All aboard...for a trip to Mockingbird Station

This morning we decided to ride the DART to Mockingbird station to walk around and have lunch. Oliver had fun riding the train and practicing balancing walking around the fountains at Mockingbird Station. We had a delicious Mexican lunch at Margarita Ranch and then rode the train back to Parker rode in Plano. The weather was gorgeous and a great time was had by all on our little excursion.

Daddy & Oliver reading a story about a train this morning

Riding DART

Let's go this way

Caught mid bite!

Long before Oliver, my sister jokingly called Clayton PBS Clay while he played with her child. Oliver & I are so fortunate to have PBS Daddy around. He is always teaching Oliver & I love that about him. People have stopped him at the grocery store to comment on what a great Dad he is...and I just smile knowing that Oliver is growing up with a wonderful Daddy!

After lunch

waiting for the train

What ever happened to coin operated rides?

When I was young, it seemed like every store had coin-operated rides just outside the entry way. Now it seems like you have to search to find them. Luckily a mall nearby has about 6 or 7 of them just outside their play area. Oliver asks me all them time if we can go to the mall and ride the fire truck. These pictures are from last month, but I just realized I never posted them on my blog. I guess its never too late to post cute pictures!

The video is of Oliver driving the newest ride at the mall, I don't think he was sure what to think of it!

It is so much easier to drive on tile, Mommy!

Oliver got this Little Tykes Cozy Coupe for Christmas. Ever since, we have been trying to teach him how to push it himself, and it hadn't happened yet so there was still a lot of Mommy push me involved. It turns out that the reason he couldn't do it is our frieze carpeting is just too deep! This morning I encouraged him to do it on the tile and off he went. Check out the video to see him maneuvering around the island in our kitchen.

The sweetest words ever!

So for months now we have encouraged Oliver to say the sentiment "I love you". Up until now he has done so as a response to our sentiment for him, or by request. But last week he came up to me while I was cooking in the kitchen, wrapped his arms around my leg and uttered the sweetest words ever, "I love you, Mommasita". I heard him say "I love you Daddy-O" later that same day to his Daddy. And now I have heard him telling his favorite animals this very same sentiment, their names replaced of course. My heart melts every time I think about it!

They may be healthy, but it is still chocolate...

So I did it, I made the Brainy Brownies tonight and like everything else I have made from the book, Oliver ate it without complaints and he begged for mine too and against my better judgement, I let him have it...and Daddy let him have some of his too. Well, just because they are healthy, doesn't mean they are sugar free. Oliver had a very difficult time winding down for bedtime tonight, and was awake for almost an hour after I left his room just entertaining himself. See if I ever let him eat almost two entire brownies before bed time again! You can click the picture to find the recipe.

sneaky chef update

Alright, so I tried a couple of more recipes this weekend. I made the white puree which is cauliflower & zucchini and hid it in Oliver's Mac & Cheese which he ate without complaints -- I just added extra cheese sauce and it tasted exactly the same! I also made the two bite chocolate chip cookies and they are so healthy & delicious! They contain oats, almonds, whole wheat flour, wheat germ, white beans and of course you can't forget the chocolate chips. All of the sneaky ingredients are pureed in the food processor so my little one, who is huge on texture, is none the wiser to these oh so healthy ingredients. Next I am going to try brainy brownies that contain spinach and blueberries. Wish me luck!

And the race is on...

Oliver lined up all his cars along side his car table today and raced some cars, trucks, then tractors down the center. I thought it was so cute, but unfortunately I forgot about recording until the last race. Here is a taste of what my little guy was up to this afternoon.

shhh, it's a secret

So far I am loving this Christmas present I purchased for myself. The recipes are simple and they really do work. I have only tried two make ahead recipes, the White Bean Puree and the Strawberry Juice which were both super easy in my Cuisinart Food Processor. My incredibly picky eater ate his spaghetti O's which sneakily contained extra fiber and protein without any complaints -- Now that is how I spell success! Click the picture to go to the authors website, or go to Amazon.com to read more about the book. Love it!

Recall alert services

Have you heard about the peanut butter - salmonella scare going on? I don't watch the news so I am afraid I would have been ill informed if not for these recall alerts that I receive from the FDA. Although jars of peanut butter are not being recalled, it seems as if everything made with peanut butter is...the list grows daily. Click here for a link to sign up for the FDA's food recall alerts. And here to see a list of the peanut butter products already recalled.

Another good recall alert service is the Consumer Products Safety division. I receive alerts for all consumer product recalls. Just before Christmas we had a scare with Oliver's bedroom set; Munire voluntarily recalled it because the red paint used underneath the black paint had lead in it. Completely scary to find out that my little one could have been chewing on lead paint for a couple of months back in 2007. It turns out his set was one of the last to be manufactured in the US before Munire outsourced the manufacturing to Indonesia -- what a relief! This is a great service because here it is a month later and I haven't heard about this recall anywhere else. Click here to sign up for the service.

Happy Birthday to Grandma!

Clayton's Mom came to stay with us on Monday night. Her birthday was the day before, so we had a nice birthday dinner (if I do say so myself) and a birthday cake to celebrate. Oliver really enjoyed spending time with his grandma. They were able to play quite a bit and the next morning Oliver painted a picture with his Grandma. Check out the video and the pictures below.

Oliver Clayton Royal is 27 months old

Today was a fun day. We were all feeling well and Clayton and Oliver were especially well rested after sleeping about 12 hours each. We started out the day by making homemade waffles. I hadn't used my waffle iron in forever, so I decided to heat it up and try my waffles on Oliver who loves, loves, loves, frozen Nutrigrain Eggo Waffles. He hated my waffles and only ate a few small bites ... Clayton and I both enjoyed them, I think Oliver doesn't know what he is missing. He spent the morning playing, or rather rough housing with Daddy. Oliver really missed this I think as he just couldn't get enough! We enjoyed lunch together as a family and after Oliver woke up from a nap we went for a walk at the park behind our house and we stopped at the playground so Oliver could swing, which he could have done all night long. Finally, after dinner we celebrated Oliver's birthday with some delicious strawberries from Costco -- so good! And some sweet pumpkin spice bread. Surprisingly, pumpkin and strawberry go quite well together.

Happy 27 month birthday Oliver, Mommy & Daddy love you! Most of these pictures are of a similar pose, but I had a difficult time choosing which to post -- so I posted those I liked the best!

Oliver's Daddy when he was 2

This a picture of Clayton a couple of days before he turned two. So many people have told me that Oliver looks a lot like Clayton, I never could see it. However, after rediscovering this picture, I do see it now.

The amusing thing about this picture is what types of gifts Clayton has displayed before him. Clayton has a truck; Oliver loves trucks, cars, tractors, you name it!

I believe those are cooking pans in the white box; Oliver loves to cook and he has the kitchen to prove it!

Clayton has the Farmer Dell book and the farm animal toys; Oliver loves farm animals, the Jolly Barnyard is one of his favorite books!

And last, Clayton has a broom in his hand; I think that is one toy that Oliver doesn't have that he would just love. After all, he does adore his vacuum.

It is so funny to me how alike their tastes were at this age. I am so happy I found this picture. Thanks for making the scrapbook for me, Tricia!

before and after light fixtures

Well, had I thought of it earlier I would have had before and after pictures of my new light fixtures. Anyway, these are the light fixtures I picked out for my birthday this year. We were a little busy for the last four months so they didn't get hung until now, but in my opinion they were worth the wait. I love them! When we took them out of the box we found that they were a little different color than what we remembered from the store, so instead of trying to return them four months later, we picked out some paint and Clayton made them look exactly the way I wanted. Thanks honey!

This one hangs in my formal dining area

This is my breakfast nook

Hopefully the Royals are almost through being sick

Sickness report:

Oliver caught a cold in Salt Lake and is just now getting better.

I caught the cold from Oliver the day after we arrived home from our vacation. I felt like I was getting better last week, only to experience vertigo last Friday during which I was dizzy, light-headed, and nauseous. The doctor said I had fluid in my inner ear that wasn't draining properly. Luckily they gave me some medicine to help with the vertigo symptoms, but that made me drowsy. They also gave me some ear drops for a middle ear infection. On Monday I experienced hearing loss after using the drops. Back to the doctor on Tuesday to find out I have an inner ear infection in addition to the fluid. Now I am on an oral antibiotic and I am hoping to feel much better soon. I have been on it for a day now and my hearing is improving today.

Clayton caught a much worse version of a cold than Oliver and I had shortly after we arrived home from Salt Lake. It has taken him the longest to get over the worst of it, but I think he is finally on the mend.

Hopefully my next report will be one of wellness! I am anxious for things to be back to normal!

Just what Oliver needed...

Santa brought Oliver a new bookshelf for his room for all of his books. Previously all of Oliver's books were up high on a shelf in his room and he could not get to them. Now he can go in and get one anytime he wants to read stories; thanks Santa, this is exactly what I had in mind!

The Symphony of Bells

This was a graduation gift from my parents. Just posting a picture would not do it so I took a video of the music box playing O Holy Night. This is one of my favorite Christmas Carols. The box plays 25 Christmas songs and 25 classic songs. This was the perfect gift and I love it! Thanks Mom & Dad!

Oliver after a bath

Oliver was being so cute after his bath tonight, I just had to post some pictures. In the first picture, he is all wrapped up, even with the blanket as a hat (Lori, if you reading, this is a blanket you made me forever ago, we still love it!). Oliver said, "Me Baby". You got a lot of teeth baby! The second picture he was reading a book to himself as I got his room ready for bed. Too cute!