Good Morning

Thanksgiving and my birthday all passed in a blur. Now we are speeding towards Gabriel's birthday, Christmas, and New Year's. Baby Bug is due in two months. What happens to time? It's amazing really how fast our days go by, and our children grow up. Rayn is sitting next to me devouring his breakfast and as I watch him I see him more as a little boy, but in my heart he is still my baby. He takes my heart with him where ever he goes leaving me vulnerable and I am aware that soon two little boys will be moving out in this world carrying my heart with them. I just saw a commercial on tv of a Mom saying goodbye to her two sons as they head off to ride their bikes packed entirely in bubble wrap and wearing their helmets and obviously miserable. Although I giggled my heart understood this Mom's actions, how I wish I could pack my boys in bubble wrap. Instead I armor them with my love, I try to teach them to make good decisions and that their actions have consequences, I try to instill kindness and confidence in them. How much larger this task seems with two boys to guide, fill up, and teach.

Rayn is learning to read, had I already mentioned that in the last update? My Mom's pregnant memory is filled with holes. His interest in reading fills me with joy. Once a week we do a family night, usually that night is filled with board games, but recently we have been doing science experiments instead. Rayn loves the science experiments and is always hungry for more. He is happily doing chores everyday and loves to help me with even more than the chores that are on his chore chart. He loves to cook with Mama in the kitchen, he adores wrestling his Dada every evening when Dada gets home from work, and riding his bike around the neighborhood always brings him joy and rosy cheeks. Yesterday John, Rayn, and I spent a couple of hours swimming at the rec center. We splashed a lot, giggled a lot, and I enjoyed the feeling of weightlessness. :) Leaving at the end of our time there was hard on Rayn. One of the things we lost with our move was the indoor pool we had in our community, but here we are just a short car ride away from our local rec center and we plan on taking advantage of that fact.

Time for me to take Rayn to school. Have a glorious day. :)

Andrea

Happy Thanksgiving

Well, I was going to post pictures this morning, I really was...BUT...John took off for work with the camera in the car. :) So it will have to wait yet again. We survived our move, although some days it felt like we weren't going to. We had a lot of amazing friends show up to help us move. They went way above and beyond the call of duty. We are loving our new home. Rayn said he likes it better than the old home, I think that's because we have set up a room for his little brother. There are some things I miss about our old home, mainly the proximity of dear friends, but our bedroom here is a little bigger and gets morning sunshine, so I sit by the window in my comfy chair with my cup of hot tea and wake up as slowly as Rayn will let me. :) There are still boxes to unpack and things to put away. I was on a roll with the unpacking until I became anemic, then it was all I could do to stay awake and upright on a given day. The iron supplements have been helping, but now I have a lot of catching up to do.

I am thankful for so many things this Thanksgiving that it is hard to express them all and do them justice. I am thankful that John has a job in this economy, I am thankful for our home (and our washer and dryer), I am thankful for my sweet little family, I am thankful for the baby growing in my tummy (who is a fearsome kicker....I'm thinking martial artist), I am thankful for my friends and family, and I am thankful for our health, I am thankful for you! There is so much more, but I think I will spare you all of them. :)

I am 30 weeks pregnant and doing well. Bug is a very active baby. I can feel him a little bit throughout the day, but then at night he wakes up and starts kicking like crazy. I never felt Rayn kick as much as I have felt Bug. John and I are still laughing about the time last week when I was hugging him from behind and bug actually kicked him in the behind! When I was pregnant with Rayn John was talking to my belly when Rayn hauled off and kicked him in the nose. I didn't think that could be topped, but Bug kicking him in the behind is pretty good. :) His due date has been moved up to February 3rd, one day after Rayn's due date, and my Obgyn isn't sure he will stay put even that long. I have reached that point in my pregnancy where I am just ready to meet and hold my baby boy. It has become hard to wait.

Rayn is doing really well. He has made so many adjustments this year with grace and humor. He is in his last year of preschool and loving every minute of it. He feels very at home in his preschool and runs in to start playing right away every morning. And in the afternoons when I come to get him he runs towards me with a huge grin on his face, open arms, and yelling "Mama"! It is a wonderful way to be greeted and my favorite moment of every week. After greeting me with such enthusiasm he then turns back to playing. He is starting to read with me at home, which thrills me to no end. I am such a book worm that it is something that I have always desired to share with my kids. Rayn's mind seems to be a bit more analytical like his Dad's. He loves things organized and ordered, he loves patterns, he loves figuring out the way things work. He has been solving simple math problems in his head for a while now. He has always been a physically some what cautious boy, slow to try anything new physically, but this year he is jumping from great heights, trying new things out and generally much more comfortable with his bodies abilities. He has had his first swim lesson now and loved that as well. We are hoping by the time our neighborhood pools open he will be swimming like a fish!

John is still working for the same company installing audio and visual components. He really enjoys the work, but sadly still struggles some with his boss. We are both grateful that he is employed and yet looking for a new opportunity for him. Something closer to home would be nice. He currently commutes about an hour and ten minutes each way. That makes for a long day on the road for him, and it feels like a lot of our income is spent on gas. His boss has been quick to promise him a raise and very slow to deliver. At this point we'd just be happy for a gas card so that his company pays for the commute. He does enjoy what he does and has programmed our home movie set up so that everything runs very smoothly and amazingly. He is also truly the handiest man I have ever known, I don't think there is anything that he can't fix or create. I love that about him. He is rediscovering his passion for and enjoyment in photography and would love to have a new camera for Christmas to explore that passion with. He has done hours of research on the best camera and knows exactly which one he wants, so now we are saving up for a new family camera.

This is probably more of an update than any of you ever wished for! :) Thanks for reading.
My love to you all, and a Happy Thanksgiving!!!

Andrea

Bike rides and baby names

Rayn got his first big boy bike from a friend this past week. We have already had so much fun riding it around the neighborhood. His biggest adjustment on his big boy bike is learning to use his brakes. On his tricycle he didn't have any brakes and so he would just use his feet to brake with. He was very brave and showed a lot of endurance on our short little walk to the grocery store. It was his very first bike ride and perhaps a bit ambitious on our part, but Rayn did his best, and Jello only had to catch him once when he went speeding out of control down a slight incline towards the street forgetting entirely about the brakes and instead taking his feet off of the pedals. I have pictures of him on his little red bike stored safely in my camera, but I couldn't begin to tell you where the cord is for uploading those pictures from the camera to my computer. As soon as I find it you will see the pictures of Rayn on his new bike.

Baby bug is treating me very nicely indeed. Most of my morning sickness seems to have relented. I do have to eat first thing in the morning or I am inviting disaster. The days John stays home with me I always do better as he constantly reminds me to eat and drink and gives me chances to rest while he plays with Rayn. Last night he massaged my aching back and tired feet. Such a good man! :) He also paints my toe nails for me so that I don't have to contort in order to do so. What more could I ask for?! We are still debating baby names and have come up with our two top favorites. We thought we'd let you tell us which one you prefer with no gaurantees on what we end up chosing. The two top running names are:

Keagan Oz - Keagan means thinker/fiery. Oz means peace.
Riley Teague - Riley means valiant. Teague means poet.

John prefers one and I prefer the other, can you guess which ones we prefer? Who knows, once he is born we may come up with the perfect name and ditch both of the above options after all.

My love to all,
Andrea

Bug Oakley

The amnio is over with, thanks for all of your thoughts, prayers, good wishes and support. I was scared, but I withstood it and it is over now. Still the chance of miscarriage looms for a week, but I am very hopeful that will not come to pass. Are you dying for the news yet? Having a hard time reading this far? Baby Bug has perfect and gorgeous little feet, with entirely suckable little toes, and Bug has perfect adorable arms, hands and fingers. The Doc said that Bug looks perfectly and amazingly healthy and I fell in love with Bug the moment I saw Bug. Okay, okay, I'll spill, Baby Bug is.......a boy! :) I thought I would be more disappointed when I heard the news, but the truth is that I am already in love with this little Bug and more than ready to love him, squeeze him, and dance him through this life.

Later tonight I will try and scan pictures of the most miraculous Bug and post them here.

Fun in fountain

A couple of weeks ago my friends Chrissy and Lutz were here to visit from Germany. We had an amazing time together and soaked up the sun filled hours we got to spend in each others company. One evening we had dinner and then walked the Pearl St. mall. Rayn spent a long time playing in the fountain and Chrissy captured these pictures of him.

Oh yes, and let me grace you with Rayn's favorite joke, which he made up himself:

Why did the chicken cross the playground? To get to the other slide!

heh

The Oakley's

I am a blog addict, I'll admit it now. I have had a gazillion blogs and one of my favorite things to do is blog or read other people's blogs. This one is new though, this is the first time I have created a family blog to discuss all things Oakley family. Sort of picking up the tradition of the Oakley Times and just putting it online for ease of use. On to the family news:

For those of you who do not yet know we are expecting a new addition to the family in February. I am excited, scared, and a little overwhelmed, and almost through the sick part of pregnancy, I hope. Today marks the beginning of my 16th week and I have still spent the week fighting headaches and nausea. This morning was the first morning that I have woken up and felt perfectly fine. I have struggled a bit with headaches and dizziness today, but I am happy to be able to eat. My biggest stress right now is anticipating my amnio on Tuesday.

Rayn started back at preschool this past week. It is his last year in preschool and his second year with Tessa as his teacher and a lot of his friends returning. I have to admit that I was expecting him to be a bit shy and slow to warm up to being back at school but the first day he dashed away from me to play with his friends and the second day he said goodbye to me at home, presumably forgetting that I still had to drive him to school. His absolute favorite thing to do at school is ride the zipline. He could probably do it all day long if his teachers would let him. The only thing that would make it better would be if there were a sprinkler positioned directly under the zipline to spray him as he went zooming by. He has become physically a lot more adventurous over the summer which has made me really happy and also been cause for some heart stopping moments. His other favorite thing to do is play house with Novie and Molly. He plays the Daddy and loves every moment of it. His teachers have told me that he is the only boy in his class who will play equally with boys or girls with great ease.

John has just finished his first year working as an installation tech for an audio video company. He is not sure he enjoys the work quite as much as he thought he would, and is struggling to stay with the company. In the meantime he is looking for work a bit closer to home and something else he might enjoy. He has many interests outside of work that he unfortunately does not have much time for. He loves playing frisbee golf with his buddies which he gets to do from time to time on the weekends. He would love to get back into sculpture and working with clay in general. He also has a strong desire to learn how to play the mandolin. For that we will need to get him a mandolin and lessons. :) He is hoping to get back into riding his bike as well and we're looking forward to family bike rides.

Much love to all,

Andrea