A very big day!!

Well, I think it's safe to say that December 12th is the day Oliver started walking!!! He had done a few steps in a row when Steve and Al were here, but it didn't keep his interest for long. Then when we visited Alison Snow and her 2 boys on the 11th, he walked about 6 steps in a row, several times. Then yesterday, we went to this big children's play place, where there was a huge gym mat and lots of things to play with and a big room filled with balls to roll around in. I think Oliver got brave because he knew if he fell down it wouldn't hurt, and he just started taking off! First it was from one thing to another, maybe 6 steps or so, and by the end of the 2.5 hours, he was walking long stretches, maybe 20 steps in a row!

When we got home, he walked from one end of our kitchen counters to the other, and from our bathroom halfway into the bedroom. This morning he walked in a circle, very advanced!! He's very, very cute walking, as you can imagine. Poor dad is in Germany right now, he'll be back tomorrow - but it's ok because he really did see Oliver's first steps, he just hasn't seen the more advanced techniques yet. He'll be very impressed!

Our little lamb

So, Oliver is turning into a sheep, I think - he had a very sheep-like poo this morning! Aren't you glad to know that??! But the big news today is his marathon night of sleep... he didn't have an afternoon nap yesterday, and seemed pretty tired when we put him to bed. He fell asleep at 7:30, then woke up to join us in bed around 2:30am, and slept till 8am! 12.5 hours of sleep! He actually woke up around 6:30, but we played around in bed and he decided to fall asleep again. Nice!

I've just been on the Sparta Public Library website, where they have a nice storytime program for babies and kids, but there's a waitlist for the baby group, and I have to cross my fingers that I'll be able to register fast enough for the winter session. Registration is on January 7th starting at 8:30am... man, it's cut-throat around here!

Anyway, time to heat up some of Uncle Steven's pea and ham soup for Oliver's lunch. Yum! PS, just adding this a half hour later or so -- I scooped a lot of soup out for O, thinking we had extra and he'd never eat that much, but he's just gobbled it all up!

Say "bye-bye"

Man, we had to say good bye to Steve and Alison today, after a one week visit, and it was really hard! They had so much fun with O, but more importantly, he had so much fun with them! Constant playmates, none of this "mom doing a million things while I'm close by" stuff, just lots and lots of attention and fun. We had such a great week, and Oliver is even closer to walking now - he has made about three steps in a row now.

I couldn't make it halfway through "The Wheels on the Bus" song without crying after we dropped them off at the train station today, though we did try some of the English-style verses, like "the mothers on the bus say natter natter natter" - pronouncing the "t"s and all! I forget what the mothers say in the American version, but it isn't natter... but we'll say that when we sing it. Then I smiled when Oliver kept pressing "three, three three" on his toy phone, which he always did when Steve was with him.

Anyway, we'll look forward to our next visit, which can't come soon enough... and now it's 3:19pm, I'm taking O upstairs for a nap, and Steve and Al should be just setting off on their flight... safe journey!

Who'd A Thunk?

A few surprises today... first of all, since the carpenters were here working on our new bookcase, I was worried that O wouldn't nap at all because of all the noise. But he fell asleep in our bed for his usual morning nap, and slept there a full hour, through tons of hammering, crazy loud random noise machines, endless slamming doors, the works. So I apologize to all the grandparents for giving them a hard time for being SO NOISY (!! as if) - Oliver doesn't seem to care at all! His nap was even longer than usual, in fact, although staying in the big bed might have made a difference.

Later in the day, after they left and the entire living room (and new sofa) were coated in a considerable layer of dust from the sanding they did, I vacuumed it as best I could, and discovered that Oliver apparently hates vacuums! He cried the whole time!!

Then he had a great big dinner - an entire banana (cut up small), a huge portion of my homemade chicken tarragon soup (see, I'm trying to be a good soup-maker now!), and a whole portion of pear. I think he would have gone on all night... I was really surprised about the soup, he kept just opening his mouth wide for more. As I write this, he's taking his pear out of his mouth and squeezing it in his hand to produce a special minced/squashed pear delicacy that he likes even more than the original.

Off to bed soon! Steven and Alison are flying in tonight for a week-long visit - so exciting!! Oliver will have so much fun he won't even know what to think!

Our Lord of Perpetual Poops

That's what I think Oliver's title would be if he started his own church this week... he's going for the "small, stinky, and often" routine instead of his more typical "big, scary, not so often..." I guess they both have their advantages! Not much to report - yesterday he had only one 35 minute nap. Argh! But he was still a very good boy. We finally found the nice ShopRite grocery store yesterday-- sooo much nicer than the gross out PathMark that's nearby. This ShopRite is maybe the biggest grocery store I've ever seen! Has every kind of grocery ever known to mankind. O was a good boy in the cart, making lots of people smile, as usual.

Our carpenter guy is here this week working on our new bookcase, so starting today it will probably be really noisy around here, which is making the prospect of naps even harder... we'll see how it goes!

Celery Soup

Hello! Oliver had a really good Thanksgiving up in Maine with Grandma Patty and Grandpa Richie, and Aunt Suz and Uncle Ian, and cousin Eli -- he didn't eat much (or really any) of the lovely dinner, but he still had a really good time. He liked playing with his friends up there, especially Weston from across the street.

Now that we're home, he's back to his old tricks again - he went for a big ride in his red wagon today (inside the house), pushed it around a lot, and got lots of pushes from his dad on his swingset outside. I laid down with him for his afternoon nap and then fell asleep with him by accident - oops! But it was nice!

He just finished his dinner - a whole bowlful of homemade celery soup that Grandma Carole made when she was here visiting. She froze individual portions for him, and he just loves it to bits. He ate every single drop of the whole portion, and probably would have kept going! Soup is one of his favorite things right now, nearly any kind at all. I'm going to start making more soups now, I'm determined!

First blog ever!

Ok, so here's my idea -- for all of you out there who are interested in how little O is doing (mostly his grandparents, aunts & uncles, and a few very devoted friends!!) - it's getting to the stage where every day he's doing something really cool and different, and if I write about it here, I can be sure anyone who wants to know will know!!!

Take today for instance. :-) We were walking along together, he was holding both my hands and facing me, and for the first time, he let go and walked a few steps on his own! He seemed pretty pleased with himself.

Then later today, he discovered the awesome power of the light switch. There's a switch that he can reach when he's going up and down the stairs (with mom right behind, of course!). He's been curious about it before, but today he decided it was now or never - he would conquer the switch! Once he figured it out, he played with it for at least 5 minutes, till I dragged him away and he started sobbing, and I brought him to a different light switch which made him enormously happy all over again.

Other hightlights of the day: a very quick webcam with his grandparents Carole and Maurice in England (not a good connection, but nice anway!), and two incredibly long 1:10 naps (big improvement over the usual 35-45 minute naps).

Oh and I almost forgot! Now whenever his toy phone "rings," he holds up the receiver to his ear. I can't stand it. So cute!

I can't post this without a photo of course... let me go find one. Ok, here it is! I love this one so much - from Halloween, as you might be able to tell. We hope to finish some more slideshows soon, from Halloween and O's first birthday!!

Ok, that'll do for today, don't want to scare you off with too much information! :-) See you soon!
xoxoxo