Yes it was too early. Yes I ended up wearing most of the clothes and repacking it a few times. Yes this is a first-time mom thing that I did with my 2nd child. My only excuse is that I like being prepared, and checking things off my to-do list.

As I had been preparing for the new baby, Olivia decided to brush up on her skills as well. She spent of time the last few weeks of my pregnancy wrapping the baby, puting her into the carseat, and then whipping her back out.

On July 25th I got serious about making this baby come out. I wasn't due for about three more weeks, but I was pretty miserable, and to the point of every movement hurting. I knew that I wasn't being a great mom to Olivia, and even though I had lots of help and she was a happy girl, I definitely wanted to  have the baby and move on to the next stage of parenthood. I borrowed an exercise ball from Danielle, who came over to play with O that evening. Needless to say, they had a blast :). This was also the beginning of the Olympics, so I spent a lot of my evenings sitting and rocking on the ball (if Andy didn't get to it first :))... just hoping for an early arrival of Mr. Carter.

The last weekend in July was super warm, but there was a steam engine festival in Brooks that I really wanted to go see. It was only for two weekends, and the first weekend in August was going to be even hotter (plus hopefully we would be in the hospital with baby...) so we packed up our sunscreen and water bottles and headed to the Great Oregon Steam-Up.

It was super fun to see all the old engines, and to see how SLOW they all went. My everything-on-a-schedule and efficient as possible brain would have had a hard time living 100 years ago. But we got to ride on this mini train thing that went on a long track that looped all around, had bridges and water features, and lots of mini landscaping :). It was really fun, but cameras weren't allowed on the ride, so I just have the one of us all getting on.

Olivia wanted to have an exercise ball to sit on too, so she went through a few days of sitting on every ball she could find. This one is pretty good sized, but that included golf balls, ping pong balls, and just about everything. She would just sit and bounce like Mommy...what a little parrot!

I wish I had a picture for this story, but Olivia has just started doing hilarious kid things and really trying to listen and obey as best she can. One example of this was after a big snack, I gave her her sippy cup and told her to take a big drink because her tummy was full and needed some water. I looked over a second later to see her lifting her shirt and shaking her sippy cup into her belly button...guess that is the fastest way to the tummy!

We celebrated the last day of July with a trip to Osborn Aquatic Center in Corvallis. We met my dad and Andy there, and had a great time. Unfortunately, Grandpa had to leave before the slide opened, and before I pulled out my camera, but evreyone had fun. I love these two pictures above each other, because it shows the top and bottom part of the slide...almost like one picture!

Alex was really careful to not pull Olivia under for a long time, but the slide is really fast, so it pushed him even further into the water...:)

Love Andy's peace signs here!

And some great Uncle pictures! It was great to have Andy there so I didn't have to stay in for very long. Needless to say I was pretty huge at this point, and not wanting to be photographed.

And that's July! I would have a much easier time catching up with the blog if we didn't have so many adventures this summer,but it's been a blast. And now I get to relive it all three months later!

Moving Weekend...back to Oregon!

Moving weekend at this point is all a blur. Mary and Gary got to our house Friday afternoon, after I had been without Alex for 4 days, and totally saved the move. We were able to get everything done we needed to, and play lots as well. I seriously can't say enough about how much help they were, but my facebook statuses kind of explain. My status from Friday morning is that I got into the shower with my breakfast (toaster waffles) in hand...breakfast ruined :(. Then, Saturday mid-day I said that I had gotten more sleep in two days than I could remember in weeks. The immediate turn around was amazing, and it was just really nice to see some friendly faces!

Olivia didn't take much time getting reacquainted (we had seen the Casqueiros in March, so it hadn't been too long) and was thrilled to have someone besides her boring mom to play with. Saturday morning we all got dressed nice (ok so Olivia looked great, and the rest of us just walked counted on her getting the attention) to visit Mary's Aunt Marie. This makes Marie Olivia's Great Great Aunt, and she lived about half an hour from our apartment in Fresno. We were so glad to get the opportunity to go see her before we moved back.

Just a couple happy girl pictures on the way to the car that morning. These are some of the first pictures where Olivia just looks like a kid to me. It may be her hair pulled back, but her expressions and independence contribute to the fact that her baby-ness is totally gone.

As any mom would be, I was really nervous going to visit Aunt Marie. I am bringing my 18 month old who loves to explore into a new environment. I have no idea if she will be the crazy child that occasionally appears or the angel child that normally graces us. The house is beautifully decorated with family treasures, and I only have a few toys that I brought with me in my purse. So going in, I was prepared to be rude and only talk for a minute before I took Olivia outside to play. However, Aunt Marie was so wonderful, and Olivia did very well. She did find some things she wanted to explore and see, but was careful when I asked her to be, and quiet enough to let us chat. I had a wonderful time meeting Marie, and was glad to get this picture of Marie, Mary, and Olivia before we left. She is a wonderful lady, and very fun to chat with.

Saturday afternoon we mostly packed and organized, because my parents would get to Fresno with the moving truck on Sunday morning. They spent the first half of the weekend moving Emily down to Sacramento from Corvallis, and spent the second half moving our little family back up...THANKS!

I wish I had pictures of the moving truck. I was really worried, because we had accumulated some stuff while in Fresno (mostly baby and kid stuff) and were using the same size of moving truck. I shouldn't have been worried at all though, because between the two Gary's, there was a good 2 feet left in the truck when it was fully packed. In fact, we didn't even disassemble Olivia's crib before moving it. I was amazed.

Sunday after all the packing was complete and our apartment was empty (save some overnight stuff for us and an air mattress and some clothes for Alex, who was staying behind to finish his job), we had some extra time so we went back to the splash park! I couldn't believe that we had time to play on moving day, but it was really fun to go with all the grandparents, and I basically just sat on the park bench and let them all play together. My dad was leaving that evening (to get a head start with the slow-moving truck), so we went out to dinner before he left. Alex flew into the Fresno airport at 7, so his parents picked him up and met us at the restaurant. What this meant was that Olivia, who was already WAY beyond her realm of normal and completely exhausted, went to a restaurant in pajamas at bedtime. Probably not the brightest idea, and the craziness was compounded when in walks her daddy, who she hasn't seen all week, and not a lot for the 3 weeks before that. Let's just say it was a loud meal, and I was glad we were at Applebee's :). I really wanted Olivia and Alex to be able to play and stuff, since we would be leaving him for another 10 days or so - honestly we didn't know whether it would be a week or 3 weeks - so I was okay with loud at dinner.

Here's the picture of everyone together (I'm behind the camera), and you can see Alex trying to smile through his grimace of holding Olivia, and the grandparents all holding back snickers :) I love it!

And then we started the move process. I went with my mom to the store after dinner to get moving snacks and a couple things Alex needed, and left Alex to put Olivia to bed (on her mattress with no crib). It might not have been the best plan, because Olivia refused to go to bed for him, and ended up only sleeping a few hours that night. Alex and I were in desperate need of some time together, which we didn't get enough of, and by the time morning came, I was a wreck. It was unbelievably hard to leave Alex again, not knowing when he would be able to join us in Oregon, and knowing that I was taking Olivia by myself, after doing the solo pregnant parent thing for too long already. This whole experience has really made me appreciate my wonderful husband and respect parents all over the world who face single parenting every day.

So the actual logistics of the move was a little crazy. My dad left in the moving truck Sunday evening. My mom, Olivia and I left in our Escape at 7 AM on Monday, and Mary and Gary left about an hour after that. We didn't carpool because our car was going to stop to see Emily's new place (I hadn't seen her since Christmas) in Sacramento. The morning went very well, once I got past my tears. We made goo time right up until about Shasta, then things went the way travelling with a toddler is 'supposed' to go. Olivia had three blowout diapers in the span of three hours, ran out of travel clothes (which meant unpacking the back of the car to get at more diapers and clothes, I just didn't expect to need more than two extra outfits :) ), and was overall restless and ready to get out of the car. She developed her worst diaper rash ever, and refused to sit down or lay down (diaper changing was an adventure) for the last few hours, and wasn't eating very well. Here's a picture of the outfit she ended up in...not exactly her usual matching clothes but I didn't care. We are eating at a McDonald's, where she refused to eat a bite until my mom just gave her the whole hamburger...which she ate wonderfully. At this point I was very forgiving, and feeling bad for her uncomfortable situation, so we just kept trucking until we finally got to the Johnson residence in Philomath.

Tuesday (May 29th) was truck unpacking day. Our stuff was being divided into storage and the Casqueiro house (where we are now living), so it was a slightly complicated process, and I needed to be totally involved. This was made a little difficult by the fact that I had had no sleep, had a grumpy, sick toddler, and was pregnant enough that I couldn't actually move anything, but luckily for me, my amazing family came to the rescue again :). I drove up to Salem, my dad drove the truck up, and Gary, Ashley, Andy, and Travis met us at the storage unit to help unload/babysit. Somehow in all that mess, Olivia ended up without shoes, so I was really glad Ashley was there to entertain her until we could find a bin of too-big shoes to put her in.

Unloading went very fast, and after we were fairly sure the storage stuff was in storage and the house stuff was back in the truck, my dad headed out (we were interrupting another work day for him...thanks again dad!) and the rest of us headed back to the Casqueiros for some more unloading. Again, I can't say enough about the help we received. There is NO WAY I could have pulled off this move without everyone involved, and it was 10 times easier than I thought it would be.

After returning the truck and going to lunch, we headed back home (to our new home) to relax for the afternoon. Olivia and I were actually spending the week in Philomath with my parents, so I wanted to get our stuff as out of the way and put away as possible before leaving again, but I ended up just relaxing and chatting with family, and left all the unpacking for another day.

As you can see from the next few pictures, Olivia was again enjoying the new friends and entertainment, and loved showing off for everyone who was so anxious to see her new tricks :)

She had never warmed up to a guy as fast as Travis, but the iPad was a great ice-breaker!

Watering the plants with Grandma before we left. This has become one of her favorite parts of the day, and I'm sure she will be sad when it starts raining again and the plants don't need watered every day.

Right after dinner we headed back down to Philomath for the week. I was really glad to have the chance to hang out with my family before we officially moved to Keizer, because even the hour-long trip to visit happens far less than it should. It was also a blast to let Olivia just explore. Living in apartments, especially in Fresno, has meant that she doesn't have as much freedom as I would like, and she took full advantage of the bigger house and large backyard to explore during our time in Philomath. Here she is on the first day, just discovering the dirt pile (a dirt/sand mixture) on the side of the house...hours of fun that I was thrilled to let her have, just as long as she was wearing grubb clothes!

We had lots of fun adventures during our week in Philomath, but this is officially the end of my May pictures, so they will be in the next post :) The last little gem is a picture Olivia took of her goofy grandpa...a budding photographer if I do say so myself!

Whirlwind Weekend continued (7/15-18)

As you may recall, we have just finished Alex's birthday and a family reunion in two days. The next afternoon was my beautiful friend Bethany's wedding. I took a million super cute pictures that demonstrate the creativity of the Howard women and the beauty of this event, but here are just a few.

 

The bride and her dad walking down the aisle... stunning!

Some of the loveliest ladies I know...and the best of friends!

We didn't know any other kids at the wedding, but the flower girls and little boys who were friends of Bethany's family welcomed Olivia right into their little group, and she just played right along with them. They were so sweet!

Gettin' a little handsy on the dance floor!

Poor Paul was nursing a softball injury that looked pretty serious! He was a great sport, but did decline the dancing portion of the evening :).

My sweet high school friends. No matter how much time passes, it always seems so natural to see them and catch up on all the changes in our lives. Love these girls!

After that long day (three in a row with no real nap for Miss O), we headed down to Philomath for a few days with my family. My cousin Gretchen was in town with her husband Tom and 1 year old daughter Amelia, who we hadn't met yet. It was so fun to play and I can't wait until we get to see them again!

Gretchen and Tom had lots of friends and family to see that weekend, so the next morning Grandpa Gary, Great Uncle Larry, Alex, Olivia and I headed to the coast. Olivia hasn't spent nearly enough time near the ocean, so I was really glad for the opportunity for her to experience it Oregon-style (totally foggy and wet). We went straight to the beach, where she walked in the water for the first time with Grandpa.

We spent a lot of time looking at the 'ducks' (okay seagulls but after twenty minutes we stopped trying to correct her) as they ran up and down the coastline. They were hard to spot because it was so foggy, but O wanted to chase them the whole time.

After a while we pulled out the sand castle supplies and got to work. O is a little young to understand making a sand castle, but she did enjoy filling up the bucket and dumping it out, especially when it could go on Dad or Grandpa's feet.

This beach trip was about a week after a large piece of a Japanese dock landed on a Newport beach. I know there was a lot of concern about bacteria and foreign species, but I thought it was pretty awesome, and wished that we could go see it. We did find this weird piece of seaweed, which my dad thinks might have come from Japan as well. There were weird barnacles that had been ripped apart, and although I wouldn't bet on it, I suppose it's possible that it came all the way across the ocean. I did touch it (which I normally wouldn't do) so I could say I've been that much closer to Asia :).

Love this picture of Grandpa and Olivia...they had so much fun!

After the beach we attempted to get cleaned up and headed to the bayfront. We wandered around a bit, stopped in at Belinda's candy shop, and then did a traditional Chinese lunch. I know it should have been seafood, but out of the five people that went to the coast that day, three or four didn't love seafood, so Chinese it was.

When Olivia was just getting too grumpy, we piled back into our sandy car and headed home. Once we got to my parents' we got ready for a little birthday party for Amelia and Alex. Gretchen made these awesome tie-dye cupcakes that tasted amazing, and were bright colors...which makes everything better!

Amelia digging in :) what a cute girl!

After we sang to Amelia and got her started, we sang to Alex as well.

O loved her cupcake, especially that she got it whole with no restrictions or eating from Mom or Dad's plate. She was beyond exhausted and having a rough time with our crazy schedule, so she was just staring out the window while she ate the whipped cream from the top of her cupcake.

Amelia having some bonding time with Great Uncle Gary. My dad is funny about kids, working and bribing until even the most shy kid will play along with him. I love seeing how much Olivia looks forward to visiting, and how they are able to enjoy each other's company. From this picture it appears that Amelia feels the same way :)

The next day we rested at home, took a much needed normal nap, and then headed to Wildcat Park. This park is full of memories for me from my childhood, and even though it has been totally rebuilt, I hope that Olivia will have fun memories from here as well. It's an awesome park with lots of tunnels and secret passageways in addition to the normal playground equipment. Here she is flying off a slide with Grandma.

Yes this is me, three weeks before giving birth to Carter, climbing a rock wall. It is IMPOSSIBLE to get your center of gravity close enough to the wall with a monstrous belly, but I tried my hardest, and had some good laughs.

Olivia had a little more success than I did.

Grandpa is super proud that he was able to climb the four foot rope wall...he honestly was beaming.

Three generations of sliders. If you look closely, you will note that the middle slide is significantly narrower than the two along the sides. If I had known this, I wouldn't have even tried to get my enormous hips down this particular slide, but it was the only one without bumps in the middle, so I chose the lesser of two evils. Needless to say, Olivia went down a lot faster than I did :)

The beginning of hangin off everything. She now hangs off the countertop, any grown up leg that is propped up, her bed, you name it. I attribute that skill to this practice session with Grandpa.

This was our last event of the 6-day-long weekend of craziness, but I couldn't have asked for anything better. It was wonderful to celebrate Alex's 25th, a Wellman reunion, a friend's wedding, spend some time with my parents, and play with Gretchen, Tom, and Amelia. WHEW!