Oliver's baptism

Oliver was baptized this past Sunday. It was a lovely day, and a beautiful service. Our priest gave such a wonderful sermon - he had me in tears. He's going to give me a copy of it, and I'll try to remember to post all or part of it here. Oliver was a little fussy leading up to the baptism part, but as soon as he was handed to Fr. Nicholas, he looked up at Nicholas and gave him the most beautiful smile. Then smiled every time the water was poured on his head. We had a lunch/party afterwards, and despite a couple of snafus (cake wasn't ready on time, then the damn deli tray dropped - Safeway replaced it at no charge, and had the new one ready in 15 minutes, great customer service), it was everything we could have hoped for, with our families and friends. Have to give a shout out to my good friend Sylvia too - as she has always done in all the years I've known her, she helped me keep it together. She took me to Safeway to pick up the cake and sandwiches, and helped me get the cake home, then went back to pick up the new tray, and somehow kept me from totally dissolving into a puddle of tears in the process. She rocks.


We were fortunate to have all of Jon's siblings and his mother fly in for the weekend! It was nice to have everyone together. Natalie loved having her aunts (she's Aunt Elizabeth's stalker), uncles and cousin around. She refers to Will (our nephew) as "Cousin Will", and was sad to see him go this morning. We're looking forward to seeing him again soon - he's a cool little dude. He has a wonderful smile and laugh.


Grandma Carol and Aunt Jamie got to see Natalie have a soccer lesson on Saturday, while Elizabeth and I went to Costco to stock up for Saturday night (we had a big BBQ with all of our out-of-town visitors, my parents, and Fr. Nicholas and his partner Rex), then we just played in the pool until cookout time.


I'll be posting pictures after I get this posted. We're heading to the mountains on Thursday, so I probably won't update again until early next week.


Here's Oliver smiling up at Fr. Nicholas.



Oh, and in other happy news... We heard from Sara and Kyle this morning - she is ten weeks pregnant and had an ultrasound this morning. They got a great shot of Baby H, which they shared with us! Nice strong heartbeat, and baby was moving and grooving! Can't wait for April '09, so we can meet the newest member of the family!

Building a strong immune system - one "step" at a time

Lame pun intended.

Me: Natalie - get your shoes - we have to leave for the dentist.
Natalie: I can't
Me: Yes, you can. Just get your Crocs.
Natalie: I can't. Oliver is grabbing my feet.
Me (looking over): You shouldn't have your feet near his face anyway.
Natalie: Well, he needs something to suck on.

*shakes head*

First visit to the dentist!

Natalie had her first dental check-up today, and was a champ. Unlike her mother. I'm phobic about dentists - even ones I trust. I've had a lot of work done, and a very bad experience at the dentist in my early 20s. Luckily, since we moved back to AZ, I was able to take us to my wonderful former dentist, who I found through Mitz (she's a long time patient, thanks for the shitty teeth genes, Mom! :-P) So, as per usual, even for a cleaning they had to gas me. And crank it up as high as it would go - the assistant was incredulous that I needed gas for a cleaning, then once she got underway, she asked me if she should turn it up. :-)

Anyway, when I came out of the lovely gas fog, I asked where Natalie was and if Jon was with her - her appointment was an hour after mine, and it was 45 minutes past her appointment time. Jon came with us because I didn't want her to see me panicking while I was being worked on. They told me she was one cube over, and all by herself! I went in there, and she was lying in the chair, clutching Oliver (her teddy bear) and two stickers, and wearing bright green sunglasses with stars shaped frames, just as cool as a cucumber! They told me she did very well - they got to do everything they needed, minus X-rays (they don't usually do them on the first visit with a young child - too much for the kiddos), and I was there when Dr. Rush examined her - no cavities! I was so proud of her - I can't believe how well she did, and all by herself! Jon offered to go with her, but she wanted to go on her own. The staff, and Dr. Rush were just wonderful with her; I'm so glad her first experience was so positive, and with them!

Let's not even talk about how much work I need done, including three crowns that need to be replaced. Oy. Unfortunately for the kids, this office only uses porcelain for all their work - so they can't even rob my mouth for gold to sell when it comes time for college tuition. :-P

Bunny sheets

Little Miss and I were out running errands yesterday, and we stopped in Ross to see what was there. We were in the sheet aisle, when I noticed that they had a bunch of Playboy brand sheets - another customer and I were cackling over them. I mean really. Playboy sheets?

Then I hear Natalie saying "Mommy, I want some bunny sheets!". Naturally, she was pointing to a set of bronze striped satin sheets, with Playboy written in black script all over them, complete with the PB bunny logo. The lady with whom I'd been laughing started laughing even harder, managed to get out "Good luck with that" and went around the corner. I could hear her laughing two aisles down.

Daddy's girl....

*heart*

Natalie and I had the following conversation today:

I heard her moving around in her room this morning, and went up to investigate. She had rearranged all of her framed pictures in a line on her dresser, which was fine, and put a little bottle with colored sand in it next to the line of pictures. Then she picked up this little card my mom gave me at my baby shower, with her name and its meaning on it. She started "reading" it to me, imagine her smacking her lips every other word too, for emphasis.

"Dear pictures, I love you. You are going to get a lollipop. Yes, a lollipop."

Me - trying not laugh

Natalie - "Don't laugh Mommy"

"Then you are going to get treats because you make me so happy, like, Cheetos, candy, Goldfish, another lollipop, fruit, and a beer. Yes, a beer". (at this point I lost it, and we were both laughing). Points to the bottle - "this is my beer, mommy, you like it?"

Ahoy, mateys!

Oliver wanted to celebrate International Talk Like a Pirate day. We were happy to oblige. :-P




Shiver me timbers!

And if you look really, really closely, you can humor me and pretend you see his new teeth! I see them!

Holy moly

Oliver weighs 20 pounds! I think Natalie was just 16 at this age. I took him for some shots today (we're getting monthly shots, and no more than two per visit) and had them check his weight. He gained two pounds in the last month! If he keeps this up, next month he'll be half Natalie's weight - she's been holding steady at just about 42 pounds this year. Buy stock in Similac, he's not even a teen and he's eating us out of house and home. Skeezix has the most delicious rolls, and I had to laugh today. Jon had him up on his shoulder, asleep. Skeezix's shirt rode up, and all you saw was a big tummy bulge, with a roll at the end. Delicious!