The Adventures of Oliver

Like a True Jedi, Best Buds, Bath Time Craziness!

2009-09-04T20:41:00.000-07:00

Oliver spent some time mastering the art of Dewback riding. Thanks in no small part to Grandpa Bolt and Cousin Luc. The force is strong in this one! Yes.

Amber and I had our 10 year high school reunion at a park. Rosie and Oliver hit it off instantly. Soon, Rosie will have her own little one to play with (she's due this Winter)!

It was good to see old friends at our day in the park!

There is a sacred bond between the Ralston and Mills family. It dates back to the days of Amber's youth, growing up with Matt, Kim, and Brad Ralston. Now, our kids are destined to be best friends. Oliver and Trey are three months apart and couldn't have a better time hanging out together. Trey likes to pat Big O's head and try to give him lots of open-mouth kisses. You could almost mistake these two for twins... if it wasn't for the different outfits. :)

Now that Oliver is more mobile, we had to upgrade to a bath seat. Now he is locked in and upright, all while sporting some rockin' hair.

It just so happened that his bath toy was strategically placed over his baby business...

Given that he can now crawl, and he has 4 teeth, Oliver has officially achieved monster status! He can chase you down and bite you now! Oh, sure he looks sweet, but don't be fooled. He could take you.

Sharp claws, extremely fast, powerful bite, covered in fur... beware.

Fun in the Sun

2009-09-04T20:26:00.000-07:00

Oliver's first time swimming! We had an end of the Summer party at Great Aunt Angie and Great Uncle Rob's house to celebrate Cousin Lauren's going away to college. The whole family was there and had a great time. If you can't tell by the pigment of our skin, Amber and I haven't made it out much this Summer...

He loved splashing in the water, and spent several minutes laughing at a tree...

Summer Fun

2009-09-04T20:08:00.000-07:00

Oliver has been a busy boy these last days of Summer. He loves to be outside. We've been visiting the park a great deal. He got to ride in a swing with Cousin Elliott and go down the slide with Daddy.

My First Tooth

2009-08-13T18:33:00.000-07:00

Oliver has worked through his first tooth!

He is making a lot more funny noises now, it's like he has a new instrument to work with.

2009-08-13T18:22:00.000-07:00

We visited Oliver's Great Grandma Mills and Great Aunt Belva last weekend. The last time they saw him, he was 3 weeks old. You could say that he has changed a bit since then. He was really happy the whole day and played with everyone. Belva even did a little jig with him.

Of coarse we couldn't visit Grandma without seeing the miniature horses. I swear they get smaller every time we see them.

Good times.

Hot Sun

2009-08-13T18:13:00.000-07:00

I love my Daddy!

Oliver wears this hat and a lot of sunblock whenever we are in the sun because I am paranoid about skin cancer, sun damage, and he looks pretty adorable in it!

Another First Friday

2009-08-09T07:12:00.001-07:00

Oliver and I visited Matt at BlueBike on Friday. He had fun playing in his play yard during all the excitement.

playing with my duckie.

2009-07-30T20:24:00.000-07:00

He loves this duck!

growing, growing, growing...

2009-07-30T20:18:00.000-07:00

I'm 7 months!

Summer!

2009-07-30T20:16:00.000-07:00

Oliver has his first pair of swim trunks. He has yet to use them though!

ZOO

2009-07-30T20:06:00.000-07:00

For Matt's Birthday we went to the Zoo with some friends whose husband, Matt also had a birthday on the 11th. It was a fun day with the kids. It felt like it was 100 degrees, everybody was sweating terribly. Poor little Ollie was so hot, his checks were red the whole time.

He did really well until lunch and he had the worst blow-out diaper yet. At first I thought he spit up on himself and then soon I realized that yes, it was poop that had blown out of the top of his diaper and was coming through his shirt. We were eating lunch at some tables kind of in a walk way area so Matt and I had to change him with an audience the whole time. The mess took both of us to clean it up. He was much better after that and fell right to sleep. It really was disgusting.

July 4th!

2009-07-30T19:57:00.000-07:00

Great 4th of July, Great family. What more can I say.

My first, First Friday!

2009-07-30T19:48:00.001-07:00

The June First Fridays in KC turned out to be a great day so we brought Oliver with us so he could experience his first gallery openings. I am pretty sure that he liked it, he had a lot of fans along the way. Nothing like a cute baby! By the end of the night he was pretty sleepy.

I got peas on my face.

2009-07-30T19:36:00.000-07:00

Oliver has done very well eating real food, his favorite so far is Zucchini. I started to try some fruit (bananas) but he is not a big fan of that. He projectile vomited for mom when she tried to feed him some. What a good boy, he likes his vegetables!

2009-06-26T15:20:00.000-07:00

Growing Boy

2009-06-26T13:35:00.000-07:00

Well, so far we have been terrible about keeping Oliver’s Blog updated. We soon realized after becoming parents, extra time does not exist, or when we do have a spare moment all we want to do is sleep.

Oliver has not disappointed us yet, he is perfect. On the 28th he will be offically 6 months old! I can’t believe how fast it has gone by. Every parent I have talked to says how fast it goes and now I know that they are correct. I am really trying to be in each moment with him, to absorb every change. My favorite part of the day is picking him up after work and feeding him when I get home. There is no TV on, no extra noise, just a quite time to spend with him as he plays with my mouth with his free hand, bounces his legs and takes little breaks to smile at me. It is a moment where we both are completely content with everything. I will really miss it when he is not breastfeeding anymore.

Since Matt has written last Oliver had his Baby Blessing. My Dad and Grandfather blessed him and he shared the day with my niece Elliott, who was also blessed. They both did very well. I think it was the first church service where one of us didn’t have to take Oliver to the back from being too fussy.

Oliver’s first Easter was exciting. I found him a very stylish 3 piece outfit. I took a photo of him in it and put it in my work badge. He really reminds me of Matt in it.

Oliver was very generous for Mother’s Day. He gave me a shopping spree to buy new clothes, since my pre-prego clothes just don’t fit anymore..bummer. Father’s Day was nice. Oliver and I gave Matt a day of relaxation on a boat with the Bolt Men. (due to weather they have rescheduled it for July).

Every week I feel like he has learned a new skill. When I dropped Oliver off at Mom’s house for the first time I actually did really well. It was nice having a break. But as he grows and discovers his world more and more, I find it much harder to leave him knowing that I will miss out. I have pictures of him all over my desk, and I mean ALL over.

So far he is really good at holding his head up, grabbing everything, chewing, rolling everywhere, laughing, cracking up at Buddha, saying dada, a bunch of other random sounds, almost sitting, pushing buttons, eating rice cereal and avacodos, loves bath time and well of coarse being adorable. -still not sleeping through the night :(

Next week we start him on more foods, I will post pictures of that sometime in the near future.

Connected to Microsoft Exchange

Time

2009-04-05T14:53:00.000-07:00

I've learned a great lesson in time. Time is what you make of it. It has been a long time since I have been able to post here. Many of you have asked about Oliver. He is doing really well. We are all doing really well.

I've also learned that time flies. My last post was in January. It is now April and I am finally making time to sit down and post again.

Oliver is growing up so fast. He has a personality and so many expressions. Every day someone comments on how much he looks like his Daddy. I can't tell you how much I love hearing that. I'm not sure what it is that makes us want our children to resemble us, maybe a bit of narcissism. Regardless, for better or worse, he looks a lot like me.

Every time we look at him we smile. He has brought so much joy to our lives. We couldn't be happier having him.

Great, Great, Great, Great

2009-01-17T19:37:00.000-08:00

Great Grandma Mills and Oliver

Great Aunt Belva and Oliver

If you can believe it, there was a long list of important people that had not yet met Mr. Oliver. So before I head back to work, we made some visits.

First we went to Basehor, KS with Grandpa Mills to meet Great Grandma Mills and Great Aunt Belva. They had both been keeping up on Oliver via this blog, but the real thing is always better. We had a great time visiting and passing him around. Something tells me they had a good time too.

On Friday, we went to visit Grandma Mills at her work and to grab some lunch. We ate at Johnny C's and it was great. We had a good time showing him off to

my Mom's co-workers.

After that visit, we went by Great Grandma and Great Grandpa Bolt's house. Great Grandma has been under the weather lately and had not yet met Oliver. She had to go almost 3 whole weeks before seeing him! After some snuggles and some cookies, we headed back home after a long day out. What Great(Grandma), Great (Aunt), Great (Grandma), Great (Grandpa) couple of days.

Great Grandma Bolt and Oliver

Great Grandpa Bolt and Oliver

A Big Day

2009-01-11T08:39:00.000-08:00

Friday was a big day for Oliver. The three of us had lunch with our good friend, Uncle Dustin. We went to On the Border. This was Oliver's first lunch out. He seemed to enjoy it as he slept through it.

Apparently orange is a good color on Oliver, as his bilirubin levels are still on the high side causing some jaundice. The yellowing of his skin is mixing with his natural olive color and making him look a little too tan for winter time. People are starting to think he's fake baking. The truth is, a little UV light would go a long way to bringing his bilirubin levels down to a normal level. When we saw an opportunity to give him a little sun bath, we couldn't resist.

In the meantime, we have been on a strict eating schedule of every 2 hours during the day and every three hours at night. The idea is that the more he eats and passes, the better he'll get. He needs to not only get rid of his jaundice, but he needs to continue gaining weight.

We also had an appointment to visit an Ear Nose and Throat specialist to look into Oliver's tongue tied issue. The thought was that if he is too tongue tied he may not be able to feed properly. So we saw Dr. Walls and he recommended a lingual frenectomy - removal of the small flap of tissue under the tongue that prevents him from fully extending it.

After a ridiculous wait in the waiting room, we saw the doctor and had the procedure done in hopes it would help the little guy. It wasn't fun watching him go through pain. They assured us it was only discomfort, but either way he didn't like it. The good news is he can now stick his tongue out. Results on feeding has yet to be determined.

After having lunch out and having a minor surgery, we packed up and went over to Uncle Sonny and Aunt Adrean's for dinner and fun. Given our rigid feeding schedule, fun proved difficult so we stole a bunch of movies from them and returned home for another exhausting night. Pretty big day for such a little guy.

The First Week

2009-01-07T21:44:00.000-08:00

Oliver's first week has been full of adventure! After coming home, Daddy got sick with the stomach flu followed by a head cold. I'm feeling much better now and the energy is returning, though I'm feeling pretty tired.

Mommy is doing well as she adjusts to her new role as a caretaker and tries to figure out all the intricacies of breast feeding.

Oliver is doing great. He had his one week Dr. appointment with Dr. Markway. After a little confusion on the scales, Oliver weighed in at 7lbs. 5 oz. - one oz. less than when we left the hospital. This isn't optimal, but we are hopeful he will start putting on weight soon and everyone will be happy. Though, I'm just now getting used to holding him at this weight!

Oliver has had many visitors, both in the hospital and at home. Lots of nice friends have been bringing us food and company. It is so important to have a great support system and we have that and then some. Oliver will know friendship.

Oliver made his first trip to Target this week - a very important step as we teach him the ways of the world. We are starting early to instill a good sense of design. What do you expect from parents like us?

I decided to open a Flickr account to house all the photos of Oliver. Please take a look for the most recent pics of our favorite little man.

Poll Results: Will Oliver be born with a beard?

2009-01-02T12:40:00.000-08:00

Alas, my hopes for a bearded baby have subsided. It just wasn't meant to be. Fortunately my second favorite option came true. The 40% of you that voted for "More of a Teen Wolf all over fuzz" were correct!

Oliver has a nice head of hair - including his ears (see above). He is also sporting a bit of a perma-sweater as his shoulders and back are pretty furry. I know he will lose it all, just to grow it back when he's older.

For now, I'll call him Ollie Bear (Oh-lee Bear).

Quick Update

2008-12-31T12:11:00.000-08:00

I just wanted to post to thank everyone for all their best wishes and comments. We are very thrilled with our little man.

We had quite a few visitors while in the hospital. Unfortunately, so many people are sick right now and couldn't make it to see him - Including Grandma Bolt and Great Grandma Bolt.

We are home now and have had a run of bad luck... Daddy either has the stomach flu that everyone else has, or a mild case of food poisoning. Given the quality of food at the hospital, the latter is very likely. I'm keeping away from Oliver, which is killing me! I got all the fun symptoms a couple hours after we got home from the hospital.

The other bit of bad news is that our camera bit the dust yesterday as well. So after coming home and before moving into the bathroom for 12 hours, I ran to Best Buy and bought a new one. I think I'm going to like this one better anyway.

Not the first night home with Oliver that we had hoped for, but it will get better. I'm already feeling tons better. I've got to hand it to Amber for making it through the first night alone. She once again proves how amazing she is.

More photos and updates to come.

Introducing..... Oliver!

2008-12-28T19:00:00.001-08:00

Oliver Liam Mills was born December 28, 2008 at 8:04 am. He weighed 7 lbs. 14 oz. and was 21 inches long. As you can see, he has a full head of dark brown hair. He looks a lot like his Daddy, but has his mother's chin and dimples. Amber and I couldn't be happier - he's everything we hoped for.

We went into labor around 7:30 pm on the 27th and stayed home through the first 5 hours to be sure we were truly in labor and so Amber could remain as comfortable as possible. At about 12:30 am on the 28th, we left for the hospital (Centerpoint in Independence, MO). After being admitted, we went to the "holding cell" to be monitored and determine if we were truly in labor. After more than three hours of that we were placed into our birthing room - room 348, the very room Oliver's cousin AnnaLie was born in.

Labor progressed slowly at first and all the parents (Grandparents to Oliver) were called at about 5:00 am. From here labor progressed quite quickly (Amber may argue with that...) Before we knew it Amber was dilated to 9cm and the doctor was called. Dr. Mosher delivered Oliver, as our doctor was out of town.

It wasn't long before Amber started pushing and out came our Baby Oliver. Amber was amazing. She delivered 100% naturally. I'm so proud of her. She also received many compliments from the ladies around the hospital for going natural.

Welcome Baby Oliver. We can't wait to introduce you to the world.

Oliver's Room

2008-12-21T16:25:00.001-08:00