It seems that the majority of you were correct, 53% voted that they thought it was a boy, 46% voted girl. That leaves 1% floating in limbo, because the website lists the survey as only 99% complete for some reason. Strangely enough the actual birth ratios of boys to girls is that 105 boys are born for every 100 girls. I always thought it was more of a 50/50 thing.
The super adventures of our baby boys
About Us
June 29th, 2009
Poll Results
June 28th, 2009
Funny Kid… a few random Oliver stories.
Oliver has started talking…a lot. I have had several people in playgroup etc comment on his ability to tell a story. He is up to using 5-6 words in a sentence, and he can go on for 30 minutes straight telling a story. Some of his new favorite things to say are “I did it!” “I need it” etc. He has trouble with “l” and “v” so he sounds really cute when he asks “I watch Bugs Yife DDD peas!”
He stayed at Zachary’s house Friday night while Ryan and I had dinner with a few of Ryan’s work associates. When we went to pick him up he spent the 15 minute ride home telling us all about how he played the guitar, demonstrating how he used his fingers to make the sound, and talking about Zachary’s dog Zeke and how he took a nap in a zeke bed. It’s getting to the point where he can give us the gist of what he did, whether we were around to see it or not.
He is all about things being scary. His room is scary in the dark, some noises are scary. When we went to the carwash he fussed and said “oh scary” every time the automatic thing went by his window, but guess what he has asked to do almost every day since then.
Lately he has been on a pancake kick and asks to make them daily, sometimes twice a day, right now he prefers the fluffier american version but he’s a toddler and his favorite food changes from week to week.
His favorite activity is swimming. We upgraded his inflatable pool to a slightly larger version complete with a slide since the one from last year doesn’t allow him to stand up in it. We also go to the public pool and the splash park regularly. The only thing we need to make our front yard pool complete is an umbrella for me, so I don’t melt in the sun.
Today we watched the FIFA cup, the US vs Brazil. Oliver took one look at the screen and said “Oh playing soccer ball!” Ran to his room and dug out his soft soccer ball and insisted Ryan and I play with him for the rest of the afternoon.
He seems to be moving past the everything is “noooooo” phase. He says “yeah” pretty often now, since he realizes that sometimes saying yes can get you things that you want!
June 25th, 2009
Ultrasound
On Monday we had our 20- week ultrasound. I think they are amazing! Maybe I could have a future career as an Ultrasound tech since I seem to be pretty good at it without training, I wonder what it looks like to someone who has had training and can see things far more clearly than I can. I know to some people these things are like those magic eye pictures that you have to stare at, and squint and tilt your head funny to make out the shapes.
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| From new mini |
this is an image from the back of his head, you can see his left shoulder, arm, elbow and hand curled up near his ear.
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| From new mini |
this is the bottom of his foot.
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| From new mini |
and a profile shot you can also see his heart.
One thing I was disappointed in was the lack of 3-D images. I know that the 20 week anatomy scan is a medical precedure and is intended to make sure that the baby is developing on track, and to look for abnormalities in the heart, kidneys etc and check for things like cleft palate since the look specifically for the nose and upper lip pretty quickly. When I had Oliver it was scheduled for a full hour and the last half hour they turn the machine to 4-d and they’ll record it on DVD for you and they spend more time looking at the face etc. This time it was a half hour and purely medical. If you want the DVD and the 4-d part of the scan you have to make a separate appointment and give them an additional 175 dollars. As cool as I thought the 4-d scan was I don’t know that I will necessarily be shelling out the extra money for it. We’ll see in a few more months if I still feel that way.
Oliver went with us and he was fascinated by the ultrasound machine, not so much by what was on the screen. He clung on to Ryan and watched the tech work the whole time, and rarely did he look at the screen, the millions of buttons were the cool part.
June 25th, 2009
New webpage design
I thought it was time for a change, so we got a new background design for the website. The photoblog link is still in the same place so it shouldn’t be too hard to find your way around. Let me know if there is anything acting strange or things that need to be fixed. Thanks!
June 24th, 2009
Pregnancy list -20 weeks
How far along? 20 Weeks
Total weight gain/loss:0
Maternity clothes? yes I got some new pants I had ordered in the mail. They are great!
Sleep: Same
Best moment this week: The anatomy Ultrasound. He looks perfect!
Movement: Yeah, he is more active than I remember Oliver being, I feel consistent movement every few hours and Ryan can feel it too at times.
Food cravings: I’d like a good burrito. Too bad the Arkansas version of a burrito comes smothered in Velveeta and bell peppers.
Gender: BOY! See, I was right
Labor Signs: Not for at least 18 more weeks I hope.
Belly Button in or out? in
What I miss: Having people around who fold my laundry (Mom and Lies)…that really has nothing to do with the pregnancy though.
What I am looking forward to: Finding a name
Weekly Wisdom: Your body responds differently to each pregnancy. By this point with Oliver I had already gained almost 15 lbs and had daily heartburn. This time around I had more severe nausea in the beginning and I have barely caught back up to my pre-pregnancy weight. You never know what will happen even if you have been pregnant before.
Milestones: The baby is the size of a banana or a cantaloup. Different websites tell me different things.
June 22nd, 2009
So, do you want to know?
June 17th, 2009
Pregnancy list -19 weeks
How far along? 19 Weeks
Total weight gain/loss: -2
Maternity clothes? yes, we made a trip to Tulsa to find some more but pretty much struck out.
Sleep: Same
Best moment this week: The baby memory album I had ordered arrived. I was excited to start on it then realized I should probably finish the one from the first baby before starting on the second.
Movement: You can see some movement now from the outside, not just feel it. I don’t even want to think about what poor shape my Abs must be in this time around for that to happen so early.
Food cravings: more food aversions than cravings
Gender: Still thinking boy, although apparently I am in the minority. Could be because I have spent so much time thinking of boy names recently I am just in that mode.
Labor Signs: Not for at least 19 more weeks I hope.
Belly Button in or out? in
What I miss: Real pants that I don’t spend so much time tugging on.
What I am looking forward to: Monday morning
Weekly Wisdom: I got nothin’
Milestones: The baby should be able to hear now, the conversations I have now are significantly different than the ones Oliver was exposed to. I got an advertisement for this product, it makes me sad, all this emphasis on priming your child for the best education, can’t they just be a baby for a while? I think that is coming out wrong, I am all for giving your child as many opportunities as you can , but I think having a childhood is an important thing too. Kind of a, live in the present rather than focusing so intently on the future, sort of idea.
June 16th, 2009
Speaking of Pie…
No not Tia Lies, actual pie, although that was confusing to Oliver at first. After posting pics on the blog yesterday I decided to make a pie because I had all the ingredients on hand if we followed this recipe, and as Adrienne mentioned I figured it would use the most berries at one time. Oliver helped me every step of the way, first adding the ingredients: lemon juice, sugar and flour.
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| From random |
While I dug around in the cabinet for the cinnamon Oliver started the mixing process. This picture was added specifically for Adrienne’s benefit since she has asked on several occasions for a picture of me to see how big I am getting. This is a good as you get for a while 
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| From random |
Oliver did a super job of mixing the berries while I unrolled the frozen pie crust. I decided that particular shortcut was in order since I had it in the freezer anyway, and I have yet to successfully make a good pie crust by hand. They store bought ones aren’t bad and far less work most of the time. It wasn’t completely defrosted even after an over night stay in the refrigerator so the middle started to break as I unrolled it and it became a competition between me and the crust to see if I could get it to stay in once piece.
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| From random |
While I was busy with this task Oliver decided that he needed to get the potato masher out and give the berries a little mash. Once I had the crust in the pie plate, Oliver helpfully filled it up with the berry mix.
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| From random |
Finally he brushed the top of the pie with the egg wash to help it brown.
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| From random |
The pie turned out great, well it tasted great at any rate. The flour didn’t do its thickening job, or maybe I have particularly juicy berries since we ended up with berry soup with a nicely browned top crust. Still these blueberries were good they have a very floral flavor to them and sweet, but Oliver wouldn’t try them even in pie form. He did however eat all the ice cream that was served with the pie.
June 15th, 2009
Blue Blueberries.
Saturday we went to a blueberry patch, the Blueberry Barn, about 30 minutes away from us outside of Rogers. I was a little skeptical at first, I didn’t know what Oliver would do since I normally tell him not to pick things off of plants. When we arrived we went to the barn to get our containers to fill with berries. The lady behind the table handed me a gallon bucket with a long orange string attached and instructed me to tie it around my waist…like I have a waist to tie something around anymore. She waited patiently while I attempted to follow her instructions, and wouldn’t tell me where we were allowed to pick until the bucket was on.
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| From Playgroup activities |
The first photo is courtesy of Sarah, one of the other moms there. The others I took with our little point and shoot camera.
Anyway, once that was done she told me the kids had to pick in a certain location along the back fence. We walked to the back where we met up with Zachary, Lyla and two other kids from the playgroup. Oliver has a blast, he got into picking the berries and finding the “blue blueberries” and not picking the green berries. Although a good amount of green berries went into the bucket a reminder every once in a while went a long way towards having a majority of ripe berries in the basket.
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| From Playgroup activities |
Scott, Zachary’s dad, told the boys to eat the berries and once that door was opened I started to worry about Oliver turning blue, he would grab them by the handful out of the bucket and eat them. Luckily this place doesn’t use pesticides, so we didn’t have to worry about the kids getting a bunch of chemicals, just a few bugs for protein right? Strangely enough even though we brought home our gallon minimum of berries he has yet to eat one since we have had them. I think he got his fill of the berries while we were in the berry patch.
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| From Playgroup activities |
Stay tuned for part two of the berry adventure, which is trying to use a gallon of blueberries. Anyone have any good recipes since I don’t have the freezer space to store too many of them?
June 11th, 2009
Fire station tour
Yesterday we went on a tour of the Bentonville fire station with the playgroup. Oliver was excited to see the big trucks but he did NOT want to see the fire station, and was very vocal about NO fire station! He changed his mind when they showed us into the common room, a tiered theater style room with at least 12 oversized lazy boys and a projection screen on the wall. A bar at the far end opened up to a state of the art kitchen, complete with 3 stainless steel refrigerators and a beautiful gas range. I was jealous, and Oliver loved it, no shortage of things to climb on, or buttons to push. Those fire fighters are living in style during thier 24 hour shifts.
When we finally got out to the see the big trucks Oliver was feeling a little bashful and didn’t want to climb around inside the trucks like most of the other kids. He didn’t want any pictures taken so he missed out on a few good photo ops. He did love running around and climbing on the outside of the trucks and engines. I learned a few things too, like the difference between a rescue truck, an engine and a “fire truck.” At the end of the tour our guides handed out frisbies, coloring books, hats and keychains to the kids who were all very excited about their presents. We followed up our fire station themed day with luch at Firehouse subs, where kids eat free on Wednesdays and a kids meal comes with yet another fire hat.
I forgot to bring the camera, or rather the memory card was still in the computer from the last time I transfered pictures, so I will post a couple that Amber and a couple other moms took when I get them.