Grumpy Photo #2

Prayers have been answered (praise God)! Oliver's fever, which lasted nearly 5 days, is finally gone. He is still recovering but is doing significantly better. He even slept well during the night. Hopefully Tony and I both recover from the cold soon, too, as we are both still feeling rather yucky.

The transition this week has been impacted by all of our illnesses. I think it's going okay so far, but perhaps next week will be a better indication as (please please please) we will all be healthy again and won't be living in the fog of bad head colds. In general I think Oliver is happy at Grandma's, but he is quite reluctant to leave the house in the morning or for us to leave at Grandma's. Luckily no screaming, and while he did apparently cry a bit Tuesday morning it was after we left and didn't last long. I am again very thankful that he's being loved and cared for by a family member all day. And that she's willing to give us updates and send us pictures!

Speaking of pictures, Tony snapped the following photo last night just before bed. Oliver wanted to wear Tony's sweatshirt, so Tony zipped him up in it. When attempting to take a picture, all he would do is pout. I call this one "grumpy yoda" and love how the sweatshirt is bigger than him!

Over the weekend we also took delivery of our new dining room table. Since getting married, Tony and I have used a hand-me-down tiled table that once resided in a kid's playroom (it came with crayon marks and all). We didn't use the table too often, so when it broke we didn't worry about it too much. Now that we use our table every day, the tiled surface combined with the broken structure proved to be too much and we decided to bite the bullet and get a grown up table. No crayon marks (yet), sturdy wood, able to expand to fit extended family, etc. We knew the table would need to be able to take some wear and tear, but didn't expect our family dinners to look like this:

Note that he's finger painting his dinner of sticky rice and kimchi and his side dish of mashed sweet potatoes (which he combined into one bowl to start). I think I've been doing pretty well in the "getting used to toddler messes" department, but will admit that I had some anxiety as I watched him flinging and smearing his dinner all over himself, the new table and the floor. It was straight to bath for us as Tony cleaned up (and he reports that the sweet potatoes were particularly hard to remove). I don't know that I would have been anymore comfortable with him doing this on our old table, especially with how difficult the grout was to clean. Apparently I still need to work on getting comfortable with Oliver's messes, but I am glad he had fun at dinner!

First Day Back

Today is my first day back at work since December 17th. It's a whole new year, though with the snow falling outside my window it didn't feel like we are already in the spring season. 

The final days of being home with Oliver did not go as planned. He started coughing Wednesday and by 12:30 am Friday morning he had a fever, bad cough and congestion. Since then he's maintained a fever, the cough has continued to be pretty bad and his congestion has not improved. He's not eating much and isn't sleeping well, which means I'm not getting much sleep either. Thanks to the constant coughing in my face (yuck), I'm also under the weather with a pretty bad head cold (luckily no fever). So Day #1 back at the office finds me rather sleep deprived, suffering with a bad head cold, worried about my little guy who is still sick, and trying to figure out how to best get back into things here at the office. 

But...I did it! No calling in sick, only one phone call to Grandma to check on Oliver (though we did text an awful lot), and I actually got a few things done while also trying to get a handle on what's going to be the top priority for the next day or two. I also had adult conversations and time on the computer without little hands "helping"! I am so thankful he is with a relative. 

So, part one of the first day back went okay, all things considered. The second part -- picking up Oliver, getting home and making dinner, cleaning up, bath time, bed time routine...all of the things I'm worried will just be stressful and not enjoyable...also went ok. Oliver was happy to see us, but also seemed happy with Grandma and Grandpa. The getting home part took longer than I had hoped, but dinner was on the table without much fuss (not that Oliver ate much) and we still had some time to hang out. We skipped bath but mostly because he just wasn't feeling great. As of now his fever is down, so hopefully tomorrow will bring a better day for him. 

Here are two cute photos Grandma texted to us today. Man, I miss knowing all that he's doing! The first is him napping just after we left (he did wake up before 5 a.m. today; how I wish I could have joined him!). The second is him goofing around. What a doll!

COC, Final Week & To Bunny or Not To Bunny

It's here! We (finally) received Oliver's Certificate of Citizenship. Our proof that he is a Citizen of the United States. While he became a citizen when we landed on December 26th, we had no proof of his citizenship. Now we have it! Unfortunately it is under his birth name, so we still have several steps to get everything in order under Oliver Anthony Meyers. But it is a big step forward and one worth celebrating (with a glass of wine as I write this). Here's the official document (so glad to know he's single!):

This is also my final week at home before returning to work. I have mixed feelings about not being home with Oliver all day, but I am hoping that the transition goes well for all of us. I think my having something outside of the house will be good for me (the days sure get long sometimes), but I haven't yet wrapped my head around how everything else is going to work -- getting dinner on the table at a reasonable time, continuing to attach with Oliver, having time to play with and teach him, plus the usual bed time routine. I'm sure all mom's who work outside the home (and some dad's too) are nodding their head in agreement that those are all legitimate concerns but they work themselves out. Let's hope that is the case here too. 

We are continuing our efforts to get Oliver on a good sleep schedule. A friend of mine shared our story with her coworker, who does home visits with families in the Anoka-Hennepin district. Today she stopped by and gave us some terrific and practical tips and tidbits -- more than tidbits, really. Lots of great information. Hopefully having a few more tools in our box will help us help Oliver as he struggles to fall asleep at a reasonable hour.

Finally, as we are embarking on our first holiday with Oliver, we need to decide if we will be a family celebrating Christian holidays with secular components (i.e., the Easter Bunny and Santa Claus) or not. Tony and I both grew up excited about the Easter Bunny, Santa, etc. As a youngster it was the most important part of the holiday! So it's not an easy decision, at least not for me. I want to raise him focused on the Godly reason for the holidays, but I also want to be sure he's having fun, creating awesome memories and exciting holidays. What family traditions do we continue from our growing up years, and what do we start as our own traditions? How do we balance that with what his peers are experiencing? Lots of tough decisions to be sure we start off on the right foot! (And yes, we did celebrate Christmas together. But it wasn't a holiday we could do much to prepare for or properly celebrate given the circumstances.)

To close us out, here's a great snapshot of how Oliver might look as a grumpy old man. He snagged my glasses off the nightstand and then refused to smile for a photo. He's cute even when he's looking grumpy!

Wednesday Wrap Up

On Saturday Tony and I had our first date since taking custody of Oliver back in December. Our first meal served by someone else with no little hands to mind and little mouth to feed (I didn't even check to see if they had a kid's menu!). Our first time alone to share adult conversations -- and beverages -- without constant distraction or extreme exhaustion. It was lovely. We were gone only four hours and were home a little after 8:00, but it was a wonderful and necessary!

As with most forward steps (date night) we've also had some regression in Oliver's sleeping. While he still sleeps through the night, we are having an increasingly difficult time getting him to fall asleep...meaning he often falls asleep closer to 10:00. In addition we are having more trouble getting him to take naps. If he doesn't nap around lunch time, he will want to sleep around dinner time -- and is really difficult to keep awake! He also gets very crabby and his aggression increases. Therefore, we don't believe he's ready to skip naps altogether. I don't know if this weekend's time change will help or hurt, but I've been warned it will probably be very challenging. Ugh.

Today was a double whammy for Oliver. The morning began with his re-scheduled eye exam. He did great! The eye drops to dilate his eyes stung, but other than that he was in a good mood and cooperated with everyone. According to the marvelous Dr. P., his eyes are "perfect" and she doesn't believe he will have any major vision problems down the line.

His newest two word combo: doctor eye (though he's starting to say it in the right order). He's also "roaring" a lot -- at home and at others when we are out and about! Also new: a lunch full of bribery. He didn't want to eat his peanut butter and fruit roll up, so it was one bite of that for each korean fry (potato stick). He ended up finishing the sandwich, and I was giving him small pieces of fries, so I will count that as a successful meal!

This afternoon we had to get his vaccinations done...again (apparently the initial vaccines were safe but something was wrong with the effectiveness due to a power outage). He did as well as can be expected and enjoyed a scoop of birthday cake ice cream afterward. So far his pain seems less than last time. I hope that means the rest of the night will go well!

On Friday we are heading downtown to visit my office and Tony's, then we will have lunch with "Daddy" before heading back home. It will be nice to see my coworkers again and to meet some of Tony's. Friday night I get to have dinner out with a friend -- can't wait!

In other news, I have apparently been wearing my underwear all wrong. I can't believe it! Here's the proper way, according to Oliver: