HAPPY NEW YEAR!!

Ok, so I know I'm going to lose my three or so loyal readers if I don't get with the program and post more than one blog a month!!! So, I'll try to do better. :-) Hope everyone had a great holiday and a happy new year - we had lots of fun here and in Maine. Christmas was super cool this year because Oliver is starting to really enjoy all the traditions and silliness. He loved the Christmas trees, and especially the steam train that goes around the bottom of the tree at his grandparents' house in Maine! My dad was amazed that after watching people run the train just a few times, Oliver went right over and plugged all the things into the right places and pushed the right buttons to make the train go - as if anything could stop him from watching a train go round and round!! With steam!! And toots!!

He LOVED the snow, of course - we got nearly 2 feet of snow while we were up in Maine. It was gorgeous - everyone around town was saying they couldn't remember a snowfall as big as that in a long time. It was Oliver's first time sledding, and as you can see he just laughed and laughed. He loves to eat snow. :-) He's getting better about keeping his hat and mittens on.

Oh, there was a lovely baby shower for us on the Sunday before Christmas - lots of fun! And girly pink things! It was fun to see a lot of friends and neighbors, and mom organized it as a brunch so we had bagels and dad's home smoked salmon, YUM!! Nothing better. Super delicious carrot cake, too. We spent the rest of the days before xmas making cookies and wrapping presents and generally hanging around. Poor Andy brought his road bike up there with him - you never can tell!! But the only outdoorsy thing we did was a nice walk down to Mosquito Head... besides a lot of father/son treks in the snow right in the yard. Oliver's cousins Aidan and Eli were great with him, and Oliver's so funny now, he makes us all laugh. We had our traditional lobster feast on Christmas Eve, and Oliver really enjoyed his new toys from Santa, especially his toy drill and his dad's remote control helicopter!

Being back home in NJ has been lovely and relaxing - we've cooked some nice dinners (pork roast with chestnut stuffing, brocolli stilton soup, lamb chops and basil risottoa, mmm) and just had a dinner party with our good friends Kara and Arne, and Oliver's bff, Anja - he's so obsessed with her! Often, when he wakes up in the morning, his first word is, "Anja!" So cute. They played for hours, no fussing, and when she left he wouldn't say goodbye, he just sort of moaned. Then after she was gone he tried to put on his boots and follow her out. They're lovely together.

Our best Christmas find is our new favorite CD, called A Larum, by an English guy called Johnny Flynn - we can't get enough of it!! :-) We're also enjoying a framed photo I got for Andy in England by a photographer named Dave Butcher, of the exact spot where he proposed to me. Awwwwww! :-) So, 2009 sprawls ahead of us - upcoming plans include a quick trip back to Maine in early March, baby girl on her way in the beginning of April, and Andy's parents coming to visit for several weeks in June - and who knows what else! We're just happy, and send our love to all our friends out there. xoxoxo

Merry Almost Christmas!!

It certainly feels Christmas-y up here in Maine - we're in the middle of a HUGE snowstorm! It started today around 10am, and has been steady and strong ever since - there's between a foot and 18 inches out there already, and it's nowhere near done falling. Supposed to continue through most of tomorrow - I don't remember the last time I saw so much snow!! Oliver is LOVING playing in the snow (he's calls it "snew!" with much enthusiasm). It takes about a half an hour to get him ready to go outside - pants tucked into socks, mittens on, snowsuit on, boots on (hardest part, as by now he's very wriggley!), hat on, and out he waddles... if we're lucky and he hasn't done a poo!! But he loooves being out there. He's borrowed a sled from Weston next door, he laughs and laughs when daddy pulls him around and then turns him fast at the end. The sleds are completely buried in snow outside now, there's no sign of them, but we'll dig them out soon!

We're enjoying lots of time up here with mom and dad, Ian and Suzanne, and Oliver's cousins Aidan and Eli - the boys are having TONS of fun together! Oliver loves the Christmas trees - ours in NJ (see photo!) and mom and dad's huge 12-foot tree here in Maine. He walks around them and points out all the cool ornaments that he recognizes (airplane! pickle! kitty! snowman! train! moon! etc), and sometimes he kisses them all, one after another. There's an electric train around the tree here in Maine, and that's his favorite - it even toots and blows smoke!!! I wonder what he'll think of Christmas morning!!

Big Birthday Boy

Hello! Sorry for the long delay - we were in England visiting Oliver's grandparents for over 2 weeks, then mom and dad came to visit from Maine and were here for Oliver's birthday, and now we're back to normal and catching up on regular things, like the blog! We had TONS of fun in England, and got to spend lots of time with Oliver's new cousins there, Chenise and Tilly. Andy's parents were endlessly patient with Oliver, and had tons of ideas for fun places to take him. Here's a photo of Oliver with Grandpa Maurice, having a good time, as usual! We came home just in time for Halloween, which was lots of fun this year. Oliver didn't try to tear off his costume the whole time (same costume as last year!) and he had fun trick or treating to a few neighbors we know. Mom and dad came the next week, and we all went to the Bronx Zoo on Oliver's birthday - so much fun! He had a party with his friends a few days later, and got to enjoy his second birthday cake of the year (first was made by Grandma Carole!).

This photo show is a bit of everything, except for England - I'll have to do a separate show for that. Until then, enjoy some BIRTHDAY PHOTOS!!!

Art-house Oliver

Only time for a few photos today, couldn't resist... we're packing up to leave for England tonight, so there's LOTS to do!! The first photo I call "Art-house Oliver," since he looks so artsy in his black turtleneck!! The second one is from the beach at Lake Mohawk on Friday afternoon - a gorgeous fall day.

The good and the bad, but no ugly

Hello again! Sorry for the delay, I do get grief about it... :-) Oliver is doing great, despite his trip to the ER a week ago!! Yup, he had some bad cold symptoms so I took him to the doctor, who was very concerned with his breathing, so he had to endure some inhaler thingy, and steroids to open up his airways, and had to go to the ER for a chest x-ray! Andy and I took him together, around 6:30pm, and after about three hours there and more treatments, including the oxygen feed for a good hour or more (as seen in the photo), we were told the xray was just fine, and he has a respiratory infection/virus. The next day he was in SUCH good spirits, I wonder if I should take him to the ER more often!!

On a lighter note, Oliver has a new good friend! Her name is Anja, and I met her mom, Kara, at an indoor play place nearby - since then, she and Oliver have been playing together every week! She's only about 3 weeks older than Oliver (unfortunately, we'll be in England during her birthday party, bummer!), and they get along really well. Anja is already talking quite a lot (come on already, Oliver!), and she is really good at saying Oliver's name. The day this picture was taken, she and Oliver and his other good friend, Georgie, were having a great time at a playground in Chester, NJ - gorgeous fall weather and good friends, a perfect day for a boy.

Good times

I'm sure you'll be pleased to know that Oliver's eye is healing well... so far he hasn't tried to climb up that table again! It's been a funny few weeks with the weather - we've had a few days that were so cool we had to wear long sleeves and slippers (imagine!) and others, like yesterday, that were so warm and humid that I barely stepped outside. I hurt my knee a while back, and it's still giving me trouble, so yesterday Andy braved the sun with Oliver and they went to a local park to play. Down the road from the park is a little beach on Lake Hopatcong, and they decided to go there, too - Oliver came back soaking (tshirt and shorts) from head to toe, happy as a clam. That's the difference between moms and dads... dads don't worry that they don't have a swimsuit with them, they just point the way to the beach, anyway!!

So, that's why you see Oliver's fancy new bear slippers in some of these photos -- I got them from Beans right after the big bear "event" (see March 19th if you missed it!). Oliver thinks they're really cool and he doesn't even try to take them off! Notice the chic hand in the pocket, too... he's started doing that sometimes, too cute. He also puts his hands on his hips sometimes - I wonder where he got that?! :-)

Another new hit is his favorite Sesame Street video (well, at least it's my favorite, and he seems to like it, too): http://www.sesamestreet.org/videos see Feist 1234. His cousin, Saul, sent him the link a few weeks ago, and we've been enjoying it ever since. Oliver now knows how to start and stop the video using the mouse buttons; the other day I was washing dishes and he played that video about 12 times in a row! That's when I took this photo.

What else is new...... we're planning to go to Guilford this weekend for the big Guilford Fair - a nice agricultural fair that also doubles as an excuse to go back to Guilford! We'll probably stay over Saturday night so we can go to the Ikea up there on Sunday. No other big plans until our trip back to England in October... not looking forward to the flight, but being there will be nice!

The last few photos are of Oliver enjoying a "banana milkshake" this morning (milk and banana, a drop of honey) - you can tell from the second photo that he likes it a lot! Plus, he likes to ham it up for the camera now - he loves it when I show him the photos of himself right away on the little camera screen. How things have changed from when we were kids!!

September Daze

Quick update here... not too much to report, really. We're enjoying the cooler weather, and might even go camping this weekend when Andy gets back from Latvia. Nothing like sleeping under the stars to help with jet lag!! Our big excitement this week was on Sunday night... we were having dinner, and O was running around as usual, and before I knew it, he had attempted to climb up our side table (the one with all the stuffed animals on it) and it had FALLEN ON TOP OF HIM! So I ran over and pulled it off him - the top edge was right at his neck - and I think the radio had hit him in the eye, hence the swollen gash.... it was NOT FUN! Andy had left for his trip that afternoon, so it was just me at home, and I was a worried mom!! But Oliver just cried for a few minutes, coughed a lot, and then was back to running around. The picture you see here was taken the next morning, when his eye was more swollen. Poor guy! I don't know how he manages to look so cute when he's all banged up, plus he had a fever still from sometime on Sunday.

Anyway, he's back to himself now (gash is healing). On Monday night I even still managed to go to my first choral rehearsal for the new group I've joined - he had a sitter for 3 hours, and she did the whole bedtime routine with him and he was FINE - what a boy!! Very proud of him!!! The choir is great, I'm so excited - imagine rehearsing the Messiah all fall, not just one night at Christmastime! I met some nice people there, too, so that's good.

Ok, lots to do before he wakes up from his nap - I'll try to write more soon!