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

12 Month Stats

We just got back from the pedi and Oliver has grown quite a bit!

Weight - 22lbs 10 oz - 47th percentile
Height - 31.25 in - 89th percentile
Head Circ. - 47cm - 68th percentile

He weighs quite a bit less than I expected and he's a lot longer as well. But as you can see by the percentiles, he's not HUGE. [Which I always think he is since everyone comments on what a big boy I have for his age.]

Shots were a breeze. Though he did cry after the second shot since there was only one nurse this time and three shots to give. But after a few seconds he looked at me and started smiling. Thank goodness.

I'm also glad to find out that around this time babies his age don't eat as much! About a week and a half ago Oliver just stopped drinking his formula. He'd take an ounce here, three ounces there. I was worried but his temperment was good as ever so I didn't really mind. Good news bears though - totally normal!

Birth Team Unite!

Haha. When I was setting up my birth plan I knew from the start I wanted Daddy and Grandma to be there. CJ, my roommate of 4 years in college, had no qualms with being right where the action was. She even told me right after I told her I was pregnant, that she was gonna be there. We had spent high school and college together. What's the birth of a child? Hahaha.

So here we all are, a year older with the baby that brought us together!

Baby's 1st Cake

He didn't like it as much as I thought he would. But he did have fun with it. He also really liked being sung to. 'Sto Lat' and 'Happy Birthday' of course!








Then a nice change of clothes and crackers instead of that yucky cake!

Pirate Party Decorations

Since this was a PIRATE party, we didn't want to disappoint.

Here are some pictures of the decorations!:

This was on the front door:


On the bathroom door. :]:

My pirate cupcakes:

Never baked or frosted cupcakes so intensely before!:

Rice Krispy Treat coins:

Some of the tableware:

THE CAKE. It was awesome, and also very large!:

A real treasure map;

Ballooooons:

More balloons:

We had a ton of streamers. Thanks Daddy!:

Our Grog; keeping with the theme:

all of our Grub:

And of course the Booty!:

:]:


Just a shout out to Grandpa who laminated those signs for me so kindly! It looked great!


Sooooooooo glad this is over! Haha it was a lot of work, a lot of money, but it had to be perfect for our little boy. You only have one 1st birthday. :]

Happy 1st Birthday Oliver

My infant, my 7lb 7 oz baby, my itty bitty baby boo...is a whole year old[and a day!].

I'm still in shock. I have such a vivid memory of everything that happened last year leading up to his birth that it seems surreal that a whole year has gone by already. I am one of the proudest moms you could ever meet. My son is my world. He's my baby bear and I'm his momma bear. We are inseperable.

After the party he was so pooped and he went right to bed. Though he did wake up in the middle of the night, he wasn't his usual self. Instead of crying for food or something, he just wanted to cuddle. He never has done that during the night. Yes, he loves to sleep in our bed, but he takes up the whole thing! Last night was different. He just kept nuzzling into my neck and face. It was really special, bc I feel like he still needs me as much as he did a whole year ago went he came into this insane world of ours.

Here are some pictures from the party!:

This was him in the morning; didn't have a clue what was gonna happen:

Yeah, it's definiately the poop deck!

His little pirate outfit:

Presents!

Vacuuming!

At first when we got this vacuum I thought, my boy is learning something girly. But you know what? I got over that QUICK!. He LOVES the vacuum cleaner. He is simply ecstatic when I turn it on. If anyone's around, he'll get their attention and scream with joy to show them the vacuum. The best part is he's learning how something works. He recently learned how to use a telephone. If you say "ring ring" or "hello hello" he'll either pretend he has a phone up to his ear or grab his and pretend he's on the phone. So it is even cooler that he now can pretend he's vacuuming with me! The first few days he didn't really get it and he'd lug it around all over the place instead of pulling it! Poor kid really got a work out. Over the last 2 days he's gotten the hang of it and now whether or not someone is really vacuuming, he whips it out and plays with it.

It is THE coolest thing to watch your child learn and grow in front of your eyes. Especially when they go from this crying, pooping, eating glob of nothing to this walking, understanding, "talking" little person. I couldn't be prouder as a mother. Oliver amazes me EVERYDAY!

So anyway, here he is with Dzia Dzia!

I REALLY Love My Sleeping Baby.

Pioneer Square with Daddy.

Taking a Ride!

This was taken Christmas Day. Just uploaded it, and thought it was too funny!

Nie!

Oliver is so cute now!
He has understood no for some time now, but he's added a little twist.
For example, if he's getting too close to the T.V. or fireplace we tell him NO Bubba, and nie in Polish. We usually all shake our heads bc it just kinda happens. Hence now my child hears us say no, runs over and shakes his head saying some mixture of no and nie over and over. Its the cutest thing but I can tell this is gonna cause us some grief in the future. :]


Also, I just have to say how darn cute this kid is. Last night for example, he woke up at 12:30 am. This is unheard of for our child! Anyway, he decided to play until 3:30 am and pass out soon there after. I was EXHAUSTED. George woke up late for work. But in the midst of the sleepiness and annoyance of actually having to wake up in the middle of the night as a parent [unheard of, right?], he would smile so big and give me that look, that "Mommy I love you so much" look. I just melted.

It's so hard to be mad at him!

Living With a BOY!

My son farts, then looks around to see if any ones noticed. If you look at him and laugh or smile he laughs his little face off! I just started noticing this maybe 2 weeks ago, I told George about this and his response is that him and Oliver had been doing this for ages. Apparently its a guy thing? That's fine by me....keep it a guy thing!

I'm coming to the conclusion that the next child needs to be a girl so we can be even. TEAMS! Hahaha.

Aaaaaand Oliver gave us another scare tonight. We had people over at my parent's house. George was outside on the phone with his family and I had to run to the restroom. I informed every one that I was going potty but I did not specify to please watch Oliver for a moment. Between food and glasses of wine and my 30 second potty break, Oliver had climbed all the way to the second story. I get out of the restroom looking for him and all I hear are his foot steps. My first conclusion was that they were coming from upstairs, but then I thought no way, he was being watched. My gut told me to run upstairs and who do I hear run to the top of the stairs? OLIVER! He of course had the HAPPIEST face, and was laughing. Luckily he didn't fall down the stairs and I made sure the gate was promptly placed back at the bottom of the stairs.

I am beginning to think that he's either going to be a stunt man, a new Jackass personality, or the next Evil Knievel...Wish us luck!

Daddy is Learning Words Too!

I was joking about this with George but I'm really gonna do it. Since Oliver was born into a very Polish family he's being spoken to in two languages. Poor Daddy would be left out if he didn't at least know what some of it meant. So as Oliver is learning to speak, Daddy is learning to speak Polish!

Here's some common words/phrases he knows:
Ja chcem kabanos prosze. - I want kabanos please.
Choc tu. - Come here.
Przestan - Stop it.
Prosze - Please.
Dzienkuje - Thank you
Salatka, bigos, kielbasa, etc. - Different Polish foods.
Kotek - Kitty

He uses Please and Thank you around Oliver, as well as come here. It's really cool to get him involved so he doesn't feel lost! I'm sure over time he'll know a lot more. It's also really cool to see how much he understands just by understanding words and reading our body language!

Lots of New Foods!

Oliver is continuing on his journey of tasting ever flavor the world has to offer! Ha.

Over the holidays Oliver tried:
Salmon - He LOVED it. Couldn't get enough.
Kabanos - Polish meat...YUM!
Salatka - A Polish version of potato salad.
Pierogi - Though he did have some of these before.

Lots of goodies! Such a big boy!