Mommy Airlines

First off, as you will soon see in the pictures, I must confess that sometimes I do not make my bed in lieu of having fun with Oliver. He loves to roll around and play on my unmade bed and I figure those are much better memories than those he might have if I told him "no, Mommy's bed needs to be perfect" all the time! :)

One of our favorite games to play on the bed (or any where) is airplane. Daddy took some pictures of us playing last night.

ready for take off

I have one of those really tall beds so Oliver is actually up really high when we do this on the bed and he loves it!

Ah, the welcome back thanks for flying Mommy airlines hug!

Our Fence is finally stained...

...well, part of it anyway. Too bad I didn't get any before pictures, it was pretty bad and needed to be replaced.

The fence project was completed 4/6/09

Fence is partially stained 6/24/09. I'll admit we did have some rain and wind to prevent staining, but not 2 1/2 months worth. I was so happy to see them today when we returned from story time. And yet, I noticed they stopped working around 3:30pm, when they were only half-way through with the job. I am so hoping they come back soon! Need your fence replaced in the DFW area? Ask me about my experience, I'll tell you what happened and you decide if you want to hire this company or not. The fence looks good, but I can say I am pretty sure we won't be using them to do the remainder of our fence that needs to be replaced.

Future delivery truck driver???

Oliver loves, loves, loves UPS trucks; okay to be fair, he loves FedEx trucks too, they just don't come as often. I am not certain if it is just because it is another truck that he sees often, or if it has more to do with it being the truck that brings toys to him. I do a lot of my shopping on the Internet, and so we get quite a few packages delivered to our door. In retrospect, it is probably a combination of both. Oliver was soooo excited when the mail carrier brought him this UPS truck today (click the picture above to find this truck new on eBay). He wouldn't even take his eyes off of it to look at the camera. Maybe someday he will want to drive one of these.

The Bubble Dance

I remember loving these packaging bubbles when I was young...who am I kidding, I still do! :) Oliver had his first taste of bubble popping this morning. He loved it!

And I loved this video!

Happy Father's Day Daddy-O!

I am happy to report that Clayton had an awesome Father's Day weekend. He was able to exercise, take two naps, eat lots of yummy food and mostly hang out and play with Oliver. Oliver gave Daddy-O his gifts on Saturday because I thought he would spill the beans after he saw the chairs for the first time on Friday. He got this cool canopy chair, some new PJ's and Oliver made him a card and a painting which Clayton said were his favorite gifts.

Oliver called his painting New Mexico; he really has some fond memories of our road trip to Utah last month.

Daddy & Oliver in their new chairs

Daddy & Oliver before dinner tonight

Tonight's dinner: Homemade Olive Garden's Tuscan Garlic Chicken
So yummy!

First time for everything

Last night, as I was giving Oliver his bath, we were brushing his teeth near the end as we always do. He told me he needed to pee and I asked if he could hold it while we finished. He said I don't know and a few seconds later told me he went pee in his water. Well I went about emptying out the water to rinse him and his toys off and he told me "Mommy, I really need to pee". He said he wanted to sit on his toilet so I grabbed a towel and off we went.

Insert a little background here. I have no interest in forcing potty training. We do talk about going potty quite often, I just want it to happen whenever he is ready. Plus, I have never dreaded one single diaper change and I can only imagine that finding a place to go potty will be so much more difficult than changing a soiled diaper in my car. Having said that, Oliver has had two toilets since he was 18 months old. He was interested in them when they first arrived, but the interest waned until about two months ago. He sat bare on the toilet for the first time just about a month ago when we purchased Lighting McQueen underwear that he said he wanted.

So back to last night, I sat him on the potty and told him to pretend like he had a diaper on and just relax, and surprising to both of us, he did. I didn't know his little bladder could hold so much! He had the biggest smile and the only person more proud of him than Clayton and I is Oliver. He kept on telling me as we were getting ready for bed, "Mommy, I peed in the toilet." Now he is just really excited to wear his Lightning McQueen underwear. I am sure there is a long road ahead of us, but I am so proud of my little guy!

All Oliver, All Day

Today was Oliver's 32 month old birthday. I thought he might be getting a little sick as he had a rough night the night before, so I let him sleep in as long as he wanted which actually ended up being until noon. I took these pictures right after he woke up.

As you can see, he was a little out of it at first, then he started to warm up

Then he got silly

This is the last of 43 pictures, I'm glad he finally cooperated as I was giving up. :)

Then we went outside to play with his new tractor and trailer that his Daddy gave him.

This is actually a toy Clayton had when he was little and Oliver LOVES it! Thanks for saving it Grandma & Grandpa.

When we were too hot to play outside any longer, we went to the mall to do a little shopping.

We played at the play area with about 50 other kids who were too hot to be outside

It was bright there, so Oliver wanted to wear his cool dudes inside.

We rode the carousel which Oliver loves.

Then we spent about an hour watching ice skaters while we ate a pretzel and a cookie. The session ended as we were about to leave and out came the Zamboni. Let me just say that Oliver was in heaven! He was fascinated with the truck/tractor and wanted to know everything about it. We had to stay for the entire smoothing of the ice because he was just so intrigued.

I have so much fun hanging out with Oliver and watching him learn and grow. We have so much fun together and I love staying home with him. This is 100% what I want to be doing with my days. Happy 32 month old birthday to my big boy!

Recently

Recently, we lost some tree limbs in a big storm and Oliver went outside to help his Daddy. He was really disappointed when there weren't any leaves to rake.

Recently, Oliver has enjoyed sitting on our chairs and watching the world outside. I thought he looked so grown up in this picture.

Recently, Oliver has been wanting more things in his crib when he sleeps. Now he has his bunny and piggy, a blanket, a onesie (he likes to feel the snaps?!?) and a napkin (a burp cloth from when he was little). Good thing he has a lot of room.

Recently I woke up to find this really cool bridge that Daddy & Oliver had built the night before. Who knew you could do so many things with a set of wooden blocks?

A window with a view...

Although I am not big on decorating, I love to move my furniture and Oliver's toys around and rarely have them in the same arrangement for very long. Tonight, Oliver's car table got a window with a view:

Oliver said "Ya, thank you Mommy", as soon as he realized he could use the window ledge as a seat.

And now I have my all my leather furniture together for the first time since we bought it five years ago. I think this may be my favorite furniture arrangement yet. Oliver's car table on the other side of the room is actually the focal point for this set-up. We don't watch TV in the family room any longer, so we may as well have the furniture situated around what we do watch, right? :)

Best friends

So sweet!

Daddy-O and Pirate Oliver

Daddy & Oliver's nightly routine of leche and the Spanish dictionary

Oliver's nightly ride on horse Daddy-O into the bathroom. Although it may look as though Oliver is holding on for dear life, he is actually pretending he is asleep. :)

wicked sunsets

We have had some severe thunderstorms roll through here this week. It amazes me what beauty can come from something that absolutely terrifies me!

After Wednesday night's storm, the sky was this amazing magenta color. This was taken at the park directly behind our house.

Wednesday night about 10 minutes after the first picture after the sun went down. The shutter speed was wrong, but I thought this was still a really cool picture. Clayton said it looks like fire, I agree.

After tonight's storm rolled right past us without incident, the entire sky was yellow. I don't know that these pictures do the best job capturing the color, but it was so incredible; I was literally awe struck. The last four are also of tonight's yellow sky.

Puzzeling Puzzles

Oliver never ceases to amaze me. The new jigsaw puzzles I purchased for Oliver arrived today, and even though I chose significantly more challenging puzzles than the chunky board puzzles he has been enjoying, with assistance he was able to put these 12 piece jigsaw puzzles together and boy what an accomplishment it was to him. Just check out the smile on his face:

Wild Thing

Most of the music I encourage Oliver to listen to is either kids music, classical, or what we would consider oldies. I love that there are fun songs for him to enjoy that I don't have to worry about what the lyrics might say. The other night we were grooving to a CD I made him while Daddy finished dinner. The CD contains Lollipop, Do Ah Ditty, Wild Thing and others. Oliver started running through our house with a bell shouting the lyrics to the songs and it was so cute. I debated on whether or not to post this video as by the time I thought to grab the camera, he was almost out of steam...and as luck would have it, he became camera shy and didn't want to do it anymore as soon as he noticed the camera. But I decided to post it anyway as I know at least his grandparents would love to see it. Please forgive the incredibly messy house, we know the right way to play at our house: toys EVERYWHERE! :)

look familiar??

Hey Grammy & Gramps:

I was just wondering if this looks familiar??

I think my legs looked like this the entire time I was growing up; I guess Oliver bruises easily, just like I do. People used to joke that my Mom must beat me with a stick...by the way, I don't beat Oliver with a stick either! :)

Oliver version 31.5

So here it is June 5 and Oliver turned 31 months on May 17th. We were travelling that day and without thinking, I didn't take even one picture of Oliver to commemorate the date. So I decided well, two and one half years of monthly picture magnets on my refrigerator is probably enough, right? If we are going to have another child, there needs to be enough room for their pictures too, right? For two weeks I convinced myself that he didn't need a monthly picture. The pictures of him playing with his cars, etc would be enough. Then this morning came and he looked so cute in his newest little Polo shirt and I just couldn't do it. Without further ado, here is my little guy at 31 1/2 months old.

some of my favorites

love those blue eyes!

his "pirate smile"...this is his favorite smile lately

And my favorite picture that will take its rightful place on my refrigerator

Some things about this age that I want to remember:

• Oliver loves cars, trucks, tractors, basically anything transportation oriented
• Oliver is incredibly outgoing and loves to talk to people, he always wants to know what that guys name is, or what is she doing, and loves it when people interact with him
• His use of language amazes me. He corrects his own grammar, and sometimes even mine. I would say most people can understand what he is saying. A side note to this is after 10 months of not signing, he still uses some signs combined with the word...some things die hard I guess.
• He is so sweet. He still likes his stuffed animals and sometimes he likes to pretend he is various baby animals to get extra snuggles
• Every night before bed time we do laps around our house to expend any left over energy. This is then followed by a relaxing routine consisting of bath, massage, story, songs and rocking.
• Oliver is learning Spanish and understands that items can have multiple names, although his favorite language at the moment seems to be gibberish
• Oliver has begun to recognize letters and will call them out to me when he sees them
• His long-term memory is quite impressive. For instance a couple of months ago we went to a nearby Chinese restaurant for take-out and he got a large bouncy ball from one of the vending machines. This week I asked him if he wanted to go there again and he said yes, and I want a white bouncy ball this time.
• His best friend is his Daddy. Clayton is Oliver's ultimate playmate and sometimes in the day, Oliver will tell me "I don't like you, I do like Daddy." I try not to let it hurt my feelings. :)

where have all the posts gone?

My sister has often accused me of posting every day. I guess after that long week of blogging after vacation, I needed a blogging vacation. :)

Here is a little of what we have been doing:

Loads and loads and loads of laundry. Ten days on the road definitely piles up the dirty clothes.

Lots and lots and lots of sleeping to make up for 10 napless days.

And finally, tons and tons and tons of playing. One of Oliver's favorites since we have been home is building mountains out of blocks on his car table.