Cars Cars Cars

Oliver is insane for cars these days. He will line them up, roll them around, and carry them with him. He's always got at least two in one hand, clutched between a couple of fingers. Even in bed. Oliver's vocabulary is expanding and he's able to put together simple sentences. Some common one's are:

"I need mama"
"More presents" (after someone gives him a gift)
"More cars"

He used to say "aye" instead of "yes", but is now very clearly saying "yes". He's pretty close to knowing all his letters and numbers, and is able to count to ten easily. He can pick find his name tag from the set at preschool, so he is able to recognize the letters in his name.

Oliver is looking to be right handed. He's doing a lot of painting and drawing. His favorite is finger paints, which often turn into body paints or foot paints.

Proud Dad

Oliver went pee pee in the potty tonight. The big potty. It was a pretty amazing moment for all of us. He's never really warmed to the potty chair we got him - he's been aware of it, but has always politely declined when we asked him if, by chance, he'd like to use it. We've only encouraged, never really pushed. He probably wonders why we expect him to go potty in there when we don't use it ourselves.

Oliver's typical post-bath ceremony these days is to throw off his towel and run and jump on the bed or sofa and roughhouse with me a little before bed. Tonight he did a little dance, then made a funny face and awkwardly squeezed his knees together. Speaking from a geeky developmental perspective, this suggested to me that perhaps he heard his brain this time when it said, "I'm about to pee," and physically reacted (woo-hoo!). I jumped up and walked him into the bathroom, where his little potty occasionally lives - but it wasn't there. So we propped his stool in front of the big potty and I helped him up. After 5 or 10 seconds, he peed. The little stinker!

We applauded and hoorayed, and he literally walked out of the bathroom with his arms raised above his head in victory (coincidentally, as I'm writing this, SportsCenter is on mute, and I just caught a glimpse of Brett Favre, arms raised after a touchdown pass - he looked like that). He had another joyous flop on the bed and then went back to the potty with us to flush. As Amanda said, he was so excited that he forgot to flush.

Another big change that is around the corner is that he's about to start school this week. He'll be in the program I ran the last three years I was at Bing - the MWF AM 2's program. Mark and Colin, who he knows, will be his teachers and we feel like he's just going to love it. He'll be the youngest in his class, which is fine by us, because lord knows that boy loves hanging around older and bigger kids. He's speaking a lot these days, and is stringing together 3-word sentences at times (his favorite phrase still being "root beer float" - and yes, Mom, we credit you for the root beer introduction. It's at the point where it's still called a root beer float without the ice cream. The boy just loves his root beer!). Point being, I think he'll benefit from being exposed to so much more language. He'll be there for an hour on Wednesday and then for the full 2 1/2 hours on Friday. Grandma Connie sent him a monkey backpack for his birthday that he wore happily on our trip to Ikea today. We'll let you all know how it goes!

A list of Oliver's favorites (as of Sept.2010)

Favorite animal: whale, then dinosaurs, then sea turtles, then sharks. He has some plastic dinos that he likes to run around with and then scare mama by yelling "roar!" with them as I'm cooking or doing chores.
Favorite toy: cars cars cars. Matchbox cars are #1 with a large garbage truck being #2. He will line up the cars, then count them (not totally correct on the numbers 1-10 yet, but getting there) and then one by one put them in the garbage truck, which is his brief case of sorts.
Favorite color: purple
Favorite food: gnocchi
Favorite drink: root beer, then pear juice
Favorite book: Zin Zin Zin the Violin

Oliver turns 2!

DSC_4363, originally uploaded by Zzack.

For more photos: http://www.flickr.com/photos/zacks_photos/4937743351/in/set-72157624708610467/

Oliver and Matthew sing Baby Beluga

If you have the time to be entertained for 3 1/2 minutes, I played Baby Beluga on the guitar a week ago while Oliver banged away on the ukulele in our garage. As you can see, he's very fond of picks these days, as they are quite the captivating little musical accessory. Here's the link - enjoy:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NJ1eAmdi33U

Almost Two

Oliver will be having his second birthday in not too long. It's been a while since I've posted and don't even ask how his baby book is going. The irony of the digital age is that it gets harder and harder to make prints, and organize them in a lasting way. In some ways I miss film...

So milestones... Oliver speaks in two word sentences now. "No home." means that he would like to keep driving in the car. Even after a five hour car ride Oliver will say "No home!" He also says "More water, More trucks, and "Bye bye Nana" (when he wants me to hold his monkey).

Oliver is slowly working on potty training. We aren't pushing it but we are introducing it when the moment arises. Yesterday we had some success in the back yard with it.

Oliver knows many of his letters and some numbers. He is starting one-to-one association when playing with blocks, cars etc. He will stack blocks and count as he goes but not really say each number clearly or in order.

Oliver is still extremely physical. Batting with a tee isn't a challenge for him. He'll hit the ball every time, then run around the yard yelling "run Oli run!" until he gets back to home base. He's got some success with regular pitching and hitting the ball. He might get a hit 25% of the time or so. Oliver can run, jump, kick a ball very well, and is beginning to dance to music. We've been going to the pool periodically. Oliver is nervous in the pool, and needs to be in control of what we do there at all times. If he says "bye bye pool" we need to get out right away.

Oliver is still very courageous and exploratory, and would go off on his own in a store without worry if we didn't guide him not to. That said, there are odd moments when something catches him off guard and scares him. He is afraid of the spa feature in grandma and grandpa's bathroom and would walk new guests over to the bathroom on arrival to let them know that they shouldn't turn it on. He likes lawn mowers but is terrified of a toy lawn mower at the nanny's house for some reason. At times he will get very frustrated and turn to whining as a reflex and we'll have to remind him to use words to tell us what is wrong.

Personality wise, Oliver is extremely outgoing and friendly. He'll wave to cars driving by, chat up the tellers at banks and supermarkets, and run over to a man with a dog. His general expectation is that anyone he smiles at or says hi to will shower him with affection. He is stunned when a new person doesn't stop what they are doing to chat him up. Most of the time they do.

Oliver is also 100% mommy oriented. He's enamored with me and would prefer me to Matthew at any point. I'll take it while I can, as I know soon the daddy phase will come.