Twenty-two Months (Oliver's Monthly Photo)

Oh my gosh the end is near.  I can taste it.  This was my 22nd monthly photo of Oliver.  He actually really likes these pictures.  When I put the blue striped outfit on him, he runs to the photo studio and sits right down and tosses his "Oliphant" to me so I can throw it to him right before I snap the pictures.



Everyday, Oliver surprises us with how communicative he is... still with no words.  We're adding signs daily.  Many of them we just make up.  He seems happy to have them, though.  He excitedly showed Daniel the sign for "butterfly" after our walk the other day.  It looks similar to the sign we made up for "bulldozer," but a little different.  In the above picture, he's signing "noisy."

His most frequent word is mama.  He likes to say it in a shrill sort of shriek, over and over and over.  Like mama-MAMA-MAMA-MAMA!!!-MAMA!!!!  He does this until I acknowledge the thing he's pointing to or get him the (correct) drink (water mixed with orange juice) in the (correct) bottle he loves.  Or sometimes he just says it when he's bored or has a boo-boo or wants Daniel.  No clear Da-da yet, although today when Lucy and Elliot called out, "Dad?" he followed right behind them and questioned, "Da?"



He's pretty capable on the potty these days.  I guess he'll just decide when he's done with diapers, because he can clearly hold his pee, sign potty, and then go successfully within a few seconds of sitting down.  But he's not all that interested in going completely diaper-free right now.



He's officially mastered the scooter!!  I have been waiting for this day since he got his orange scooter at Christmas.  He is so cute riding it.  His little legs.

He keeps skinning his knees.  Gosh I feel bad for him.  They bleed every time.  I wonder if I should give him some knee pads just for walking around outside.  But it seems like he'll learn to be careful faster if he has real consequences from falling down.  I could be wrong about that.

He likes asking for product.  He likes having shoes on.  He likes picking his particular shoes.  He says, "ch" for Charlie and shoes.  He loves to sign milk and sleeping and bulldozer, though he has many, many other signs now, too.



My friend described his eyes as "deep, soulful" the other day.  I would agree.  He loves giving hugs and kisses at the end of play dates.  He loves waving hi to people.  He doesn't like it when se sing.  He covers his ears (rude).  He is full of life.  The highs are high and the lows are low.  We love him and are glad to have him.

Painting Rocks

"Craft time" used to really stress me out. I though I had to have examples pre-made so the kids would know what they were striving for.

Silly me.

These kids just want to paint stuff. Glue stuff. Color stuff. Rocks work just as well as paper, and maybe better because of the novelty. And the outdoors.

5 Months Old (Charlie's Monthly Photo)

Our little eight pounds of joy have become 16 pounds of joy!  Charlie is 5 months old this month, and he is a delight.



Doesn't seem like much time has passed since the last monthly photo, but I guess it's been about a month.



He's grabbing things now and bringing them to his mouth to chew on.  He's big on sucking his fingers -- especially his index finger.  Every once in a while he still does his ring finger, but a lot of the time it's his index finger now.  Occasionally his thumb.

He likes the doorway Johnny jump up toy.  He can hang out in there pretty contentedly for at least 20 minutes, and often  longer.  He can easily turn from front to back and back to front now.  And a few times I've come into his little closet-nursery to find him up on hands and knees, rocking back and forth.



He loves grabbing his feet like that yoga pose, happy baby.  He's started batting at the toys on his carseat, and every once in a while he can make that frog sing his little song.  He loves to smile.  If anybody catches his eye from across the room, he gives them a big toothless grin.  He is beloved wherever we go.



His cry is so sweet and sad sounding.  Not the shrill, angry cry some of our others have had.  It's just so pathetic and sad sounding.  It's pretty cute.



He's the best to put to bed.  The best.  I put him to bed sleepy, and he usually turns right over on his side, sucks his finger, and stays quiet until he falls asleep.  He's sleeping 12 hour stretches, and often I wake him in the morning to feed him.  CRAZY.  So nice, especially compared to the others at this age.



I can't believe next month we'll start solids!  He seems so young.  I mean, he is young.  But he's not a newborn anymore!  He's fully five months!

Easter and Spring Portraits

Easter came quickly this year.  Not just early, but quickly!  Our holy week activities included baking Easter bunny cookies and making "resurrection rolls."



I wish I had a picture of the resurrection rolls.  They're pretty amusing.  You coat a marshmallow in butter and cinnamon/sugar and then wrap it in a crescent roll and bake it.  When it's finished, the marshmallow has melted, and the "tomb" is empty!



We did it with 6 other little friends, and despite all the hype about "can we eat the marshmallow now?" thankfully the kids were not devastated that the marshmallow was gone when it was finally time to eat the rolls.



Lucy had some time to think on the way home, as she had lost her "speaking privileges" in the car.  When she regained her speaking privileges, the first thing out of her mouth was, "Did y'all take out all the marshmallows?"



Easter morning was interesting.  We'd planned to attend a sunrise service not far from our house, but despite beautiful weather--the service was actually indoors!  It was disappointing, since we'd looked forward to watching the sunrise in the middle of a nature preserve, but the we enjoyed the service anyways.



Then off to Nonni and Papa's house for breakfast and an Easter egg hunt!  The kids are waaay into egg hunts now.  We only had 3 this season, but I know several friends who had more than that, between the actual day, the kids' schools, and other groups.









I think Easter is the most important holiday on the calendar.  It's difficult to impart the importance to little ones.  Pretty sure they know that Easter was when Jesus rose from the dead, but they might also think there were marshmallows, bunnies, and eggs involved somehow. That's okay, though.  We've got time.  And next Easter I won't have a 4-month-old.

I love these Arboretum pictures.



I took them in about 6 minutes, because it was 49 degrees that morning, and the kids are only willing to endure so much cold for lollipops.  

 



After a few minutes, they let it be known that they wanted their jackets back on, lollipops or not.

Twenty-One Months (Oliver's Monthly Photo)

Whoa.  Only 3 more months of double monthly photos!  Can't believe it.  Oliver is closer to 2 than he is to a year and a half.  You get in the habit of telling people how old they are in a certain way.  People without kids don't want to hear "twenty months."  It's been "a year and a half" for a while. But now it's, "almost two!"

Oliver is a signing enthusiast.  He's invented signs for car and cut in the last month. Together we came up with a sign for choo-choo train and for dog and we looked up signs for cat, sheep, truck, van, girl, boy, stars, and table. He's still using the other signs, mommy, daddy, eat, cereal, milk, drink, ball, thank you, please, more, "hear it," bath, and book.  He has way more animal sounds than actual words.  He likes to say what a fish says (blub blub) and a cow (mmmm) and a cat (higher pitched mmm) and horse and sheep (hahahahaha) and of course a bear, tiger, lion, and dinosaur (ROOOAAAAARRRR).


Oliver's decided to potty train himself.  He signs potty every time we change his diaper, and he runs to the potty and climbs up on it all by himself.  About half the time, he comes and gets me after to show me his work.
 

Then he runs to get a diaper and brings it to me. Wowsa.  So far, potty training the third is nothing like the first two.  He's not even getting potty treats or anything.

Oliver's decided it is completely necessary that he do his car seat buckle by himself.  It's unfortunate, because he possesses neither the dexterity nor the strength to actually work the buckle.  It's frustrating for all involved.



He can climb out of his crib now!  This has added to our quality of life significantly.  In the mornings, instead of screaming MAMA!!!!!!!!! from his crib, he just tosses his lovies overboard and then climbs out.  He then climbs up into our bed for cuddles.



He's still really enjoying bottles, but since we have some cups with Thomas the Train, he's beginning to like those, too.  He loves trains.  Loves trains.  There's a YouTube video we used to put on for Lucy.  It's called, "Kids Love Trains," and Oliver asks for it on a regular basis now.



He's still biting.  He intends to get a little bit of your clothes between his teeth and be silly, but more often than not he gets a tiny piece of skin, and it is so. stinking. painful.



Oliver you are fun and rambunctious and smart and sweet.  We love you.  Happy 21 months!