Twelve Months of Oliver Grant

Oliver Is officially one year old! I swear this was the fastest year of my life. H'es grown up way too fast!

STATS

27 inches long

20 pounds

4 teeth

can say : dada, mama, dog, baby, bye, Buddy, no, hi, tickle, baba, more, me

he can crawl, wave, clap, stand, play peek-a-boo, blow kisses, hug.

he loves to dance, sing, play and eat

favorite song is Hotline Bling

Oliver is the sweetest, most laid back baby ever. He's so much fun and we're so happy he's ours

Oliver Grant :: Four and Five Months Old

Weight/Length

Baby boy had a check up this month. He now weighs 14 pounds and is 24 inches long! He had a major growth spurt.

Sleep

He is no longer sleeping through the night... We had a good run, but now we're up every two hours. He takes good naps throughout the day, so we're not exhausted.

Eating

This boy is hungry! He is a solid nurser and is not a happy camper if he has to wait. He nurses every two hours round the clock. We were given the OK to start cereal but I've decided against it.

Diapers

Still in 2's and Pamper's Swaddlers. They seem to be working the best for us right now. I'll probably move him to 3's next month.

Clothing

He's in 3 month clothing almost completely now. Some 3-6 fit but I'm not quite ready to get all of them out.

Mood

He's still a bit fussy and seems to have tummy issues sometimes. He spits up like a champ and is so quiet when he does it! He's super cuddly wants to look at you at all times. 

LOVES

talking

smiling 

giggling

grasping at toys

cuddling

DOESN'T LOVE

tummy time

being scared

What I Want To Remember

The way he gets so excited to take his shirt off

How hard he laughs in the bath

The sweet smell of his breath

How hard he pulls my hair

All the grunts

Weight/Length

He didn't seem to get a whole lot bigger this month. I think he's probably around 15 pounds and maybe 24.5 inches.

Sleep

He is still waking every two hours on average. Some nights we'll get a four hour stretch, but it rare. Luckily, he nurses and then goes back to sleep. But, he's a good napper! He'll sleep for about two hours, two or three times a day.

Eating

He is nursing about every three hours, for twenty minutes at a time! He seems satisfied so I'm holding off on the solids a bit longer. 

Diapers

I moved him to size 3 in Luv's. They seems to be working just fine!

Clothing

Ol' Thunder Thighs has moved to 6 month clothing! And a few of those are already too small! He still has a few 3-6 month that fit but he kind of skipped that size all together. 

Mood

What a sweet boy! He loves to smile and coo. Overall he's really happy, calm, and sweet.

LOVES

being naked

diaper changes

playing with toys

putting everything in his mouth

bath time with Finley

cuddling

DOESN'T LOVE

being alone for too long

teething

tummy time

What I Want To Remember 

Pike Family Vacation 2016 (Part 4)

On the fourth day of our trip, we got up, packed and checked out. Ready for the long drive back home. Jordan pulls the car around and we start loading everything and everyone in. By this point we had remembered that our air conditioner was broken. It was going to be a hot trip back home. Or so we thought... 

I happened to notice something hanging off the bottom of the van and pointed it out. 

We're not car people by any means, but normally it's not good news to see something like this. We search for a mechanic and land at a Pep Boys a couple of miles away. Jordan goes in to talk with them and explain what's going on. The mechanic informs us that he can't even look at the van for another few hours. He also lets us know it'll probably take several hours to fix, and that's if they don't have to order parts.

So, here we are. We've got a van literally packed full of kids, strollers, and luggage, and we're basically stranded. We search again and find a moderately priced hotel near Pep Boys. Jordan drives us to the hotel and drops us off along with all of our belongings and takes the van back to Pep Boys. He then has to walk back to the hotel. 

We spend the next few hours at the hotel. We watch TV, swim and order in pizza. It was a nice break in between vacationing and driving.  We get a call from Pep Boys that evening with good and bad news. Good news, they can fix it. Bad news, they have to order a part and it won't be in until tomorrow around noon. They also tell us that they won't know for sure if the air conditioner is broken until after they fix the other issue. 

We call down to the front desk of the hotel and ask if we can have the room for another night. They inform us that the entire hotel is sold out.

So, a small recap for you: Our van will not be fixed until sometime in the afternoon. We have to check out of our room at 11:00 a.m. We have all of our luggage and double stroller. We have no car seats so we can't get a cab to another hotel. 

The next day we check out of our room and head down to the lobby. Thankfully we're able to check our bags at the luggage station. We mull around the lobby for a few hours, waiting for Pep Boys to call us back. They do, with more good and bad news. Good news, they can fix it in a couple more hours. Bad news, the air conditioner is broken and it's going to cost literally the rest of our savings to fix. 

We bite the bullet and two hours later we're on the road home! Seventeen hours later we pull into our driveway. We're exhausted and filthy, but home. 

And then we have enough time to do a load of laundry, take showers and repack! Because we're now two days late leaving for our week long vacation in Texas! 

Part 5 coming your way, sometime :)

Pike Family Vacation 2016 (Part 3)

On the third day, we went to Animal Kingdom! It was a first for all of us. We got up bright and early and headed into the park. It wasn't as hot as it was the day before, so that was a huge relief!

We started with our first Fast Pass of the day for the Safari Ride. I'm not a huge fan of zoos and nature, but this ride was a lot of fun. 

After the safari ride we made our way to our second Fast Pass, which was Expedition Everest! Story was really excited about this ride. She's a roller coaster junkie and was disappointed that AK didn't have more thrill rides. 

What a fun ride! I was not expecting it to turn out like it did! It was a fun surprise. After the ride we booked it over to The Lion King! Luckily all of our Fast Passes were in the morning.

The Lion King was a great show! We were all amazed at the details that went into it! We left the show and went to lunch at Tusker House. It was a character meal and we go to see safari Mickey, Goofy, Donald, and Daisy! Again, the food was great!

Poor Oliver! He was not happy to see Daisy, hah. After lunch we wandered around for a bit. There was something wrong with Fast Pass and we couldn't make any more selections. We were getting kind of bored so we decided to head back to Hollywood Studios. And I'm so glad we did! We stopped in at guest services to see what was up with the Fast Passes, and to cool off, nurse, and change diapers. Disney staff are like the nicest people ever. The lady we spoke with gave us five Fast Pass cards that we could use at any time. She also made us a dinner reservation because we ended up with extra meal credits. She also gave the kids like 100 stickers!

While we missed the Disney Junior show, we were able to do a couple of Character Meets! Finley loves Sophia. She is like her favorite! She couldn't believe we were going to meet her. When it's finally our turn, poor Finley starts crying because Sophia is scary!

They eventually made up :) Finley talks about meeting her everyday. I framed her photo and autograph and hung it in the nursery. 

The girls also got to meet Jake. They're big fans of that show as well. Oliver was asleep in the stroller so we let him skip it. 

After that we made our way to Star Wars Launch Bay! Jordan and Story were so excited! Jordan especially was like a kid in a candy store. He loved seeing the Storm Troopers and was almost giddy when they spoke to him :)

We ended the day with one last ride on the Rock N Roll Roller Coaster. Since it was Story's favorite she was really excited to get to end with it!

And that concludes our Disney vacation!

Ha, jk. There's going to be a Part 4. No good vacation isn't complete without car trouble and extra days!

Pike Family Vacation 2016 (Part 2)

On our second day we attempted to visit two parks. It didn't quite go as planned. We were an hour late getting started in the morning and it threw off the entire day.

In the morning we went to Epcot! I was personally really excited about it because I don't think I'd ever been before. We went in without a plan, which was another mistake on our part. Our Fast Pass selections were all for the evening. We luckily stumbled on the Mickey and Friends meet and greet! And it only had a 20 minute wait!

After that we started exploring the World Showcase. I couldn't believe the amount of detail that went into it! I really wish we could have had more time to explore. By this time it was late morning and it was hot. So unbelievably hot. And not a breeze or shade. We were dying. The poor babies were so hot! Oliver just kept crying. We made it half way through before we had to turn around and head back for our lunch reservation.

Okay, so we're literally on the other side of the park, as far away from the restaurant as we could be. At that point we only had twenty minutes to get across the park. Majority of you don't know this about me, but I walk really fast. I'm pretty quick for someone with short legs! Anyway, I'm pushing the double stroller, Jordan is carrying Finley, and Story is trying to keep up. She's almost in tears because it's so hot. Jordan is mad at me because I'm going so fast. And the poor babies just pass out from heat exhaustion. But you best believe we made it to our reservation on time! 

We had lunch at the Coral Reef restaurant. It was a neat experience because one whole wall was just an aquarium! We were able to watch the fish (and sharks!) swim while we ate. After lunch we headed back out for a boat ride to Hollywood Studios!

There were several shows we wanted to watch at Hollywood Studios but was only able to make it to Indian Jones. Indiana Jones is Finley's favorite. We watch the third movie at least once a week. She was really excited to see the stunt show.

It started raining very early on in the show. They had to end early so we didn't get to see the entire production. During the rain our stroller was completely soaked! It was crazy. I knew it could rain at anytime in Florida but it never got cloudy. The sun shone the entire time! Luckily all our stuff was fine because it was in plastic bags. We really wanted to make it to the Disney Junior show but didn't make it. We were able to do Star Tours and Story was able to build her own light saber. We finished the day by riding the Rock n' Roll roller coaster.

Story said it was her favorite ride of the entire trip!