A couple of those days

Jess and I were talking on Wednesday when she dropped off Oliver. She was saying how well behaved Oliver is - how he always holds her hand wherever they go, how he sits nicely with a napkin in his lap while he eats, how he always says please and thank you - and how happy we must be that he's doing all of this. I just laughed. While we have been working on this behavior it is not too often that we actually see it. Case in point the last 24 hours -

Oliver knows when I am weak - for example, when I am going to the bathroom (which is about every five minutes at this point), driving, or am on the ground and he is high up on the playground. Oliver chooses these moments to be his absolute craziest. Let's begin with yesterday.

Oliver and I are taking our morning shower and I get out to go to the bathroom. I am out about two seconds and when I get back in I find that Oliver has pooped and has covered the floor of the shower in poop. Wonderful. Later in the day we are driving down the highway singing "Old MacDonald." We've cycled through ducks, pigs, and cows and I ask Oliver what else is on the farm. He responds by saying stinky duck poop. Well, yes, I am sure there is stinky duck poop on the farm. As we are discussing the stinky duck poop there is sudden silence from the back seat and then I hear "I mommy," a lot closer than I should have. Somehow Oliver has managed to un-clip the top clip on his car seat and has wiggled around and is almost out of his seat. Terrified I pull off the highway and re-strap Oliver in so tightly that the poor guy had marks on him from the straps for hours.

Later in the evening, as I am getting Oliver a snack he comes up to me, smiles and reaches his hands down into his diaper and then announced to me that he is feeling his poop and that it is now on his fingers. Crap (literally).

We have cleaners that come once every couple weeks and Oliver knows the day they come and, rather than let me bask in the joy of a clean house, he decides that he needs to get things back to messy. This time, after the cleaners left he waited until I went to the bathroom and decorated the fridge with orange crayon and the kitchen floor with baking powder. While I was cleaning that up he managed to decorate the molding in his playroom with back crayon.

During dinner Oliver introduced us to something new - a rice "waterfall." What is a rice waterfall? It is mouthful upon mouthful of rice sprayed all over the floor (let me tell you, Oliver can spray rice much further than one can imagine).

Let's move on to today. Today Oliver and I decided we'd head to the mall to do a quick errand while it was raining. I gave Oliver a granola bar to eat on the way down. We get to the mall and what do I find when I go to get him out of his car seat? A little boy who is smeared, from head to toe in chocolate - the granola bar had had mini chocolate chips in it and he had taken out the chips and smeared them all over himself. After I got him relatively clean we headed into the mall.

At the mall the only thing I had to do was make a return. I am standing there, swiping my card at the register and Oliver, quick as lightening, breaks loose and proceeds to clean off two tables of clothes (mind you the store had literally opened two minutes prior so the woman there had just finished making everything perfect). We apologized and left - quickly. By this point I desperately have to go to the bathroom. After a couple rides up and down the escalator we manage to make it to the bathroom. As I am going to the bathroom Oliver dives onto the floor and proceeds to crawl through several stalls. I am helpless and disgusted.



Two, wonderful two.

Away

On Saturday the 11th our friend Sarah got married on Cape Cod in an absolutely beautiful ceremony. Not only were Davis and I excited to be able to share the evening with Sarah and her new husband Tom, but we were also excited because Sarah's wedding prompted us to do something we had never done before - leave Oliver overnight.

Both Davis and I have been away from Oliver for a night, but until this past weekend we had never been away from him - together. It wasn't because there was no one to watch him (in fact I think my parents may have started asking to take Oliver for a night or two the day Oliver was born, and my sister has also offered on numerous occasions), our excuse, instead, has been that he is a horrible sleeper. Our plan was that as soon as Oliver started to sleep through the night we'd leave the little rocket and head off for a weekend. Perhaps Oliver knew of this plan and therefore decided that he would chose to never sleep through the night in the hopes that Davis and I would not go away without him. Sorry little fellow, but your little plan was foiled.

To be honest I thought I would be worried, nervous, sad... when Davis and I pulled away from our house, but I was not. I knew that Oliver was in good hands (when we left he was up on a ladder washing the car with Papa) and that everyone would make it through the weekend. My only concern was that Papa and Le Le would not get much (if any) sleep Saturday night. Unfortunately my fears were not unfounded - I think the three of them may have gotten four hours of sleep - if they were lucky (thank you Papa and Le Le!). While there wasn't much sleep to be had there was lots of fun -

Oliver and Papa built a plane


They fed chickens

And Oliver did manage to take some good naps.

Davis and I both loved getting photo updates while we were away - while we were having our fun it was great to see the fun Oliver was having.

We were cautioned by many that we'd get the cold shoulder when we returned home - not so. We were regaled with adventures and shown all of the projects that had been done, all the pictures that had been drawn, and all the toys that had been played with. It was only after Papa and Le Le left, and on Monday morning after Davis left that Oliver decided to get down to business - he sprouted horns and a tail, and after he turned himself into the devil he proceeded to get about 50 time outs - about half of which he gave himself because, as he put it, Oliver was naughty (right you are Oliver). I called Davis about 5:30 and implored - please, please, please, tell me you are on your way home from work. Thankfully he was, and thankfully by Tuesday morning the devil was gone and Oliver had returned.

But, back to the wedding. Both Davis and I loved catching up with everyone. It was such a treat to have more than 24 hours just with adults, especially such wonderful friends. We were able to chat, dance, eat, teach people how to tie ties, sleep, and just enjoy each other without the pitter patter of little feet.

Thank you again to Papa and Le Le for spending the weekend with Oliver - especially given the sleepless night. And, a special thanks to Papa as Le Le had to do a course this weekend, so Papa had the monster to himself the majority of the time.

Apple picking

When we were in Maine last weekend I was very excited to see that Hope Orchards had just opened for pick your own apples. While I thought Oliver would enjoy going apple picking (tree climbing, being able to run great distances - super fast - and being allowed to pull things off trees) I had no idea how funny the excursion would be.

Check out Oliver's apple picking technique-

I think I should contact Mott's and see if they would like Oliver to train their employees on his method of apple picking - I think it might make the day a bit more exciting.

Not sure what the boys are plotting here, but I am guessing it is something devious -
And some of my favorite pictures from the day -

Adventures on the HIGH seas

This past weekend hurricane Earl was forecast to hit the coast of Maine - the town docks in Rockport were pulled, the Boat Club asked members to pull their dingys, people pulled their boats, and everyone got excited (and worried) about the possibility of a hurricane. Earl passed through early Saturday morning - not even close to a hurricane anymore, the only excitement was the four inches of much needed rain. The remnants of Earl did leave small craft warnings, so we decided to play it safe and stick to the lake for the day.

By Sunday morning the small craft warning was gone - we decided to head out on the water.

A serious captain -
A happy crew -
After a short time out on the water we began to question the lack of a small craft warning. Not only were there huge swells, but there were incredible waves. At one point we looked over as a wave/swell combination loomed up next to the boat, almost crashing over the side and into the boat. We continued our adventure, wanting to get out to our chosen island picnic spot. However, the waves began to get bigger, the swells began to get bigger, and there was, noticeably, no one else out on the water. After some discussion we decided it might be smart to head back. Mind you we are now about 5 miles out and about 8 miles from Rockport Harbor. Amazingly, as the boat began to bob about a bit more crazily and the spray from the ocean began pouring into the boat, Oliver fell asleep. My search for a dry place turned up nothing on deck so I headed below.
Initially the spirits of the crew remained high -
But soon everyone was wet and some people were not the happiest of campers -

Oliver woke up once we got back in the harbor and he happily drove the dingy back to the tie-off - the little guy was totally unaware of our seafaring adventures.

Despite the weather, it was nice to get out on the water. It was also wonderful because the whole family was together - a rarity - so we were able to really have what we like to call "Forced Family Fun."

And, of course, what would a weekend be without a swim? This past weekend Davis participated in the Maine Sport Triathlon. Davis did the swim portion, his cousin Bjorn did the run and a friend of Bjorn's did the bike. Their team got first place.

Bar Flies

Oliver and Carragh like to party. Thankfully there is a bar in town that doesn't seem to mind the kind of parting two years olds like to do (racing cars back and forth across the bar, climbing over, under and through "coffee" tables, shamelessly flirting with any and all patrons, and dancing up a storm).

(I'm not naming names, but someone who is less than three feet tall got a hold of the camera and altered the settings, so the color is a bit off..)

It is amazing to me how much these two party animals changed over the span of 16 months - here is a picture of them hanging out at the same bar back in March 2009 - check out the cheeks and hair dos!