Cleaning, Cleaning...

Here's Oliver in action with the broom!

Surfing on the Vroom Vroom

I posted some pics yesterday of Oliver doing this, now here's a video!

The Strainer

Oliver likes to get in the kitchen and play with the strainer. Recently its made a great hat.

He Got Caught!

Oliver likes to climb. Fact!
He thought I wouldn't notice him turn the Cheerio box over and try to climb up on the chair.
I caught him off guard and he slipped off the box.
Look at the guilty face!

Ollie Loves His Blanky

This thing has gotten more use than I thought it would, I can't imagine Oliver without it.

Here he is at 3 weeks hanging out with it! This picture was taken almost exactly a year ago!


Side comment: Now that Oliver is older he's mastered many, many facial expressions. It's almost weird to look back at his little infant face, that really only had one expression!

When I Grow Up..

I want to be just like my Daddy!

Gemma!

We had Gemma over at the house on Thursday! Long story, but I'm sure her Mommy was very happy knowing there was a place for Gemma to spend a couple hours!

Here are some photos:

Oliver is 6 months older than Gemma and I was actually reminiscing about Ollie being that age, so here is a pic of him at 6 months and then Gemma who is 6 months currently:


And here Oliver is [no teeth and all!] playing with his music table and Gemma playing with the same one below!


And the rest:

Eli turned 1!

Oliver's little friend turned one this past Saturday and I didn't get a chance to take too many pictures, but we had a blast!

They both move so much getting a good shot = IMPOSSIBLE!

Oliver trying grapes for the first time. I almost had a heart attack, but no choking ensued meaning no need for my knowledge of CPR! Always a good day with that kind of scenario.

NOT a Fan of the Shower

Big Ol' Belly!

He drools so much, shirts are out of the question sometimes. I don''t have enough clothes to change him 6 or 7 times a day!

Nanners & Cookies

The perfect meal. A banana and a Ritz cracker! [We call them cookies though, don't know where that came from. He's gonna be really mad when he finds out what real cookies taste like!]



And, Go WWU! Oliver looks so good wearing Mommy's alma mater! He's growing into the 18 month shirt quite well! :]

Vroom Vroom

Ollie likes to surf on his Porsche. And look at how wet his shirt is! He has been drooling a bucket's worth every hour. This tooth/teeth needs to come now!

Getting Creative.

Oliver won't eat vegetables.
So.
Mommy doesn't let him know he's eating them.

I spoke to a nutritionist to make sure his lackluster intake of food was okay. She said its normal for kids his age to just stick to carbs and starches. Oliver lives off of anything made out of potato and crackers/cereal. Luckily he LOVES fruit. But being the good mommy that I am, I do still offer veggies with every meal. Though these last two days I've gotten sneaky! Last night I poured part of a jar of green beans into his mashed potatoes. I put just the right amount of salt and pepper so they still tasted like taters! He ate them up! Then today at lunch I gave him some noodles with just a bit of tomato soup poured over them. He loved it bc the soup was really spicy just like he likes.

We're making progress!

Here's Ollie getting crazy in bed. He just throws himself around. Such a boy!

Update.

1. Sippy cup...getting better. He'll drink about 1 bottle a day from it. Though he'll only take in an ounce or two at a time. We've found that he then does not sleep through the night like this. I've been one tired Momma..

2. He HATES vegetables. I cannot stress this enough. Before he started eating real food he loved his jars of veggies. Now, it's been a headache. But he still loves any and all fruit!


3. He likes spicy food.

4. He's really fascinated by toilets and when Mommy or Daddy go pee pee. Potty training will commence sometime in summertime. Cross your fingers for us. Hopefully the sippy cup thing will work out. One big change at a time...

5. He is one frustrated little boy. Haha. He's very passionate about things and if he can't accomplish something he gets so mad! Not like he wants someone to help him, he is just genuinely angry at himself.

6. He hates his car seat and stroller...oh and clothes. He hates a lot more than he likes!

7. He's becoming a tickle monster. He comes up to you and starts to tickle! Haha. He always gets my feet.

It Was Sunny? Whaaa...

So we went to Green Lake. It was beautiful and 55 degrees! There were even the typical Seattle crazies in shorts and T-shirts. If I ever move away, they will surely be missed.

Oliver got to borrow a little boy's sand toys. He was intrigued by the rake.

Still trying to climb up the slide.

I caught him eating bark...

..and he got up and laughed at me! :]

Eating Sketti!

I don't really expect him to know how to use a spoon and bowl in tandem. But it's funny to watch him try:

Look at that face!

Blue.

It makes his eyes stand out!


I don't think I've ever said this in my life but...

I'M IN LOVE WITH MY BABY!

Helping Mommy.

Oliver has really accepted anything meant for cleaning:


It's funny to see him try to handle it when its so big and he's so little.

♥

Look at my handsome little boy!! He looks a little crazy, like, "Hmmm how can I break Mommy's phone...". :]


I love these two more than anything.

Someones been using their bath toys as decoration...



It's funny, Daddy puts the little animals around his ears and then Oliver tries to do it himself. They end up on his shoulders...close enough!

Dance Dance

Oliver LOVES to dance!



It's really short again. I never have the camera when he's really 'busting a move'...ha. But now he's to the point that when he even hears music during a commercial he takes a short dance break.

TOO CUTE!

Poor August!

Here are Oliver and August.

Here is Oliver sitting on August.

Here is Oliver totally engulfing poor little August.

Ha. :]

My Crazy Child!

This is Oliver playing with a blowup penguin. He would drag it around then drop it and run back to all of the adults. Look at that face of his. So happy!

Oh, and that stain on his pants. Banana. He's been playing anorexic baby as of late. He spits out everything I give him.

He's Pure Blonde, PROMISE

Okay so for family and friends that don't get to see Oliver often I'm posting this picture:

See totally blonde! :]

A lot of pictures of Oliver have his hair looking red-ish or dirty blonde. I get a lot of comments saying that his hair is darkening and that's too bad bc the white blonde was so cute. This pic was done in natural light, where his light light hair didn't pick up any artificial color.

See!!!

When It's NOT Raining

We've been trying to get outside more often, but alas, the rain has just come out full force. We did sneak some playground time in the last few days. The slide is his new favorite. Not so much the sliding down part as much as the climb up part.

And here he is being observant as usual. He will just stand there and asses the situation. He loves to stop and look at every car that drives by, ever child and adult that walks by, he'll look at dogs running and people on the swings. Very analytical as I've mentioned before. Once he takes everything in he is NOT shy. For someone who's never been in daycare or spent a lot of time with other kids his age, he is extremely social. I always knew that but I didn't really believe it until the pediatrician told me at his appointment. If she could be in the room for 2 minutes and see that, then my instincts were right! But he will get right in there with kids twice his size. Haha.

Oliver's Newest Lady Friend

Well he's know her since she was born back in September, but she is the youngest little girl friend he has. I spaced girl and friend bc her daddy is VERY protective and does not wish her to have any boyfriends right now! :]

I feel as though George would be quite similar if he had a daughter!

This is at Mr. Oliver's bday party.

Where's Your Tongue?

I made sure this video was SHORT. I realized all my videos are just too big to post here which is depressing since we have so many cute ones! I have Windows Movie Maker but I just haven't had the time to reduce the size of all the videos I want to post. Hence you all never see videos! I made sure to have the camera ready to take a short short video, praying it would be able to upload!


Oliver learned where his tongue is! He was really fascinated by the baby swinging next to him, so you won't get any eye contact but he'll respond to commands!


We're now working on learning his lip and hands and fingers. He's such an independent little guy you just have to feel out what he's most interested in at the moment and jump at the occasion to teach. He was obsessed with trying to get his hands in my mouth for a couple days to grab my tongue before he realized he had one too. That's when I started to grabbing his and mine and telling him 'TONGUE'!

On that note, that's how he learned how the light switch works. Recently I was holding him while making his bottle [he loves to observe!] and he looked up and tried to grab the light fixture. I let him touch it a little bit so he could explore something new. Then I walked over to the switch and started to push it up and down. Oliver was fascinated with the lights going on and off! He has a giant light switch on his huge barn toy that actually lights up and I showed him the big light in the kitchen and the small light on the barn. He couldn't get enough!

Update

Switching to cow's milk was a breeze. Oliver didn't even notice. We spent Friday giving him the milk from a regular bottle to make the transition smooth.
Now today he got his night time bottle with the sippy inserts. If you're wondering what those are, they're the coolest things ever. I didn't need to buy new sippy cups or anything, the sippy inserts are placed where the regular nipples go. AWESOME! Therefore I get to keep all the bottles and pieces [minus the nipples].

Anyway...I said in the last post that he better transition to the sippy fast bc I wasn't gonna break down and give him the nipple. Easy in theory. Let's just say that an hour of screaming and 2 very guilty parents later finally decided that Oliver needs to drink his bedtime bottle and go to bed. We put the nipple back in and he was out for the night.

He usually takes to things very easily but he won't even attempt the sippy. I'm hoping this will get better. My thoughts are that he's such an independent and analytical baby that besides morning cuddle time, the bottle is his last sort of baby comfort. It's really sad to take that away, especially when that's the thing that gives you sustenance.

Here's a picture of him in the tub. :]

A Birdy's Gonna Sit on That Lower Lip

Oliver's new favorite facial expression!


And here are a few more pictures from yesterday's trip to the playground:

Oliver's Such a Big Boy.

Today we ran out of formula. We will begin cow's milk at his next feeding in a couple hours. I'm kind of excited but kinda scared! Hope he likes it. The bottles are also going Bye-Bye! Today I'm gonna transition him to cow's milk in his bottle, but tomorrow its all sippy! Wish us luck. I'm not giving in so I hope he takes to it, otherwise there is going to be some interesting screaming and a lot of headaches!

And here are some pictures from a year ago. I believe they were taken on the 10th so Oliver was a whole week old!



And to think he's ready to be off the bottle, and he's eating big people food, and walking, etc. A year ago all I cared about was him not crying and figuring out a way to sit that didn't make me look too awkward!

Speaking Polish Is Not Out of the Question

Oliver has been rolling his r's these last few days. So funny to listen too. He runs a lot, and into this running he incorporates rolling his r's. It's almost like you're almost being ran over by a motorcycle every day.

And as the title says, if Oliver is able to speak any Polish [fingers crossed], he'll sound a bit more eloquent than if he couldn't roll the r's.

Museum of Flight

Oliver was really intrigued by the space section. Future astronaut perhaps?

I See You