Thanks to everybody who voted in my recent Father’s Day photo poll. The winner was option A, with six votes. B and C each received two votes each. D, sadly, was voteless.
Now I just have to get the darn thing printed so I can put it on display at the office.
Category Archives: oliver
First Father’s Day – Poll to help pick the best pic
My first Father’s Day is pretty much over (Oliver’s in bed for the evening — well, at least until his next every-two-hour-every-night feeding). It was nice. We spent the day over at the in-laws. We barbecued and played Wii Fit, which was pretty cool.
Afterward, I made the long trek from this hills behind Six Flags and Jellystone Park down to Brentwood for an ice hockey game.
This afternoon, Grandma Annette took some nice pictures of me and the little one. I thought I’d pick the best of the bunch to put into the new swivel picture frame that Oliver Sarah picked out for me. Then I can put it on display at my office. Here’s where I need your help. Please let me know what picture you like best. Just leave a vote for your favorite photo as a comment. At the end of the week (say 6 p.m. Friday), I’ll tally the votes and have a print made of the most popular shot (unless I change my mind, of course, which I have the right to do!!!).
Option A: Giving the boy a lift.
Option B: Monkey/senior pic pose.
Option C: The Charlie Brown and Linus shot.
Option D: The neither-one-of-us-really-knows-how-to-play-piano shot.
Oliver is big, but he’s also kinda small
Oliver is big for how young he is, but sometimes we forget how tiny he is in the grand scheme of things. Often, a picture reminds us of his smallness. A picture like this one, of one of the first times we set him in his highchair:
Visit by Aunt Carrie, a baby girl for Jason and Jamie
First, I would like to congratulate one of my best friends, Jason, and his wife, Jamie. They had a beautiful baby girl on Saturday afternoon. She looks just like her daddy, who I’ve known since the summer prior to third grade (for the math whizzes out there, that’s more than 20 years ago).
At our household, Saturday brought a visit by Oliver’s Aunt Carrie and her boyfriend, Eli. They stopped by for a couple days after moving from Florida on their way to Springfield, Mo., where they are staying before starting their next roving medical gig in Seattle in a couple weeks.
Carrie hadn’t seen Oliver since the day after he was born, so much had changed. She seemed really surprised by how big he is (well, he HAS more than doubled in three months, so what’d she expect?), and she was a really caring aunt. When they left on Monday morning, they left a nice little gift for Oliver: An Elmo doll they had pooled their tickets for during an outing at a Dave & Busters. I’m sure Oliver will love it as much as I loved my Grover back in the late 1970s.
We had a great time, and I thought I’d just share a few of the pictures we took over the past couple days. Enjoy.
Carrie gave Oliver a bath (I’d give her an A for effort and a B for quality!):
Oliver was nice and clean, and happy, when finished:
He was all smiles this weekend, as seen here:
Carrie was a sweet Aunt, and gave us a nice break by holding him (often!):
Sarah’s first week back at work
Sarah’s first day back at the office after a three-month maternity leave was this past Monday. She says it was difficult being away from Oliver. “Obviously, he was in me for nine months, and I felt him kick and move and then, after he was born, I’ve been around him 24-7 for more than 12 weeks,” she said. “Not having him with me was like losing a little part of myself.”
Yes, Sarah has found the experience of leaving little Oliver behind for the day to be sad. She’s probably going to kill me for writing this, because she’s the type of person who hates to show her emotions, but she confided in me that she cried several times on Monday. It started as Grandma Annette drove off Sarah’s work parking lot with Oliver in tow. It continued just about every time somebody asked how Oliver was doing, how she was doing, whether she wanted to grab lunch, and just about anything else. You name it.
Her second day back was today, and she said it was a little easier. However, I don’t think she’ll ever really get over not being able to spend her days with the boy.
On Monday, I captured a picture of Sarah and Oliver in the classic “first-day-of-school” pose. Check it out:
And, after much anticipation, here’s the first really good Oliver smile photo we have been able to capture. Enjoy:
Sarah’s maternity leave comes to an end
Sarah’s maternity leave comes to an official end tomorrow, with her return to work. She’ll be working Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays for a few weeks while we resolve our childcare situation and work out details with Sarah’s mom regarding watching the boy.
We have decided to split overnight “Oliver duties” on the nights before Sarah works. We did a test run last night, and my end of the deal was quite raw. If it’s like this every night, I could return to my “zombified” and cranky employee status of a few weeks ago.
To start, Oliver is not sleeping through the night yet. We had a breakthrough a few weeks ago, but it was short lived. He’s been eating every three or four hours, 24-7.
Last night, we set up his new FisherPrice monitoring deviced (the Sony ones we had been using made terribly hissing and popping noises) and put him to bed around 10 p.m. Around 2 p.m., we could hear him crying and the receiver for the monitor was flashing red lights (the louder Oliver is, the more lights that flash). Our room lit up like a police crime scene. It was obnoxious.
I agreed to take the first shift, so I went down stairs, warmed some milk for a bottle and went to Oliver’s room. It took about 30 minutes to feed him, burp him a few times and rock him back to sleep. I hit our king-size bed around 2:30 a.m. I had a million thoughts in my head and my heart rate was up pretty good due to walking around and flipping lights on and off. I must have been in bed a full hour before I decided to get up. I went into the computer room and played an old Nintendo game for over an hour. Then I went downstairs and had a bowl of cereal and played with the dog. Molly wanted none of me, giving me a “please just let me sleep” look.
Finally tired, I went upstairs around 5:30 a.m. I heard Oliver screaming as I turned to enter our room. Sarah was getting out of bed for her feeding shift. I threw my Springfield Cardinals baseball cap over the monitor receiver to block the flashing lights and went to sleep. Was up for good around 8 a.m. What a night.
I’m sure it was equally rough for Sarah, who’s really upset that her three-month maternity leave is coming to an end. I told her I could return to my roots (as Jen and Kristine suggested a while back) and move to a more affordable house in Florissant so she could stay home full time, but Sarah wants nothing to do with my old ‘hood. Guess we’ll just see how it goes. I’m sure I’ll post something in a few days to let you all know. In the meantime, keep Sarah in your thoughts.
The boy finally moves into his own place
There’s no “empty nest syndrome” in the Lopinot household today, despite the fact that Oliver has finally moved into his own place. Yes, after 11 weeks of sleeping in my family’s 150-plus-year-old cradle 2 feet from our bed, Oliver slept in his own room last night.
The result? The best night of sleep we’ve had since March 4, 2008 (two days before Oliver was born).
Here’s the quick play-by-play:
I wrapped Oliver tight in his Miracle Blanket and took him into the bathroom around 10 p.m. I turned the fan on and the lights off (he likes the noise — go figure) and he was asleep in about 30 seconds. I then I took him to his room, put him into his crib, turned on our baby monitoring device and went back to our room.
Shortly thereafter, Sarah and I went to sleep. I can’t speak for the both of us, because I was out cold, but I slept and slept and slept — all the way until 6:30 a.m. A little shocked at first, I quickly realized that our house was completely calm and quiet. So I went back to sleep for two more hours.
I feel amazing today. The boy made it through the night (I found out later that he woke up for a 5:30 a.m. feeding, which I slept through). He’s growing up so fast. The next thing we know he’ll be off to college. Right?
Oliver’s hot streak has been broken
Oliver’s been on a streak lately – a streak of sleeping for most of the night. His best night, which I documented here a few days ago, he slept from about 9:30 p.m. to 6 a.m. He had similar, though not quite the same length, success over four consecutive nights.
Last night, however, the case was different. Oliver didn’t go to bed until close to 11 p.m. He was up for about an hour at 2:30 a.m. and then woke up again at 4:30 a.m. He was noisy until well after my alarm went off (6:30 a.m.) and I left for work (7:15 a.m.).
Oliver’s getting his late-night meal now, and we’re hoping to start a new streak tonight. Wish us luck!
Back at home, feeling refreshed (and tired)
We’re back at the abode in St. Charles, enjoying the last few hours of our three-day weekend. We had a great trip to visit my parents in Springfield, Mo. On Saturday, we went to the Branson Landing. It’s an outdoor shopping area along the lake. The weather was fantastic. I’d say about 75 degrees, but with a nice breeze. We ate dinner there at some bar and restaurant that had outdoor seating overlooking the water. It was pretty cool.
Today we kept it easy prior to our long drive home. We’re all tired now. Oliver has crashed, the dog won’t move unless I drag her across the carpet by her feet (but why would I do that?!!?), and Sarah and I are ready to go to bed (and ignore the 15 or so bags, boxes and piles of stuff from the trip that are piled up in our kitchen).
Below are a few pictures of the boy and the rest of the gang from our first out-of-town adventure. Enjoy.
Oliver’s face says a lot about what he thinks of Bass Pro:
This is what the next generation of Lopinots looks like after a day of shopping in Branson (woo-hoo!):
Here’s the obligatory grandparent-with-sleeping-grandson photo:
Grandpa feeding Oliver a bottle at the restaurant:
Me taking over for senior Lopinot:
Oliver a few minutes ago, ready for bed:
Molly, our spastic goldendoodle, is even tired tonight, so of course I had to take a picture:
Road trip update
Quick update from Springfield:
Did you know that packing for a road trip with a baby takes much, much longer than you could possibly imagine or plan for? Well, we found that out yesterday. We were up early, as usual, and planned on leaving between 9 and 10:30 a.m. We left ourselves a pretty big window. Regardless, it didn’t happen. Between feeding Oliver several times, getting through showers, etc., it was almost 11:30 a.m. when we hit the road.
On the way, we had to stop at Sarah’s parents’ house to drop off something. By the time we left there, it was 12:15 p.m. and we were starving. We hit the nearby McDonald’s and ate on the move. However, about 20 minutes in, Sarah, who sat in the back with Oliver, began yelling at our dog like crazy. Yes, Molly was going nuts in the back of the vehicle. So we pulled over and set up her crate in the back. She rode the rest of the way back there.
Oliver slept the rest of the trip, which was great. We got here around 3:30 p.m.
Oh yeah, and last night Oliver has his best night ever. He slept from 10 p.m. to 6 a.m. It was amazing!
Today we’re planning on heading out somewhere. I’m sure I’ll have more to write about it later.
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