Oden Adventures

In his fourth week of life, Oliver spent a lot more time looking around to see this new home of his, with thoughtful expressions...

 ...more bonding with his sister, one of his biggest fans...

 ...and meeting lots of new (to him) friends!  We visited Rachelle & the boys since Joel & Jesse hadn't met him yet.  They haven't been around babies, but they acted like they see & hold them all the time - very cute!

 Like Father, Like Son, as they say...

 "We are not amused."

 Patrick's parents took Vianne out for a few hours, which gave me some quiet snuggle time with my boy!

 Saturday visit with Granma

 Oliver went to church for the first time!  All dressed up in his Sunday Best...

 Daddy picked out this outfit after the ultrasound confirming that we were having a boy :-)

 Slept through most of it :-)

 Our friends the Burns family came to visit & meet our little guy

 Aunt Jenny came to meet her newest nephew & help his Mama out

 Slept through his first trip to the park :-)

 4 weeks old!

 Napping on Aunt Jenny

Glimpses of our growing boy...

Mommy's Rockstar!

 His big sister loves to hold him & thinks he's very cute!

 Looking up at her (too sweet!)

 Saturday visit from Granma

 Male bonding :-)

 Spending more time awake these days

 and starting to smile a bit...

 3 weeks old!

 Well...the upside is that Vianne is learning to share her toys, right? :-)

July had the misfortune of being The Month We Were Just Trying To Get Through, anticipating Oliver's arrival in August, having already had our one big trip of the summer in May/June, this Mama not feeling like outings of any kind, experiencing the increasing tidal wave that is Age Two, and dealing with some financial issues and other life hiccups...

That's what felt true, anyway.  These snapshots remind me that we did manage to eke some fun out of July even still...Vianne especially, when she had 120 seconds alone with 12 (thankfully washable) markers...

 We started confining the marker use to the high chair after that.

Our sassy lil' ladybug, headed out to church

Vianne was thrilled that our church picnic at Pastor Joe & Cindy's house included time in the pool...

...and cupcakes!

Lots of sandbox time, building castles and digging for treasure

She was very proud of her "circles".

We were invited to two fun birthday parties on the same day, Ansley's 3rd and cousin Sarah's 40th.  Ansley had a Frozen-themed party, complete with a visit from Queen Elsa, much to the delight of the kids, even Vianne who has no idea who she is :-D.

Vianne with Ansley

Vianne's first face painting!

Vianne raised her hand like the princess :-)

Adorable cupcakes!

The bouncy house never disappoints!

Cousin Sarah's party was at Aunt Pat & Uncle Lynn's house and included a small pool...

...and a big pool (with bouncy house & slide), both of which were a big hit with Vianne.

Praying trains with Lily

Posing with the birthday 'girl' :-D

Other July highlights include a lot of time with the bucket (aka Fireman's Helmet) on her head, saving the day...

Lots of watermelon (I can never seem to get enough!)

Playing with Joel & Jesse when we could

A trip to the park with Daddy (and one of my favorite pictures of Vianne ever taken)

...and lots of playing in her room, especially with Granma.

And then the very long month of July ended with the very sweet gift of Oliver Patrick's arrival on the very last day.  He just couldn't wait 7 hrs and 41 min more to come into the world as our August baby, so he joined the multi-member July birthday club instead.  Our little Harry Potter/Ruby boy, to the delight of Mama (who wants Peridot as a birthstone anyway, right?).