Milestones 22 Months:

The blog has been a bit radio-silent lately as I have been on 3 multi-day business trips over the last month and Oliver & I have handed each other back and forth a pretty nasty cold.  Finally, we are both on antibiotics and feeling better.  Before another month is suddenly behind us, here is this month's update.  Oliver is going to be a big two year old before we know it!!!

Here's what we want to remember about Oliver at this age.... 

• We are really starting to see Oliver's personality take shape.  At home, or when he is with people he is comfortable with, he is a loud, chatty boy.  But,in groups or unfamiliar surroundings, he is much more reserved and a bit shy.  The last time we were at my mom's house, he wanted to play with something that my mom was showing Devon.  Oliver hung back and waited to be invited to join them - so atypical to see a kid wait to be invited to play, instead of just insisting that he gets a turn too. 
• Recently, Oliver will come into our bed in the morning and snuggle or lay quietly.  Such a nice change of pace from the constant requests for TV and "go downstairs" that we had grown accustomed to. 
• It is very cool to see him start to use his imagination. Oliver still loves his steering wheel and likes to pretend he is driving us somewhere. He frequently instructs me to "Sit down, Mommy"and then asks "Drive to farmers market"? Kind of funny, since we always walk there.
• Favorite games: "Scoop" - he likes to take a shovel or spoon and either knock over blocks, or pick things up.  Stickers, throwing balls down the basement staircase, hide & seek, "I'm gonna get you", riding his Radio Flyer, cutting his Melissa & Doug fruit, playing with his Thomas train.
• TV Shows: Shaun the Sheep (BBC show), Bob the Builder, occassionally Sesame Street Play with Me.  He asks for Thomas and Calilou, but we can't stand those shows, and tried to avoid them.
• He's suddenly obsessed with baths & wants to have one every night.  Temper tantrums ensue on non-bath nights.
• Oliver continues to be tough to feed - with his pickyness magnified by multiple colds.  Lately, he's in a big cereal eating phase.  What kid turns down pasta, pizza, & ice cream, and is content eating a half a cucumber for dinner? He hasn't put on a SINGLE OUNCE since his 18mo appointment, which makes Adam & I very nervous that he's going to fall below the 10% threshold - not sure what that exactly will entail. 
• Oliver still loves music and to dance (which is really us holding him bouncing up and down).  Adam has said that Oliver has officially ruined the song Pumped up Kicks.  I wish we could get him to dance on his own, but no luck yet. 
• Have we mentioned what a talkative boy we have?  Oliver continues to constantly amaze us - not only with his vocabulary, but also with his ability to create sentences - here is just a sampling of recent sentences we have heard: "I wanna sit Daddy's lap";  "That was close" -- where on earth did he get this one?  "Close your eyes mommy"; "I need tissue"-- this one is particularly handy!.  "Bye Mommy, see you soon"