Rocket Swish

So...

We're having a baby...

It's a girl.

We call her Rocket Swish, because that's what Oliver requested that we name her.

My mom hates it.

The nickname, not the fetus.

Hopefully we'll be able to come up with something more acceptable by the end of the year...

Summer recap...In TRUE Mommy Blog Style...Minus the 8 Billion Photos That Only My Mom/Grandparents Care About

June:

Utah

Basically, I spent the month feeling nauseous on my mom's couch, soaking up the essence of HOME. I shared a bed with my sister, spent as much time as she could stand in my mom's presence, and enjoyed seeing my family for the first time in months.

Bryan and Brittany got married on a perfect day in June. It was so lovely, and there was this amazing pasta salad at their wedding lunch... You know me and food. Oliver grouched through their whole reception. Her mom probably hates me for bringing my screaming child to her daughter's wedding reception.

There were a couple of trips to Bryan and Brittany's house for swimming. We went to Ogden's dinosaur park, where Oliver was mostly terrified and awestruck at the same time. I got to go to Sunday dinner for four weeks in a row, which hasn't happened since before I was married. It was glorious.

Jesse stayed home and asked me to please never leave him for so long ever again.

July:

We drove from Utah to Maryland in my new car. Mostly my dad drove because he is wonderful like that.

There was a short stay in the enchanting town of Oskaloosah, Iowa where there is a pastry shop that you must eat at before you die, and a park that you must take your children to before they are grown. The city of Oskaloosah knows how to make life worth living, that's for sure.

Pastries from Jaarsma Dutch Bakery. The picture doesn't do them any justice.

I got to eat my fair share of Beef Chalupas Supreme (I'm sure I'll never be able to get enough of them), and I started to remember why I held strictly to a "NO BATHROOMS BUT MY OWN" policy when I was younger.

Andre stayed with us through July and we were so lucky to have him. He kept Oliver occupied, he helped around the house whenever I asked with whatever I needed, he was fun to talk to, and he was always up for a new episode of Dr. Who. I'm convinced there's not a better house guest anywhere.

We visited a long list of places while he was here, walked our feet off, and mastered the metro. It was exhausting, but so much fun.

August:

Mike, Jacque, and Emma came to stay...we had a full house. It was fun to watch them interact with Oliver, and he loved getting to know them better. Andre all but adopted them as his own. It was a nice visit.

Jesse spent our anniversary at Six Flags with Andre and Wonder Woman. I'm over it.

I put Andre on his airplane and sent him home with a whole bottle of hot sauce in his bag to surprise him with when he got home. Both Andre and the hot sauce made it home in one piece.

I spent the rest of August hanging out with Jesse, who had a couple of weeks off of school, and recovering from the whirlwind month of July.

September:

Jesse is loving his Pediatrics rotation. He likes the clinic he was assigned, and not just for the unlimited free hot chocolate and free lunches. He's probably going to cry when it is time for his Psych rotation at the end of this month.

It's pretty safe to assume that Oliver is potty trained! And that's a big deal.

He's also got something going for himself almost every morning of the week. Monday is rest day. Tuesday is preschool. Wednesday is playgroup. Thursday is preschool. Friday is play date. The kid has more obligations than I do...I've had a hard time coming to grips with the fact that my mornings are no longer my own.

I'm the same old, same old. Just looking forward to the beautiful east coast fall season that is just around the corner...I can feel it! Also, I've decided that my son is truly old enough now to remember things like family traditions, and whether or not we decorated for holidays and things like that. I can no longer approach holidays with the level of apathy that I've shown in the past. I've been pondering things like family holiday traditions for various holidays and pinning DIY decorations like a madwoman.

And that, my friends, was my summer vacation. Probably the best one yet.

What are your various holiday traditions? Specifically for October, as I really stink at Halloween? Help a girl out!

Purple Haze

 Heather got a new color today, "Purple Haze," chosen by the POPsicle. Doesn't she look great? 

I was "dye"ing to see it, so I skyped her as soon as she popped in after her appointment with Colleen.

Ollie came to see what was up...

I said, "Ollie, do you like Heather's hair?"

"No," he said. "I just like my strawberry milk," and took a swig.

What does a toddler know about hair anyway?

A little bit of love from Oliver J.

For all of the Grandmas and Grandpas (and great grandparents) in his life...

If you are not a Grandma or Grandpa in Oliver's life, not to worry! For you viewing pleasure, I give you...

 A bug...dressed as a fox...headed to Ellicott City.

Don't worry, there is also a nose on the hood.

Did you know that in Maryland, the pronunciation for Ellicott actually sounds like Ellicut?

And in case you were wondering if Marylanders pronounce any of their other cities funny, they do.

For instance Bowie sounds like buoy.

However, there's a whole song full of Utah's crazy city names...so I guess Maryland isn't doing too bad.

Speaking of Utah, did you know that a more recent episode of Dr. Who was filmed in southern Utah...Jesse laughed a lot when he saw a San Juan County school bus.

I can't believe that I just told the whole internet that we watch Dr. Who. But I'll do you one better...we LOVE Dr. Who. So there!

Yikes, that got really rambly really fast...

When Grandpas Come to Visit {part 2}

Hey Dad! Remember when you came to our house for a visit? Let's do it again sometime, ok?

At the B & O Railroad Museum Oliver loved the roundhouse. At the first sight of all of those train cars in one place he gasped and whispered "WOW!"

Grandma Min sent two t-shirts, a froggy rain jacket, and some monkey gloves for Grandpa to deliver to his little friend, who promptly put them on and refused to take them off for hours.

We drove into D.C. for the sole purpose of trying out Ollie's Trolley, which is apparently home to the best burgers in D.C. After eating one, I can honestly say that any other burger, anywhere, has some pretty stiff competition.

We walked around the mall, where Dad dragged us into the toy store to play. 

And he introduced us to my current favorite sport: Duckpin bowling. 

Thanks again for burgers, crabs, train museums, Ikea visits, bowling, endlessly playing with Oliver J., and anything else that I'm forgetting at the moment. You make a pretty great house guest!

How I spent my Christmas Money: Official Report

Dearest Grandma and Grandpa,

I sort of went IKEA crazy while my dad was here.

He happened to rent a car big enough to pick up all the things I managed to find logical enough reasons to buy.

He took me to Ikea...twice! We stopped at the Baltimore Ikea one day where we managed to find the EXACT shelving unit I was looking for in the "As Is" section for fifty dollars instead of eighty.

That, my friends, was very lucky!

While we were there, I decided that I wanted to use my Christmas Cash to purchase Ikea's Raskog kitchen cart in blue...because it is useful, and whimsical, and the perfect size and shape for my laundry...er...nook under the stairs.

photo credit

Except....horror of horrors, it was out of stock!

Dad said, "That's ok. We can go to the other Ikea tomorrow." Because he's the best dad in the whole world.

The next day we stopped in College Park on our way home from DC! I got my beloved cart, and we headed for home. Since then, I feel happy every time I open the door to do laundry! And that's a big deal.


Allow me to illustrate:

Before

After

(Please excuse the photo bomb from my Tim Burton Giraffe magnet.)

 See what I mean? Now I can organize cleaning and laundry supplies in one place. Things don't fall off of or through the shelf like they used to, and I can wheel this baby out easily anytime I feel like I want to.

So thank you for my new laundry cart!

Love, 

Your darling granddaughter Della

PS: If you are wondering how the other Christmas money in our home has been spent, I can only say that Jesse and Oliver are hoarding theirs.

I'm always the first to breakdown and spend.

A Birthday Message From My Nieces and Nephews:

Dear Aunt Della,
We think that you are swella,
You definitely don't smella!

We are sure that you are "bella"!
So we wrote this card to tella...
You Happy Birthday Della!

Also worth mentioning:

As I was putting Oliver to bed, he crawled into my lap (he likes to "be wike a baby") and sang the Happy Birthday song to me...FIVE TIMES...in his sweet little Oliver J. voice.

(well, actually, one of them was to Andre, because that is who Oliver sings the Happy Birthday song to every other time that it may randomly pop into his head...but I'm over it. Andre is just that cool. I can accept that, even on my birthday).

I'm so thankful for the little people in my life, and even a bunch of the big ones!

I really am the luckiest!

When Grandpas Come to Visit...

 It makes us happy.

My dad came for a visit early this month.

A "Just Because" sort of visit that we have been anticipating since October.

He arrived in the middle of the night.

Oliver woke up to find him sleeping nearby, and they played all morning.

cars, trains, books, animals... you name it, they did it. 

It was really quite magical.

Left To His Own Devices: Skype

This is what it looks like when the little one commandeers your computer and hijacks your skype session:

 I was only gone for a few seconds!

I guess he thought he needed to talk to Heather more than I did.

Who could blame him?

A Collection of Heathers: Original Art by Oliver

Today Oliver announced that he wanted to color Heather. This quickly turned into a collection of waxy scribbles of his aunt Heather on the back of Jesse's unused note cards. Each one different than the one before.

Ollie's descriptions of his pictures are as follows:

Heather with a nose:

Heather with blueberry eyes and legs:

Heather with legs, feet, and eyes:

 

Heather with owies on her legs and feet:

And last, but certainly not least, Heather with hair:

What did Oliver say when he was all done? 

"Mama, I LOVE Heather so MUCH"

We are ABSOLUTELY turning these into postcards and using them for our mail correspondence with Miss Heather! Hopefully they will make her day...well, five of her days!

Handwritten Legacy

I love the idea of a family legacy; something handed down from an ancestor.

I love the way that an item that once was commonplace, and seemingly of little value or worth, over time transforms into an object that demonstrates that life was lived, and gives insight into certain aspects of that life.

On Christmas Eve, I spent the day with my mother, sister, and grandmother collecting such treasures of legacy from three generations of women who came before me.

Lucy Ann's charm bracelet and crafting supplies, Frankie's sewing basket and it's contents, Virginia's tin of buttons, Nancy's cookbook, the pattern for the dress my mother wore at her wedding reception, and a copy of the Bywater family turkey dressing recipe, handwritten, with all of it's stains and smudges in full glory.

If you know me, then you will know that this copy of the handwritten recipe was one of my favorite treasures of those I took with me that day, as I especially love all things pertaining to food, tradition, and handwritten.

This is the recipe sheet that my grandmother uses each time she begins preparing our family's traditional holiday meal. It is written on the back of a student schedule from Cyprus High school, where she worked for many years as a counselor. It is in her handwriting. It shows the corrections that were made over time as our family grew. When it is not in use, it waits in a little black binder full of recipes, notes, and menus from previous meals for the holiday season to roll around again.

I love knowing that when I use this recipe to make turkey dressing for my own family, I will get to see what she sees each time she makes it. I will be able to make it exactly the way that she does, and recreate the taste of my childhood Thanksgivings and Christmases for my children and grandchildren.

One day, when I am teaching my own granddaughters to cook the traditional holiday meal, I will pull this recipe out and show them her handwriting, and tell them all of the beautiful memories I have of holidays in my grandparents' kitchen.


That is the magic of handwritten recipes.

That is the gift of tradition.

That is a family legacy.

Nostalgia

My sister, Heather, and I have decided to be grown ups...

 

We have agreed to sell our Barbie collection. Which pleases our mother, as she has been storing it for the past eighteen or so years.

 

I have to tell you how much fun it was to spend the entire afternoon sorting and arranging all of the Barbie furniture (which was always my favorite part) one last time so that I could take photos for the online classified ads.

 

Are you interested in some Barbie accessories? Maybe a classic dream house with a working elevator?

Check them out here, here, here, here, here, and here.

And, yes. I did just shamelessly advertise my own classified ads on my blog. And I'm OK with that.  

Oliver's Hero...

...is Andre.

Always has been.

He talks about him in Maryland almost everday.

And Andre loves Oliver. A whole lot.

So you can imagine how happy they are to be together again.

Since we arrived, Oliver has followed Andre around like a little shadow, mimicking his every move.

 

It's pretty much the sweetest thing there ever was.

The Apple Doesn't Fall Far...

Did you know that every morning, like clock work, for absolutely as long as I can remember

(except during most of junior high and high school when I was just so dumb too cool), 

I'd wake up and head for my parents' bed.

"Can I tickle your back?" I'd ask...those were the magic words.

I'm not ashamed to admit that even to this day, when I wake up at home, that's the first place I go.

Lately, my friend Oliver has adopted my old pattern.

He doesn't know about the back tickling requirement yet, but we're getting there.

I'm not sure if my parents loved it as much as I did when I was young...

In fact, I'm now keenly aware of how much space a little body can take up, even in a bed ten times their size...

and just how quickly one's pillow can be completely commandeered...

and that sort of monkey business gets really old.

Really fast.

But, there's something very flattering in knowing that the first thing your little wants to do in the morning is share their bunny blanket (or jungle blanket, or circle blanket, or all of the above) with YOU...

and play with YOUR hair...

and kiss YOUR cheek...

and snuggle with YOU...

I don't think I'd give that up for anything.

I like to think my parents felt the same way. If not, they were pretty great at pretending.

Still are, actually.

To Ollie, Love Grandpa Than

This photo of a block fort popped up in my email today. It's from the boys at home.

It is very intricate work...if you'll notice, there's even a courtyard.

Oliver loved it.

"OH I LIKE THAT CASTLE!" He said. "I LIKE THAT BIG CASTLE!"

Ollie sat with me for five minutes telling me about the colors, shapes, and letters he could see...

What's the first thing Ollie would do if he had the chance to see it live and in person?

I believe his exact words would be "OH NO" as he ran right into it and watched it tumble around his ankles.

Wanderlust

Right now...

As I type...

My mother is in Jamaica.

And my sister is in China.

And I am very very jealous.

But that's ok. Because I'm going to do something super fantastically awesome this weekend with Kristen to make up for it.

I'm not sure what that super fantastically awesome thing is just yet, but I do live in, what I consider to be, one of the coolest places in the world...so I'm sure we can figure something out.

The Story of Jesse's Life: Geek Speak

The other night, Jesse received a gaming invitation from one of his brothers in the form of a text...

"Abandon thine wives, children, roommates, and the pursuit of women. For tomorrow I laboreth not, and verily I desireth to gather together five of the children of Moses. Verily our enemies shall be crushed under our heals in the Gears of War."

 

We've been laughing about it for days.

A Family of Feet

I had considered "Family Footsies" for the title of this post, but thankfully I realized that, at first glance, it may not come across as intended...so it was scrapped.

Whenever I give my camera to Heather at a family function and ask her to take lots of pictures, I always end up with at least a few pictures of feet.

These photos came from my Grandma Lucy Ann's 80th birthday party in May:

Jesse

 Della

H-DIZZ

(Really, who else would those bad boys belong to?)

And the star of the night?

Why, Mrs. By of course.

Her feet were not featured on this evening, but she looked far too fetching to leave out of this post because of some silly foot technicality.

I think Congratulations are in Order!

I got a very exciting phone call from my brother last night...

Yes. That's right Ladies and Gentlemen!

Bryan and his girl Brittany are now engaged!

(I was especially happy when Bryan told me that he made the announcement in the traditional, Childs Children way...Tell Mom and Dad first, and then just throw it out in the middle of family dinner and see who was paying attention. Good Form, Bryan! Good Form! Except I think we have to be careful because I worry that Grandma and Grandpa will stop inviting us...)

Oliver J. and I have been talking about it all day.

We've been discussing Bryan...and dirt bikes, of course. We have practiced Ollie's pronunciation of Brittany, and Oliver has taken to pointing out Bryan along with the Grandmas and Grandpas every time he walks past the family pictures in our stairway.

... 

I have to tell you that I really love my brother.

He's a pretty great guy, but we weren't friends for a long time.

I think that the tides changed for our relationship when Bryan got his driver's license and started chauffeuring me to ballet lessons for my mom. I think he might have hated it, but it forced us to spend time together in his truck. Sometimes there was conversation, but mostly we were listening to entirely inappropriate music together...and often at entirely inappropriate volume levels.

We had fun. He was cool. And it was comfortable.

(It must be noted that the girls in my ballet classes seriously thought he was the most attractive brother to grace the studio...)

Since then, he has been the best. He takes Heather and me out to movies. He spoils Andre. He feeds us his favorite foods. He gives thoughtful and generous gifts. He loves my baby, and has befriended my husband. He even says "I love you" if I say it first...

I'm happy that he has found someone to love, and to love him in return. She makes him so happy. And I'm really looking forward to getting to know her better myself.

...

Our Bryan and Brittany lesson came full circle when Oliver came up to me and informed me that this little friend was Bryan:

 You can see the resemblance can't you?

Happy Father's Day

Oliver and I are so blessed to have such a dedicated and loving man to support and care for us. He works with such diligence to provide for our needs and guarantee a successful future for our family.

Oliver and Jesse at Arlington National Cemetary 6/9/12

Today we are also grateful for the love and support we receive in abundance from our fathers and grandfathers.

I am especially grateful for mine. My dad and grandpa have always cheered for my victories and supported me in my trials. They have provided me with unforgettable experiences and taught me valuable lessons. They are easily approachable in times of need and whenever I ask, they are willing. In fact, they often express that they wish they could have done more.

My little family is so lucky to be a part of theirs.