Best Buddies

Andrew loves Ollie and Ollie loves Andrew right back! I think they could play together all day long.

Trimming the Tree

 This year we had to change locations for our Christmas tree. Our new couches do not leave us room for our Christmas decorations so we rearranged furniture moved it into the front room.

As always the kids did a great job helping to decorate the tree. With the boys getting even taller it makes it much easier to have the ornaments more evenly disbursed.

The girls really wanted to help with the glass ornaments this year and I was reluctant. Eventually they did get to do some of the more fragile ones and it worked out fine. There were no casualties during the decorating process.

Oliver slept through the majority of the decorating and only woke up at the end. Just in time to put his babies first Christmas ornament on the tree.

Eric and I even put on our special ornaments that we got when we first got married. It was a lot of fun and now our front room looks festive and ready for the season!

Little Lucy Lost

The day after Thanksgiving we always go to Fred Meyer for their half off all socks sale. At this point it is tradition. I had been up most of the night with a sick Reid boy (And yes I took him shopping with me. I promise I wiped the cart down with Purell after I was done.) so I was almost a walking zombie I was so tired. I was looking for some different socks and the kids were dutifully wandering along behind me. Andrew had the cart with Ollie, Reid and Gwen right by it and Zane was sticking really close to me. Lucy was also right by me but was very happy to look at all the new Christmas decorations and candy that was on the end cap by the table I was digging through. I turned to leave and called to Lucy to put the stuff down and come and then left. I was sure she was following me. I went to the next aisle (only 30 feet away, through a sea of people) and continued to hunt. The next thing I hear was "Will Lucy's mom please come to the register?" And I thought to myself (in my sleep deprived state) I have a Lucy. And then I looked around noticed that Lucy was not with me. That must be my Lucy! So off to the register at Customer Service I went and sure enough it was my girl that came back to me. She was very upset and cried a lot. I think it scared her a ton. Later that day I asked her what she had done when she realized she could not find me and she said that she found a worker lady and told her she could not find her mom. I asked her how she knew which people were the workers and she said that they had name tags on. So ultimately even though I hope that never happens again I am really glad that Lucy knew what to do.

School Stuff

Zane came home from school yesterday with two things. The first was this super cute advent counter. It has a list of the dates on the tail and you cover up the date each day with a sticker. So cute and so simple! The second was much less thrilling. I got to hear from Zane how his day had gone. I had gotten a phone call earlier in the day that Zane had gotten hit at school by another student. He hadn't done anything to the other kid, rather the other child completely flipped out and ran through the room hitting and pushing kids willy-nilly. When Zane got home he told me that he had been punched 3 times in the back and once in the head. He said it was scary but that the punches didn't hurt. I am guessing there was a lot of adrenaline flooding through all the kids right then. I feel bad for the little boy that is having such a hard time. I can't even imagine. It makes any tough day I have with my crew seem like a walk in the park in comparison.

A Thanksgiving Feast: Kinder Style

I went to help at Lucy's kindergarten Thanksgiving feast today. It was a lot of fun and she was SO excited to have me there helping. I got an e-mail from her teacher yesterday saying that she had talked about me coming to her class all day yesterday. Showing up is kinda a big deal for her.

I worked at the bead necklace station which was chaos but a lot of fun. The time went quickly and then the kids settled down for a feast! All the kids had contributed veggies to the soup yesterday and the teachers cooked it over night. It was piping hot and super tasty! Added to that was a cookie decorated to look like a turkey, some rolls and crackers and hand shaken butter. It was quite the spread. Lucy was a Native American for the feast. The kids got to choose whether they wanted to be a Native American or a pilgrim.

Momma's Boy and a Photo Bomber

It was a normal night for us. Swimming lessons, dinner and then feeding the baby. Except that this little boy decided he didn't want to eat. He wanted to sit with momma. Oliver had a meltdown of epic proportions. Tears rolling down his face and he was shrieking the high pitched scream. He stopped almost instantly when I got him out of his chair. Strangest thing I have ever seen with a little one. And then when I had Andrew take my picture this photo bombing happened. SIGH

Peter Pan with the Big Boys

The boys and I have enjoyed going to a couple of plays at the high school and since this fall's production was Peter Pan I knew we needed to go check it out. I was only familiar with the musical Peter Pan but this was a play version and it was equally as good. Before the show we headed to Starbucks for some hot chocolate and then sat and watched the show. It was so much fun to go on a special treat with my big guys. They are lots of fun to hang out with and I think that we will just have to keep going to any and all local productions we can!

Disney's Rockin' Ever After

The girls and I got some great tickets to the Disney Princesses on Ice this year. This production was almost all princess stories so I knew the boys would not be super interested. Eric only tolerates these type of events, so it was a lot of fun to make it a girls night out with my two favorite little ladies. The girls got these super cute princess cups with snow cones and really enjoyed the show. Although it was somewhat late for them and Gwen got very tired during the second half. Lucy repeated thanked me for taking her and informed me that she loved me. Gwen... well, she said that it was not good and that we should not have come (she was sleepy) and that she did not like it. But the next day she did decide she liked it. Surprise outings are not her favorite thing so this was pretty much what I expected from her. Love my little girls and so excited for more girls night out activities with them in the years ahead!

Water Baby

Now that Ollie can sit well and not fall over every 30 seconds, I decided to give him a bath and let him sit up. Previously I laid him down in the tub and he screamed almost the entire time.

I think it is pretty obvious that sitting up and playing with tub toys made all the difference in the world. Ollie was beyond happy playing and even let me wash his hair without crying or fussing at all.

 I think he got annoyed with me trying to take his picture though. He kept looking at me like I was seriously wasting his time. Hooray for babies that love the tub!

Oliver Benjamin: 6 Month Well Child Check

It has been a rough week with Oliver. Really rough. He hardly slept, woke constantly all night long, ran a fever a couple of days, was unbelievably cranky. I chalked the whole thing up to teething because he cut a tooth on Friday morning and the partner tooth is poised to come in any day. Sunday morning he broke out in a rash and was still rashy today. No problem though. I know that viruses often end in rashes and they are no big deal. Plus we had a well child check today so I figured it would get looked at then.

 In we marched to the doctor and she checked out my little man and informed me that it looked like Ollie had gotten Roseola. Now, Roseola IS a virus and it does end in a rash and it isn't serious but it did completely explain his extreme crankiness and fever in a way that teething never did. So yay! Glad he is going to be feeling better very soon!

Other than that small discussion, there was nothing else left to talk about concerning Ollie. He is growing well, slimming down a bit and is hitting all his milestones. He is also so sweet with the babbling of ma-ma-ma. He does it almost exclusively for me so I am declaring that he is saying my name. Next check up at 9 months!

Height: 27.5" (83%)
Weight: 19 lbs. 2.5 oz (74%)

Almost identical to Andrew and Reid in size.

Oliver Benjamin: 6 Months Old

Ollie is 6 months old. Insane. I know that they grow fast but this is the fastest yet. I wish that time would slow down. I want to press pause. Ollie is such a sweet little boy. He really is. And he is so easy and good-natured all the time. Unless he is hungry, he is completely happy and easily appeased. Happy Half Birthday little one!

Veteran's Day Assembly

Zane's teacher was in charge of the Veteran's Day assembly this year and she asked for Zane to be part of the assembly and say some lines during the slideshow that was shown.

He wanted me to come so I brought the babies and we headed to the school. It was packed and full of retired and current military personnel and very nicely done. When it was all said and done he didn't even see us but we were sitting on the floor near Andrew's class and although we waved at him he was completely unaware that we were there. This was the best photo I got of him. While he was saying his part it was dark so the slide show would be seen. He did a great job though and I was really proud of him.

Hero Worship

Reid really enjoys feeding Ollie. He is so thrilled that Ollie is big enough these days to eat puffs and Ollie is absolutely enthralled with everything that Reid does.

They are so cute together. Ollie can't seem to get enough of Reid and Reid is pretty impressed with his little brother.

I see some more best buddies in this pair. Hopefully they will stay out of too much trouble together as the years go on!