No pictures today...

I don't have any new pictures to post today, nor the time to do it, but tomorrow...probably Monday I'll have a bunch. We've been working on the playroom some more and it's looking great! I painted the barrier that will go between the kitchen and the playroom earlier today. Well...I started painting it, I have to wait for it to dry so I can add the accents. I'm so excited about it!

Bob mowed the grass and trimmed the bushes. Then he came in all sweaty and wanted to give me a hug. GROSS! Why do men DO that?

Oliver has been very good the last few days. He plays and plays and takes naps when he needs to (still twice a day, sometimes 3 times). He goes down at night fairly well, and the last two nights he only woke up once! Last night it was just for about 10 minutes - I rocked him and he went right back to sleep. So he slept from about 11 until 2:45 then from about 3 until 7:30 then 8 until 9:30...oh how nice!

Work in Progress...

Oliver now has his own TV and DVD player in his playroom. Actually this is an old one we had sitting around so we put it in there so he can watch his Baby Einstein DVD's while he's playing.
Over here is a chalkboard wall. Not much use to him now, but it won't be long before he's drawing and coloring. In the meantime I'll probably have as much fun with it as I do with the door to his room!
We found these at Sam's. We were looking for them everywhere, but they are a little pricey! At Sam's we found 8 for $20 instead of 4 for $20 like at Toys R Us. They came with borders, too. Look how pretty! We only got one for now, but in a few weeks we are going back to get more.

update from the last post...

We went to Olan Mills today to re-do the photo shoot. Before we started we asked if there was anything they could do with the pictures they took yesterday. The guy told us to hang out for a bit and he'd see what he could do. After about 15 minutes he came back and said that he was able to fix the pictures! Hooray! We ended up buying quite a few sheets because after he got them all fixed he told us that as compensation he'd give us a discount on the sheets - from 12.99 per sheet to 6.99 per sheet!! Plus we still got the 6 post cards and the dream print! So anyway, that all turned out just fine.

Also, Oliver went from laying to sitting all by himself tonight! That's one more milestone reached! Yaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay, Boobah!

We (mostly Bob) got some work done in the dining/playroom tonight too. I'll post a few pictures tomorrow.

One more thing...Babes in Blogland is shutting down. It's very sad! I always went there to check on the babies who were born the same day as Oliver but now I've had to add them to favorites. Anyone know of a simliar site?

from 0 to 9...

Oliver is 9 months old today. He's getting so big and learning so much. It's amazing at how much he's changed in so little time. He's still my little man, though.

Here's an update on how he's developing, according to the book...
blue are things he can do, red are things he isn't doing yet

According to the book, by now he...
should be able to:

stand holding onto someone or something
pull up to standing from sitting
object if you try to take a toy away (or the remote!!)
say "mama" or "dada" indiscriminately
play peekaboo
exchange back and forth gestures with you

will probably be able to:

get into a sitting position from stomach
play patty-cake (clap hands) or wave bye bye
pick up a tiny object with any part of thumb and finger
walk holding onto furniture
udnerstand "no" (but not always obey it)

May possibly be able to:

stand alone momentarily
say "dada" or "mama" discriminately
point at something to get needs met

May even be able to:

indicate wants in ways other than crying
roll a ball back to you
drink from a cup
pick up a tiny object neatly with thumb and finger
stand alone well
use immature jargoning (gibberish that sounds like made up language)
say one word other than "mama" or "dada"
respond to a one step command with gestures
walk well

It says nothing about crawling in this section, but he's still not crawling. He's still scooching/army crawling/lunging. He gets around though. He's definately more interested in cruising than crawling. He's gotten a lot more chatty too. He'll sit there and babble out a whole sentence then look at you expectantly. He expecially likes "having conversation" when he's in the car. I guess because he can't see us, but as long as we're talking to him then he knows we're there. He's started to get a little bit of the dreaded "stranger anxiety". He's not as quick with the smile and groups of more than 2 people make him cranky.

We went to get his pictures taken yesterday at Olan Mills. Oliver wasn't particularly happy about it but we did pretty well. After we were finished (about 20 minutes or so...5 different backgrounds...and it was HOT!!) she said she was going to crop the pictures and make them all pretty before she showed them to us. A few minutes later she came out and said that something was wrong with the camera and none of the pictures were usable!!!! Apparently they had been doing some training and left the camera on some weird setting that messed up the lighting. It really sucks because now we have to go back and do it all over again. There was one picture that was sooooo adorable! He was sitting on a little rocking horse type thing and he had one hand up in the air like "yeeeeehawwwww!" So anyway, to compensate us (we didn't ask...in fact we would have been fine to come back) they said they would give us a 10X13 dream print. That's in addition to the zillion pictures we are already getting and the post card thingys too! Anyway we go back today at 3.

He's come a long way...

Bob got Oliver a ball with Spongebob on it. At first he wasn't too sure what to do with this weird round thing...

Then he got a bit excited...

After a few minutes he figured out that this thing is fun!

Look at my teeth!!

These first two pictures are to show his top teeth. They are growing in and they are soooo big! He threw his book in the way of the picture on this second one, but you can see his teeth really well.

This is just cute...cute cute cute!

This one too, just look at his eyes! He has such an intense look sometimes.

Jenn - thanks! I liked it too. My mom sewed it for me. She even made the 44 buttons that went down the back. Great job, Mom!!!

Happy Monthaversary!!

Today Bob and I have been married for 33 months! The time has gone by so quickly that it barely seems like it's been almost 3 years. Happy Monthaversary, Cuppycake!! *smoooooch*

oh the cuteness!

Oliver loves to stand up in his bed now. Whenever I put him in there he pulls himself right up. Usually he makes his way to the corner and chews on the rail. Silly little guy! Sometimes he still has a hard time pulling himself up but he's figuring out how to get those chubby legs under himself so he can use them, too.

Something new

I got this a few days ago and today I tried it on Oliver's diapers. It's kind of hard to get the ball of Oxiclean into the little pouch/bubble holder thingy, but once it's in you can leave it in the washer for 25 loads! Anyway, it worked great. Oliver's diapers look so clean and white, and it got out all the poo stains! Hooray for Oxiclean!

watch out Asheville!

Apparently there were some crop circles found in West Asheville recently. If you zoom in on that picture it looks like cartoon eyes. Hahahahaha!

It IS!!!

Knitting Mama was right - it is Mr Bump from the Mr. Men books. I loved these books as a kid. I found out that they have them at Target!! I'm not sure why the video didn't work...I had to hit play twice to get it to go but it worked for me. Strange!

Paisley - funny you should mention it. I call Miss O "Oliver's internet twin" because they look a little alike and they have the same name.

Speaking of which...the last picture in this group reminds me of Oliver so much.

some nifty stuff...

Check this out...Scroll down a bit until you see a picture of a baby in a huge hand chair. This is Sean, isn't he cute? He's sitting in a hand chair with a knitted glove! I think it's cute and funny! Look here to see how it was made. How funky is that?!

Want to find out how popular you are? This will show you how many links there are to your blog. I am (not too suprisingly) not very popular. I was a little disappointed though because I know I have regular readers. :-(

Does anyone know who this is? You can find out here. If you already know then GOOD FOR YOU! I took this to work (it's a heat/cold pack) and no one knew who he was. They all thought he was the blue M&M with a hat and pants on. These guys are one of the fun things I remember about my childhood. I'm trying to find the books to get for Oliver!

he's getting there!

Oliver likes playing in his bed now. He really likes it in the corner for some reason.

Photo Sharing - Upload Video - Video Sharing - Share Photos

Look at meeeeee!

Oliver was chewing on his thumb...and he was very serious about it. What an intense look!

Here's little goober face again. I swear he does this all the time. It's so adorable, though!

He's decided that sticking out his tongue helps him do things. He sticks his tongue when he's trying to crawl, when he's trying to reach, when he's trying to stand up, when he's...

just some random info...

Oliver slept from 7pm until 8 am yesterday. He usually falls asleep around 7 and then wakes up around 9 or so for about an hour and then goes back to sleep but he slept all the way through this time. In his own bed! Actually he woke up around 2:30 to eat and then went back to sleep until 5ish when he woke up to eat...then he woke up at 8. We were both very well rested, I had gone to bed early because I figured he'd be up early. I was so excited - other people's kids sleep like this all the time. Not Oliver, he's a night owl. He usually doesn't go down until around 10 or 11 and then is up at least once in the middle of the night. We've tried everything to make him sleep better/longer, but nothing has worked.

He's got both top teeth now! Right top tooth broke through about a day or so after left top tooth. Now he scrapes them all together to make that horrible grating sound. He does it when he chews now, too. It's so horrible!

Bob has convinced me to allow anonymous comments on my blog. His reasoning is that some people who read might not have a blogger account or a google account so they wouldn't be able to leave a comment. Well, I love comments so I guess it's ok. I really like checking out the people who leave the comments though, so I prefer comments that are not anonymous!

Bob found out that the counter by the back door is not attatched to the wall. We're going to actually be moving it now that we know that because it's in a really stupid place and isn't useful at all. That means we'll have weird random cabinets just floating over there, but that's ok. Now the stinky ol' trash can will be by the back door where it belongs.

I cleaned up yesterday so my house is/was sparkling! Oliver had fun "helping" me vacuum and hang clothes on the clothesline. He rode in his Snugli while we did those things, and then he played and watched his video while I folded clothes and some various other small stuff. Then he took a nap while I did dishes and finished folding the rest of the clothes. I was busy busy all day!

get the lead out!

Here is a report showing that high levels of lead were found in bibs sold by Wal-Mart. There was lead found in some lunch boxes as well. Lead can be a serious problem, especially in children! Check this out to find out more. You can test for lead relatively easily, see the first link for more information on that.

He's enthralled...

Oliver was watching his Baby Einstein video earlier and this is what he looked like. These pictures were taken about a minute apart. He didn't move! I just turned it on for background music while he was playing...see all the toys?...but he started watching it while I was cleaning up a little bit. He loves to watch the little puppet shows.

from start to finish!

This is what the laundry room looked like today when I woke up. Nasty, right? spiderwebs everywhere, no shelves, no walls! Well, after much hard work Bob and I (mostly Bob) did this...

Actually, Bob did all the insulation because he didn't want any fiberglass getting on Oliver. Anyway, when he finished with that Oliver was asleep so we did this...

Ok, so the walls were up. Then we installed my mother's day present, which made it look like THIS!

Yay! I have shelves to put my stuff on! LOOOOOOK! My 3 different laundry detergents (one for adult clothes, one for baby clothes, and one for diapers - in that order) and fabric softener. (Bounce, if you must know). The rest of that super long shelf is going to hold canned food and perhaps spare cereal and stuff, as well as extra Oliver food. Hooray for shelves!

Playing in bed...

Oliver had his first sleepover at Pappy and Nanny's house. This is the crib that he played in while we got ready. Little stinker wouldn't sleep in it - he was too overexcited. I love this crib!
This is Oliver's new expression. He makes this face all the time now. I think he's testing the feeling of teeth on bottom lip, but isn't it cute?
Of course, we couldn't put these up without this one. He chews on the rail of the crib. I kept telling him no, but he ignored me. He can get up like this with no trouble now. He's so strong!

Memorial Day fun!

We went to Raleigh to visit Nanny and Pappy and ride in their new boat. It was shiny and yellow! We had a lot of fun, we even got to ride in the tube. Oliver didn't like the tube very much so we were only in there for a few minutes. We had a picnic on the boat and, as usual, poor Mommy got sick! Here are a few pictures of us having a grand time.
Oliver looked really cool in his swimming shorts. Don't worry he was completely covered with suntan lotion. No burns for this boy!
Bob and I rode in the front of the boat for a bit and here's a picture that someone took from behind us. Awwwww!