Double diamond

Life with Oliver has never been dull. He is an adventurer, an explorer, a non-stop tumble-weed of energy. When he wakes up in the morning he either sits straight up and starts clapping, or else stands up and immediately starts jumping on the bed. Rumor has it some parents can snuggle with their little one and get them to fall back to sleep for a little while - Davis and I have tried to do this and have ended up with fat lips and chunks of hair missing from our heads (Oliver has also used this time to perfect Chuck Norris-style round house kicks) - when Oliver is up, he is moving.

While every day has been an adventure, I feel as though Oliver has decided that we are, ready or not, going to forgo the green and blue trails we've stuck to thus far and hit the double diamonds. What, you might ask, constitutes double diamond when not on the ski slope? I'll give you some examples from the past few days.

On Saturday we decided to introduce whole milk to Oliver. We filled his sippy cup with the milk and handed it to him with much fanfare. He took a sip, looked at Davis and me, and walked over to the trash can. He lifted the lid, threw the cup in, and then slammed the lid down. Undeterred, Davis and I filled a glass with milk. We thought the excitement of drinking out of a glass, rather than his sippy cup, would win him over - not so. Oliver took a big sip of milk, looked at us and then spit the milk on the floor and stomped on it.

On a nice night our neighbor and his friends sit outside together and have a drink and catch up. Oliver loves these guys. On Saturday night, after Oliver had made himself "one of the boys" for probably a bit longer than Joe and his friends would have liked, we brought him inside. Oliver wanted none of it. He went to the window, climbed up on the baseboard, and then pulled himself up to the window sill and began banging at the window - I'm not sure if he was trying to get the attention of Joe and his friends, or if he was trying to bust out.

Breakfast tends to be my "leisurely" (I use this term loosely) meal of the day. Oliver is usually so excited to see his toys after a night away from them that he will play with them for a few minutes and let me sit and have a cup of coffee and maybe some cereal. This morning Davis and I were both at the dining room table having coffee when Oliver stood up from playing and tore off his diaper. Given that I had just changed his diaper less than 5 minutes prior we laughed and I grabbed the camera. Proud of his accomplishment Oliver took several victory laps around the house. On about his fourth lap he came within arms reach of me and I grabbed him - only to discover that the diaper was full of poop. A quick look at the floor and we discovered that when Oliver flung off his diaper he flung poop onto the floor.

After cleaning up the floor and cleaning up Oliver Davis headed upstairs to take a shower. Oliver grabbed his pet dog (he has a stuffed dog on a leash that he is very diligent about walking) and began walking him around the house. I sat back down with my coffee. I took a sip and realized that Oliver had entered the kitchen and all was quiet -- not good. I turn around and see that Oliver has managed to scale the oven - within two seconds the little monster had managed to use the handle to the drawer under the oven, the oven door, and a burner and was close to being on top of the oven.

Should I go into detail about the slug eating, or Oliver's cleaning help (mopping the floor with the toilet brush)?

While double diamond days do not lend themselves well to sitting, eating, or going to the bathroom - they do lend themselves to laughter and they do keep me on my toes.