Once Upon a Potty (and other stories)

For a couple months Oliver has enjoyed sitting on his potty, fully clothed, reading books.


When asked if he would like to take off his pants or diaper while on the potty his answer has been "No." His no has been one of force and of surprise, as if we are crazy to even think about sitting on a potty with no pants covering our butts. It was, therefore, a surprise last Wednesday morning when Oliver asked me to help him take off his pants and diaper prior to parking his little butt on the potty. It was also a surprise when he peed in the potty (he is going to be so embarrassed when he reads this post when he is older). Even more of a surprise, he repeated the pants off, diaper off, pee in the potty performance on Thursday morning. Since then Oliver has preferred to spend his potty time fully clothed. While I think we are a ways off from saying good-bye to diapers, we were all very excited by the events of last week.



Of note, Oliver's favorite book to "read" on the potty is Principles of Military Communication Systems. He flips through the pages, stops to look at a formula, points to it and chuckles as if to say "these guys have it all wrong, I know a better way to achieve X, Y or Z." I find the whole thing pretty hysterical (especially since I can't make heads nor tails of the book.

Other big events of last week - Oliver is now a tower builder. Yes, he still loves to smash towers, but in addition to demolition Oliver now creates towers.


Oliver has also learned his first letter - "O." I thought it was a fluke but I conducted a number of very (un)scientific studies and it appears that he does know the letter O.

Also, thanks to a very loud and favorite toy of Oliver's (thank you to Liz, Ben, Ethan and Adam), Oliver now counts to three in Spanish - we are still stopping at one in English.

All in all, last week was a pretty busy one for Oliver. One might venture a guess that Oliver's new adventures would tucker him out - not so - the little guy still manages to get by with little sleep. We were able to get him down the other night after a shark fight.

It's Better in the Bahamas

When Oliver not yet a week old his grandmother Margot and grandfather Rickey came to visit. One of the gifts Rickey brought Oliver was a Bahamian flag. I remember Rickey showing the flag to Oliver and telling him that "It's better in the Bahamas." Fortunately Rickey was able to introduce Oliver to the Bahamas when we went down for Oliver's first Thanksgiving. Over the past week or two Oliver has been, not so subtly letting us know that he would like to escape the winter and head to warmer warmer (as Davis says, Oliver appears to be a tropical muffin like his mother).



Oliver has been running around the house with his Bahamian flag yelling "Ah- Hama! Ah - Hama!" or for those who don't speak 18 month old "Bahamas! Bahamas!".

He also was adamant when we were in Maine last weekend that Davis raise the Bahamian flag as soon as he awoke on Saturday (or rather when Oliver woke Davis up because he desperately wanted Davis to raise the flag). As you can see, the flag looked rather chilly flying in snowy Maine.


Perhaps Oliver's wish for warmer climes explains his love for his new jacket. Seriously, he has been eating, sleeping, playing...in his jacket. To get it off, or even unzip it, brings tears.

Climbing the Walls

The several days have been LONG for our family. Oliver has been sick which means no play dates for Oliver (or for mommy). The weather has also been such that we haven't been able to get outside as much as we'd like. Oliver, therefore, decided to take the phrase climbing the walls to heart --

Here are some of his antics:

Climbing onto the couch, and then onto the window sill. As he tried to climb higher he started telling me about Papa and his ladder (we gave my dad a ladder for Christmas this year). I tried to point out that the couch and window were not a ladder. Oliver disagreed.

He also disagreed with me about his truck being a ladder...

And his music table being a ladder.

Oliver also disagreed that his baby's stroller was too small for him.

Although Oliver is still under the weather it is sunny outside today - and "warm" so we will try to get outside and get rid of some of the ants in his pants.

Projects and a Lawn Ornament

On Friday afternoon Oliver decided he wanted to go to the basement and do projects with Davis. He stood at the basement door, pounding on it, and yelling: "Daddy!" "Hammer!" "Drill!" "Projects!" I have no idea how he got it in his head that he wanted to go to the basement and work as it has been awhile since Davis has had projects going on down there, and it has been quite some time since Oliver has been in the basement. Anyway, Oliver was overjoyed when Davis got home from work and they could go down to the basement and work. Despite the warmer weather this weekend Oliver wanted to spend most of the weekend in the basement.


We did manage to drag Oliver out of the basement for a walk. Given the warmer temperatures we put him in his fleece suit rather than his full snowsuit. There is something about this suit, one of the many fantastic hand-me-downs we've gotten from my cousin, that we love. And, for the most part, other people seem to love it too. When we were out on our walk many people commented, people on foot and driving by in cars, on his great suit.

His little friend Carragh however, is not a big fan. Just before Christmas Oliver and I were out in front of our house putting up garland. Oliver was in his suit and was, for once, just standing still. When Brigid and Carragh pulled up Carragh was scared to get out of the car - until we pulled off Oliver's hood and until Oliver said hello. And Brigid, well, she thought I was putting out a holiday lawn ornament.

Kiss a Fish

We visited the New England Aquarium today - a perfect activity for a frigid day.

Davis, Oliver and our friends Andrew and Maria explored the touch tank. Both Oliver and Maria favored the starfish over the other sea creatures.


We were fortunate enough to be there when the penguins got fed - we all loved watching the little penguins snatch up the fish and then dive back into the water. Although Oliver spent a good amount of time watching the penguins eat and swim, his favorite part of the aquarium was the fish - good thing there were so many different fish for him to see!



And here is my favorite picture from the day - Oliver trying to plant a kiss on a fish as it went swimming by.