He's a stingray!

This week, Oliver had his last swim lesson in the level 3 class. The different levels all have the names of sea creatures (Pike, Eel, Starfish, etc), and ever since Oliver has started swimming, he's been looking forward to being in the Stingray class (level 4). Almost every day since he started level 3, he would ask me, "Am I still an Eel? Am I a Stingray yet?"

Since this was the last week of lessons, his swim teacher was supposed to evaluate his swimming ability to determine if he moved up to the level 4 class or stayed in the level 3 class. But his class had substitute teachers for the last few lessons, so there was some confusion about whether or not he was moving up to level 4. I ended up calling to see if he had passed the class, and was told that his class had somehow slipped through the cracks and none of the students were evaluated! Instead, I would have to bring him to the YMCA pool to have one of the lifeguards evaluate him.

We went yesterday afternoon and, not surprisingly, he passed with flying colors! The instructor who evaluated him said that she was not only impressed with how well he swam, but that she rarely sees a 4 year old who swims as well as he does on his own! He's been doing so well, and we are so proud of him!

I meant to take some pictures of him at the pool yesterday, but his evaluation didn't last long, and I was preoccupied with bouncing the baby so he would stay asleep in the baby sling. :-) Instead, here are some pictures from earlier in the week when Oliver, Buttercup and I were playing outside. Enjoy!

for Aunt Anna

Look what I found!

(The shirt, not the baby.) :-)

Baby love

Theodore is 5 weeks old now (!!!) and he is so much more alert now than he used to be. He's also thisclose to smiling in response to us. It's the cutest thing -- we'll smile at him, and he'll gaze at the top of our heads, crinkle up his eyes at us, and he'll open his little mouth like he's trying SO hard to smile! Sometimes he'll get one corner of his lip up like a mini Elvis impersonator, ha ha. Just so precious. :-)

Oliver and Buttercup are still his #1 fans, of course! Buttercup is constantly stalking him (ha ha!) but what's really sweet is how much Oliver loves him and wants to be around him. It's so nice to see, especially after how things were after Buttercup was born. What a difference 2 years makes!

P.S. Many thanks to Grandma for the blankets!!!

Even more Lego creations

Oliver has been hard at work again, building all sorts of things with his Legos.

Like this fabulous "bad police" station:


I asked him -- "Is it a police station where bad police work, or is it a regular police station where the police bring the bad guys?" He said, "Yeah." Ha ha!! So I'm not sure what exactly it's for, but it does include this "fire guy" with a "fire torch" (and he's not a firefighter, in case you were wondering):


There's also this guy, who stopped at the cafe on his way to work:


And these guys, hanging out in the "Droid Department":


And let's not forget this guy, who is in charge of keeping the bad guys out:


Oliver asked me to take pictures of all of this to share with Granddaddy, Grammy, Grandma, and Grandpa. I said, "They'll probably want to see a picture of you, too!" and he said, "Not now, Mama, let me finish this up first."

So here he is, working on the next project. :-)

It seemed like a good idea at the time . . .

Ever have one of those moments where you think you're doing something really smart, and it turns out to be the total opposite? I have those moments every day. And now that we have a newborn baby, I have those moments at night, too!

Last night I was up feeding Theodore around 11:30pm. He needed a diaper change midway through his feeding, so I got a new diaper ready and cleaned him up, like always.

Then, as I was reaching for the clean diaper, I realized that he was about to poop again.

And for some reason, I thought to myself -- and this is the not-so-smart part -- Hmm, I shouldn't waste a clean diaper.

So I caught the poop. In my hand.

And in the process of cleaning up, I got poop on the changing pad cover, Theodore's clothes, the dresser, the wipe container, and on my shirt.

Sigh.

But at least I didn't waste a clean diaper.

One month

Sweet baby Theodore is one month old today! As my friend Heather said -- we made it! Ha, ha. :-) It's hard to believe that it's already been a month. I can only imagine that the next few months will also fly by!

At one month old, Theodore is about to bust out of his size 3 month onesies:


And he's also reaching maximum capacity on his Swaddle Me wraps. He's currently in the largest size, which means that either 1) his mama is going to have to become more proficient at swaddling with a regular blanket, or 2) Aunt Anna is going to have to move into our house to properly swaddle him every day and night with a regular blanket, or 3) Theodore will have to get used to sleeping without being swaddled. :-)


He's so pretty. And squishy. Love those smooshy cheeks! :-)



I love smelling his sweet little head!!



Hi!



Just look at that belly! I think we're going to have another Oliver on our hands. :-)

More random thoughts and cute pictures

Today Oliver is spending the day at Grammy's apartment (thank you, Mom!). Buttercup, Theodore, and I dropped him off around 9:00am, and Hubby will bring pick him up after work and bring him home after his swim lesson tonight. I miss my big boy, but I'm having fun spending time with my big girl and baby boy, too. Theodore took a short nap in his crib after we got home this morning, and Buttercup and I got to play outside in the cooler (!!!) weather, doing all of the fun things that she likes to do (mainly decorating herself with chalk and riding her bicycle in circles on the driveway).

I will admit, though, when Oliver asked if he could have his nap at Grammy's apartment, my first thought was, "Oh yay, I can run 6 miles on the treadmill while the other 2 are napping!!" (Oliver rarely takes a nap these days, so my naptime runs are usually around 2-4 miles.) I was really looking forward to getting Buttercup and Theodore down for their post-lunch naps. It looked like everything was going to be perfect -- Buttercup was yawning and being very disgruntled after lunch, and Theodore had been awake since 11:00am. I had them both in bed by 12:15, but strangely . . . Theodore started crying. I tried to give him his pacifier, but he wouldn't take it, so I rocked him for a few minutes, put him back down, ran back to my room to get on the treadmill, and . . . he started crying again. Really strange that he was crying again! I rocked him again, gave him his pacifier, put him back down. Walked back to my room, and he started crying again. This time, I went in the kitchen to make him a bottle, and by the time I got back to his room, he was quiet. And asleep. (Whew!) By this time, it was 12:40. I got my running shoes on, and was about to start the treadmill, when Buttercup started crying. She was hysterical about something (I think she'd had a bad dream?), so I rocked her and calmed her down, and left her room around 1:00. Went back to my room, looked at the treadmill, then . . . folded it up, took off my running shoes, and took a shower. Without running. Sigh. Oh well. Maybe I need an extra day off. Or maybe I'll try again later. :-)
Other random stuff -- my wonderful sister spent the better part of an hour in our hot (over 100 degrees) garage yesterday afternoon, re-installing the kids' car seats so that they can all fit in the middle row. They tested out the new arrangement this morning, and no one cried or threw a tantrum, no one poked the baby, and everyone seems happy. So far. ;-)

And lest I dare write two blog posts in a row without including pictures of my sweet babies (the audacity!!), here are a few pictures from this week. :-)