Nine Months Old (Oliver's Monthly Photo)

Oliver is nine months old!  Can you believe it's been 9 months? He is so old, all of the sudden.

He is still a standing enthusiast.  He loves to pull up on anything and stand and look around.  No steps ventured so far (not even while holding on), but probably in the next few weeks.



He is teething like crazy!  I think he has 5 teeth totally in and another 2 or 4 on the way.  I think he's getting his molars, poor boy.


He still loves being tickled, especially at night just before bed.  He doesn't often wake up silently anymore.  We usually know the second he wakes up because he is screaming bloody murder.



He is getting into Lucy and Elliot's play time now... more consistently taking the toys they're playing with and wanting to be in the middle of the action. 



As you can imagine... it's frustrating to them.  But mostly they're sweet with their baby brother.  Lucy kissed Oliver's hand last night while I was feeding him, and she goes, "Mommy, I like Oliver."



He's basically transitioned to one nap a day.  It's a little earlier than I was hoping for.  But it is what it is.



He LOVES to stand at the bathtub while Lucy and Elliot are taking a bath.  He loves to join them in there, too -- but if that's not an option, standing at the tub with his fingers barely reaching the water is his idea of a good time.  He laughs and squeals and bounces up and down and looks back and forth from Lucy to Elliot.



We've been working on "lie still" on the changing table and "head down" at bed time.  We'll need to start working on "come here" this month. 



I can tell I'm not as strict with him as I was with Lucy/Elliot.  I'm just so tired and distracted with the other two!



Oliver, you're a blast.  You're so cute and fun and sweet. 



We all love you and are blessed to be your family!

The Perot Museum

Uff!  We have been busy.  Daniel was out of town for a week, and I was in survival mode.  He was home for the weekend, and then we all went to Austin for 2 nights.  We came back, I worked the next weekend, and now we are finally home for a bit.  I made this video of our trip to the museum during those two days he was home, between Mexico and Austin.


We sure had fun seeing our cousins from Houston!!  And, the Perot Museum is awesome!!

Snow Day, part THREE

Y'all.  Can you believe this??


We got MORE snow.  About 4 inches in one night.  As thick as 6 inches in some places!!  It was unbelievable.



So we got out to play in it again.  Unfortunately, Oliver was febrile all night and all morning, so he stayed wrapped up warm and cozy against me.  He slept through our snow festivities.




But Lucy and Elliot and I made snow castles and snow cakes, and then they had a snow picnic while I took pictures.




The whole thing was really going splendidly, until Lucy's boots happened.



First her boot came off her foot, so I put it back on for her, no problem.


Then it came off again.  And then again.  Each time, I trudged back through the snow to put it back on for her.



Finally I heard her cry out, and I turned around to see -- her sock was in the snow.  Her bare foot hovered above her boot, which was now filled with snow.  What happened??



I don't know.  But it's amazing how quickly you can go from, "this is fun" to this-is-a-disaster-how-on-Earth-am-I-going-to-get-all-these-munchkins-back-to-the-car-without-having-my-3-year-old-walk-bare-foot-through-6-inch-snow???

In a feat I can only describe as one of my most impressive parenting moments, I carried both Lucy and Oliver, and her boots, and all of our snow toys back to the car, while coaxing Elliot to just walk a little further the whole way.

We made it home in one piece and made some hot chocolate, and then the kids sipped their warm sweet treat in the front yard, admiring the glittering snow.



And then I realized it was only 10am and that it already felt like 2pm.  That was a bummer.



I ended up taking Lucy and Oliver to the doctor later in the day, and they both had ear infections.  Hallelujah for after-hours pediatric clinics and Amoxicillin.