Happy Birthday Oliver!

Oliver is one year old! What a year it has been, so many changes. Its hard to believe this little guy could barely hold his head up a year ago and now is trying to toddle around the house.

This is Oliver on the morning of his party with one of his favorite toys.

Oliver had a great time at his birthday party last Wednesday. We were so happy that he could have his favorite "peeps" over: Granna, Grandpa, Grams and Grandmother. As you can tell from the guest list, this was one adored little boy.

We actually had to get Oliver up from his nap to attend his party but at least he was well rested. The first entertainment at the party was watching Oliver play with the helium balloons. We could have stopped with the balloons and Oliver would have been thrilled.



He had a great time opening his gifts, but kept getting distracted.


Next came the cake! I have a great source for birthday cakes if you are interested. She can do anything...I just loved his cakes.













At this point, Oliver really had no idea what was going on. He was ok with everything but kept looking around in disbelief about what we were all doing. Doug lit the candle on his cake and we all sang happy birthday. Doug and I blew out the candle and we all clapped and cheered.
There had been a lot of speculation of how Oliver would react to the cake. Would he eat it? How would he like the sugar? Let's just say, we know now that Oliver has a sweet tooth.He dug into the cake with no hesitation whatsoever. He managed to eat about half of his smash cake! I never got the happy smily picture of him eating the cake though...I think he was just overwhelmed.

Oliver has loved all of his new toys. It has been fun watching him play with his "big boy" toys. I don't think he has a favorite yet...it just depends on the time of day.

Grandpa Myrick made Oliver a toy box for his new (and old) toys. We definitely needed it after Christmas. As you can tell, Oliver was quite pleased with it.

Doug and I were surprised that despite all the excitement of the afternoon (and sugar), Oliver calmed down pretty well after his guests left. He had a good dinner, bath, and then it was time for bed.

I still love getting him out of the tub and wrapping him up in a towel. Such a sweet little boy!

We hope everyone had a good holiday-and safe and warm as well. Thank you to all of our family and friends who have made this year with Oliver so special. We could not have done it without the babysitting, food in the newborn days, lots of advice and phone calls. We look forward to spending the next year with everyone.

Christmas pictures will be coming soon and then back to the routine of work and school. Enough said.

Busy busy

We are busy busy around here! Between holidays and running after Oliver there hardly seems to be spare moment. Again, this picture from November 7 if that gives you any idea. I just really like it so I had to include it.

Oliver took his first steps on December 13! He still only takes a few at a time but we know that will not last for long. He looks so pleased with himself whenever he does-even when he ends up having to do a kneel to the floor to save himself.

He has become such a ham! Loves to laugh and make you laugh. Anything to get a laugh. He will even play peek a boo with his sippy cup because it makes me laugh every time. He loves it when you get down on the floor with him and crawl around and chase him-just laughs and laughs!

Oliver can snort and make "horsey" noises too. I am dying to get this on video but haven't been able to yet.

We are looking forward to his birthday on Wednesday. I can't believe it has been a year. Can you believe this is even the same child?

3 weeks:6 mos:
11 mos 4 weeks:
I can't believe the changes in him. Everyday I marvel at how much he has changed and how much he can do. At this time last year, we were anxiously awaiting our overdue baby. Now we are chasing after an almost one year old who already wants to do things himself. I love him so much and I am so proud of him. I can't even describe it. I have learned this year to not take for granted one second I spend with Oliver, Doug, my family, and my friends. I am truly blessed.

I may not update before Christmas so I am sending out Christmas greetings to all. Have a great holiday.

Playtime

I love watching Oliver play. Sometimes I feel bad for not interacting with him more but it is just so fascinating to watch him play that I just get lost in watching him. I don't know much about ten month old play but he seems so independent. Oliver is perfectly happy to play with his toys and books and doesn't necessarily need you to entertain him. Of course, he loves to play peek a boo, tickling, and anything that will make him laugh but he is fine on his own as well.

Lately, he loves to look at books. Tonight, right before bedtime, I looked on the floor at his "debris trail" as we call it, and there were six books and just two toys. Oliver just loves to look at the books and turn the pages over and over. Again, he's fine doing this on his own but, of course, loves to be read to as well. Books with flaps are a big hit but I am going to be doing some major book repair soon because Oliver really, really loves books with flaps!

This week he has also loved these little plastic balls-one jingles, one rattles, one has more of a maraca sound. Oliver will just push one around on the floor and chase after it.

Oliver still loves to bang on things-the ottoman, two toys together, whatever he can find. He just laughs and laughs at this game.

Paper is a big hit too. Oliver has a stack of magazines on a bookshelf that are "his" and he loves to rip out the pages and play with the paper.

The newest "thing" is that Doug taught him that he can make great noises if he moves his arm back and forth in front of his mouth. That is really fun-and loud! A great combination!

I miss being able to play with him so much. I love to just watch him and get lost watching him. I hate that because I have such little playtime with him that I want to make the most out of it. Of course, eventually I snap out of it and start playing again with him. He is just so much fun!

Content

I tried to define the word content this week for my fifth graders and explained that it means that you are happy-just not "jumping up and down happy". Tonight I saw the definition of content. I had just finished nursing Oliver and had laid him down on the bed to put him in his sleep sack. He was lying there in his pajamas and just gave me the sweetest smile-he was so content. It wasn't his cute teethy grin he has when we are playing-just a closed mouth smile. I loved it.

I love putting Oliver to bed. When we went through our hand, foot and mouth/ear infection sleep disruptions, I broke my rule about rocking him to sleep (anything that works at 3:00 am, right?). When I rocked him, he curled his long body up in my arms and would snuggle up against me in the rocker-so wonderful. Now he does this when I put him down for bed. The routine is that I carry him into his room, turn on his music, and sway a little back and forth while I tell him good night. Oliver will now try to curl up in my arms like he did in the rocker. I love it. It is the best feeling in the world. We are both content.

Cruising and pumpkins

Oliver has been quite the busy little on lately. We can hardly keep up with him! He is crawling a mile a minute and is cruising quite nicely. He has even started to go one handed (eek!).
Oliver's new favorite activities include banging on the ottoman while standing, banging toys together, splashing in his inflatable duck bathtub...do you sense a theme here? He also loves ripping pages out of magazines (specially selected ones, of course), reading books, being tickled and laughing. He is so much fun! I love how I can get him so tickled playing with him and making him laugh.

On another note, we are trying table foods with limited success. The food sometimes makes it to our mouth but even less of it actually stays in the mouth . Most of it winds up on the bib or under the shirt. Although we did find a cheerio in his diaper the other day...

Still lots of babbling but no words yet. Lots of vowels and some consonants. This week we favored the letter g.

Love, love, love to pull up. No serious injuries at this point but some required a little extra TLC.

Today we went to the pumpkin patch. Here are a couple of pictures:Oliver wasn't quite sure about the pumpkin patch. He is kind of a homebody right now. He never really fusses or complains but he is just so much happier at home. We keep trying to get him out for "exciting adventures" when we can to let him know that fun can happen outside of his familiar walls.

So much more to write. I think I have to get over the need to post pictures every time and just blog when I think about it (which is often). I know that all of these moments with Oliver are so precious and I want to remember as many as I can. My new goal is to have more frequent but shorter posts. We will see how it goes.

Laughing

So much has happened lately, and again I keep waiting for time to blog. Tonight I decided that would never come and I need to just go ahead and post.

First of all, here is one of my favorite things ever...Oliver laughing.

Excuse the lack of editing...again, time. Doug was holding Oliver and I was shaking a Wal-Mart bag. That's it. We just marveled at how tickled he got. I will treasure this clip forever. It brings a smile to my face no matter how upset or stressed I am. Hope you enjoy as well!

Here are a few more updates:

• Oliver had a great nine month appointment. He is now 29 inches and 21 pounds and 5 ounces, we think. He would sit still long enough on the scale to get a totally accurate reading. The nurse couldn't stop talking about how active he was. Oliver is doing fine and the pediatrician predicted he would be walking by Christmas. After watching him this past week, I have no doubt.
• Oliver is almost done cutting four teeth-in a week's time! He has 2 top lateral incisors (yes, I had to look that up), one central incisor has poked through and you can see the other through the gum. I can't believe his smile is going to change again. I will miss his little bottom teeth only grin. We are anxious to finish the teething process for this go around though-we have had some tough nights and are ready for everyone to get their sleep again.
• Speedy-that's how to describe Oliver now. He is so fast! I can almost not keep up with him. I can't believe how quickly he went from a few "steps" with his crawl to racing around the house.
• He is pulling up now. He is very good at it except he doesn't understand the whole physics of the best way to stand and will stand too far away from whatever he is holding. Today he got his first bump on the head when he slipped and hit his head on the bookshelf. Poor baby!
• Pulling up has also affected our sleeping. Now when he wakes, he will pull up and then, we suspect, not be able to get down and then the meltdown starts. We are really, really hoping this phase does not last long.

I am glad to be getting back into some kind of normal routine. Last week was parent teacher conferences and I hardly saw Oliver at all. I missed him so much-it was really affecting me by later in the week. I really missed coming home and playing with him. He is just the best. He is so much fun and now that he is more mobile, he will crawl to you and I just scoop him up and love on him-then he wants down and is ready to go. He is just the best.

As Oliver would say...oomba.

It's official...he crawls!

That's right! Baby Oliver is crawling. Just a few "steps" but it counts! He started yesterday (in case anyone is keeping count) and he did even more today. He can only take a few "steps" and then he collapses but he is on his way. Oliver loves to pull up on his knees now too so we know that pulling up and cruising are probably coming soon too! I am so excited for our baby boy. I am also buying baby gates this weekend because he is fast! I will try to post video of him crawling(and scooting for those of you who haven't been able to see him scoot).

Oliver is also the explorer-keeping doors closed and baby gates up will be essential once he is more mobile. He loves to just scoot into another room to find something to put in his mouth or touch and bang on. As he scoots along, Oliver will look back at you to see if you are following him and just laugh. I don't know if he thinks he is getting away with something or if he is just so happy to be going somewhere .

There are so many little moments I haven't been blogging about...like how happy he is when he wakes up from a nap or in the morning (most of the time). He starts with little "aahhs" and then really starts talking. By the time I get to his room, he has an entire conversation with himself going. Then he just laughs and laughs when you come over to the crib. Of course then you better get him out quickly because once he sees you he is ready to play.



Oliver is also working on verbal skills...it has really picked up this week. He will talk to his toys and just babble. I am convinced he said "da da" to Doug this week but he denies it. He definitely recognizes words like "Daddy", "splashtime" and "no!".

I have realized that I am behind in teaching him all this baby stuff like "bye bye" and "where is your nose?" so I am trying to catch up. We are also working on clapping. This video is a bit dated. It is from Doug's birthday last month but since Oliver still can't clap I am posting it now then you can see growth later.



Oliver has become a big eater. Three meals of solids a day plus bottles and nursing. There are absolutely no foods he won't eat. He likes everything and for that I am grateful. Sometimes he is not sure about a new food but by the bottom of the jar he asking for more. I hope we get the go to start some little bits of table food at his nine month appointment on Friday. We are also taking bets on how much he weighs and his length if anyone wants to get in the action. I am thinking 29 inches and 21 pounds.

All I ask for though is a healthy report from the doctor. That is what is most important. I love him so much. He is truly the best baby boy.