I'm going to Miami, Buenvenidos a Miami

Wishful thinking. Oliver's uncle Jon just headed to Florida to accept the "Rising Star Award" at FOTOFusion 2009 (http://www.fotofusion.org/index.html) (Congratulations Jon!). Although we were invited to join are on his trip we decided he'd enjoy the "fuse and schmooze parties" better if we weren't there.

Instead we here in the snow and ice. Yesterday we got another 5 inches of snow and then we got rain, freezing rain, and sleet - lovely. Despite the less than desirable weather, we had a pretty good day yesterday.

Oliver started the day by playing with Melissa and Molly - Oliver's Aunt Elizabeth usually plays with him on Wednesdays, but she was sick. Although he missed Elizabeth, it looks as though he had a fun time with Melissa and Molly http://johnandmelissadoyle.blogspot.com/2009/01/pokes-peers-and-pirouettes.html

Since we couldn't be in Florida with Jon, we decided that for our afternoon we'd bring Florida here. Ok- really Oliver decided he had had enough of all the layers he's been forced to wear and he wanted to take on his jungle, and his toy box naked (or as close to be naked as was safe (from experience I have learned that it is not very safe to carry around a naked little boy -- although getting covered in poop did score me a night at the spa...hmmm...)).


(Yes, the little monster is standing - hopefully he will focus his efforts on his crawling)


Oliver has always loved books, but right now he can't seem to get enough of them -- books are always what he pulls out of his toy box.

On the go!

It is official - Oliver is on the go! Yesterday Oliver decided he wanted to play with his ball and so he crawled across the dining room floor to get it. Today he has been exploring and has been pointing out all of the things that we need to pick up off the floor and low surfaces.

Here are a few pictures from yesterday:

Up on all fours
Looking at the ball

Mission accomplished - Eating the ball


And here is a video from today. Spoiler alert: I do grab him before he slams his head into the wall - thankfully he is not very fast - yet.

Duck, duck, goose

Last night a little duck, duck #1, peered around the stairs at me after his bath.


While giving duck #1 his bath Davis noticed that duck #2 was a bit dirty. So after duck #1 was dressed and playing happily, Davis decided to fill duck #2 with water and put him in the microwave.


As it turns out, little ducks, the duck #2 type, get really big really fast in the microwave (we did manage to shut the microwave off before the duck exploded).

I think the (silly) goose in this is Davis.

Oliver v. Yogurt

Over the past couple days Oliver has been trying some of his new foods (yes, Davis did stop at the market on the way home the other night with lamb, and no, Oliver has not yet had lamb for dinner).

Here are some pictures of his first go at yogurt -- I'm not sure who won, Oliver or the yogurt. I do know that buying that new washer and dryer - money well spent.

You did what?!

In my baby book there is a picture of me, probably 3 or 4 months old, on a snowbank. Every time I got to that picture when looking through it I would say to my parents I would question their judgement -- who just lays a baby in a snowbank? As it turns out, I do. My parents said the wanted to capture a picture of how much snow there was that year, and, well, that is just what I wanted to do too. When Oliver is older and is looking through his baby book and questions my judgement, I'll just smile and tell him to wait.


Although Oliver looks pretty small in this picture, he is getting to be a "big boy." We had his six month check up yesterday and he has gained 13 pounds since birth and and has grown 6 and a half inches. The doctor also gave us the go ahead to introduce some more foods. One of the foods on the list was lamb Davis really wanted me to get a lamb chop and puree it for Oliver last night. Instead I gave him some yogurt for breakfast this morning. He loved the yogurt. Not sure what he'd think of the lamb. I have a feeling Davis might stop at the market on the way home from work tonight...

The great white north

The last week has been cold and snowy -- yesterday we got over a foot of new snow. Today is a beautiful winter's day and Oliver and I plan on taking advantage of it being above freezing and either going snowshoeing or cross-country skiing.

Oliver is trying and trying to crawl. Although he hasn't gotten it quite yet he is now able to scoot himself around pretty well. Davis and I are realizing we need to become neater people as Oliver seems to find everything we leave out.

Anna and Oliver are becoming great friends. Oliver is a beyond messy eater - he usually covers himself from head to toe - literally - with his food. He has started to hold out his messy hands to Anna when he is done eating and she comes and licks them clean (we've been trying to teach Oliver the sign for "all done," it seems he has created his own). Oliver finds this hysterical. Last night he decided to be even more generous and held his bowl out for Anna. She thought she'd died and gone to puppy heaven and Oliver couldn't stop laughing.

The other exciting news around here is that Davis and I, previously voted "least likely to ever own a video game thingamajig," got a Wii last week. We have become excellent bowlers and we are beginning to improve at baseball - we aren't ready to take on Big Papi yet, but we hope to be able to soon.

Watch out Michael!

Michael Phelps better watch out - there is a new kid on the block!

Oliver started swimming "lessons" last weekend and he took to it like, well, a fish. And Davis, he was beyond excited about introducing Oliver to the pool.

Here is Oliver sporting his swim diapers (and lots of rolls).


Oliver, playing it cool before class started, and Davis about to burst with excitement.


In the water.

Resolutions

After weighing in at 19 pounds and 5 ounces this morning, Oliver approached me and asked if it was too late to make a New Year's resolution or two. I told him he was welcome to make whatever resolutions he wanted to make.

Oliver got right down to it, he decided that for his first resolution he would expand his diet to include lamb...

Lamb and dinosaur...

Lamb, dinosaur, train, and train conductor.


He also decided that, in order to tone his core, he would introduce "the plank" to his daily exercise routine.


All in all I think he did well making his resolutions and, to be honest, I think he will do better with sticking them than I will do sticking to mine.

Holidays, events, occasions

Prior to Oliver's arrival Davis and I would talk about bringing the camera with us on trips and breaking it out to document special occasions, but we usually would either forget to bring it with us, or would forget we had brought it with us and would forget to take pictures. Now, being the proud parents we are, while we may forget to brush our hair or forget what day it is, but we never forget to bring the camera and never forget to take pictures. That being said, the last few weeks have been chock-full of holidays, events, and occasions and therefore iPhoto is brimming with pictures. Here a few of the pictures and tales.

Davis had to use up a couple weeks of vacation time before the end of the year, so Oliver, Anna and I had him home with us for much of December. Davis devoted much of his time off to arts and crafts -- he made some amazing cabinet doors for the book shelves in the living room (I'll post pictures of those later) and made a couple Christmas stockings. Here is Oliver's stocking (post-Santa).

After the arts and crafts extravaganza and our first annual ugly sweater party (the winner of the ugliest sweater was my mom - we look forward to seeing who will win next year) we headed to my parent's to celebrate Christmas. Oliver seemed to enjoy the day. He loved ripping and trying to eat all the wrapping paper. And he loved a new shirt Santa brought -- when we opened the shirt for him, all other toys, wrapping paper, boxes, etc. got pushed aside and he grabbed the shirt and refused to let go. We think he might take after his aunts and uncles since neither Davis nor I are fashionistas.


Of course, it being a holiday (that is the excuse this time) we made poor Oliver and Anna put on Santa hats, and Oliver also had to put on a (too) little reindeer hat (you know that at some point the two of them are going to unite against us).



After Christmas we packed up and headed to Sugarloaf. The first day up there it was 55 degrees. Davis and I enjoyed a rare day of "spring" skiing in January and Oliver enjoyed a day with his grandparents. Unfortunately the warm weather disappeared as quickly as it arrived and by the end of the week it was 5 below zero. Despite the dropping temperatures we enjoyed our new cross country skis

The Bag

Hanging out in front of the fireplace


And jumping.

While up at Sugarloaf Davis and I also enjoyed a date night out to celebrate our anniversary, and Oliver mastered sitting up and made his first attempts at crawling. And, finally, on our first day home from Sugarloaf Oliver turned 6 months old.