seven months later..

Look who turned 7 months old, today:

Oliver Aiden.

Each new day, Oliver grows a little more

and learns something new.

He learned to crawl this past month.

Almost immediately after that, he figured out how to stand up 

by holding on to stationary objects 

such as the couch, mommy or daddy's legs, chairs, tables, etc. 

Look out, world, little elf is on the move.

"Please be content with crawling for a little longer, " 

I silently beg my rapidly growing baby.

The muscles in my arms have strengthened from carrying him.

Even so, I still need a rest from time to time,

reminding me that the infant we brought home seven months ago

is fast approaching toddlerhood. 

I love every minute I spend watching this amazing little miracle of human life.

We play games now, 

Oliver & I.

As he sits in his highchair watching me wash the dishes or cook dinner.

He stares at me until I notice him and smile.

Instantly a huge smiles spreads across his face

and he gives me one of his fantastic baby laughs.

I dance for him, he giggles and waves his arms.

I try to feed him applesauce on a spoon.

Sometimes he loves it, 

more times he dramatically makes gagging sounds 

and spits it out. 

He shakes his head back and forth 

and repeats baby sounds over and over again.

I say them back to him and he laughs gleefully. 

And he drives me absolutely insane.

This is a thing he L-O-V-E, loves to do.

He crawls to the brick fireplace and stands against it, 

wobbling dangerously on his little toes.

I rush over and pull him away, bribing him with toys, books,

blocking his way with pillows.

Oliver scales the pillows and is back at the fireplace the minute I turn my back, 

all the while smiling his sweet little prankster smile.

And all the emotions Oliver brings me are insignificant compared to this 

overwhelming love that I feel for him, 

my baby boy.

I pray that God gives you many more days and months and years of life,

so I can watch you grow and learn and become who God created you to be.

For you, O Lord, are my hope, my trust, O Lord, from my youth.

Psalm 71:5 ESV

pondering.

"Life 

doesn't have

 to be 

P E R F E C T 

to be 

wonderful."

-Annette Funicello

Saturday Somethings.

This week, I took advantage of my brother Reuben being out of school.

Reuben is a senior in high school, and has been dragging his feet about things like applying for colleges and taking senior pictures. 

So I decided to help.

We loaded up a few props, my nikon, & Oliver into the car and headed out to "The Ranch" (the Sellai Vineyards) for a senior photo shoot. 

Here are a few of my favorite shots...

~ * ~

In other news, my friend Melina from Only a Flight Away gave me this:

The Liebster Blog award may be given to bloggers with fewer than 200 followers.

Liebster is a German word translated as sweet, kind, dear, good, nice, beloved, lovely, kind, pleasant, valued, endearing, etc. 

When given this award, a blogger is supposed to pass it on to a few favorite bloggers. 

I am passing it on to a few blogs that inspire me:

Bachmanville

Down in Kokomo

Check them out :)

& have enjoy the rest of your weekend!

<3 Cheers.

What's in a name?

I chose to name my son Oliver because I loved the name.

I also chose it because the bump told me that the meaning of Oliver is "elf army." 

Nicholas was thrilled when I told him this because he plays World of Warcraft, a computer game that features many mythical creatures including elves. 

I feel that the name perfectly fits. Besides the fact that my child just looks like he should be name Oliver, he alone could be an elf army. He has the appetite of an elf army. It sometimes seems like he is all over the place at once. He is a mischievous little boy. He looks like a miniature little man. I guess that would be more of a dwarf but in the story of the shoemaker and the elves, those elves were tiny. The words "dwarf" and "elf" are used interchangeably in some version of that story, though.

Oliver is a baby elf, plain and simple. 

Except...

..upon doing further research I learned that the Latin meaning is actually "Olive Tree." 

hmm. 

The Olive tree, specifically an olive tree branch, is a symbol of peace. 

Again, hmm. 

Not very descriptive of my child. 

Oliver is also the name of one of Charlemagne's knights in the 11th century poem "Chanson de Roland." I guess this could help my case a little, although I doubt Charlemagne's Knight was an elf.

However, further research found that Oliver very well could be a form of the old German name "Alfihar" which is defined as "host of elves."

Yes! 

I am going with "elf army" as the definition of Oliver. 

A bonus is that my great grandfather sailed to Ellis Island from Germany. 

It's fate.

And on that note, today is Oliver-Alfihar-Elf Army's half birthday. 

This crazy little elf is almost crawling and I'm equal parts terrified & thrilled. 

But ready-or-not, my baby elf is growing fast and I'm am excited to someday teach him about his amazing & historic name.

Happy Half Birthday, Oliver Aiden!

You are very L O V E D.

Wild Thing

The night [Oliver] wore his wolf suit, & made mischief of one kind and another...

His mother called him, "Wild thing!" And [Oliver] said, "I'll eat you up!" 

-Where the Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak

For Halloween, I decided to get creative and make Oliver's costume.

As a child, one of my favorite books was Where the Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak. It's adorable and the pictures are priceless. (A movie was made recently but it doesn't hold a candle to the book, in my opinion)

So I dressed Oliver as Max.

"...& made him king of all wild things."

We enjoyed handing out candy and spending time with our family that night. 

Nicholas & my brother Reuben caused quite a "wild rumpus" scaring little candy seeking children, and some not-so-little candy seekers too. :) Altogether it was a memorable night for Oliver's very first Halloween. 

Sidewalk Stories

Sometimes the simplest things make the best memories. 

Sidewalk chalk & a little imagination turned an empty driveway into a playground. My five-year-old niece gets bored easily, but I managed to capture her attention with our colorful simple artwork as we enjoyed what may be one of the last warm weekends this year.

A house is just a house unless you know it's story...

"Our House" 

(told by Hailey & embellished a little by me)

This is our home. I am the mom and Nicholas is the dad. Hailey is the big sister & Oliver is our baby. Kelli (Hailey's year-old sister) is the bigger baby and grandpa is big brother. Grammie is our housekeeper. Our home has pink roof shingles because the girls got to choose and we love pink. Big brother (grandpa) lives in the attic bedroom. He sneaks out sometimes, which explains the really tall pink ladder. Oliver lives in the room with the crooked orange window and the flower box. The room with the french doors has a balcony (you might not have noticed). This is the mom & dad's room. Hailey and Kelli live downstairs. We have a tree with a tire swing that is also pink, and an enormous flower growing in our yard (that we drew first before we decided to draw a house). And we are one big happy chalk house family :)

This is how we spent our Saturday afternoon:

In the sunshine enjoying each other's company. 

And Oliver joined us outside for a bit, too.

Grammie-Day

Last year on Nicholas's mother's birthday, we surprised her with the exciting news that we were expecting a little one. One year later, Oliver celebrated with his Grammie on her birthday.

We shared dinner, conversation & laughter, a game of marbles, and yummy cake.

Happy Birthday Grammie-MOM-Diana Sellai :)

& in the end, it's not the years in your life that count. It's the life in your years. 

-Abraham Lincoln