I won't be able to fully update all of the events of the last 6 weeks. Suffice to say that having a baby has done little to slow us down. In fact, this summer has been quite eventful and I am not sure how we would have fit any formal work time in if we tried ;-)
My mom and dad were able to stay for a few days after Oliver was born. It was nice to have them here as all of the cleaning and cooking and some of the baby rocking in the middle of the night was done by them. It was also nice to just spend some time with my boys. The days go quickly with all focus on the little one. He is a real joy and when he happens to smile in his sleep, I know that I am a very lucky mommy indeed.
Breastfeeding went well. We took walks to Target. We had visits from Jake Welch with some wonderful enchiladas, the Watermans on the verge of the birth of their little one and the Hyltons with yummy twice baked potatoes. We started to get bored sitting at home even with the visits ;-) We then visited the Watermans at their place when they had Ilse only 6 days after Oliver was born!
Oliver came with us to go house hunting when he was only about 10 days old. It was during this house hunting trip that we found the house we will be moving into in two days. It is larger and in the neighborhood we are wanting to live in. We are very excited. We will be renting our current place - if anyone wants a nice townhouse in Beaverton near lots of stuff for about $1000 per month let me know!!
We went to Eugene for my birthday just for the day and met my sister, brother-in-law, nephews, mom and dad and had lunch and walked around the park a bit before heading back.
Oliver travels well. He is getting used to meeting lots of new people! He has already been to my work and Tom's work to meet the ladies in the office at both locations!
We went to the zoo with my sister's family, my brother's family and my other brother and his partner. It was good time to walk around and see all of the animals and spend some time with all of my siblings and their kids.
When Oliver was about a three weeks old, Tom's mom came to visit. We were able to leave Oliver with her and go out to a couple of movies and dinner. How nice that was and she sure enjoyed taking care of him. He is now fairly convinced that a baby is supposed to beheld all of the time.
Not too long after that, we took Oliver to his first baseball game. PGE park, Portland's AAA park has a baby suite with lots of cool amenities. We enjoyed taking advantage of that. Oliver mostly slept. He also rode the max for the first time that day. I am getting sort of used to having perfect strangers come up and dote on him ;-)
Oliver is also very lucky to have met my great-aunt Rosa. She is my grandma Judd's only remaining sibling and a very sweet lady (although she tries to pretend she is onry). I had the pleasure of taking care of her as a patient but now mostly get to enjoy her as a nice friend! Oliver slept well in her arms - it was only many minutes later when she admitted her arm had gone numb and asked for me to help her return him to me ;-)
At the end of June, we traveled to Grants Pass with Oliver. The plan was to see Tom's favorite band, Wilco, play at the Britt festival. Both grandmas were ecstatic. We enjoyed being back in Grants Pass for a nice visit and got to see Terry and Alison Hopkins and their little boy Brenten as well as get a quick trip in to the Applegate River to put Oliver's feet in it for a minute. The music was amazing!
From Grants Pass to home for a day to Seattle for a family reunion. Now he has met all of my mom's siblings - Dan was the only one missing but we met with him in Portland before he left for Europe on a trip. He has also met many of my cousins. He has lots of catching up to do on the Winn side and I imagine that will come later in the summer when we go to the farm to meet great-grandpa/ma Winn! We stayed in Seattle a few days after that and Oliver went on his first ferry ride to Bainbridge!
Oliver is truly the most amazing little person I have met! Of course, as his mommy, I think he is the most beautiful and sweet child in the world. His daddy is amazed at his head strength and ability to bear weight on his legs. He is quite convinced that he will be standing soon - I just hope he learns to roll over and starts smiling more ;-) It is not hard to believe that I love him. He is easy to love. My eyes well up with happiness at the thought of all the fun things he will get to do in his life.
I love getting him out of his crib when he is crying and knowing that I am the only one that can fix his problem. I know he will get older and be able to fix his own issues.
I love watching him look around and wonder at the world. I sing to him and talk to him and although I am very much living with him in this moment, I still think he will be more fun when he can tell me what he is thinking! I will love to hear his thoughts!
I love taking showers with him in the morning and then getting him dressed. He loves to snuggle and like his mom and dad, he loves taking showers!
I have many more things about Oliver that I could write - how he is very tolerant of our antics for example. I also have many more instances of outings and trips that he has taken - like the two knitting groups he has been with me too. I have a million people to thank for helping us and loving us and supporting us! This is my catch up and I hope to keep up a little. I keep forgetting that not everyone is able to see my more frequent updates on Facebook so I will try to be better about posting on both. But if you find yourself joining Facebook, look me up and see the more complete Oliver album!
Here is a pic of blueberry face - Tom thought it would be cute to balance a blueberry on his nose.....you kinda had to be there.
