Oliver and his new racetrack

Bob couldn't wait til Christmas so we gave it to him yesterday. He loves this thing and will play with it for hours. He took all those cars and lined them up there and just kept racing them around!!

cookies for Santa

Oliver painted this plate to put out cookies for Santa. What a great job! I did the stripes on the edge but he did everything else. He even did some spots by dipping his finger in the paint.

Cutest socks ever!

I love cereal!!!!

ok it worked!

I took Oliver to dinner at Arby's because he was still dry! He had roast beef and curly fries with lemonade and then we shared a mint chocolate shake (new and DELICIOUS!). Then we went to Babies R Us to get some diapers. We stopped in at the restroom first, thinking I'd have a soggy diaper to change. Nope!! He was still dry! He peed and pooped in the potty there! I didn't get him another treat but he did so well. He was even still dry when I put him to bed.

When we got to Arby's I was lugging the car seat in and trying to wrangle Oliver, too. I managed to order without much trouble and then as we were trying to make our way to the drink dispensers the lady behind us in line asked if she could help by carrying Wyatt to the table. I gratefully accepted but as soon as she picked up the seat Oliver burst into tears. I guess he thought she was going to take him away. Poor thing! I reassured him that she was just helping and she talked to him for a minute to make him feel better. She was very impressed that he had stayed dry all day and told him so. I guess he felt better because then we grabbed our drinks and went to the table. We thanked her and she went on her way to meet back up with (what I assume was) her hubby and eat some roast beef. Oliver takes FOREVER to eat so we were there quite a while. As they were getting up to leave (I didn't see where they sat but it was apparently somewhere that they could see us) she came over and told me how much she was impressed by the way I interacted with the boys. She said she had two kids close in age and that it's not always going to be so hard. (Can I blame it on post pregnancy hormones? I got all misty! and had to wipe the tears from my eyes.). I don't know why but it means a lot - being told by a complete stranger that I'm a good mom.

Going broke...

Oliver has stayed dry ...completely dry...for two days. Actually, I take that back. He stayed dry all day up until 5:45 last night. This is significant because I had made a deal with him that if he stayed dry until 6 we'd go out for a special dinner. He was dry alllll day, even after his (2 hour) nap. So he had waffles with syrup instead...still pretty special!

Today he has been dry all day again. The same deal applies, if he's dry until 6 we're going out!

In the meantime he gets a quarter for each time I take him and a dollar for each time he tells me he has to go. I'm going broke!

go potty, get a dollllllar

go potty get a dollar!

go potty, get a dollllar!

go potty, get a dollar!!


He only gets a dollar if he tells me he has to go. So far today we've got two dollars and one quarter (for going when I take him)

Two firsts...

Bob got the exersaucer down from the attic yesterday. He thought Wyatt would be big enough to try it out and he actually did really well. He gets tired after about 5 minutes but he plays so hard while he's in there. His favorite toy on there is the book but I didn't get a picture of him playing with it.

Of course, Oliver wanted in on the action so he showed Wyatt how to play with everything...just like a big brother is supposed to.

When I got home I decided to try some rice cereal. It's still a few weeks before his 4 month birthday but he's good at holding his head up and he's so hungry! So anyway we tried it and he LOVED it. He spit out the first three or four spoons but after that he got the hang of it and he wolfed the rest of what I made. I only made a tiny little bit but I was pretty impressed anyway!

yummy!

I love how the boys play together

Wyatt's favorite person is Oliver. He smiles the biggest and coos the loudest when Oliver plays with him. Oliver is getting better at being gentle when he's around Wyatt. He likes reading to him (making up stories and pointing to the pictures in the book), showing him toys and letting him hold them. He sometimes still doesn't know what is ok for Wyatt to play with or not. I put all Wyatt's toys in one bin so it'd be easier but he still sometimes gives him cars or stuff. Just a minute ago he had a stuffed cow and was showing Wyatt and singing "I'm a cow! I'm a cow!" It was so cute.

Even though Oliver tries to shove his pacifier in Wyatt's mouth at random times and sometimes bonks him in the head with a toy when he gets too excited, and Wyatt sometimes hits or kicks Oliver with his wildly swinging limbs, they are still best buds. I can tell, even a this young age, that they love each other.

the biggest tower in the woooooorld!!

Why is the child only wearing one sock?!?!

Go ahead, try to resist the cuteness...

Bob made Wyatt a fort so he could sit up and watch Oliver play

"hey ladies"

All dressed up!

Oliver tried on his fancy outfit for the first time today. We're thinking of wearing it for Thanksgiving. He was such a poser while I was taking his picture that I couldn't resist putting up more than one picture. Thank you to Aunt Sarah for the shirt and vest, gramma and grampa for the pants!

Oliver says...

I'm the BIGGEST OLIVER IN THE WORLD!

He sings Twinkle Twinkle Little Star
He sings Moon Moon Moon (Laurie Burkner)
He sings The Bear Song (Gramma!)

Me: "Oliver, who's on the penny?"
Oliver: "Labe Lincoln!!"

Don't like it!! - (to everything!)

Oliver do it!

Don't cry, Quiet...(he still calls Wyatt Quiet. it's so cute!)

Daddy works there! Mim works there, too! (whenever he sees an RTG logo or commercial)

When he wants socks on he says he wants them so his feet won't get "coldy moldy"

He said "man...up there" once and now I don't like going in his room

He's a chatty little guy...he goes up to people in the store and says "hi, how ya doin?"

Mim sungle Oliver? (snuggle)

Oliver: Oliver have chicken
Me: what chicken? (it's not time to eat)
Oliver: chicken in back yard!
Me: what? I don't see a chicken!
Oliver: Dancing Chicken!
me: a dancing chicken? What's his name?
Oliver: Mim...Dancing Chicken!
Me: oooooh, well that makes sense! Where'd he learn to dance?
Oliver: Oliver teach it!
Me: Well then he must have some really cool moves
Oliver: Nooooooo, Mim

super duper! or awesome! when he thinks something is really cool

I can't believe how much he talks!

No update for a week...

It has been such a busy week! I don't know what we did but we were busy, I swear!

Oliver's been super busy lately. He builds lego towers all day long. When he knocks it down he just says "build it again!" and then does. He's also still crazy about lining up his cars on the TV table. Speaking of which, we got a new TV. Someone we know upgraded to a flat panel and gave us their old one. The new one is HUGE...even bigger than our old huge one. I'm glad we got it replaced though. The old one had a big green spot on one side. I can't complain too much though, that one was given to us too. Oliver has also been more self sufficient. He's putting on his own clothes, feeding himself without making a huge mess, washing himself in the bath, cleaning up his toys. It's like he's a ...kid! He's still napping once a day but instead of an hour it's an hour and a half or two hours.

Wyatt is getting bigger and bigger. He weighs about 15 pounds now and eats like a fiend. He's getting really good at grabbing stuff and getting it to his mouth. He loves those link things...we call them linka dinkas. He gets one in each hand and just goes to town! He's good at sleeping - 7 hours in a row last night!! That's a first, though. Usually it's 5 or 6 at a time. That's still better than Oliver ever did. He's such a happy baby - always smiling and laughing. He likes to fly and he likes being bounced up and down. He still doesn't mind having a bath, but getting out is just the worst thing ever. Probably because it's cold. His favorite thing to do is watch Oliver. He will just stare at Oliver for the longest time. He gets so excited when Oliver plays with him!

Thanksgiving is this week and I'm just not sure if I have enough energy to be excited about it. We're going to Bob's dad's house again this year to visit with them and Bob's sisters. RTG gave me a 20 pound turkey for Thanksgiving. I put it in the freezer...I have no idea how to cook a turkey!

It's getting cold and we had our first snow a few days ago. I woke up and looked out the window to see the snow all over the ground. Oliver was pretty excited but it was too cold to take Wyatt out so he didn't get to play in it. It might have been too cold for ME to go out, too!

I'm not sure if I mentioned that my mom and sister and their hubbies came to visit. I have pictures so if I look back and see that I didn't post it then I will put the pictures up and write about it when I'm back on the big computer. I'm on the laptop right now so I can't get to the pictures.

Bob is almost done with school for the semester!! I'm so excited that I can barely stand it! It'll be nice to have some evening together instead of always having one of us home and one at work or school. It's so hard to keep everything together...we hardly ever have time to ourselves. When we ARE both home it's usually only for an hour or two and Bob will work on schoolwork or I have housework to catch up on. It seems neverending. It's going to be nice to get to relax together. Maybe we can find a babysitter and have a DATE!!!

i guess that's all for now. I'm tired and it's getting late. I'll try to post those pictures tomorrow...and maybe some others, too.

sleepy boy snuggles

a visit!

I was very slack with the camera so I'm hoping everyone will email the pictures they took. Here is on of Gramma with Oliver and one with Wyatt. We all had a good visit and ate some really yummy food! Oliver showed off his football skils and his disappearing hand trick. Wyatt was full of smiles and giggles. I hope everyone else had as good a time as we did!!

There were lots of animals, too!

Oliver and I rode a camel. It was very high and I was a little nervous. The guy said that the top of this camel's hump (where I was sitting) was 7 feet off the ground. The camel was pretty docile though and there were no mishaps.

Here's a close up of the camels face. Rather handsome, isn't he?

Oliver also fed some sheep and petted them, too. He was very brave because I sure wasn't putting my hands anywhere near their icky slimy mouths...yuck!

Oliver and a fairy!!

We saw a fairy hanging out in the middle of the main walkway. She was very pretty so Oliver went over to say hi. When we got up close he wouldn't talk so she reached into her bag...

and pulled out a stone. He promptly took her gift and thanked her. She sprinkled a little fairy dust on him and then...

she played him a song. It was very very sweet.


The fairy wasn't the only person he interacted with. We stopped to listen to a pirate playing a small accordian. Oliver put a couple of quarters in her treasure chest so she sang him a special song...Twinkle Twinkle Little Staaaaargh! We all got a kick out of that!

I forgot this guy...

This was a red-tailed hawk. He wasn't very cooperative during the demonstration. He kept flying up into the trees and such. He was really pretty! The guy showed us how he hunts and told us about how great his eyesight it. He also said that when you hear an eagle in a movie it's actually a red-tailed hawk. Pretty weird.

Renaissance Fair bird show...

This is the great horned owl from the show at the fair. The guy had lots of interesting facts about all the birds he showed. This owl was rescued after a storm knocked him out of the nest and injured him. While he was recovering he got so used to humans that he couldn't go back to the wild. Instead of hooting like a normal owl he makes a noise that baby owls make when they are hungry...he never had a mommy to teach him.
This is Igor. He's a vulture. He is very smart...the guy said he can recognize the yellow paper they wrap turkey legs in and that he'll go after them. When Igor first came out he flew about halfway down the main aisle and peeked under one of the benches. The guy said that TWO YEARS ago he found a turkey leg under that bench and has checked it every show since then. During the show he did end up taking someone's turkey leg because they hadn't put it away (like the man asked at the beginning of the show).

I don't remember the name of this snake but he was very pretty! The guy brought some kids on stage to hold it...they did pretty well but some of them looked pretty scared. He didn't really do much, he was just nice to look at.