check out this cool toy!

Oliver got this from my grandparents for his birthday. They are stacking cups, which I couldn't find a decent set of anywhere. The little head has a bell in it so it jingles. Not only do they stack like this...

but they also click together (with the next size up or down) to make balls.

You can even put them all together into one ball if you put the smallest two together and then keep putting the next biggest one on the opposite side. Sewe the colors layered there?

They stack this way...

and you can stack a smaller one on any larger one because they have little grooves in them to fit together.
This is a very cool toy. Oliver likes to use them as bowls (even though they have holes in the bottom) and slurp out pretend soup. He laughs and laughs!

nothing of substance...

I went to the eye dr today and they said my contact prescription was too strong. I now have the correct prescription and some new fancy contacts that are ok to sleep in! The guy kind of yelled at me a little about sleeping in my contacts because my eyes can't breathe. I'm hoping to get a pair of glasses this time so I can take my contacts out at night without having to worry about what I'll do if I have to get up in the middle of the night. I can't see a darn thing, especially in the dark, without my contacts.

Bob went, too. He still has perfect vision but still needs prism glasses. This is good I guess since hopefully Oliver will inherit his eyesight and my eye muscles. hehe!

they came two by two

and they were so cute!

I should post more often...

but who has time?! Between cooking, cleaning, taking care of Oliver, and working I have practically no free time. When I do get free time I just want to sit like a lump and do nothing. Although for the past few days when I get home from work Bob and I will sit and talk or play a game. AAAAh, quality time! It's a good way to wind down the day. We've been going to bed earlier too. Oliver sleeps through the night with NO wakings most of the time now. It's so nice...and he does it without having used the CIO method. Now that he's sleeping better we'll be moving his bed into his room as soon as we get the blinds up in there. I'm not thrilled about it, but it's the next step. It will be nice to have our own room back.

since he's a year old now...

He's got some new material...

He says tickle tickle tickle
He helps put on his clothes (been doing this for a while)
He walks if you hold his hand
He likes stacking things (cups, bowls, blocks)
He speaks gibberish fluently
He sits in his car seat facing the front
He dances to music
He orders food from the kids menu when we go out
He doesn't put everything in his mouth (right away)
He plays peek-a-boo (he ducks behind something and then pops out..it's too cute!)
He makes vroom noises when he plays with cars


I'm sure this isn't all but it's all I can think of for now. He's a big boy and so smart and cute and funny! What a flirt, too.

oliver at the zoo

He's not too sure about that cold stuff!

Checking out the bears.

Pointing at puffins.

By the polar bear tank.

a few more animal pictures

the elk...

We saw the elk...one male and one female...oh how peaceful they look..

but wait! What's this?

Yikes! we backed off the rail as soon as we read it but not before the male elk spotted us and gave out a warning. It sounded like a very LOUD rusty gate. He did it 3 times while we were there even though we were far from the rail after the first time. We had to keep pointing out the sign to other people because they just walked right up.

An interesting fact about his rack - once breeding season is over the antlers fall off. The female elk will eat them - since they are high in calcium and phosphorous they help to nourish the baby elk. How cool is THAT?!

some more pictures of animals...

We got a good view of the elephants because when we came over they were throwing fruit out to them. There were 3 (2 female and on male) and they all came up really close.

This is the grizzly bear. He came up really close as well although he wasn't being fed. He was HUGE!
Here are some bison that were sitting on top of a hill. They didn't move much but they looked pretty cool up there.

The ocelot was sitting there waiting for us when we walked up. He stretched and then went back into the shade of the trees.

On his actual birthday...

we went to the zoo. Here's a few pictures of Oliver checking out the animals. The gorilla played peek-a boo with him. She kept peeking around that metal bar to look at him.

He's pointing at the flamingos.

The bear came right up to see him. That rock is the closest he could get to the viewing area. Oliver waved and called him "kitty kitty kitty!" Some people looked at us like we were crazy.
The otters put on quite a show for him. There were two of them and they just kept swimming by and doing summersaults under the water.

The zoo was rather deserted since all the kids are back in school so we had the place mostly to ourselves. It was nice to not have to push through people to see or worry about anyone getting in front of Oliver so he couldn't see.

matching shirts...

This is the back view of the matching shirts Bob ordered for us...

and here's the front. Underneath the little symbol is our names (Mom, Dad, Oliver)

cowboy family...

Here we are dressed up for the party

Has it been a year already?!

One year ago this little guy was born. Happy birthday, Oliver!

Happy anniversary!!

Bob and I have been married for 3 years! You're still my favorite, Cuppycake!

sweet smilin' boy

He's a sweet boy most of the time, but he was sooooo cranky today. He was tired and I think his teeth were hurting so after a bottle of juice, some teething meds, an hour and a half of rocking, half an hour of playing, and I don't even know how many verses of Itsy Bitsy Spider I finally gave up and gave him some Tylenol. He's asleep now. Hopefully he'll feel better when he wakes up.

Big boy jammies...

As you may or may have noticed I am obsessed with pajamas for Oliver. Well since he's turning one we got him some big boy jammies. It's two pieces, little pants and a little shirt. This is his first set of two piece pajamas, although if I had my way he'd wear footed sleepers for ever! He looks absolutely adorable in them. There's a little bear holding tools on the shirt and it says "Daddy's Little Helper", the other set that came with these is gray and has tools all over them. I can't believe my baby is so big!

Oliver's first birthday present...

Aunt Sarah gave this to Oliver over the weekend we were in Asheville. It's a Little People dinosaur playset. He really likes it! He is good at taking the dinos out of the caves but hasn't quite figured out how to manipulate them so they fit back in.

The caveboy, who I've named Ug, sits in the top of the tree.

isn't this always the way it works?

We finally made the last payment on the Saturn! It's COMPLETELY MINE NOW!! HOOOORAY! I drove it to Asheville and it did fine, even up the mountain. I drove it home and it did fine. That was this past weekend. Then on Wednesday we made the final payment and sent it in. That evening we were doing some shopping for Oliver's party and Bob dropped me off at work. On his way home it started making a loud CLUNK every time it changed gears. We took it to the shop and they said the transmission is going out!! Are you kidding me with this? I thought this was stuff that only happened in movies and bad commercials. Luckily we have the warranty so it's (mostly) covered but I just can't get over the fact that it happened right after we made the last payment!

Oliver's new word...

We went to Asheville to visit this weekend for my dad's 50th birthday party. While we were there Oliver picked up the word "kitty"! Of course, it's really funny when he says it because when he says the 't' part he sticks his tongue out. He's so cute! Since then I've been trying with other words...saying them clearly and showing him what they are (duck, dog, spoon, cup, etc) but he's stuck on kitty. He even called some bears "kitty". What a silly boy!