Oh, to live in the life of  a 16 month old. To spend your day carting things from one room to another, trying your luck every 5 minutes to see if Mum may have forgotten to put the safety catch on the rubbish door (apparently there's a treasure trove in there!) and getting into the fridge as quick as you can to pinch the tomato sauce, have a quick lick on the top of the bottle before running away giggling maniacally. Throw in strategically placing pillows on the ground as a lever onto the couch, turning the TV off every time your siblings have it on, and walking into a room then suddenly side stepping like you are against an imaginary wall, and you have my Olive.

She is the funniest little character. I am always saying that to people. Everybody says how charming she is, and how crazy. She makes people fall in love with the beautiful and innocent way she says 'hi!' or 'Huyyow!!' to every passing person. Women sit and cluck over her and give her high fives and kisses (yes I have had to get over that one a little, when she is constantly asking 'mah?' for a kiss - Olive's interpretation of 'mwah!'). Old men stop and comment on her gorgeous locks. She demands a greeting from all the school Mums and at the supermarket she tries to tickle the checkout girls (yeah, that one made me turn a bit red).

The thing I love the most about all of the attention, is that it is for Olive, for who she is. Nobody can see her nevus. They don't feel sorry for her because she may look different. There is no sympathy there. Just pure adoration for a wonderful and charismatic baby girl. I am so incredibly proud of my darling daughter. She makes our world spin.

Lucky lucky white horse

I know they say it's not wise to count your chicken's before they hatch, but I have come to the realisation that we are so incredibly LUCKY with Olive.

She is 15 months now, and so far, we have had no issues with her nevus.  I'd like to say I have my fingers crossed as I make this statement, but you know what? We have already had the big lesson that 'what will be, will be' so I think that applies now as well.

I was so worried that we would have these other sideline issues that are known with CMN - overheating, itchiness,  NCM, tearing, to mention a few. I was terrified of the day she got chicken pox because I could just imagine the pox being so brutal on her delicate skin. But none of this has come into play!

This kid bounces off walls - literally. She is like an old drunk the way she toddles around with her pigeon toes pointing inwards, fat toes (they overlap!) gripping the ground....she is even attempting running! Though she seems to have her mother's genes (or lack of) for that particular sport...she too collapses after just a short while.
But the point is, she tries, and she falls and she bangs her back on the corners of walls and tables and benches. She donks her head on tables and bunks and bookshelves.
But we haven't ever had any issues with it damaging the nevus skin! Obviously as she get's older this may occur, on school playgrounds and the like. But for now, we have been absolutely able to let Olive be a normal healthy toddler. Because she is!

She is talking up a storm, she tells people to 'hang on!' and says 'buhbye' at the most appropriate times. I had to take her for a blood test yesterday and as they were trying to find her vein she decided that was enough so promptly squirmed her way out of my arms declaring, 'buhbye! buhbye!'.

There is never a dull moment in our house with this tiny little comedian lurking. We have all (re)discovered the joy of BOO - leaping out at her from beyond doorways and staircases, terrifying the little mite into fits of giggles.

If you are hungry, you will be sure to find a cracker or bickie stash in a multitude of hiding places - the toy box, Olive's car seat, her wooden cart, and apparently Mum's bag contains toast crusts in the side pocket.

The latest game is Ta. Olive gives you something, kindly saying Ta as she does. She then demands it back - 'TA!'. Give it back to her, she smiles. Then insists, no no, you have it - 'ta!'. If you say no, the 'ta' gets more insistent, as do the pushes, until you suddenly realise there is no getting out of this 'game' now...quick! Distract her with crackers!!

She has also learnt (quite quickly in my opinion!) that the rustling sound, it normally means treats...so when she hears the rustling of a packet, little feet come running with that all-too-insistent 'TA!!'.

Yes, I know she is JUST 15 months and we more than likely have lots of the discomforts and 'problems' of CMN in our future, but the lack of it from her birth until now has made it so much easier for us to enjoy our baby and get to know HER, and not her nevus.

She is an old soul, my girl, and she has been given to us (all, not just Eddie and I) to teach a multitude of lessons, the main one - Enjoy Your Children <3

I had forgotten what a fun age this is - the second year. The first is incredible - the changes from birth to 1 year are amazing. And then baby becomes a toddler and the fun increases. Olive is now 14 months old, and still very very much a baby but ohhh what a funny little person she is.

She has just taught herself to walk! Great achievement! Earliest of all my kids, and she takes great delight in stumbling around the house in what appears to be a drunk stupor. Her little bambi legs seem far too little to hold that belly up!

But somehow she manages it, and she is awfully proud of herself. She likes nothing more than seeing people's reactions when they first see her walk - Pop, Aunty, Grandma. Once she see's them go, 'hey! oh my god! yay yay!' she takes it as her cue to show off, and does so by toddling faster until she collapses in a tiny squishy heap.

Lots of new words are coming out of her mouth as well. Shopping takes twice as long these days because Olive yells 'hi babe!' at every passerby. Other shoppers relish in this wonderful little girl who looks far too little to talk like that!

Olive is the dictator in our house, marching around and bossing everyone about. You can often hear her calling somebody - 'MUUUUUUUM!! DADDDDDYYYYYY!! MEEEMEEEE!! (Meisha) DAKDDDDYYY (Jaxy, lol)'.

She charms the pants off most people, and has friends everywhere she goes. Although the other day was a new experience. I went to an appointment for myself and had to take Olive. She had just woken up so was a tad cranky. After screeching for a good 10 minutes and chucking any toys we had the audacity to give her, I gave her my wallet to play with (figured taking the cards out one by one would consume a good chunk of time).
She promptly pulled all the innards out, and then continued to screech. So I let her out of the pram...she was quiet! We got on with the appointment. What a good girl she was!

And then I realised she had found the woman's wallet. And pulled EVERYTHING out. The money, the cards, receipts EVERYTHING.

I don't think she charmed that particular person.....

Along with all the charming, and uncharming is her grizzles. She has been working hard and popped out a third tooth! A fourth is on it's way, and it may explain the temps and runny nose, as well as condensed grumpiness that we have all experienced with little Miss today.

Fingers crossed it passes soon anyway -  on Wednesday we have our next 6-monthly check with Olive's dermatologist. I don't feel there are any changes, but it is reassuring to check in with a professional and make sure everything with her looks OK.

This little girl lights up all of our lives. I love seeing the love her big brother and sister have for her. I was talking with Jaxon the other night about feelings and I asked what makes him happy at home. His answer?
Olive.

So the first year is over. Done and dusted, now we move into toddlerhood. The first year was a big roller coaster of emotions - shock, grief, overwhelming happiness, worry, fun, pride - not to mention tiredness (sleeeep child, sleeep!!).
I feel well settled now, in my role as Olive's Mum and as the carer of this wonderful owner of such an intriguing rare illness. Sometimes I feel as if we are so at peace with it, that we maybe even forget to check it as often as we should (bad mum!).
We are so used to seeing it, on her nakey bum or back, that when I see a 'clear' baby back it seems as though something is missing, lol.

Olive is progressing and developing right on par with others her age and we have no concerns whatsoever at the moment that there is anything going on 'inside' that shouldn't be.

She is a blimmin fast crawler, chasing her brother and sister up and down the hall, or racing to Mum or Dad for a quick snuggle before racing away again.
Clever bunny has even started letting go of furniture and taking some steps across the room. It does help if she has a focus - Mummy, Daddy, chocolate...yes, she has discovered the joy that is chocolate. She will sniff it out and squeal and carry on until she is allowed a minute taste.

Her vocabulary is growing each day, and she loves to announce to her siblings 'BAAA' when I ask if she wants a bath.

She has finally grown a tooth, and surprised us all when the top one appeared the other day as well. So she is now also the proud owner of two half teeth, which she clamps together and taps them on anything she can, to make a noise. Such a wee sweetheart though, she won't bite if your fingers are near - just gently puts her jaw together and then smiles broadly to show you how proud she is of her newly acquired chompers.

Along with the new teeth though, has come a few night wakings - they must be giving her grief, and all she wants is cuddles. I'm down with that.

We are all absolutely loving this age and stage - still very much our baby but a very interactive one. Giggling, talking, clapping, waving, laughing at her own jokes (namely, pulling my hair, or saying goodbye to Aunty and then Aunty drives back up - this is hilarious apparently!).

So there isn't much to report on a medical front, but any chance to brag about and show off my beautiful third love.

This is her having a blast with her Daddy at our wedding.

And then she turned One.

This was my first glimpse at my daughter. This shot, is what Mum and my midwife saw and what Eddie and I had no idea about. We had absolutely no clue as to what the year that followed this would be like.....

But here we are. The baby is One Year Old. A whole 12 months. She has been out now longer than she was in for. And she is rapidly approaching toddlerhood and leaving babyhood behind.

This past year has been one of the most important of my life. Of course, I have grown and matured and changed with each child, but with having Olive I have realised who and what, is important in my life, and in my children's. I have cemented some very firm friendships that I am so incredibly thankful for.

And the support for my baby? Eddie and I couldn't ask for more. Everyone is incredible. Olive already knows she is well loved - you can tell in the way we wander around the shops and she charms everyone she can by permanently fixing a goofy smile to her chubby wee face. And in the way she hasn't yet learnt to clap, like most babies, yet she can say Aunty and Happy on cue.

Though she has all the support she will ever need, she also likes to be independant and she has a wonderfully feisty and determined streak - OK, it might be hard for Mummy to deal with that part right now when trying to make her sleep but it will only serve her well when she is older.

I am so immensely proud of my sweet girl. I have always wanted to show her to the world, to show how clever we are that we made such an  amazing and beautiful tiny human being. You know what though? We are REALLY clever....we made three of them ;-)


Happy 1st birthday our beautiful baby Olive. Love Mum, Dad, Jaxon and Meisha xoxo

 

With all babies/children you have a load of Firsts. First smile, first laugh, first food, first time they crawl, first time they sit, first tooth, first steps, etc etc. I thought with Olive being my third child I was somewhat seasoned to these Firsts (the good and bad ones!) and could still enjoy them all as I know (oh, too well!) they don't last.
But the other night, I had a different First. It may not be a big deal to anyone else, but it marked another wee step in our journey with our Nevus Bub.

We went for a swim at night with the kids, and seeing as the hotel had just cleaned the pool, it was packed. I think most guests had the same idea as us!
Kids had a ball, and though the pool was thermally heated, we still got a little cold so I got Olive out and wrapped a towel around myself. Mothers Instinct had me automatically go to take off Olive's wet and cold swimsuit to wrap a towel around her tiny body.

And for a split second, I halted.

I have never hesitated before to fulfill any of my children's needs for the sake of others, from breastfeeding them in public, to stripping them nudey in a beach carpark....but for different reasons, this time I paused in my actions. I realised people would look, and perhaps ask, or perhaps be intrigued, or disgusted (yes, we all know there are THESE kinds of people in the world, no matter how much you sugar coat it). And for that very small fraction of time, I considered whipping Olive up in the towel, wet swimsuit and all, and taking her back to our room.

But I am starting as I mean to carry on with my girl. She must be proud of her body, and never ashamed. Never hiding it (like her mother hides all her stretchmarks!), and never letting it stop her from doing anything - whether that be getting changed in a public changing room, or entering a swimsuit competition. She is beautiful, she is strong, and she is proud. Even  at 11 months old. This is my baby.

So I thought, F**k them.
And I took my baby's togs off, and wrapped her safely and warmly in her nice dry towel and we went back to our room, just like I did with my older two when they were her age.

This may not sound like a big deal to a lot of you, and in the scheme of things, it isn't.
But for me, as Olive's mama, it was another step.

Oh, and she frickin LOVED the swimming - apparently it is hilarious when Mummy goes underwater and jumps up saying BOO!

When Olive was born, and she wasn't breathing, and I hadn't even met her, I didn't care about these 'spots' on her body. I didn't care about this giant nevus on her body. I didn't care about anything, other than the fact that I knew my baby was alive, and was going to be 'OK'.

Once we were home, we settled quickly into our new wee family and it wasn't until she was a week or two old, that the enormity of her condition set in.
Eddie and I researched on the internet this condition our beautiful baby had. We spent about two days crying at EVERYTHING. Every comment, every picture, every story, every medical detail we pored over.
Through our research, we stumbled across a Facebook group which is a support group formed specifically for nevus owners or their parents/family.

We came across scary pics of tissue expanders, and beautiful photo's of other children with nevus'. Questions asked by other members, and wee stories told. As overwhelming as this all was, there was one point and it was as simple as that - the ONE story, which completely shaped our attitude towards how we wanted to deal with, and raise, this special girl of ours.

The story was about Audrey. She is 17 years old and lives in Texas. She has a BTN and a ton of satellites. She is BEAUTIFUL. And I mean that. She is an absolutley beautiful person. Inside, and out. Her strong attitude and confident demeanour is one to be admired, from all of us - not just nevus owners!
I have befriended her Mum on FB, and she has been an amazing source of advice and confidence boosters in our journey so far.

Anyway, the story her Mum told was one of Audrey at kindergarten. Her top had ridden up some at the back, and her wee kindy friend asked 'what's that?' of her nevus. Her mum, automatically protective (who of us aren't? ;-) ), jumped in with, 'that's Audrey's birthmark'. Audrey, proud as punch of her nevus, corrected Mum - 'No! That's my nevus!' and proceeded to show her friend her nevus.

Her friend then spent much of the duration of their kindy session stroking Audrey's nevus.

This was the sweetest, most comforting story I could have read at the time. Both Eddie and I, tears streaming down our faces, giggled and said 'I want Oli to be like Audrey!'.

This story was such a defining moment for us, as to exactly how we wanted to raise our Olive, and our attitude towards her and her body.

Recently, there was a disagreement on the site, from different parents about whether they had light hearted stories to tell new Nevus Parents. Whilst some most certainly did, others didn't, and they really couldn't see the lighter side of the situation, mostly due to horrible experiences - bad surgeries, or other kids bullying and saying heart breaking things to their children. Kids can be really mean :(

I found this quite an eye opener, and realised something about me, Eddie and our families.

We have not once been ashamed of her. Not ever. I don't want to hide her. I don't want her to ever feel like she has to hide herself. A lot of you who met Olive when she was born will remember how forward I was with showing you her nevus, and a lot of you also probably felt a bit uncomfortable. The Peacekeeper part of me wants to apologise for this, but I am not going to. I had to do this, because if she is going to strive to be as confident and strong a young woman as someone like Audrey, she needs all the support of everyone who loves her. And this means being completely open about her condition.
She is amazing. I have never once wanted to change her. She was born this way for a reason, and she will be a big teacher in her life. She already is.