A visit with Grandma & Grandpa

Oliver's Grandpa Royal celebrated his birthday on June 3rd. We wanted to celebrate with him, but I wasn't sure I could make the almost four hour drive each way to Shawnee. So we met half way in Ardmore, OK. It actually turned out to be a really nice morning/afternoon. It took us about 1:45 to get there which was totally doable as far as my bladder was concerned. We ate at El Chico and then went to the Ardmore mall afterward to walk around and spend a little more time together. I had scoped out a park near the restaurant, but it was far too hot and humid for me to spend any time outdoors other than walking to and fro the car. The pictures at El Chico didn't turn out, but luckily a few did turn out from the mall. The highlight of the mall was the fountain for Oliver.

Grandma told him to close his eyes and make a wish

video of Oliver making a wish ... I love how he doesn't just close his eyes, he has to squint! :)

He loved playing in the fountain but the water was so stinky!

Sibling class

I registered Oliver for a sibling class at the hospital where we will have his little brother. The idea of the class was to prepare the older siblings for how it will be when their new little brother or sister arrives. Oliver enjoyed decorating a picture for the baby. He enjoyed watching the real babies on a movie. But when it came time to practice swaddling and holding a baby doll, Oliver was not having it. He flat out wouldn't do it because "he was a boy, and boys don't play with dolls". How he got that idea I really don't know. This isn't the first time he has told me dolls are for girls, not boys. I tried to buy him one to have for after the baby arrives and he quickly nixed that. I have intentionally tried to be gender neutral with him and let him explore his own interests. I didn't mind at all when he loved playing kitchen, or when his favorite color was pink. I never told him dolls are for girls, so where did he get the idea? I guess things may be a little more encoded than I thought. Interesting.

My favorite part of the class was the labor and delivery tour. This baby will be born in a different hospital than Oliver was, so it was nice to see everything before the big day. I forgot my camera, so here is the picture that Oliver made and his certificate.

Bouncy seats

So we've begun the task of getting all of Oliver's baby stuff out for the new baby.

This is what Oliver used to spend his time doing in his bouncy seat

He may be just a little bigger, but now he can really get bouncing!!

Bouncy seats might be even more fun for a three year old than they are for a three month old! Check out the video of Oliver bouncing above! :)

When it is too HOT to go outside...

Okay, I'll admit that it probably isn't too hot for Oliver to go outside; rather, it is too hot for me to go outside. So instead, we have to get creative and think of ways for Oliver to dig inside. Check out his rice rocks below. :)

I feel like I met my baby today...

Today we had what will probably be our last sonogram. Last week a sonogram determined that my amniotic fluid level was high, so this week my doctor sent me to a perinatologist for a high resolution sonogram. Everything looked great. My fluid level was actually within normal range and the baby is measuring right on target at about 36 weeks and 4 days. They estimate his weight to be at 6 lbs. 9 oz. plus or minus a pound. We are very excited to meet this little guy who is still nameless. The bonus thing about visiting Dr. Koster is she has a 4D sonogram, so we got an idea of what our little guy is actually going to look like. The doctor said the size of his nose is distorted and his nose will actually not be this big. So without further ado, here he is:

If you are interested, here are four short clips of the 4D sonogram:

baby moving 1

baby moving 2

baby opening his mouth and swallowing amniotic fluid

baby with his foot next to his head (on the left of the screen). He was actually in a very similar position last week. This kid must really like his feet! :)

My Little Chocolate Monster

I don't think this child would ever say no to chocolate, no matter how full he his. In this video, he is describing to me the size of his various stomach compartments. He has a food compartment and a separate milk compartment which are both relatively small, and then there is his chocolate compartment...aka his regular stomach.

Puzzles

Oliver has really enjoyed building puzzles lately. We picked up a huge construction puzzle this week and he LOVED building it!

24 huge pieces

fitting in the last piece

look how proud he is!

Video of Oliver actually building the puzzle

35 weeks and counting!

My doctor's appointment this week went well. I have been having a lot of contractions this pregnancy and they are really starting to pick up, so last week my doctor checked me and found that I was fully thinned and carrying the baby really low (this I knew!). Famous words from my doctor "Just give me two more weeks" -- famous because this is exactly what she told me when she put me on bed rest with Oliver. Well no bed rest this time! She just told me I should stop exercising, stop vacuuming and stop lifting heavy objects aka a 30 pound lil' guy. She scheduled a sonogram and an appointment for this week. Well, as it turns out, everything looked fine with my cervix during my sonogram yesterday. No additional restrictions and she doesn't even want to see me next week. So I'm not sure really what changed from week to week, but I guess I'll just go with it.

The most fun part of my appointment is always my sonogram. Oliver came with me and his favorite part is hearing the heartbeat. By the way, everyone at my doctor's office just LOVES Oliver. I think they are more excited to see him then they are to see me! :) He has such a fun outgoing extroverted personality and just loves to talk to people, so it is no wonder why people love him so much! So anyway, everything takes longer when he is there, but that just means we get to see the baby for longer. The baby had his feet up near his head for the sonogram as you might be able to make out in the picture attached below. Shortly after the picture was taken, I was blessed enough to be able to see my baby reach up his little hand and start playing with his toes. It was so sweet! I think that often parents question whether they will have enough love for more than one. I know I do at least. This was one of the first glimpses at how much I love this new little addition to our family already. I am getting excited for him to join us! Dixie, our wonderful sonographer who was right on with Oliver, is measuring this baby at 6 lbs., 8 oz. already. She thinks he will be about the same size as Oliver which was 7 lbs, 11 oz. All I can say, is please, please, don't let him gain about a pound a week as the textbooks say he will!

I'll be the first to admit that this sonogram is difficult to make out, but maybe this description will help. The babies head is on the far right of the picture, and really it is just the line of his forehead that you can see. Directly above that is a banana shaped object which is actually his foot. The top of the banana, aka his toe, is on the right and is directly above his forehead.

Practice Preschool

Oliver's class is not really called "Practice Preschool", but that is what I like to call it. The class is actually called Just Us Friends. Just Us Friends is a class run by our city at the local recreation center that meets once/week for six weeks for an hour and a half. The class is designed to prepare 2-3 year olds for the transition to preschool. They sing, play games, play with toys, make an art project, read stories and even have a snack. Parents are welcome to come and go as they please. The first week I stayed in the class most of the time because I wanted to see how it was run and I didn't know how Oliver would do without me...or maybe rather, how or what I would do without him. As it turns out, Oliver loves it and is absolutely fine with me leaving. I haven't left the building, I just sit right outside his classroom and it sounds like he is having a great time. He kisses and hugs me goodbye and then is very excited to see me when the class is over. He even asks to go on other days of the week. And like most other kids, his response when I ask him what he did that day is "I don't know." :)

He is SOOOO ready for preschool. We've been talking about real preschool at the Spanish Schoolhouse that will start in August and I'm just hoping the excitement lasts. The major difference is the amount of time he'll spend at the Spanish Schoolhouse, five hours two times per week is a long amount of time. Not to mention that it will be spent only speaking Spanish. If you don't know Oliver very well, you should know that he is a talker. He and I spend our entire day discussing things and he isn't afraid to ask questions or talk to adults. I LOVE this about him! He is understandably a little apprehensive about the idea that they will only speak Spanish and has expressed his concern that he can't understand what they are saying. Even though we attended the Mommy & Me class together, which was also only Spanish, I could pick up on words and direct him as to what to do. What does he do when he is by himself??? The director of the Spanish Schoolhouse has assured me that most of the kids in his class will be in the same situation. They will spend the first couple of weeks speaking both English and Spanish and then make the switch to only Spanish. She said there is a lot of acting out when children don't understand. And she did assure me that if it is a discipline problem, the teachers will make sure that the children understand in English just what it is they are not supposed to be doing. I'm so hoping that he catches on quickly and that he has a good experience.

Anyway, back to Practice Preschool. Here are a few pictures from yesterday:

Singing songs. The flash on my camera actually disturbed them, so this is the only picture I took during class.

Oliver with Ms. Linda after class

Some of the other children wanted to be in the picture too. To the left of Oliver is Sanjeeb and Dia is to the left of him.

After preschool we headed over to the mall to do what used to be one of Oliver's favorite things: ride the coin operated vehicles. I don't know if he loved it as much as he used to. There are multiple cars to choose from, but he chose to spend his five rides in the same two vehicles: two rides on the train, and three rides on the fork lift. He had fun and we shared a pretzel afterward. Yumm!

An Oliver, Daddy & Mommy adventure

A month or so ago, my favorite Mom's group Metroplex Baby & Kids published a list called DFW on a Budget. All items on the list cost $5/person or less; boy is this a great resource! The All Aboard category had several trains, some of which we had never heard. I've wanted to take Oliver over to Ft. Worth to ride the Forest Park Miniature Train ever since I read about it, but with being so close to the end of my pregnancy, I didn't want to chance a drive over there during the week by ourselves. So this morning, we all got ready and headed out on a surprise adventure.

Oliver was so excited when we left the house. I told him we were going on a surprise adventure when he first awoke, and he could barely stand not knowing where we were going. At one point I thought he might even cry, but all turned out well.

He had lots of guesses of where we might go. This video we are talking about going...just see how excited he is.

Here we are approaching the train depot. This is the first moment Oliver knew we were going on a train.

All aboard, and tickets please. All the right things were said and here are Oliver & Daddy ready for the train to go.

Here we are all happy to set out on our adventure.

The train has started and Oliver is in heaven!

The train is this tiny little open air thing that actually gets up some speed and so there was a nice breeze flowing through. The tracks run along the Trinity River away from the main road through a nicely forested area. It crosses six bridges and crosses under even more. We saw a ton of freight trains and Oliver nicknamed Ft. Worth Train Central. It was beautiful and the ride was so peaceful! We had a fantastic time!

On Saturdays, the Forest Park Miniature Railroad operates two trains. Here is the other train as we passed it. All aboard!

After you go to the end of the track, you turn around and stop at the second depot where you can purchase a snack: Popcorn and drinks for only $1 each. Oh, and did I mention the fare is totally reasonable? Only $3 for adults and $2.50 for children 1-12. A 40 minute ride with popcorn and a drink for only $10.50, sign me up! :)

Yumm, popcorn!

Oliver & the train engineer after our ride.

I think this is the sweetest picture I have taken in a long time. I love seeing these two snuggling, but secretly I wish it was with me! I totally miss holding my lil' guy! But I must follow doctor's orders, I certainly don't want this baby coming too early.

In Clayton's mind, a trip to Ft. Worth = barbecue. So we tried out Angelo's, a really old, well reviewed barbecue restaurant. This is really a meat joint. So Oliver ate potato chips, a piece of bread and M&M's. Talk about healthy! My sliced beef sandwich was pretty good, but the sides were kind of lacking in my opinion. Oh, and they had stuffed and mounted trophys all over the dining room. Kind of makes you feel like your food is watching you eat. Good thing there weren't any cows! :)

44 month photo shoot

Oliver and I like to have our own little monthly photo shoots. Today Oliver gave me different emotions and I thought these were too cute not to share. The object of the photo shoot is to get one great picture to put on my monthly magnet for my refrigerator. I'm thinking of using one of the emotions this month instead of the typical smile. This first one is my favorite.

Lincoln Logs

Oliver received these Lincoln Logs for his third birthday. For sometime now he has been building things with our direction, like the big building behind him in the picture below. This afternoon we were getting ready to go outside and while I was putting on sunscreen he built this small building all by himself. Talk about a proud moment!

Any excuse for chocolate cake

While we were shopping this weekend, Oliver asked for a piece of chocolate cake. When I asked him whose birthday it was, he quickly came up with his beloved stuffed animals names: Bunny & Piggy. Who am I to deny Bunny & Piggy a proper birthday celebration? We didn't have hats or gifts, but we did have cake.

Here we are singing to them shortly after breakfast this morning

This is the best shot I could get of Oliver with Bunny & Piggy

All the others turned out something like this. This is Oliver's idea of a happy face. I think he looks like he is in pain. I hope he outgrows this stage soon. I miss his un-posed completely adorable smiles in pictures!

Oliver's Top 5 favorite things about our trip

I asked Oliver what his favorite things were about the trip, and lucky for me he listed five. Here they are in random order (only because I can't remember the order in which he said them):

1. Counting Shrimp Tails with Gramps
2. Digging in the dirt with his cousins at Grammy's & Aunt Shell's houses
3. Talking with Grammy
4. Seeing turquoise tractors
5. Eating at Cafe Rio

I'm so glad Oliver and Clayton love going to Salt Lake just as much as I do! See below for pictures of our last day:

I'm actually surprised he didn't list this as one of his favorites as he did this all three days. Clayton and Oliver would stack up all the hotel pillows and Oliver would count and then jump. He loved it. This video starts after the count down has begun, so let me start: one, two...

after a jump

look at that cutie pie!

We had a very yummy lunch at Cafe Rio with Uncle Jerone, Aunt Debbie & Preston. Thanks so much for suggesting it!

So cute of Preston and Debbie!

And here is one tired little guy. Our flight was a late one to begin with, but after a delayed take off, we didn't land until about 12:30 AM. Considering Oliver had skipped his normal two hour nap three days in a row, and had some seriously hard nights sleeping in the same bed with me, Oliver did exceptionally well on the plane. I could tell from the beginning of the flight he was very tired. I tried to do everything I could to encourage sleep. Finally when there was about 45 minutes left, he told me he wanted to be in his crib to go to sleep. He then wanted to be held. I held him for about 10 minutes and he was falling asleep and then the flight attendant made me put him in his own seat. The fact that I could hold him until he was two, and then once he was three I couldn't anymore will never make sense to me; Seems like it should be my choice. Anyway, he was tired enough that I just held him tight to my side and before long, he was fast asleep. I was truly amazed that this little guy stayed asleep through the remainder of the flight, continued to sleep while we waited at baggage claim and on the shuttle bus to the Parking Spot and even slept through the transfer from me to his Daddy so I could install the car seat. He finally woke briefly as we tried to put him in his car seat and then quickly went back to sleep and slept through all the hubbub of coming home, getting in PJ's and being placed in his bed. He didn't wake up until 10:30 the next morning. I absolutely loved holding him while he slept and I'm so happy Clayton captured this for me to always remember! :)

That was my last trip to SLC before the baby arrives in June. Thanks to all our family for helping make this a great trip!