Saturday morning routine

I really love my Saturday morning routine - even more so now that it is getting warm out.  Oliver and I head out to the farmers market where we often meet a friend of mine and her dog.  Last summer, I would have oliver in the sling, but now we take the trike.  Sometimes we also incorporate a trip to the playground, on days that I am on deck for the early shift (up at 6:30am).  Trying to keep him quiet and entertained in the house while others are sleeping isn't easy!  

He is FINALLY out of his clingy phase and is happy to meander around the park after we are done shopping, while we ladies gab.  More recently, the trip concludes with an apple cider donut, once we get home.  Yum yum!!!

Easter Photos

We spent Easter with my dad this year.  I didn't have any luck taking a photo of the 7 grandkids where most of them looked good - maybe someone else got lucky.  I can't even remember the last time we got a photo with the whole family!  Last time Nicole was home from Colorado at the same time that I was with the family for the holidays one of the kiddies was asleep, so the photo didn't include the whole crew. 

How fortunate that we had two au pairs to act as photographers!

The whole family!

Our Budding Artist

Oliver is just about old enough that Jana can do activities with him, making her days a bit more interesting.  She's had varying degrees of success so far.  Adam & I are trying to help her come up with new things to do and we're all open to any ideas/tips if you've got them!

Last week Jana and Oliver took advantage of the delightful weather and attempted fingerpainting.  It ended up being a mess and not a whole lot of fun for either of them.  I was working from home that day and got to be photographer (and bath assistant). 

The next day, they opened up one of Oliver's birthday presents - a coloring station!  We officially have Oliver's first piece of artwork (to go in the yet-started babybook). 

Little Devil

Spent the weekend in Jersey.  My mom especially gave Oliver his space so he could warm up to her.  Of course that happened about 15min before we left!!!!

Oliver's Newest Trick

Lil man just figured out how to climb up and stand on his new chair.  Bets on how long it takes for him to nosedive off? We've reached yet another level of SCARY!!!

Zoo Fun

Here are photos from their day at the Zoo!  We'll probably get a family membership so we can go more frequently. 

Family Fun

While Jana's mom was visiting, Oliver got to see & do lots of things including, a trip to Lambertville/New Hope, a visit to the zoo, outlet shopping in lancaster, multiple trips to King of Prussia, and visiting this cool place in Chestnut Hill that I had heard about called The Little Treehouse.  Lucky for me, Jana's mom has the photography-bug too, and shared photos of Oliver from their travels (more posts to come). 

A Present Favorite

On Sunday, college friends of ours dropped by with a present for lil' man that has been a big hit.  These 4 cars drive (??), if you pull them back and release.  Oliver is already pretty close to figuring out how to do it on his own and he delights in watching Adam and I zip them back and forth across the floor -- our hardwood floors are perfect for this!  Much to Adam's chagrin, Oliver's favorite seems to be the flower-power buggy - not because its girlie, but because it is the only one with a hard-top and Oliver keeps dropping it on the floors. 

Birthday Celebration - the REAL deal!

Adam was in charge of Oliver's birthday party and it was a smashing success.  I was admittedly a poo-head, who didn't want to go through a lot of trouble for an event that Oliver wasn't really aware of and was also concerned that he wasn't going to be a whole heck of a lot of fun, since he's been going through one doozie of a clingy-stage.  Of course, Oliver knows when he needs to be "on", and was a complete charmer - willing to be held by most everyone and happy to be walking around on his own, although every now and then he would check in on me.

We had a monkey theme, in honor of the beloved Riccardo the monkey and Adam had monkey cupcakes (banana & white chocolate favored) special ordered to help us celebreat the event. 

POTD: Matching outfits

The only photo that I got that wasn't fuzzy (kid was flailin his arms!) was from when Jana was getting them ready for their photoshoot.  Isn't this a riot?

Birthday Festivities - Part Deux

Check out the awesome present Oliver got from Mommy & Daddy!  The handle was lost en route and since we had issues getting a replacement, we ended up using a broom handle (which just happen to be red!).  The trike is set up that when you use the handle the parent pushing can steer using the back wheels - it takes some getting used to, but is pretty neat.  You can also buy additional seats that you can attach so multiple kids can ride at once (although only the one in the front gets to peddle.  

a quick demonstration

Birthday Festivities - Part 1

Hard to believe our lil' guy is one year old already.  He was a bit of a cranky pants on his actual birthday, so our festivites weren't partcularly eventful.  Here's our failed attempt at a family photo to memorialize the day.

More (cuter) photos after the break...

POTD: Birthday Boy

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, Oliver!

Poor lil guy has been sick since this weekend.  Adam had a rough night up with him on Monday night when I was in Boston and last night was no picnic either.  We're looking forward to giving him his birthday present tonight and hope the weather cooperates so we can take it for a spin tonight  (stay tuned!!!). 

Fingers crossed that he is feeling better in time for his party on Saturday.

POTD: yummy chocolate pudding

Today's photo from jana. We definitely need to make sure our next au pair will send us photos too!

POTD: At the park

Jana just sent this fabulous photo of lil man.  I love the spikey hair.  Doesn't he look like such a BIG boy???

The days are long, but the years are short....

This expression couldn't be more true about life with Oliver lately.  He's changing so quickly now - he can make so many more sounds and mimics lots of what we say.  He definitely understands us when we talk to him, although he chooses to ignore things like "sit down" and "no" most of the time.  Definitely a lot of boundary testing going on.   And he is SO steady on his feet now.  He is a walking MACHINE!

I love my lil' guy, but boy are we going through one doozie of a phase.  Margit (my stepmom) is here today and tomorrow on bubba duty, helping out while Jana is on vacation.  Oliver was such a handful, she went on three seperate walks to get him out of my hair so I could get some work done.  He refused to take his afternoon nap - we suspect he was fearful that I wouldn't be here when he woke up.  He is in a big "I need my Mommy" phase that is exhausting....  When I'm out of the picture (like when they were at the park) he's a complete delight - happy, engaging, social.....  Today was just one of those days where I was just counting down the minutes until bedtime.

Who, me? 

Trouble, trouble, trouble

Took these photos yesterday.  First, I caught Oliver maneuvering the stepstool to get his raisins off of the highchair.  I had taken him out of it, because he wouldn't stay sitting, so snacktime was over.  Apparently, it wasn't.  Later in the day, I caught him walking through the kitchen with a full Miller Lite that he had helped himself to from the open case.