Oliver's First Tub Bath

I'll admit, I'm a little ashamed that Oliver is 7 weeks old and is just now getting his first "real" bath although his umbilical cord stump fell off about 5 weeks ago.

Ahem.

When you have an eager two-year-old who's not allowed in the bathtub, it takes a bit of finesse to find time to bathe his little brother without him noticing!  And trust me ... Oliver needs all the help he can get in winning Jackson's approval right now!  :)  Just so you don't panic ... I have been sponge bathing Oliver alongside Jax every night!  However, tonight we brought out the "big guns" and put little man in the bathtub.

It felt soooo good!

But, Daddy, I want to play longer!

Ahhh ... that was nice!

Splish, Splash!

Team Christian

How many viral videos has our world had?  And about the silliest things ... auto tunes about "hide yo kids" ... babies talking gibberish to each other in front of a fridge ... and I'm sure many more about which I've been out-of-the-loop.  Well, recently a video went viral on YouTube and touched my heart profoundly.  So, I proudly jumped on the bandwagon and started following this incredible mother and her precious son, Christian.

Lacey Buchanan is a young mother with a huge heart for our Lord and for her son who was born with rare medical conditions called tessier cleft lip and palate and micropthalmia.

Just to give my followers an idea of the rarity of Christian's condition:

There are an estimated 7 billion people in our world ... and there are 50 documented cases of his cleft.

I often speak about Jackson's "very rare" condition ... and to put that into perspective ... there are approximately 700,000 documented cases of PIS (1 in 10,000 kids).

Yeah.

That's how it hit me too.

50 vs. 700,000

In case you haven't already seen them, Lacey and her miracle boy have inspired me so much that I want to take the opportunity to share their videos on my blog.

Here's one (of many) copies of Lacey's video that went viral:

And here's one that Lacey made with beautiful photographs of her family:

And ... if you're as inspired as I am ... here's the website you can go to to order a "Team Christian" t-shirt to help support his amazing family.  It is my understanding that there is only about one week left to order, so please BE QUICK!

www.teamchristian2012.weebly.com

Go Team Christian!

We love you! 

Who'd We Lose?

Sometimes ... Usually taking photographs with babies and toddlers can be hit or miss.  You win some and you lose some.  But, when you lose some ... they are nevertheless pretty funny. 

 Here, we lost Oliver.

Here, we lost Jackson.

Again, we lost Oliver.

And again, it was Jackson.

And here ... there goes Oliver.

And ... yep ... Jackson.

And then occasionally ... VERY occasionally ... you get that-- . one . perfect . picture.

... you know ... the one-with-bad-lighting-and-coloring-that-you-have-to-turn-into-black-and-white-but-you-still-love-it-picture ...

And you just can't wait to post it to your blog!

Enjoy!

Roanoke Smiles

This weekend we traveled to our beloved Roanoke, Virginia and found it to be:

short on clouds/rain

short on traffic

short on rude people

short on headaches

short on boredom

short on work schedules

short on complaints

But ... one this Roanoke is never short on: smiles!

(wait a second ... do all of those things sound positive to you?)

(that's what I thought too!)

In Roanoke, there were:

doting grandma smiles

coaxed smiles

a-little-bit-michevious smiles

because-I'm-slingling-water smiles

making-ToTo-laugh smiles

proud-of-myself smiles

maybe, a few feigned smiles

birthday smiles

loving smiles

mother-daughter smiles

sweet moment, totally candid smiles

beautiful lighting smiles

PawPaw smiles

(You can't make me!) smiles

(wo)man's best friend smiles

riding-in-a-wheelbarrow smiles

just-because-I-can smiles

We love Roanoke smiles!

Discovering the Discovery

Searching for something to do other than "sit around," Mom and I took the boys to the National Air and Space Museum Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center in Chantilly, Virginia.  That's just a fancy way of saying "the other Simthsonian space museum that allows you to avoid the DC Metro."  I convinced my unsure mother that Jackson would love this museum because it is filled with airplanes and helicopters (Jax's most recent obsessions).

I was correct!

"eeee ... hellacopta"

While we were there, we also had the wonderful opportunity to see the United States Discovery that has just recently returned from space after completing its last voyage.  I know Jackson won't remember this, but at least we'll have pictures one day!

"spaysheep ... ooo ... wow"

Jax even got the chance to take in his very first IMAX film called "Rescue" about ... you guessed it ... airplanes, helicopters, ships, and firetrucks.  It was right up his alley!

Oliver's Newborn Photos

When Oliver was exactly one-week old, we had newborn photographs of him taken by a professional photographer in our area.  I wanted to take a moment to share a few of my favorites.

Oh, how do I choose?

Now, if they only stayed this little!

Oliver is One Month Old

While we were in Philadelphia for Jackson's casting, our other little man hit a big milestone as well ...

Oliver is ONE MONTH OLD!

(on June 2, 2012)

10 pounds, 6 ounces

22 inches

At one month old, Oliver:

wears size 0-3 months

eats 4 oz. every 2-3 hours

sleeps in 3 hours increments at night

no longer needs to be swaddled and sleeps with his arms above his head

cries very, very little (only when hungry or when he has a messy diaper)

loves to be held up on Mommy's shoulder

enjoys watching overhead fans and listening to music

is an awesome car-rider

tends to be gassy, and has an incredibly loud burp for a baby

has excellent neck control although he protests "tummy time"

is starting to turn toward voices and make eye contact

occasionally seems to smile with purpose

is still waiting on his first kiss from his big brother

. . . and fits perfectly into our family!

We had some great lighting in our Philly hotel room, so we got some beautiful photographs of Oliver (and some "interesting" ones of Jackson) that I thought you might enjoy!

(love, love, love this one!)

Happy One-Month Birthday, Oliver!

We love you, "little bean."