I am so excited!

Look at these adorable kids! I am so incredibly excited because my Christmas gift has just been confirmed. Okay, well it was the kids presents, but I get to benefit from it. My nephew & niece, Riley & Olivia, are coming to see us for 6 days in April and I can hardly stand it! I can't wait for Oliver to get to know his cousins whom I have adored since the moment I met them! Thank you so much for trusting me with your sweet angels, Jerone & Debbie!

This is what they looked like two weeks before I moved to Texas, five years ago:

And here they are now. Love you guys!

My sad boy

Oliver awoke bright and early this morning (4:00 am) moaning and crying. I went in to comfort him from what I thought might be a bad dream. It took him a long time to settle down and to finally communicate that he wasn't frightened, rather that he was in pain. He said his neck hurt. Every time he would move his head he would break out into more tears and hold his neck. After an investigation requiring his sunglasses in the middle of the night, we determined there was no visible physical injuries i.e. bug bite. So we are guessing that he must have slept on his neck wrong and now it is sore. I gave him his vitamin (a chewable Motrin Jr.) and laid down with him for a while in our spare bed until he was calm and sleepy. He woke up 3 hours later complaining about the same pain and so incredibly sad! This is a photo of my miserable little boy waiting for me on the sofa while I started his movie and took this picture.

As the morning progressed his neck pain seemed to subside! Hopefully that will be that last time that happens. I feel soooo bad for my babylove!

Happy Valentine's Day, Oliver

Oliver received a package in the mail from his Grammy & Gramps yesterday, and to say he was excited about the contents would be an understatement.

Here is his new toy -- Lightning McQueen!

Clayton's Grandma's Daffodils

Before Clayton's Grandparent's farm was torn down a few years ago, my mother-in-law salvaged a few of her daffodil plants and gave one each to Clayton and his Sister. It took us a while to choose a location for it so it sat in a pot for awhile. Anyway, each year, the greenery would shoot up, but no flower. I thought it would never bloom.

Today it did!

Who is this little boy?

Certainly this can't be my baby! I thought Oliver looked so grown-up while we were on our walk this Sunday!

snuggling's my favorite!

Oliver made a mess of himself at dinner, so he was running around in his diaper when he suddenly exclaimed, "I'm cold!". Daddy came to his rescue with a blanket right away.

Ooh, I'm ready...wrap me up!

Could he be any happier?

He loves to snuggle in his blankets

Clayton's little nap

So I figured I can post here about Oliver's Daddy too, right?

Today was a nice day, so after breakfast, we all went to the Chisholm Trail. Oliver & I took a walk, fed ducks and played at the playground while Daddy went for a run. While Oliver was napping, I was working on some photos of Oliver at a desk in our room. Clayton was tired after his run, and I knew he was on the floor behind me asleep, but I didn't know what I would find when I turned around.

I thought it was pretty resourceful of him to pull his arms out of his sleeves to protect his eyes from the light. It's like he has a blanket and an eye-mask. Too funny!

Random Acts of Cuteness!

Here are some random pictures I have taken over the past couple of weeks.

Oliver wishing it would rain in our bathroom

One day after Oliver woke from his nap, he wanted to lay down a blanket and play buses in his room. He doesn't look very comfortable, but he had fun.

My picture taking is disturbing his lunch

He humors me by giving me this cheesy smile

Each time I look at this photo I'm unsure if he is happy, or if he is about to cry. He probably wants to eat those yummy strawberries without the camera in his face! :)

Does this kid look like he is ready to go to bed in 30 minutes?

Oliver was very entertaining before bed this evening. I had some clean laundry on my bed waiting to be folded, and Oliver was so excited to crawl on it that he came up with a dance. We called it his ya, ya, ya dance. This little guy cracks me up! (I realize that you probably get tired of hearing me on the video, so I apologize for my LOUD encouragement of Oliver in advance!)

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!