We went to SC this past weekend to visit my dad and see his new house. We had a good time, and Oliver really liked playing cars with Grampa. He was a bit scared of Grampa at first but it didn't take long for them to become friends. Oliver even helped Grampa in the garden a little bit.

Here they are in the garage looking for peep peeps. Oliver heard one but it must have been outside.
The unsolicited hug!

a belly shot...finally!

31 weeks (ish)

What the... ... ...HAIL??

Last night I was at work when Bob told me it was pouring down hail at the house! It didn't last long but it tore up the trees and flowers. We didn't get any of this at work (where I was) and it's only about 15 minutes away!

Playing in his room...

Oliver looks so pleased to have so many cars. Some of them are new, we just got a pack of "wee-ooohs" the other day. What is a "wee-oooh" you might ask? Well...any type of vehicle with a siren - ambulance, police car, and most of all the fire truck.

Here he's pointing out where the man sits in the truck. He always does this with every car he picks up. Sometimes he says man and sometimes he says Daddy. I wonder how he determines which one.

In this one he's putting the cars away when he was done playing. He did such a good job of cleaning up his room.
When he was done playing with the cars and had put them away he got out his animals. Of course, there are people in there, too. He's holding the doctor lady and the cowboy and he was smooching them and then making them smooch each other. He's so affectionate!

Updates, but just a few...more to follow

Since putting Oliver in his own room he has slept really well 2 out of 3 nights. The first night was wonderful for him - not so much for me. I woke every time there was the slightest sound in the monitor. I'd go in to check and he'd be sleeping soundly. The second night he woke up a few times calling for "honey" which is what he calls me sometimes now and I had to actually go in to put him back down. Last night I woke up twice, but he was asleep the ony time I went in. The other time he didn't make any more noise so I just went back to sleep. I can't believe how nice it is to get so much sleep. I had really forgotten!

We got our new dishwasher - which leaked. We had a tech out today and he said it's defective and we need a new one. We are going to try to return that one all together and get another one at Lowes. HHGregg didn't really treat us very nicely when we told them we needed a new one. This should all happen tomorrow.

The big boy room...

I finally caved and decided it was time to move Oliver into his own room. I cleaned it up and vacuumed really well - we moved Bob's dresser and my rocking chair out and moved the boy bed in. Oliver seemed to like it really well. He played on his little town rug with his (new) cars and got up in his bed a few times to pretend sleep. He had a pretty hard time going to sleep tonight because there was so much to look at but hopefully he'll still sleep ok. He's right across the hall...he's RIGHT ACROSS the hall...that's what I have to keep telling myself.

Potty news: Oliver had a few wet diapers today but he pooped in the potty and peed 4 or 5 times, too. I'm so proud of the little man!

Playing outside

Here is Oliver playing with a bucket of rocks...

Here he is sitting on the porch after he'd gotten a little tired. After a minute he turned around and started knocking on the door so he could go in.
Here he is pulling his new wagon. We were at Target the other day looking for something else completely but when Oliver saw this he dragged it off the shelf and around the aisles. Bob is a complete sucker so we took it home with us. It does come in handy for carting around watering cans and garden tools, though.

Eye hand coordination is fun!

We played outside today for a loooong time. Oliver pulled his wagon around (will post pics of that later) and helped me water the flowers...and himself. He spent about half an hour scooping up rocks with his trowel and putting them in that bucket and then pouring the bucket back out so he could do it again. I just let him because he was playing quietly, not running into the road, and working on a very important skill - eye hand coordination. He was having a really hard time keeping the rocks on the trowel at first until he figured out to keep it level until he got it to the bucket. After that it was no problem...he'd rake them loose from the ground and then scoop scoop scoop them up. Bob took the last picture and it turned out so well that I just had to post it.

Potty Training Breakthrough!

Yesterday first thing in the morning Oliver came to me and said "potty! potty! potty!" So I took him to the potty and he peed and pooped in the potty! A while later he did it again...and again...and again! I only changed one diaper yesterday - it was (unfortunately) a poop diaper but I think it was because he was just SO tired that he didn't remember to tell me he had to go. He even woke up from his nap dry and went in the potty after that. Thinking this was some kind of fluke and it was a one time deal I didn't expect much today...I was hopeful and optimistic, but I wanted to be realistic. However, the little guy suprised me and has gone potty 3 times already today and had NO wet diapers again! I think he's finally got it! I'm soooooo proud of the little man and very thankful that the diaper days are almost gone...at least for a month or two.

Thank you, George!

Yesterday we got our stimulus check in the mail. We went out looking for dishwashers (which we need because the one we have has a crack that leaks steam when it runs and it's ruining the counter) but ended up with this. A new bedding set! This is what I used part of my "fun money" from the check on. We really needed a new quilt because the one we had (we got for a wedding present) has a tear in it and the sheets were starting to get holey. Anyway, this set came with 2 shams, a comforter, a bed skirt, a flat sheet, a fitted sheet and two pillowcases! All for a VERY reasonable price! The comforter and shams are reversable - the second picture is one side, the third picture is the other side. The last picture is the sheets. This will also match our old sheets, which are red. I'm sooooo excited to get into bed tonight!

We did end up getting a dishwasher, too. We paid less that what we budgeted and got the one I really really liked from HHGregg. I'll take pictures when we get in installed, hopefully on Saturday. We saved by picking it up and installing it ourselves - hopefully everything will go ok!

New shirt

My mom got Oliver a new shirt for my birthday...Here's his reaction...

The shirt says "Save my planet" and has a picture of a planet and an alien. Toooooo cute!
Oliver, What do we need to save?

"my PLANET!"

The sweet sweet sound of mookie...

Bob got out this old keyboard that I had when I was a kid. Oliver just loves playing it! It has some buttons where you can change the instrument sounds and a setting where you can push a button and it plays a beat by itself. He's good at playing and dancing, too! I think he's figuring out that one end plays low notes and one end plays high notes...he goes back and forth with those busy little fingers and listens to the difference. I took a couple of videos that I may or may not post within a few days. (by the way "mookie" is how Oliver says music)

finger painting...fun?

I tried out Oliver with some finger paints. I really needed him to be occupied while I tried to tidy up the kitchen (see in the background?!) so I put one of my old T-shirts on him for a smock and got out some red and blue paint. He seemed to have fun, but all I heard the whole time was "messy! messy! messsyyyyy!"...I don't know where this boy got his neat-freakness from! He did paint long enough for me to get the dishwasher loaded and the counters cleaned. We got 4 good pictures, too. I'll have to get pictures of them and post them on here at some point.

This is how the trip ended...

Oliver fell asleep before we even got out of the parking lot!

We went to the zoo in Asheboro on day #3 of Mother's Day fun. We spent about 3 hours there, I think. We only went through Africa because Oliver was sooo tired and my legs were beginning to hurt. We saw lots of animals (see pictures below) and had a grand time. Oliver got this hat which looks oh so incredibly cute on him! It looks even cuter with the sunglasses we got him later on. Anyway, we had a great time! More to follow about the rest of the day but I'm tired and just want to go to bed.

The lion

When we went by the lions the first time they were both asleep but when we went back by on our way out the male was awake. I think he was still tired though because he yawned 3 times in just the 3 or 4 minutes we were there.