Latest photo shoot

We did our last photo shoot probably until Will turns 2 last weekend.  Please check them out.  They turned out great!  Jason Pendley does such excellent work.

http://www.jasonpendley.com/Clients/WIll-Dolan/9981498_BkaM6

Start with picture 121 :)

Getting ready for Christmas

I am officially unemployed and a full time mom.  I will start a temporary job at the church in January and hope to do some bookkeeping jobs on the side in the future, but we will see what God has planned. 

This week our number one agenda is to celebrate Christmas.  I think I am almost done with the Christmas shopping, so we can spend time at home together.  We are getting so excited.

Here is a pic of Will playing with tissue paper last week.  I think he is getting ready. :)

A Change of Heart

I have 6 days left at HA&W.  I have been working there for over 10 years.  I am almost in shock as the final day draws nearer.  My heart is filled with joy and there are moments of nervousness.  I think the most shocking part is how much my heart has changed since Will was born.  I can say, with complete honesty, that I never thought I would leave my job without another job lined up or something else planned.  I always have a plan, but this time I have peace.  Everyone has asked, are you pregnant?  Did something happen at work that caused this?  The answer to both is no.  I believe quitting my job has been something on my heart for a while now.  However, there were several catalysts that brought me to this place. 

The 1st was Will.  Without my son, I probably wouldn't be re-evaluating the way I live my life and asking myself if my daily life really matches my core values.  The 2nd was North Point.  There were many Sundays this year where I felt that prick in my heart and knew it was time to quit my job.  I kept pushing back that voice though.  The 3rd was the Whisper talk that Bill Hybels http://www.northpoint.org/15years did at the 15 year NPCC celebration.  This talk inspired me.  I sat there the whole time thinking I need to quit my job.  The last was the Mom's group I am in with Karen Stubbs.  There were two things from this group that prompted my decision.  One thing was the more we talked about honesty and teaching this to our children, the more dishonest I felt in my job.  I realized I was not being honest if I lead my boss and co-workers to believe that I want to be a partner in a CPA firm.  Partner was once something I aspired to and now I think the greatest title I could ever hold is that of Mom.  The other thing from group was something Karen said about teaching our children to listen to the Holy Spirit. When our children come to us and share about something that they think God has told them to do and you know it matches scripture, we should affirm them and help them understand the voice of the Holy Spirit from a young age.  That thought made me start thinking about what I had been doing this year.  It seemed like the Holy Spirit had been telling me over and over to quit my job, but I just kept ignoring it. 

Now I'm listening.  It is honestly awkward for me to write that I have made this decision because it is something I think God wants me to do.  I mean "what if I misunderstood God?"  Well, that is a risk I am willing to take.  The bottom line is that God has changed my heart!  That part is certain.  I am not the woman I was before my son was born.  I do think I will still work in some capacity.  I may have my own bookkeeping business, or another part time job.  I believe God has equipped me to be able to understand Accounting and he can use that in some way to help provide for my family and bring me joy.  For now, I am just so excited to be doing something that I know he wants me to do.  I can't wait to see where this road leads.  It is very strange, but very exciting.  Thanks for reading!

Favorite birthday pic

Will's birthday was back in September and this is my favorite pic from his day.  He loved his chair that we purchased him.  Attached is my favorite pic from his special day.  There are more pics on facebook than I could put here, but it was a very fun day.  I cannot believe how grown up my son is.

Change is a coming

So I am going to make our blog only viewable by people who register, that gives me a little more ease in terms of our privacy.  I hope to give more updates soon. 

Celebrating our anniversary

Recently Geremy and I went away for our anniversary to a cabin for the weekend.  We were celebrating 7 years.  We had the bright idea of bringing our dog and Will.  About noon on Saturday, Geremy started getting really sick (103 temperature sick).  We spent the rest of the weekend fighting allergies and then headed back home.  We had a wonderful time, but think we might do our anniversary trip without Will and Blue next year. :)  Here are few fun pics!

Finally an update...

Whew....The Dolans have been busy!  What a year it has been so far.  Will turns 8 months old this Sunday.  Geremy is in the middle of switching jobs at the church.  I have recently cut back my hours to only working 24 hours (3 days) a week.  Geremy is back in school and will be working towards finishing his professional counseling degree.  That is just a little of why we have not had time to update our blog in so long.

Will is more fun every day.  I know for sure that I love him more every day.  He says "da da" all the time.  He can pick puffs up with his hands and feed them to himself.  He is a great sleeper.  He goes down about 7:00 like clock work and starts waking up around 6:00 every morning.  Although 6:00 is so early, we are hopeful that it will work out in the future.  Will is almost crawling, but not quite yet.  He would love to crawl, and walk, he just loves to go, but we are enjoying this stage and certainly not rushing the next.  He has 4 teeth and is a phenomenal eater.  We are so grateful every day for Will.

That is it for now.  I hope to update more often.  Here are some recent pics.

Will's 3 month pictures

We had 3 month pictures done with Jason Pendley in early January and they turned out wonderful.  We have been way to slow on posting them.  Here is the link

http://www.jasonpendley.com/Clients

Just click on Will Dolan and scroll through.

Here are two of our favorites.

Learning and Growing

Since Will has been born, I think that we have been learning and growing as much as he has.  The other day I found some old journals from college and started to read them to Geremy.  I realized how much I miss journaling.  I loved reading through little snippets of my life going back as far as 8th grade through recent years. Since Will has been born, it has been a rare occasion for me to sit, ponder and pour out my heart to God on paper.  Most of my prayers are quick, hurried requests for wisdom, safety and understanding of how to care for this most precious gift.  I know that having a baby changes things, especially with your time, but it has been such an adjustment.  Having Will has been the start of a new chapter for how God is teaching us and growing our hearts to be more like his.  It's funny how this is all happening.  The other day I thought I would start reading more to Will.  I pulled out a book that someone had given us called, "Hermie".  The book is a simple story of a caterpillar who keeps asking God why he didn't make him like the other animals he meets.  God keeps telling Hermie not to worry, God is giving him a heart like his.  I think prior to having Will, we definitely lived life in a hurry.  I in particular tend to be a very industrious person, always looking for the next thing that needs to be done.  Now with Will, I can't do things as fast and I don't think God wants me to any way.  I think he wants me to slow down and wait on him.  To let him give me a heart like his.  I am excited about this new part of life and so grateful that it is by God's grace that he leads me and teaches me each day.  I am glad that we will always be learning and pray that we will set an example to Will that lifetime learning and growing is a great thing.

Where did my little boy go?

It has been far too long since I updated our blog.  Most of this is because I have been back to work since the middle of December, we had the holidays, and then Will has been sick and well, then sick and well since the new year.  Our son now weighs a whopping 15 pounds and is almost 26 inches long.  His hair is still very light (just like ours when we were his age) and you can barely tell it's there.  His favorite things these days are his hands, his feet and time with Mom and Dad.  He has started looking up at us while we are holding him.  It is almost as if he is checking to see if we are still there, then he looks down and then 5 seconds later, back up. It's so funny.  Yesterday, he laughed for me. That was really fun!  I would make a funny sound with my mouth and then he would just giggle.  You would never had known that he had a 102.3 temperature.  We spent late last night at the urgent care center having blood work done only to find out he just has a virus.  He was throwing up with other symptoms last week, but hasn't thrown up since Thursday.  The fever started yesterday.  We are hoping it leaves today.  It seems like Will turned 3 months and then he caught a cold and now it's his bought with a virus.  The little one is working hard at building up his immune system. :)

Here is a recent pic of him taking a nap on Friday.  The seahorse was a recent gift from a friend and he loves sleeping with it.  It usually isn't so close to his face, but I was supervising this nap so I let him hold it.

Updated Stats

Will went to the Doctor this week for his 2 month appointment.  He is now 10 weeks old.  He weighs 11 pounds 6 ounces.  He is 23 1/2 inches long.  He is now wearing clothes that are between 3 months to 6 months in size and is getting a little better at sleeping through the night.  He can do a 6 hour stretch now, but we are praying this becomes 8 by the time I go back to work on December 14th.  Here are some more pictures from this week.

Boys wear pink, right?

I have been so excited about the Christmas season.  I love it!  Yesterday I wanted Will to wear a Christmas outfit but it was freezing.  The only Christmas outfit I had that was warm enough was pink with brown holiday graphics on it.  I thought it was appropriate for a little boy, but Geremy took one look at it and said "what is he wearing?"  I explained what I was thinking and we headed out to breakfast.  That morning, several women asked how old our daughter was.  I politely responded that HE was 10 weeks.  We had a good time out, but as soon as we arrived home, I changed his outfit.  Needless to say, he will not be wearing pink again for a long time.

Pure joy

Earlier this week I sat Will in the Bumbo seat for the first time.  He is now 10 weeks old so I thought just maybe he could hold his head up.  He did great.  I took this picture.  We had so much fun that day.  We did all the fun mother/son stuff like reading a book together, he watched his mobile in his crib, played on his play mat and we just sat together in the chair.  It was pure joy!

My last trip to "the" Spa

Today I had a very interesting thing happen. I used to go to a local spa once a month for waxing. I haven't been able to go since Will has been born and wanted to get fixed up before our Thanksgiving vacation. I took Will in hand with me today to my usual place. Everything seemed to be going fine, I checked in and took a seat. Then a lady came to me and told me that children were not allowed in the back. I was stunned. The whole process wouldn't take more than 10 minutes. I couldn't believe a child would not be allowed for more than 10 minutes. I told the lady I would have to leave and then I told Will that we would have to find a place where he was accepted. I was really hurt by this experience. Prior to Will, this Spa has received my money with open arms, and likely would have for years to come. But after this experience, I don't think I will be going back to this place. I went and found another place today that I will be going to tomorrow that accepts children. I just had to share because I wondered if any of my other Mom friends have experienced this? Welcome to motherhood I guess... :)

Physical Therapy...

Today we took Will to physical therapy.  He seems to prefer only sleeping with his head to one side, so the pediatrician wanted us to get his neck checked out.  The therapist was great and gave us lots of exercises to do with him.  She seemed to think that his head would get rounded out if we just work on the exercises.  We are most likely going to go back to continue for follow up.  There was one thing that we need to work on more though.  It looks like Will is not visually tracking toys when you move them in front of his face.  We know Will can see because he looks out the window when we drive and likes to look out the window at home.  He also has just recently started looking at me more and just recently kind of smiled.  The PT said that his delay in visually tracking might be that he can't see that close up yet and is only good at seeing far away.  Either way, we are going to be watching this closely and will follow up in a few weeks.  Please pray that Will will begin to visually track things better and that he will develop in a healthy manner.  We appreciate all of your love and support!

Health update

Will is almost 7 weeks old now.  He is growing like crazy. He now weighs 10 pounds and is doing good sleeping at night.  I still get up once in the night, but that's not bad.  He takes naps good during the day and is on a great schedule.  He eats good and only cries if he is hungry, dirty, sleepy or gassy.  Here is an updated pic

 

Doula to the rescue

About two weeks ago I had a Doula come and help me.  (For those that don't know, a Doula is like a baby consultant)  Her name is Penny Gilchrist and she turned my world upside down.  There was so much that I didn't know about how to take care of Will.  I also didn't know how to get on a schedule.  Penny spent 3 1/2 hours with me and after she was done, everything was better.  She watched me nurse Will and helped me realize that he was a good eater and that feeding him was easier than pumping each time.  She then gave me exercises to do with him and wrote out a schedule for him and me.  I felt like a new person when she left.  Since she was at our home, I have gotten out once a day every day and the nights have been better with Will sleeping.  Penny has been checking in with me and has been an invaluable resource of baby knowledge.  I am so thankful that we have her as a resource!

Newborn pics

We had newborn pics taken of Will by Jason Pendley.  He has outdone himself again.  You can see them at the following link...

http://jasonpendley.smugmug.com/Clients

Just click on Will Dolan and you will be able to see his pictures

Here is my personal favorite!!

Crying

We think he's gorgeous even when he cries :)

Daddy time