A Walk in the Park

Today we took our first family walk in Maywood Park. We are crossing our fingers that in the next few months we will have a neighborhood and real park to walk to! 

Here are some of my favorite snapshots...

 Oliver has now learned the work "walk", this is his reaction to us not getting ready fast enough...

Imagine crying and thrashing with this...

 

In the wagon and ready to go.

Sweetness & Light

A perfect smile and shot 

(after the cheese ball one of course!)

Sleeping...

They played the tripping game once again. Almost every time Oliver fell down, he stood up with grass on his hands saying "yuck!"

Flowing locks and luxurious lashes.

esty here I come!

Friday I finally started up and etsy shop. Right now there are only 2 items available but I am hoping to get the rest of the bags up by the end of the week and start on more projects next week.

Check it out and check back as the weeks progress.

I am crossing my fingers that this venture is successful!

http://ErinElise.etsy.com

Change

There has been a big change the past couple of days with Graham's job. The economy is really taking it's toll on his industry. 

Saturday night, after service, the restaurant owners informed the Executive Chef (and Graham's good friend/husband) that he was being let go and that the service they just completed was his last. Graham will now be running the kitchen. Today Graham had a meeting with the owner to learn what the new direction is. They have decided to go with a New American Taverna sort of vibe, something they feel doesn't need an Executive Chef. The idea is to make the restaurant more "accessible" to customers and the menu is changing dramatically to reflect that new concept.

Tomorrow is the start of the new kitchen/menu and it will be interesting to see what happens. 

It is an interesting and uncertain time in our lives and we are just going with the flow...

1 Month Milestone

Henri will be 1 month old Sunday. He seems to be growing everyday and makes me wonder if we are going to have one of those situations where our baby is bigger than his big brother! 

He has more moments of awake now, usually 2-3 chunks of time where he is awake, checking things out and working on his neck control (something that is hard to do with such a skinny neck and GIANT head!)

I believe that he has had smiles as well and not GAS smiles. If I am making a silly face and smiling and talking to him and he smiles, I take it! Yesterday I got two smiles in a row and a coo with a giant open mouth grin...Graham tells me what they all say, he is too young to really smile. 

i'll let you judge for yourself...

 

Sure looks like a smile to me!  :)

Here are a few pictures of his not so happy moments and a few perplexed ones...

Practicing Daddy's Scowl.

Graham stated today that Henri is all scowl and cheeks!

Not happy...and cross eyed from looking at a close up camera...makes for a very interesting face!

 

Magnum?

This is his normal, sweet, checking it all out face.

Hanging out in his new swing the Grandpa bought for him. 

The great thing about it is, its a swing, a bouncer AND a rocker. We can easily take the seat off and Oliver can use it as a rocking chair. The base also collapses so I can stow it away when not in use.

The swing seat as a Toddler Rocking Chair.

This evening, Oliver decided he wanted to hold Henri himself. We tried before and he was against it. Today Dad and I helped him on the couch and placed the Boppy and Henri on his lap. Since he is in the cheesy pose moment in his life, I got some interesting shots of Oliver's teeth! These are my 2 favorite pictures I got and have the least amount of cheese and eye scrunching...

In a month Henri will be going in for his 2  Month well baby check up. I am really anxious to see how much he has grown in that amount of time. I buy him 3 month clothes to wear now and some of those are starting to get too small! I just hope that I have some more summery clothes of Oliver's in 6 months for this summer if he keeps this up...

It's true.

One often hears how the 2nd baby is easier than the 1st and I have heard that after 2, each one is even easier. We have found out that it is true. At least in our case. Most of it has to do with not having those first time parent jitters. No constantly worrying about SIDS and "is he breathing?" When I go to bed, I fall right to sleep, no hard time getting to sleep with a restless mind (i am sure the sheer exhaustion has to do with that one) but also I am sleeping like I am dead until Henri wakes up. With Oliver my sleep wasn't restful and I felt if he was awake, I needed to be awake too.

You know what to expect, and you know what worked for you before. 

I feel very lucky that both of my boys have been "easy". Compared to Henri, Oliver was a lot more work, but he was also a sweet tempered boy, Henri is just even easier and so much more mellow.

On a side note, I find myself getting semi creeped out on occasion looking at Henri. He looks so much like Oliver did that it almost feels like I am looking at a clone or gone back in time. Even looking at Oliver's pictures as an infant will give me shivers. It is a very odd feeling and not something I ever expected. Who has ever heard of Doppelganger siblings?

Bon Voyage

Sunday we took our first trip as a family of four to Corvallis for Uncle Max's going away party with the family. Graham's Aunt Jennifer and Uncle Arthur traveled up from Klamath Falls as well as his cousin Tia from Ashland. 

 

Great Uncle Arthur & Great Auntie Jennifer

 

 

Cousin Tia & Oliver

(Graham took this picture & I love it! I myself had some fun making it look oldy timey...)

His grandparents, now Great Grandparents, Ab & Myrna came down from Salem and his Aunt Sara from Eugene.

 Great Grandma Myrna & Great Grandpa Abner

(i just now realized that we didn't get a single picture of Great Aunt Sara...or myself for that matter...)

There were four generations of Chaney/Waldron family members gathered together and we had a great BBQ feast. 

 

Granny Nanny & Henri

3 weeks old

  

Fresh and Clean Roxy!

 Discovery of the water dish.

 

Granny Nanny & Poppa J got Oliver a kiddie pool to play in but unfortunately he is currently hating being in bodies of water. I am hoping that this will change this summer, how else will I keep him cool AND entertained?

Cousin Tia came to the rescue and showed Oliver a fun way to play with the water. Kitchen utensils and measuring cups were brought out and a storm pipe was pointed out. How fun to fill up yout cup and walk to the hole to dump it out! Who would have guessed?

 

  

 

After dinner and dessert, that family all took off and we headed to the park. Max, Graham and Max's childhood friend Philip, played some frisbee and Granny Nanny walked around with Oliver. He also had a great time being tripped and attacked by Uncle Max!

Henri and I hung out in the shade as he slept after his afternoon feeding. 

Poppa J joined us once he finished his "chores".

 

  

 

 

  

 Here are 2 short videos. The 1st is Oliver with the water transfer game and the 2nd is showing off how he can copy the big boys with a frisbee. At the end of the video he drops the frisbee and squeals..this is his way of saying he wants to be chased...

Make video montages at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Since we knew we were coming down, we took the opportunity to see our old friends. Emily, Alex and Caitlin met us at the park and a bit later Chad and Marci joined us as well.

By about 6pm Oliver started to melt into Monster Mode and finally everyone else got to see what I am refering too. So often I am told how good and sweet he is, which is is about 90% of the time, but there are those days...

He hadn't really napped the past two days, didn't take one on the drive down or sleep well the night before. As my Mommy friends can confirm, when little ones get over tired it is actually harder for them to get a good nights sleep. Graham put him in bed at about 6pm to try to get him to take a nap. he cried for quite some time and was asleep by about 7. 

Henri woke up a bit later and Chad and Marci were finally able to see him awake and with open eyes!

After he went back to sleep, Graham and I got our first adult outing in I don't know how long! It was a quick trip for some late night pizza!

We were both exhausted as well since we got to bed late, and up early as we left the house by 8:30am to fit in the errands we needed to do before getting to the party. We were ready for bed by 10:30. (this is soo early for us as Graham is often not home until midnight...)

He was going to sleep up in his old room with Oliver and I was going to sleep in the TV room with Henri. We both went to our beds and as I was getting mine situated, I heard Oliver crying. He woke up almost as soon as Graham opened the door. They both came down and we put in the insurance policy, Wall-E. Oliver's mood instantly perked up and he sat sweetly with Daddy, his blankie & a banana. It didn't last long and soon he was pushing buttons on teh DVD player. I woke Graham up and they headed off to bed. I wasn't sure how he was going to get him to sleep, I usually end up sharing the bed with him when we stay there because I don't let him cry it out once every one is asleep. Luckily he just cried for maybe a minute and laid down and went to sleep!

Monday we had the house to ourselves. Got up a little later than normal and took our time getting ready. We stopped at the other Chaney boy's work site to say a final good bye to Max who we probably won't be seeing again until Christmas.

Then off we wereback home...

Super Cute

I get a weekly email from Portland Picks that promotes local shops, restaurants and events. In this week's issue was this super cute bag and a link to their site. I can't afford to buy one now, but thought they were worth sharing. An added bonus is they have a Handbag of the Month contest and by promoting them on your blog you can actually be entered to win one. How fun and creative! So here are a couple of my favorite designs...

 

Olive Juice - Jennifer Bag

 

 

The new Madi Bag.

Olive Juice bags operate out of Camas, WA and you can buy their bags on their Esty.com shop.

Life with Boys

This week was my first week alone all day with both boys. Luckily I have healed enough that I can physically pick up Oliver and carry him short distances. This is very much against Dr.'s orders but I really have no other choice. I walk slowly and purposefully and that seems to do the trick.

Last week my Mom came and helped out for 3 days, it was such a blessing. Oliver's crib got "broken" the last afternoon she was visiting. It was my crib as a baby, and my cousin Sofi used it as well. We don't really know how old it is since my Grandfather got it from a garage sale and fixed it up for my birth. Mom was showing me how the side dropped down and back up, a feature I never knew it had! Only problem, it wouldn't stay back up! Afer 1/2 an hour she finally got it to stay up but as soon as she shook it, the side slammed down. Oliver has a favorite pastime of running back and forth in his crib so we knew that it was done for. 

We had alrady be palnning to buy Oliver a new convertible crib in the next few weeks to help with the eventual transition to a toddler bed, this just moved the date up a bit. Lucky for us, Poppa Rick was on his way up and was able to swing by Target to pick up the crib while Mom and I took Henri to his 2 week check up.

Friday, my good friend and hair stylist, Karen came by for a few hours to help put Oliver down for his nap and she generously cleaned our bathroom, her gift to a new mama!

Saturday my Dad came back up to help me run my errands as I am not able or comfortable doing those things on my own yet. I will have him come up again this weekend once again to help with my grocery shopping...

I am happy to report that I have lost all of the baby weight I gained plus some (though of course not the pre baby shape!) and am off all my meds. I actaully took all of my Percacet in the first week which caused alarm to the nurses and Dr. when I called for a possible refill! They prescribed me Vicodin which was fine and what I had with Oliver. I have had a very different pain that I think I mentioned previously and it is going a way pretty quickly but I have to be careful when picking up Oliver or just moving in a certain way. I rememeber being much more sore though with Oliver and it taking me over a month to just walk at a normal speed. I don't know if it was the meds this time, or having my body already be used to the process but I am happy for it!

Here are a few pictures from the past couple of weeks that I thought were fun.

Oliver has all of a sudden decided to be a ham and pose for the camera, much better than screaming, crying and trying to grab it, but all the pictures get a very cheesy grin...

Oooo, practicing the Come Hither look.

Being a baby in the moses basket. He actaully laid down in it but my pictures were to blurry.

Checking each other out.

I just love this picture for some reason, I barely altered it at all, just a little brighter.

My Mother's Day flowers.

My new Spring arrangement on our console table. Looks better in person!