Happy birthday to me!

I had the most fabulous birthday. I started out with a great cycling workout at my gym, and ended it with a yummy dinner and a delicious sneaky chef cake; and I had lots of hugs, kisses, tickles, story times, laughs, giggles and birthday wishes in between! Thanks to everyone for making my day special! :)

This is our chef at Japon Steak & Sushi. It's a hibachi grill much like Benihana's. He paid lots of attention to Oliver and the restaurant even gave Oliver free ice cream. This is the same restaurant we have taken Oliver to every August for the past three years. He is much more aware of his limits now and was actually more frightened of the fire than the last two years. He recovered from his fear quickly and much preferred watching the fire from a little further away rather than right in front of his face.

This is Oliver watching the chef's every move and pretending to cook just like him. He dished his rice onto our plates all night. He loved it!

Our nice waiter took our picture

After we arrived home, we ate the yummy birthday cake Oliver helped me make. He was a great helper with the frosting. He watched everything I did very carefully and then tried to emulate it. I'm so proud of him and I feel fortunate to be his Mommy! Here is a video of his Happy Birthday song above.

I showed Oliver how to lick the frosting off the candles, he thought that was the best thing ever! Watch him digging it in the video above.

And last, the yummy cake! Seriously, it was so good!

And thanks to my wonderful hubby for making my birthday fantastic and for capturing it in these pictures. I realize I am not the most cooperative person to photograph, and I appreciate all you do to make me happy! :) I love my family!

My Little Helper

Oliver loves to help me make dinner, his favorite job is washing the vegetables. Tonight he helped me scrub the corn on the cob. I'm so lucky!

This place is driving me CRAZY!

At least, EDS is driving Oliver crazy! This afternoon Clayton took the two of us to EDS, an HP company, to show us all the changes they are making to the building. We thought this first picture was a perfect depiction of how Clayton has felt a few times lately! :)

He came up with this one on his own, totally unplanned!

We also got some un-crazy pictures

And isn't this the sweetest advertisement for EDS you have ever seen?

And last, here are some pictures Oliver took of Clayton and I. I didn't realize he was taking pictures the entire time we were trying to get set up. The last picture on the bottom left is when we were finally in position, and Oliver got our midsections instead. He is really getting good at focusing on what he wants in the picture!

Saturdays are the days that boys play

Oliver loves to play with his Daddy and looks forward to the weekend all week long. I usually try to step back and let them have their father son time and often I miss the opportunity to take pictures of the two of them at play. I did, however, get these pictures of the two of them playing on my bed today.

Oliver is actually leaning back off the edge of our bed, he sure does trust his Daddy!

All Wrapped Up

This little guy loves being just like his Daddy and this dish towel was the perfect size for being all wrapped up after a bath!

Over the Top!

Wednesday was opening night of the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey's Over the Top Circus. We had pretty good seats courtesy of Metroplex Baby & Kids and we had a wonderful experience. The entire 2.5 hours was very entertaining, both to Oliver and to us. He told me the music was too loud one time, so I covered his ears, but other than that he enjoyed the show. My favorite part was Super Silva (a real like acrobat who can climb a rope like Superman) and the motorcycles in a steel ball cage. They were amazing. Oliver's favorite part was the Elephants. Here are some pictures:

Getting ready to go into the AAC

Oliver was so excited to stand in front of a real train car...just look at that smile!

This is the All Access Pre-show which was way too busy for our tastes. We watched it from our seats above instead.

Daddy & Oliver waiting for the show to begin

one of the opening acts

Oliver & Mommy munching on our $8 worth of popcorn and water

Dancing to the music

Oliver's circus souvenir

Oliver was really impressed with his souvenir as you can see in the above video

our cute little family

cute little guy!

Daddy and Oliver after the show still at AAC

Oliver started singing the ending song as soon as we left the building. It was so cute! Of course, he was camera shy while I was trying to video it, but you'll get the idea.

I had to add these next two photos. Earlier in the day we took a break in our play and I went to switch the laundry. When I came back I found Oliver chillin' in a chair. When I asked what he was doing he responded: "resting".

Disapointment

We are all a little disappointed that Clayton has had to spend so much of his free time trying to fix our toilets this week. Funny, I thought we hired someone to do this last week?!? Neither of our toilets leak any longer, but something happens with the flappers when you flush and they get stuck running. Clayton had to go buy new ones and will now spend his time fixing them (again) this weekend.

Disappointed with this guy? Never! I thought he was too cute watching his Daddy!

Most fun park yet!

So I'm a little behind on blogging, but I still had to post about the funnest park ever! Last Sunday we headed to Celebration Park in Allen, TX and we had so much fun.

The highlights of the park include the biggest playground I've ever seen, a splash park and these cool sail (like) picnic covers.

One of the hazards of wearing Crocs everywhere you go is getting wood chips, rocks, grass, etc. in your shoe. Oliver has become quite adept at removing these items himself.

I didn't get many shot on the playground because we were all having too much fun running around.

Oliver and Daddy climbed this cool rope pyramid.

Mommy & Oliver tried out a teeter totter for the first time...I think I liked it more than Oliver did!

This rocking frog may have been Oliver's favorite thing at the park so far...just look at that smile! After he finished rocking on the frog and he had had plenty of time to observe the other children on the splash park, he decided he wanted to try it out. So after a quick wardrobe change...

First attempt

He feels how cold the water is and back right off

Still interested, but just wants to watch for a little while longer

Testing the water with Daddy a little more

And finally, he loves it! Clayton was such a good sport to be in there fully clothed with him, they had a blast!

The sun peaked behind some more clouds, so Oliver's hat came off and he had so much fun!



A video of him enjoying the splash park!

This park is now high on my list of recommended places to go with little ones while in North Dallas!

Is it a tractor? Is it a truck? No, it's a lawn mower.

Oliver loves to watch the lawn crews as they work and Thursday mornings are always among his favorite. We always drink his morning milk while not-so-nonchalantly watching our lawn crew. As of late, one of his favorite things to play outside is lawn crew. He uses his big truck and pushes it around while he pretend to mow the lawn.

I told my Dad I would get some video of him mowing, here it is.

He even likes to use sticks to pretend he is weed eating, edging and blowing. When you play along, you better be sure you remember which is which, because he knows! :)

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On another note, Oliver chose to hang out with me while I cleaned up the kitchen getting ready for bed tonight in lieu of playing. Here is my little helper washing his dishes:

For a little guy who is not shy around people, I think it is so cute that he gets camera shy!

I jinxed my little guy

I was reading my friend's blog post from the other day (you should read her blog, she is an engaging story teller), and while I was feeling so bad for her little guy, I was thinking about how my little guy, aside from an occasional knee scrape, hasn't had any injuries lately. Boy did I jinx Oliver.

Oliver and I had just returned home from some morning errands and he asked if we could play in the garage while we ate lunch. It wasn't too hot, so I agreed, but I needed to use the restroom so we came inside really quickly. Oliver waited for me in the utility room like he always does, and just as I flushed the toilet I heard a big thump and then crying. I dashed into the utility room and found him slumped over a chair crying. My first instinct was to make sure there was no blood and then to console my little guy. After the crying finally subsided, I found this huge bump on his forehead and from what I could gather, he was sitting on the chair trying to reach up to touch something over his head and fell off and bumped his head on the chair. Can I just say how bad I feel that I wasn't there and don't know exactly what happened??? I am still kicking myself.

I don't think the following pictures really do it justice, it is huge. Clayton and I feel this may be the worst head contusion he has ever had. Poor guy, sorry I jinxed you.

These pictures were taken about 6 hours after the injury. Today marks four days since the injury and it is turning yellowish brown.

Peek-a-boo

I was cleaning and I hadn't heard or seen my little helper in a few minutes, so I went looking. This is what I found:

Oliver was hiding in the midst of all my pillow that had not yet been arranged on my bed for the day. He said he was hiding from Daddy and wanted to surprise him. Poor little guy, Daddy won't be home for hours yet.

Love these two!

Another Sneaky Chef Success

My little guy loves pumpkin. And even though pumpkin is more traditionally a fall food, I had to try the recipe for these Pumpkin Spice Muffins that I found on the Sneaky Chef blog the other day. Yummy!

To say Oliver liked these muffins would be an understatement! :)

Guess How Much I Love You

This may be one of my favorite books. I purchased it for Oliver before he was born and I love reading this story to my very own Little Nut Brown Hair. Oliver received a Guess How Much I Love You gift set from Clayton's co-workers just after he was born. It had this adorable little bunny in it and I chose it to be Oliver's lovey right away. He adores his bunny and wants to take it everywhere with him. I am a total germaphobe, so it is easy for me to say no because we want to keep it clean for him to have in his crib. But in reality, I don't know what we would do if we lost this cuddly Little Nut Brown Hair. I have found the gift set online but the price is downright outrageous just to have a replacement lovey. So my sweet boy, you'll just have to keep cuddling your lovey while you sleep. "I love you right up to the moon and back!"

a boy and his bunny