Oliver Turned 1 almost a month ago?!

Oliver turned 1 on May 6th. I can't believe it. I had intended to clean up/add to the details of his birth story, but of course, I didn't. We "celebrated" Barnes-style: very low-key at home. Mom and Dad were in town. We sang and stuck a candle in a Little Debbie Snack (which he did NOT eat thankyouverymuch) and opened presents that Andrew's parents had sent, and one present from Helen Gross. And that was that. I took some pictures. We got some decent family pictures, too. Not professional-decent but "hey, we don't all look drugged in this picture!" decent.

Andrew turned 28. That is also crazy.

Oliver started walking. He is all over the place, now. I think he took his first step the day before he turned 11 months. Actually, he may have technically taken a step or two a couple of weeks before even that. But I'm with Katherine. (Hi, Kat!) - Its so hard to know exactly when to count something.

He has at least 10 or 11 teeth poking through. He says, "shoes," "dog," "mama," "dada," and I think hes said, "bye," but he has definitely waved bye more than once, even just last night. He says dog or shoes most consistently. Its so cute. "Shoes" sounds kind of like "Tchoose" and "dog" sounds kind of like "duh." Also, he knows how to take my flip flop off my foot and put it back on my foot. Also, last night, he repeatedly laid his head down on this Thomas the Train pillow mom got him, while playing in his room. Its like he realized it was a pillow all of the sudden, even though it doesn't look like a normal pillow. Thankfully, we got a picture of it!

Mom bought him his first pair of shoes. I mean, real shoes. They are Stride Rite. Hes only worn them a few times for not very long. He doesn't like them. But he did better yesterday. You should see him when he walks with them on his feet - it is hilarious.

What else? We made it through his first semi-scary sickness. Hes had a cold before, and I think something else mild I don't remember what (maybe just a couple other runny noses), but right after he turned 1, he spiked a fever we initially thought was a reaction to his vaccinations. Except it was unusually high (at least 104.4 rectally at one point), lasted unusually long, and wouldn't stay down even with Tylenol and Motrin in his system. It was a long several days of very little sleep, lots of lukewarm baths, almost constant nursing (his only comfort & nutrition during all that - SUCH a blessing from God!) giving meds every 2 or every 4 or every 6 hours around the clock, lots of prayers, and a Sunday drive to Jackson to go to the after-hours clinic. You know its a big deal when the Barnes miss church over something. That NEVER happens. It turned out it was a virus, not a reaction to the shots. We were glad to see that gone for everyone's sakes, and we were so thankful that our baby was safe. It makes you so much more thankful for their life when something like that happens.

We had a whirlwind of travels late April to early May. Mom came and got Oliver and me, and we stayed a couple of days in Appleton and then went onto Bubby's for a couple of weeks. Andrew came down, actually the day before we made it to Bubby's, with Bruce, in our car. He stayed for a few days, then drove our car with Bruce up to see his parents. He came back to MS a couple of days before Mom, Dad, Oliver and myself came back, the day before Oliver's b-day. The trip was mostly planned around the fact that Katherine was home from Germany! I'm so glad it worked out for us to get to be home at the same time. Our boys were born exactly 6 months apart, and Kat and I hadn't seen one another in nearly 2 years. It was SUCH a good time. Besides that, I got to spend a lot of great time with family and friends. And ate some great KC food. Of course, we didn't see everyone we wanted to or go everywhere we wanted to, but that is always the case.

I think Oliver may have a milk (or something related) allergy. No bueno. We started giving him yogurt a little bit ago, and he had it about every day for a week. And I started noticing a rash on his body, and yeast infection on his bottom. So I think it is milk, but possibly blueberries, which he had one time. I'm hoping for blueberries, but thinking it is milk. But not a severe reaction, as hes never seemed to have a problem with it since I drink it and nurse him. Some babies do, you know. So right now I'm in the process of letting the rash go down, waiting until its gone, and then starting back up with the yogurt and seeing what happens -- being more diligent this time not to introduce anything else new at the same time. Please, please don't be a milk allergy.

Onto us. Well, we have to move and be out of this church manse in less than two months. And we have NO earthly clue where in the world we're going to be living or how we're going to make ends meet. Scary/exciting, etc. We're down to crunch time, and we have WAY too much to do and figure out and too little time. We are busy looking at all living arrangement options and all employment options for Andrew. Those are our full-time jobs, these days (along with keeping after a 1-yr old. And Andrew is still preaching various places a couple times a month, on average. Side story
: We did the math and figured out that after recouping $ for mileage, the church he preached at VERY far away last Sunday, he made a grand total of $30. Thirty. Dollars. Yes. That is for driving 7 hours, preaching, and all of his sermon-prep. With a Master's Degree. Ouch.) We were talking to some friends yesterday about how God opens and closes doors differently for everyone. They were saying it always seems to them that God opens several doors, only to close all but one of them, and they are left with the 1 option, which is what God has for them. And we were saying, it always works out for us like this: God opens NO doors (visibly) until the VERY last second, at which time he opens only one, and that's what we take. This is how its always worked out for us. We are still waiting for that one door to open. Its kind of stressful. We are thankful to know that God is sovereign, and He has always provided for His people. We surely appreciate prayers.

I'm still going to La Leche League every month. I still love it. Can you tell that I've found one of my life's passions? Learning about and helping others breastfeed their babies. Such a miracle from God.

Wow. I did it. I updated the blog. Amazing.