Super Saturday!

It is amazing to me that the second child in a family survives. I tell Abby not to pick up Oliver about 10 times a day; yet, I regularly find him in mid-air screaming his way down to a helmet smash. I'm sorry, buddy.

This photo reminds me of my cousin Laura for some reason.

My first stop on Saturday was to Abby's kita sommerfest. I was in charge of the jump house with my friend Inga. This was awesome considering I don't speak German. When push came to shove, I relied on a sweet phrase that Abby taught me -- go away. It works to get kids back into line, to stop them from hitting each other, and to get them to leave the bounce house. I said it with a smile, of course :)

I love this photo of Abby's renegade bangs and pizza sauce mouth.

I finished off the day at Rachel's bridal shower. We co-teach our primary class at church and she's a regular fixture at our Girls Night Out events. I'm a big fan that she never complains that I always forget to bring my scriptures to class and that I spend nearly the whole class breastfeeding Oliver instead of teaching.

I am thrilled that she found the love of her life and is bringing him to this side of the world to live. He's a total stud muffin.

I never leave Susanne's house without gaining a pound or two. Everyone should have a friend with mad baking skills. I am super sad I got photos of her food but none of her.

Rachel looked hot in the candy bra I got her. Calories don't count on your wedding night ;P

Cover your eyes, Oliver!

The Magic Show

When Jeremy said that he was deploying to Africa for six months I was mad jealous. I heart Africa in a serious way, especially Kenya. Someday we hope to do a hardship tour there -- someday as in when the kids stop eating things off the ground. We know quite a few people that have served there -- Nambia, South Africa, Kenya, Congo, Nigeria, Uganda, Senegal, Ghana, Botswana, etc. They have nothing but fantastic things to say about their experiences. I covet them and their mad awesome adventures.

Until then, I was thrilled to find these precious gifts arrive in the mail from my man. He never fails to please.

Oliver spends his days crawling around after Gracie. He is obsessed with poking her eyes, pulling her ears, sticking his hands in her mouth, and "brushing" her fur. Gracie is such a doll and rewards him plenty of licks and cuddles. We couldn't have found a more attentive/loving companion for the kiddos.

I totally caught Abby red handed (or should I say green mouthed) in the fun dip, which she promised she would not take from my drawer. I had her look in the mirror and tell me she did not eat the fun dip. Instead, she made this face and exclaimed, "Mom, it was magic."

This magic trick is brought to you by the time out chair. Enjoy the show.

Speaking of magic, Oliver showed off his fancy pants by peeing out his diaper and all over Shawna. He was pretty smug out it.

Oliver loves to watch TV. Abby loves to taunt him by watching it in bed so that he can't see/touch the screen. He responds by laying underneath the bed and screaming louder than the TV. I have no idea which is more annoying.

I'm sure she is thinking.... I have no idea how the TV got in my bed so Oliver can't watch it. It must have been magic.

I'm still not buying it.

Happy Anniversary!

It was one year ago that we moved to Germany from Japan. Although we miss Japan terribly, we love our new host country. One of my favorite things, by far, is having my own fenced-in yard with fruit trees. Someday I'll learn how to preserve/can/bake.

I had no idea this was a cherry tree until Abby pointed it out. The neighbor beside us has a HUGE one, and I've been so busy shoving my face with its goodness that I overlooked our tree.

We also had (notice the past tense) awesome strawberry plants. Abby's friend climbed to the top of this wall and slid down yesterday. Goodbye cute plants and yummy fruit :(

This is after I met up with some of my awesome friends for an Ikea dinner celebration. I scarcely post pictures of myself on this blog, so enjoy this rare gem.

Nothing beats a rainy day like painting in the bathtub -- over two hours wasted. Oliver was more than content to play with whatever Abby was kind enough to throw overboard. I lounged on the floor in my pajamas reading a book. Fun day had by all (except the house cleaner!)

Lesley was kind enough to come and babysit Abby while I went to Ikea. I love seeing the results of all their adventures on the carport.

My book club ladies! We decided to do a discussion over dinner for the last meeting of the season. I am so happy that the four of us are diligent at both reading the book and attending the meetings. You have no idea how often one of those important components are missing!

I heart thin crust pizza. It's divine.

Isn't Abby the BEST dancer ever? So. Stinking. Cute.

I'm That Parent

I have multitasking down to a science. I got double the dose of the organizing (some might say anal) gene then most people in this world. I am charitable and loyal and determined. I am a lot of great and noteworthy things. But of all the wonderful character traits that I've cultivated in the 32 years I've been alive, patience is not one of them. This trait is missing. Absent. Nearly unheard of in my world.

Sweet Oliver's neck was jacked up when he was born ( by c-section) and was only able to turn his head to the right. Since he only looked one way, his neck muscles and back muscles were pretty underdeveloped and started causing him some serious issues at around three months. At that point, his problems began to steamroll -- because he only looked one way his head shape was distorted and he needed a helmet, he couldn't play on his tummy because he couldn't lift up his head, he only minimally used the right side of his body because it was literally out-of-sight-out-of-mind, etc.

Mentally he was right on target, so it was frustrating for him to see things he wanted and not be able to even roll over to get them. This might make me a total loser, but it was disheartening for me to see other kids younger than him crawling over top of my beautiful boy while he just laid there in one spot watching them. Until about a month ago, I had to lay him in the grocery cart because I couldn't put him in the sitting seat. He had to eat from his Bumbo instead of a real highchair. I had to hold him in the sitting position so he could play with big boy toys. When I was unavailable to help him he would just holler in frustration.

And, let's be honest, he had no way to fend himself from the Abster! He was literally living and breathing at her mercy.

I was aggressive in getting him first, second, and third opinions. I drilled the therapists on techniques and did tons of research on alternative therapies. I NEVER left their office without assigning myself homework.

I know I drove them crazy. I drove Oliver crazy. I drove myself crazy. I even drove Jeremy crazy over the phone fussing about it.

I'm embarrassed to admit that I think I have learned much more than Oliver has over these past seven months. I've learned that we all do things at our own pace and the only person we have control over is ourselves. Sometimes the best thing we can do as parents is to back off and let our kids figure things out on their own. I wanted to swoop in and rescue him at the first sign of distress or discomfort. My final therapist taught me the best lesson of all: you aren't progressing if you aren't struggling.

We have now been able to drop two of his therapy appointments and he just has one therapy session every Wed for 1.5 hours. It looks like his helmet will be on a few more months than we anticipated, but his head is already looking fantastic. He can now sit up on his own for 30 seconds at a time and he has just started attempting a pretty good crawl this week. He obviously can't pull himself up yet, but we'll (I mean he'll - old habits die hard) get there eventually.

In the picture I took yesterday (below), Oliver is 10.5 months old. And dare I say that a sitting Oliver is seriously gush worthy....

Check out his sweet moves. Notice he still favors the left side of his body more. We're still working on it. Ignore my dog checking out his sweet moves. That dog thinks she needs to be in every video :(