Leaps and Bounds!

And today our little mister decided to show off by clapping! I could not find my camera when he started showing his new found skill with squeals of delight. But I assure you it was all the cuteness it is chalked up to be! He's also starting to walk back and forth on the couch while holding on (aka cruising)...I WILL find that camera tonight and get some pics on here for ya! It amazes me how they develop in spurts like this it's so fun! Four teeth showing as he squeals with delight slapping his hands together geeze, you'd think I won the lottery! I guess in a way I kinda did...
Randi Fay

Home health nurse

Well...Oliver's home health nurse just left us. She closed his case due to "lack of need." He's actually ahead on most of his assessments. She was amazed at his progress. (he was a month behind in sitting up on his own last she saw him)

Today, right now, life is sweet! I shut the door behind her and turned around to this little miracle crawling full speed across the living room floor. Tears welled up for just a minute and my heart over flowed with gratitude.

He's so soft and so sweet and such the love of the family. And just perfect to boot!

On the way to school this morning.

It's 8am. I'm tired. I took benedryl last night as my allergies are kicking my...yeah. Needless to say I'm groggy and foggy as heck. I just have to get Ryan to school. 1 mile of driving, open the door, out he hops, watch that he makes it into the classroom door, pull away and get home. Simple. I can do this.

Barefoot, sleepy eyed, jammies still warm, and coffee in hand I buckle his seat belt and off we go. I'll be home in 15 minutes. Warm coffee is all that's on my mind. Warm coffee and french vanilla creamer. mmm.

6 blocks later. Construction. Orange cones, guys in neon vests, holes in the street, drive your van through this teeny tiny lane we have coned off for you, oh and share it with all the kids riding their bikes to school. The sun is bright, this lane is too small and I am so not liking waking up like this!

And then the loudest jack hammer I have ever heard in my life begins pounding the cement right outside the driver door as we creep by! I am now fully awake and...slightly irritated. Nor far from the norm anyway. Ryan jumped, I jumped, we all jumped. He asks "mom what is that noise?"

My voice still thick with sleepiness responds with the best answer I could muster: "It's a loud machine thingy that breaks up the ground."

Ryan is silent, I can tell he's trying to sort what I said. I'm barely awake enough as it is.
In an attempt to ward off a hundred questions before we reach the school in 6 more blocks I expand: "It's kinda like a jackhammer but it's attached to a big construction machine so it's stronger."

Now I know that didn't process. So I say "It's like a woodpecker only it pecks concrete and breaks it up."

I glance in the rear view mirror in time his eyes light up with understanding..."OH! So it's a street pecker!!!"
His kindergarten teacher probably has an interesting take on our family.
~Randi Fay
PS. I love coffee.

Monkey Love!

Here is Oliver showing off his monkey communication skills...and standing and just making Ollie mischief!

My little Monkey is crawling and pulling to a stand on everything...He shakes his head no, is learning yes. He has four teeth. He has a unique Ollie dance and can baby sign "milk"...course he only does it after he's already nursing, but hey, he made the connection. He eats everything from dad's BBQ Tritip to his brother's bananas that he steals. The only thing we haven't fed him is honey-he has a strong dislike for peas and lentils, otherwise it's all yummy!

Jacob has started taking track at school and is pretty fast. He has rapidly qualified for competition in the track meets and his coach has quickly moved him up among the ranks.

Bradley has started taking volleyball after school a few days a week and is learning all about the game, and will be competing in an actual game towards the end of the year.

Ryan-is tall and now looks more than ever like a first grader and not Kindergartner. Today was pirate day at school...

ARGH Matey!

Will has slowly been winning some job bids and his construction business continues to build. Much slower than he would like, but summer is coming...

And new on the horizon...
Oliver is still little and I'm not ready to return to school or work yet full time, but want and need to bring in some income. I am in the process of re-licensing myself for family home daycare...yay! Baby Friends! I did this years ago when Jacob and Bradley were wee ones and it was pretty fun and great supplemental income. I'm having fun getting the house all organized and childproofed (which was past time for anyway) Oliver is a great help in showing me what needs to be done in that department! I've got some great summer ideas for daycare kids and am ready to get busy!

Our garden..well, I'd love to report its in full bloom but, no such luck at the moment. It's been a learning curve the last couple months. Mostly we have learned we could probably make clay in our back yard...when the dirt dries...it's like a huge brick. Will went and bought some fresh soil for it (yeah, the stinky and fluffy kind) and we are going to do some mixing of soil and replanting some fresh seeds that have sprouted inside. Hopefully with better results. We have managed to sprout some bell peppers and corn (which will grow darn near anywhere). Our strawberries and lavender are in full bloom and growing like crazy! We have more peppers, tomato and rosemary inside as well. This weekend will be a dirty one!

I hope all is well with everyone! I must run, I hear a monkey working on the fax machine! ruh roh!
Love to all
Randi Fay

He did it!!!

My lil 9.5 month old...finally lifted up off that 22 pound belly and crawled hands and knees. He's alternating lefts and rights working that left-right brain coordination like the best of em, and pickin up speeeeed along the way. He's got red marks from the carpet! It's amazing since he's also been running a 103 fever for 3 days and you can see his top teeth ready to bust through the gums finally. Although Ryan had a fever too, I think they also shared a cold this week. I know I've been promising pictures...on top of illnesses, we are moving bedrooms around and thus the computer/Internet and furniture. I've got to dig out my camera cord as well. I have so much more to post about, but wanted to share our little afternoon victory! Hurrray Ollie!

Loves to all
~the mama

Checkin in

Well, we finally got the winter cold/flu/whatever bug! Luckily it's not too bad. First Bradley came down with a cough which is so normal ..for Bradley to come home with something first. He missed a couple days of school and had to refrain from riding dirt bikes at his dads during visitation weekend. Now Ryan and Oliver have the same cough, add buckets of mucous, eye goup, and drool for the littlest and you have my life in a nutshell the last weekish. Wiping, blowing, washing, rocking, medicating, napping, rinse and repeat!

And yet...Ollie has managed to discover he can pull him self to a stand on anything 12 inches high give or take. He has not managed to keep his balance. Add some bruises and scrapes to the list.

I knock on wood as I proclaim I have not yet gotten ill. Thank you GOD! And Will has slowly but surely managed to drum up work for himself, under his own business license, and it is a huge blessing to be out from under...let's just say his old boss. He needs more work, but we are not biting our nails nervous and walking around so anxious we are having to work hard to avoid arguments. Come on, I know most of you can relate to that!

Other than all that...same ol same ol...kids in school, me and Ollie hanging out doing baby things, waiting for the next birthday or holiday to arrive. oh yeah, I'm next in our house, and am saying goodbye to my twenties forever. I don't feel as bad as 26 felt. For some reason 26 to me was like, goodbye soft skin and silken hair and cute figure, you're old now. 30 feels...well, kinda good really. Like I'm finally all-the-way a grown up. Do you ever really grow all the way up though? I hope not all the way. That's another post.

I have started a garden. Okay, I put 36 little seeds in little white dixie cups and the kids and I are getting a kick out of watching tomatoes, radishes, peppers, carrots and other plants emerge and grow. Will (while in between searching for jobs) tilled and smoothed a 10 x 15 give or take section of our back yard. He built a little fence to remind the dogs to stay out which works 80 percent of the time. He still has to borrow the tiller again and mix in a few bags of mulch/fluff so we have better drainage when it's time to transplant my little seedlings. But, see, I get the credit for the garden, cause I put the little seeds in the little cups. I add the water. They grow. My garden. See how that works? :P I hope those of you who are local like fresh veggies, cause...me and the kids kinda went overboard...and my garden will soon be your garden too! It's much fun though, and the kids really are getting a kick out of it.

Little does Will know I also bought seeds for watermelon, cantaloupe, strawberries, pumpkin, and a few kinds of squash which also grow on vines...yes, vines...insert evil grin here. If he reads this he'll be praying for work, anything will be better than the extra gardens I need him to make so the vines don't take over.

So, yeah, nothing much going on around here. Getting over colds. Watching little plants and little babies grow big. My husband seems real busy now days though. :) Pictures soon...I must find my usb cord to empty the camera. (Will tried to help me by cleaning the office while he was home. argh!)
Love to all
Randi

Doing better. One day at a time.

Once again, I lag. I've been busy. Really busy. Ok not really busy. Honestly, I've been sitting on my tush on the couch. Sometimes folding laundry. Mostly just hanging out. I've had some massive dental work done, well massive in comparison to what's ever been done to my teeth before. And they are only half done with it all. I've been on antibiotics, which I really really tried to avoid, but ended up having no choice. This is not fun considering we finally went three weeks with no thrush symptoms. *sigh* The white on his tongue is slowly growing again instead of fading as it was. And we once again begin the evil fungus battle. But, luckily it's not so horrid yet, my antibiotics are almost done, and I have some leftover thrush treatment. yay! Hopefully this won't set us back to far.

He's been eating one more bite each day of solid food. He still thinks the whole high chair, spoon feed me while wearing a bib idea is stupid. I can't blame him. It feels stupid. I let the little monkey sit on my lap while I eat instead and suddenly he has interest in food. Whodda thunk it? He grabs my spoon and beats the table with it, pulls food off it on the way to my mouth, or just helps himself to my plate. It's really cute how excited he gets. When he's done he stands up on my lap and chews on the wood on the back of my chair. It's got little Ollie teeth marks from his bottom teeth. I'll never fix it...I love it!

A certain little Monkey boy is now crawling full speed (although still not hands and knees, more like hands and inchworm-still normal though) and has decided that crawling on hands and knees is not such a great idea as pulling up to a STAND on the living room couch and squealing in delight at it! He also makes his way all the way down the hallway now and gets into his big brothers rooms...oooo what a delight! And on occasion the owners of said rooms are actually present and thrilled that Ollie chose their room to go visit. Homework gets cast aside, cell phones get put down and the little star of the house gets tons of attention!

He's also been reaching out for daddy a lot. Will takes him outside and they walk around exploring things. I can see Oliver is done with life in the living room. He's ready for bigger and better things. He's taking his next step in growing up. He's reaching out a little bit to other people, and other places in his world. It's beautiful.

I know his "infanthood" wouldn't last forever, and it's changed us all in so many ways. If we have more children (the verdict is still out) even that whole experience will be changed because of Oliver's birth story. I guess that's what "life changing" means. Funny how you hear cliches like that all the time and they never sink in until, well, until they do.

One of my biggest lessons in all of this, is to find meaning and find happiness and find love in the moment you are in. I know it's not where you want to be, or it's not what you expected of your life. We all have that life storybook in our head. But life and storybook do not belong in the same sentence sometimes. What makes it a story, what makes it a life is the struggles, the journey, the experiences. I've learned to stop trying to change it, stop trying to make it fit in, stop trying to control it, and simply embrace it and find what I love about it every day for what it already is. When I live like this, I know I can look back one day and say yeah I had a great life. I didn't waste is always seeking something else. I loved every minute of it no matter what it was. And today, I honestly do. I wouldn't change a thing. The lessons that have been brought to me from all of this, I could have learned in no other way.

I cannot promise you that I won't post tomorrow about my hurt again, or my anger to be honest. But right now, the window is open in my office. It's raining outside...how badly does our area need rain. The grass is green. There's actually a little bird sitting in the tree in my back yard making bird noises. He seems happy for the water. A gentle rain is streaking down my window. Oliver is snoozing in his (our) bed taking a long afternoon nap. Ryan is making sure Darth Vader doesn't morph from Lego form and take over the planet (he's playing xbox 360). My older boys will shortly be home from school, and Will is away at work. It's normal. It's sweet. I remember the words I whispered into my baby's sleeping ear at 3 days old in ICU...I remember telling him that it would all be right as rain. Today, it is.