Hold you this

When Oliver wants to be held he says "Hold you." More recently Oliver has been asking to "hold you this." He says this with his arms outstretched as if he is cradling a baby. He's been asking to be put to sleep this way, cradled in my arms like a little baby. I think he's doing this in anticipation of his little sister's arrival as it has also been accompanied by asking for a pacifier, asking me to sing Rock-a-bye Baby, and telling me that he is a baby. This shows me, once again, how aware Oliver is of everything going on. Davis and I have been focusing on the swim and, to be honest, forget much of the time that we will soon have another person in our household. However, when we are out and about people are always asking how I am doing, if we are prepared for the baby, how we are balancing the pregnancy and the swim...I think Oliver is listening to all of this, and watching my belly grow and realizing that we are getting close to having the baby (to be honest he is probably more aware of this fact and more prepared than Davis and me).

In addition to wanting to be a baby again, Oliver has started to focus more on babies. He's always asking to feel the baby move, kiss the baby, and often tries to feed the baby food (I have lots of stains on my shirts) and make the baby feel better (for example, when Oliver hit his head the other day and we gave him ice, he refused the ice and instead wanted to put it on my tummy to make the baby feel better). He has also been paying much more attention to Bulldozer. Bulldozer is now getting regular diaper changes, bedtime stories and snuggles. It is interesting to watch because Oliver treats Bulldozer the same way he likes to be treated - he reads Bulldozer stories while Bulldozer is in his bed, but then when it is time for Bulldozer to actually go to sleep Oliver spends some time "holding him this" and then the two of them lie down together in bed (co-sleeping just as we have done). It is pretty cute.


Tomorrow we head off on our big trip. We hope to post updates while we are gone - updates on Davis' swim and also on our adventures (we hope to be able to explore many castles and do many hikes).