Round up Round down

Remember in elementary math class when your teacher taught you to round a number up or round it down. Figuring out what number the decimal makes it closer to if it is more or less than 5.

When it comes to age there is a line when you stop wishing you were older and being excited about that higher number
and start wishing you were younger,
or maybe you are just less likely to shout out to your friends or family "guess what I'm 31 today!"

 Growing up my dad always would round up my age. I'd be 12 and turning 13 in 6 months and dad would tell someone, "oh my daughter is a teenager, shes 13."
I'd  be 24 and turning 25 in a week and he'd already be saying I was 25, always rounding up.
It started to become a joke, "Dad, stop rounding up dad, I'm still only 24!"

The day after turning the next age I was already considered a year older.

Then he'd give you a random age based statistic, "when you are 40 I'll be 63, when I'm 80 you'll be 57 and the latest now that we have baby Oliver... when he graduates from high school I'll be 72 and you'll be 49." Ok thanks dad, for telling me how old I am and how old I'm gonna be.

Last year I turned 30 and I told my dad it's time to stop rounding up, time to start rounding down, don't be rounding me up closer to 40 any quicker than I have to get there on my own.  So now it's our joke we are rounding down.

Dad wished me happy 28th birthday.

For a second I thought he forgot how old I was and got confused.  But then he reminded me,  remember... we are rounding down now.
 that's right!
I think I'd like to turn 28 a few more times.
thanks dad

Meet Oliver James

Oliver James was born on August 31st 2013 at 7:06 p.m.
The perfect little baby,
He was 8 pounds 11 ounces and 21 inches.
He came over a week late and with extraordinary measures but we are so happy he
is here, thanks to the wonderful doctors and nurses, and is healthy as can be.

We've learned so much in 6 fast weeks, fast because they have flown by and our little
cozy newborn baby is not so little anymore and is starting to form his own little personality.

We've learned to function on less sleep.
We've learned the power of a good swaddle.
We've learned all about feeding a baby... all kinds, breast feeding, colostrum, milk, pumping, lactation consultants, bottles, formula, finger feeding and more.
We've learned how to catch spit up with a burb cloth, a blanket, a towel, our own shirt or whatever happens to be close.
We've been spit up on, peed on, pooped on and all the fluids that initiate us into true parenthood.
We learned to cheer when our baby gained an ounce which means he's eating and shed a tear when our baby painfully cries after being circumcised.
We've learned the difference between different types of cries, squeaks, grunts, and baby babbles.
We've perfected a well changed diaper, know how to swing, bounce, pat, burb, cuddle, sway, rock.
We've learned the soothing power of a pacifier, the strategy involved in a successful infant bath time and the benefits of a good skin to skin session.
We've learned how much we depend on each other to team work the care of this little peanut, how much we are grateful when we can give each other a much needed break, how much we both adore every little thing about him and how we both freak out just a little... when being a new parent is overwhelming.

There's still more we need to learn but we will take each day as it comes and try to enjoy each
day with this little baby that is quite a blessing.

P.S. Thanks to Anne Ingman of  Ingman Photography for this beautiful photo of little Oliver and all the photos in our newborn photo shoot. Check out this link to see a few more of our photos from this session.