A bit of catching up: Winter 2010 to Winter 2011

Happy 2012! It has been a year since I last updated Oliver’s Blog, but that does not mean that I have not thought about it a hundred times. Life has flown by, as it always seems to do. It has taken me a day off from work, Oliver paying by himself with his new Transformer toys, and a big storm in Newport for me to get the occasion to update the world as to what is going on in Oliver’s life.

Oliver is now 4, and since posting in the Blog last we have been on amazing vacations, spent time with great friends and family, and enjoyed watching Oliver grow smarter and funnier every day. Oliver’s dad is now a Commercial Fisherman and is working along side his brother Alberto on a boat based out of Newport. We sometimes go days without seeing him but Oliver seems to be adjusting to it okay. He does tell me all of the time that he misses his daddy. We are hoping with the increased income that next year we can buy a house and give Oliver more room to grow.

The highlights from Winter 2010/2011 were spending Hanukkah, Christmas, and New Years with family and friends. Oliver was still scared of Santa, so no pictures. And no snow, just a lot of cold weather and they type of storms that the Oregon Coast is famous for. It was a long winter with lots of coloring, playing toy cars, and reading books. Oliver started attending a Toddler Time at the library. Every Friday he still goes with his grandpa to the library to a reading and craft time.

The best part of our Spring 2011 was our vacation to California to visit Megan‘s good friends. It was so much fun! First we went to Laguna Hills to visit Amy and Jeff. Oliver loved it there! I think his favorite part was going to the beach (even though he was too scared to get into the

water) and going on a wagon ride and strawberry picking at Tanaka farms. Next we went to Bakersfield and visited Tiffany and her family. Oliver made friends with her two sons and loved playing in their pool. Out last stop was visiting Michaela and Chris in San Francisco. It was great. They live right down town and Oliver went a lot of time looking out their window at the city and the trolleys passing by. We went on a Trolley Ride to the Pier and even though Oliver got scared of the Bush Man and the human statues he had a fun time looking at the boat and eating ice cream. We are hoping to make a repeat trip this summer.

Spring in Oregon also many trips to the parks and the beach. Oliver loves playing outdoors, so when the weather is nice we always take advantage of it. At the beach Oliver likes to make sandcastles, play with sticks, and fly kites. We also had a great visit from Oliver's Great Grandma Myra .

For the 4th of July weekend we went on our annual camping trip to Loon Lake. This year there were 9 families that went, but Oliver loved the chaos and all of the kids to play with. Also during this summer Juan Carlos and Oliver went fishing a lot to our local lake. Oliver even got his own Spiderman fishing pole. The excitement in Oliver’s eyes was priceless when his dad would tell him that they were going fishing.

In August we got the surprise vacation of a lifetime! Oliver's Great Uncle Harvey took Aunt Becca, Oliver, and Megan on a Mexican Riviera Crise along with much of the Terry/Schwartz family. The only word to describe it

is amazing. Not only did we get to reunite with 12

of our family members from all over the world, but we got to go on a Carnival Cruise to Cabo San Lucas and Puerto Vallarta in Mexico. In Cabos San Lucas Oliver loved playing on the beach and in the warm ocean. He was thrilled when he figured out to say "no gracias" to the vender's trying to sell us stuff on the beach. We even got a bike taxi and a water taxi, and for both trips Oliver had a permanent smile on his face. In Puerto Vallarta we explored the city and Oliver found his favorite Mexican candy in a store so he was very pleased. We went to a huge flea market and a really neat

Tequila Factory. It was the type of vacation that you wish would never end (minus the fact that we missed Juan Carlos).

The first part of September we took Oliver to the Zoo for the first time. We

spent the most time visiting the Lions and the Elephants. He loves animals, so the day was perfect

and Oliver had a great time.

Two weeks later it was Oliver's 4th birthday. We had a small Spiderman themed birthday party for him at our house. Even though it was small,

Oliver had a great time playing with his cousins and hitting the pinata.

This Fall Oliver started a bilingual part-time preschool with his cousin Brisa. It is a neat program that is only 2 days a week but it seems like he has been a great advantage to him. Since he has been going there his language and vocabulary in English and Spanish has greatly improved, along with his socialization skills. He has made a few new friends, but he still sticks pretty closely to Brisa. Next year he will be in a full-time preschool program, but for right now it is a great introduction to what is to come.

Oliver did not want to dress up for Halloween, so instead of going Trick-or-Treating we went out to dinner with Aunt Becca and then visited Oliver's

Great Grandmother Evie. This year however Oliver was very excited to see Santa Claus. He even sat on his lap and energized on Christmas Eve because Santa was coming after went to sleep. We lit the menorah with Oliver’s grandparents on the first and last night of Hanukkah, and Oliver understood the reasoning behind not blowing out the candles. Such a big change from last year, it really seems like he is growing up.

Oliver still loves super-hero’s, especially Spiderman, Iron Man, and Batman, but he also has a new devotion to Transformers. He is currently working on learning the alphabet, and loves singing the ABC song. He can write his name and loves to write it everywhere he can. He likes coloring, playing with Play-Doh, Legos, cars, dinosaurs, and animal toys. He is getting more and more into puzzles and playing board games, like Chutes and Ladders and Candy Land.

Oliver is now becoming a little jokester and has a enormous sense of humor. A recent joke that created is that he named his grandparents new cat “Lassie“, and the fish that he got for Christmas from Aunt Becca “Kitty Cat” and his new toy crocodile “Bubble Bee”.

It has been discovered that Oliver is an insightful and very empathetic boy. He wants every body around him to be happy like he is. He gets upset when he thinks that people are angry with him, or they are hurt physically. He used to be terrified of Doctors, but now he says that he would like to be a doctor, Iron Man, or a Police Officer when he is “bigger” so he can “help people”. It is so remarkably heartwarming to see our little man care about other people the way that we do.

Summer and Fall 2010

We got our summer off to a great start with watching our oldest niece graduate from Newport High School in June. We are so proud of her and the wonderful intellegent woman that she has become. On that same day, Oliver’s Aunt Nydia and Uncle Alberto welcomed a daughter into the world, Ashley Natalia. She lives in Mexico, so we have not had a chance to meet our new niece in person yet, but we get to “talk” to her on video messaging on our computer and she is adorable.

For the 4th of July weekend we went on our annual camping trip to Loon Lake. Six other families went also, so of course Oliver had a blast playing with other kids and getting dirty outside. Oliver went swimming in the lake all day and he loved it so much we could not get him out of the water until he was exhausted.

A few weeks later, for Juan Carlos’ 30th birthday, we took him on a surprise trip to Bend, Oregon with our friend Rafael and his family. We all had so much fun! The house that we rented had a hot tub in its huge yard, and Oliver and little Rafael loved it. The weather was perfect, so we walked around town and went to Drake Park and played with the ducks there.

Also in July, Oliver discovered bubbles and pretty soon he always wanted to play with them. By the end of the summer learned how to control blowing big bubbles and little bubbles.

August included lots of trips to the park and Newport’s Farmers Market. Our weather here was not very warm or sunny, but we played outside as much as we could. Mid-August Megan had her 10 year High School Reunion. It was amazing to see many old friends and catch up with them over the weekend.

In September it was filled with birthdays. First was Megan's, then Oliver's cousin Marco, then Oliver's birthday on the 24th, followed by Grandpa Dave's. For Oliver's 3rd birthday we had a huge party for him at the Newport Recreation Center and it was a blast! We rented a small gymasium for the kids to play in and set up a bunch of toys for them, including bikes, trikes, balls, and slides.

The most exciting part of our month was that Oliver's grandparents from Mexico came and visited us for 3 weeks. Oliver did not have a very hard time getting comfortable with them, and he and his grandpa got very close playing ball all day long. Oliver called them his "otro ama" (other grandma) and "otro apa" (other grandpa).

In early October we went on a family vacation and drove to Everett (just North of Seattle) to visit Megan’s friends Carrie and her family. It was so great to spend time with them and they were wonderful tour guides of Seattle. We went to Pike Place Market, visited the gum wall, and saw the Space Needle. Although we did not go up into the Space Needle because Oliver was too scared, it was still fun to see it up close again. Carrie took us to an awesome park in Everett and we had perfect timing getting there and playing for hours until it got dark. It was hard saying goodbye to them, but we are hoping to see them this summer.

Another exciting event that happened in October was that Oliver's uncle Alberto came back to live with us. He fishes out of Newport and Alaska, so when he is home with us Oliver loves spending time with him.

Oliver did dress up for Halloween as Spiderman, but he would not put on his costume so he wore his Spiderman pajamas. We went trick-or-treating with Oliver’s cousin Brisa who was dressed up as a butterfly. Once we got started with the trick-or-treating, Oliver got really scared of the other kids costumes and masks so after some hysterics we came home early.

The big highlight of our November was our double Thanksgiving. We first went to a local restaurant called Georgie’s with Oliver’s parents, grandparents, Great Grandma Evie, Aunt Becca, and Matt. Then we went to our friends Zaida and Adrian’s house and had a wonderful meal with a bunch of our good friends. We have so much to be thankful for and it felt amazing to spend it with all of our loved ones.

The day after Thanksgiving Oliver’s Great Uncle Rob came and visited for the weekend. It was great to see him as always. It is great to see Oliver getting used to him also and it seems like he interacts with him much more now.

Oliver's Great Grandma Evie lives closer to us in Newport now and Oliver gets to see her about 3 times a week. He even knows which apartment is hers and has his stash of toys at her place. It is so nice that Oliver likes playing with her and he always gives her hugs and kisses when he leaves.

Oliver has a new favorite movies. They are Jungle Book, Lion king, Toy Story, and Finding Nemo. Oliver even sings some of the songs from Lion King and Jungle Book when they come on. He also acts out movies sometimes, either with his toys or by himself. Its very cute. He still likes trains, reading before bedtime, dinosaurs, Toy Story characters (Buzz Lightyear and Woody), jungle animals, and Spiderman.

In October Oliver had his 3 year check up and everything went good. The Doctor expects him to be about 5’9” which is nice that he is not going to be short like his mom. Famous soccer players are usually about 5'10" so he should fit in nicely with them. :) His vocabulary is increasing a lot in both English and Spanish. It also seems like he is teaching his cousin Brisa English which is cool.

Oliver now has a big boy bed in his room (thanks to Aunt Becca's old twin bed) that has jungle animal sheets and bed spread. He is so proud of it and loves sleeping in it. When it is bed time he lines up his toy dinosarus at the end of the bed, then him and his mom read books to go to sleep. He sleeps much better now that he has a bigger more comfortable bed.

Peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and salad with grilled chicken are Oliver's meals of choice. He sometimes tries new things, but is still a bit picky and does not seem to have a large appetite most of the time. He loves milk, water, and juice to drink.

This winter we are looking forward to Hanukkah and Christmas (of course) and paying in some snow hopefully. Happy holidays everyone!

Spring 2010

Spring has come and gone here on the Oregon Coast, unfortunately we did not see too much sun. Basically it was rainy days mixed with a few sunny days surrounded by overcast days, the usual for our area. We did get in some fun trips to the park though and between the brakes in the clouds and rain we did get to have 2 big BBQ's in March at our house. They are always so much fun because Oliver loves playing with his friends and cousins and everybody enjoys getting together and cooking some excellent food.

Also in March Oliver had his first experience at a Children's Museum. We went to the Gilbert House which is located about 2 hours away from where we live. He did have fun, but he was extremely overwhelmed by all of activities and exhibits to look at. His favorite areas were the bubble room where you got to play with and make bubbles, the train area in which you got to stand inside a glass tube and watch a model train go around you, and the dinosaur exhibit that you could learn about and touch model dinosaurs. We are planning another trip back there this summer when the weather is nice so he can play outside on the enormous play structure.

On March 11th we celebrated Grandma Julie (or Ama as Oliver sill calls her) birthday in Corvallis. Even though Oliver was not very well behaved during dinner he got a kick out of putting stickers on his Great Grandma Evie while waiting for the food to arrive. He entertained us all, as always.

April was pretty slow with special events. The most excitement that we had was at the beginning of the month when we celebrated Easter at Oliver grandparents house with them, Aunt Becca, and Great Grandma Evie. The Easter Bunny even found Oliver and gave him an Easter basket. Oliver did an inside egg hunt (unfortunately it was raining so it was an inside egg hunt) and found a bunch of eggs with toy dinosaurs and cars inside (we tried to have a candy free Easter).

May was very exciting with something going on each week for Oliver to do. In the first part of May, Oli's friend Natalie Miller had a very fun 2nd birthday party. It was an Under The Sea theme, but Oliver would not dress up in the surfer outfit that his mom picked out for him. It was a great party that had fun games and a bubble machine! Once he stopped being suspicious of the machine he got a lot of enjoyment in popping all of the bubbles that came at him.

Oliver's Aunt Becca graduated from Willamette University with her Masters in Elementary Education on May 16 . For the exciting occasion Oliver's Great Grandma Myra came to visit from Florida. It had been about 6 months since he had seen her last, so this time he could really play with her and communicate much better to her. This seemed to make them bond incredibly fast and he soon began to call her Grandma My and want to play with her (without us prompting him to). We all had a great visit with her and Oliver got to spend some quality time with her, especially at the Library and the Marine Science Center.

At the end of May, Oliver's cousin Brisa had her 3rd Birthday Party at Big Creek Park. Oliver had a great time playing ball in the field and climbing on the play structure, but he was too scared to hit the pinata that they had. He actually played at the park for over 6 hours. Yes, he slept very good that night despite the candy and cake that he had.

Since March Oliver's Uncle Alberto is visiting us from Mexico and we are having a great time with him here. Oliver calls him "Tio" which means Uncle in Spanish. They have a lot of fun together playing and it is great having him in our home. Alberto is an amazing cook and has helped us find some new food that Oliver likes (always a hard task), like his homemade noodle soup and tomato rice. In addition to them Oliver loves corn on the cob, broccoli, chicken, turkey sausage, popcorn, all types of fruit, beans, eggs, pancakes, and peanut butter and jelly sandwiches.

Oliver did complete this session of Bouncing Buddies and has perfected a somersault. Grandma Julia did not sign him up for the next session, in hopes to give him a break from the routine of it. He has started going to a toddler story time at the library in exchange. He sits and listens to a book or two, then he is out of his seat and playing with the toy train that they have in the same area. From what we think is result of his trips to the library, Oliver now likes reading books (YEA!). When we go on car trips Oliver will read books for at least an hour before he gets bored. Also, now at bedtime his mom and him lay down in his bed and he gets 3 books read to him. His favorite books right now are "How does a Dinosaur Say Goodnight", "Diego's Halloween Party", "How Does a Dinosaur Eat His Food", "The Hungry Caterpillar", and "Adventures of Mickey Mouse".

Oliver's compassionate side is still present and developing. He now gives the family hugs and kisses when he wants to and he asks for them also. When his mom hurt her finger, he would always kiss her finger and say "no more hurt Mommy". He now says "thank you" and "your welcome". It is really funny because sometimes when he knows that we are going to thank him for doing something, he says "thank you Oliver" before we can even get the words out. He is still the big helper and everything is always "I do it" or "I help you" and he tries to do everything by himself. He is gaining more independence and he is already showing signs of being a little trouble maker. If he does not want you to see what he is doing he tells you "para all" (which means over there in Spanish) and tries to get you to leave the room.

To our delight, Oliver has quite an active imagination already. A few months ago he started playing "ball" with an imaginary ball that he kicks and throws. He also picks up imaginary "food" and feeds himself, us, or one of his toys. He pretends that his stuffed animals are sleeping and wraps them up in blankets and puts them on his bed then tells all of us not to be loud because the animals are asleep. Very cute stuff.

Even with all of Oliver's outgoing and loud traits, he recently has become shy around people that he is not incredibly familiar with. He often acts like he is sleeping when he gets shy and buries his head into whatever he can find to not show his face. Usually after 5 minutes he snaps out of it and becomes the little non-stop Oliver we are all used to.

Playing ball is still Oliver's favorite activity, and lately he has been learning to play baseball. He is actually very good for his age and can hit a foam ball about 3/4 of the time that it is thrown at him. This is great news to his Uncle Sean and Aunt Melissa because they have been trying to encourage him to be a baseball player since he could hold a ball. He can also drop kick a ball, and throw a ball up in the air and hit it with his hand. And of course he call still kick hard and far. It appears that his daddy's dreams of having an athlete for a son are going to come true.

It seems like every day Oliver is saying new words and phrases in English and Spanish. We still feel that he is a bit behind on his language for his age, but we keep getting reassured from everybody, including his doctor, that it is normal for kids who are bilingual to take longer to begin fluently talking. He does understand everything that we say in both English and Spanish, and he is beginning to group words of the same language together more. He can count to 8 in English and 5 in Spanish. His new favorite phrases are "come on lets go" and "hug and kiss please mama/dada". Only just a few weeks ago Oliver learned to answer the question "what is dada's/mama's/your name" in English in Spanish. He answers Apallos (for Juan Carlos) Mehan (for Megan) and Olie (for Oliver).

We still have no luck with the potty training, but maybe next update there will be some positive news regarding this topic. We are looking forward to our now annual camping trip to Loon Lake during the long 4th of July holiday weekend. Even more families are going this year with our group, so it should be a ton of fun as long as Oliver does not throw any tantrums. Hopefully this summer will hold some fun camping trips and outside activities for all of us. Enjoy the sun!

Fall 2009 and Winter 2010

We started out or fall with some birthdays and a wedding. Our good friends Melissa and Sean got married mid-September and Oliver was an adorable ring-bearer and Megan a Bridesmaid. They had a beautiful outdoor wedding and to Oliver's surprise there was a horse that lived next door. It was a great distraction having a horse to look at (and talk to).

Next came Megan's birthday, then Oliver's cousin Marco. Then it was finally Oliver's birthday on the 24th. We had a small party for him with his parents and grandparents on the day of his birthday, then the following Saturday we had a big party for him at his house with all of his friends and cousins. It was Go Diego Go themed, which is Oliver's favorite cartoon. We got him a Diego pinata and even though he was kind of scared of hitting it, he had fun kicking it.

In October Oliver, his parents and Aunt Becca went to a famous pumpkin patch that is featured on TLC's "Little People Big World" and we met the father on the show, Matt Roloff. Oliver was not too impressed with the petting zoo that was there, but he loved walking through the pumpkin patches. We tried to show him how to pick out a pumpkin to take home, but all that he wanted to do was kick them and try to help his daddy carry the one we picked. It was a lot of fun! When it came time to dress up for Halloween, Oliver did not want to, but we did go trick-or-treating at his grandparents house and Aunt Melissa and Uncle Sean's house.

We had a great November and the highlight of it was seeing Oliver's Great Grandma Myra, his Great Aunt Stephanie and Great Uncle Scott, and Great Uncle Rob for Thanksgiving. We had a fun week with them, and because the weather was so nice Oliver even got a long trip to the beach out of the deal. Having them visit us has become such a fun tradition.

Before we knew it, it was Hanukkah and Christmas season. We celebrated the first night of Hanukkah and lit the candles with Oliver's grandparents. Oliver even lit a candle this year with Grandpa's help. We tried to introduce Oliver to Santa Clause this year, but he would not have it, even with his mom holding him and sitting next to Santa. He just looked at him and started crying "No Santa. Bad Santa". We celebrated Christmas Eve with Oliver's Dad's family and as always Oliver had fun playing with his 8 cousins. We spent Christmas with Oliver's mommy's family in Corvallis at Aunt Becca's house. Oliver learned how to say "more present please", but he enjoyed unwrapping them more than anything.

We had a very unexciting January. After getting over the excitement of the holidays, throughout the entire month Oliver and both of his parents were sick on and off with the flu and a cold mixed in. Megan and Oliver both got bronchitis from the cold, but they are all better now.

We celebrated Valentines day with Oliver's Aunt Janet and her family. Mid-February Oliver started taking a "Bouncing Buddies" class with his grandma Julia. It is like toddler gymnastics. So far Oliver seems to like the individual actives but does not like doing things as a group. But he gets to use up some of his bottled up energy.

The last few months we have been working on Oliver's language skills. He now talks a lot in English and Spanish and mixes the two together in phrases. Like he says "sit aqui" or "vamos outside" or "Oli play carro". His new favorite phrases are "I do it" or "Mama/Dada do it", "help me" and "fall Oli". He copies a lot of what we say to him and tries to say it himself.

Even though Oliver always wakes up a happy little man, unfortunately he is really engaged in the 2's and we are trying to help him control his tantrums. A lot of times after his tantrum he will pout a little bit, then forget what was upsetting him. He is a stubborn little guy though.

Oliver never walks when he can run and is just constantly moving. He always says "hi" to people in the store and if he doesn't answer he says "hola" and waves. He is starting to talk on the phone, especially to Aunt Heather and Aunt Becca. Oliver helps to pick out his clothes and gives us his opinion on food. He is so funny because he likes things to stay clean and to keep have things be neat and tidy and helps put things back from when he got them. He likes helping his parents do things around the house, especially washing dishes and sweeping.

Oliver loves playing with trains and blocks. He has a very nice Thomas train set that he got for his birthday and Christmas and he likes watching and reading the Thomas the Train movies and books. He also likes blocks, especially the ones his godparents got him last year and the big Lego set Melissa and Sean got him for Christmas. He still enjoys playing ball, but in addition to kicking a ball now, he really enjoys throwing them too. He loves playing outside and in the park, once he is outside it is extremely hard to get him to come back inside. Oliver enjoys playing with other kids, especially his cousins and his friends Ostin and Sylvia.

Oliver is going to start Potty Training soon, so we are keeping our fingers crossed that he catches on fast like he does with everything else that he does. We are really looking forward to having the sun come out so we can play outside again soon. Hopefully we can get some camping in this spring along with many trips to the park and beach.

Summer Time 2009

We had a very exciting summer with Oliver filled with traveling, camping, and playing at the park. It all began the last week in May when Grandpa Dave, Aunt Becca, her boyfriend Matt, Megan, Juan Carlos and of course Oliver went to Oliver's Great Uncle Scott's Jewish and Hindu/Vedic wedding in Iowa. Oliver had his first experience on a plane and at first was very interested in it. After a few hours however, the newness wore off and he realized that he could not get out of the small area that he was in, and he wanted out. We were all happy for a layover so let him get some of his energy out. With the help of Matt, Oliver discovered the conveyor belts for the luggage and got a big kick of running around on the ones that were not turned on and riding with Matt on the ones that were on.

Once in Fairfield, Iowa Oliver did much better and enjoyed the open spaces that we were in. He also loved meeting some of his family, and seeing his great uncles and great-grandmother again. His favorite new family member that he met was his 3rd cousin Brian. In Iowa Oliver developed a love of oranges, vegetarian sausages, and seeing horses.

At the Jewish Wedding Ceremony Oliver was the ring bearer and did very well for only being 1 1/2 years old. He did not stay to watch the entire ceremony, but did make it down the isle with Grandpa Dave and Great Uncle Rob's help. After the ceremony was over he even danced a little bit with his mom, Aunt Becca, and Great Aunt Debbie. He did not attended the Vedic Wedding Ceremony but did go to the reception afterwards in the park and of course had fun playing there and making some new friends.

For the 4th of July weekend we took Oliver camping for the first time. We went with 5 different families to Loon Lake in Reedsport (about 2 hours south east of Newport). It was a big surprise to nobody that he loved it! He wants to spend all of his time being outdoors and the fact that mommy let him get dirty was very exciting too. He did not make it staying awake late enough to see the fireworks, but maybe next year he will. He even slept through the night, which was very relieving to his parents. He has lots of fun playing with all of the kids and playing ball with his dad.

The last week in July we went camping for Juan Carlos' birthday with Oliver's godparents and another family. We went to Honeyman state park, which has huge sand dunes. Oliver loved playing in the warm sand! He even got in the cold water for a little bit with his dad. We worked on teaching him to say "Happy Birthday" so that he could say it to his dad for his birthday. As of today, he says something close to it, but it sounds more like "Happ Brrtday". Sometimes when he gets mad he says "mama, no happ brrtday" and shakes his head. We are not too sure what it means to him to say that, but it is pretty cute.

In mid-August we went on a weekend vacation to Bend, which is our favorite vacation spot. It is located in the high desert and has mountains all around it. We went with Oliver's Aunt Janet, her boyfriend, and all 5 of their kids. Oliver loved spending so much time with the kids, it was hard for him to go to sleep at night because he was so excited that 2 of them were sleeping in our room. He had the most fun on this vacation in the swimming pool. He figured out how to into jump into the pool (in his dad's arms of course) and likes splashing. He also enjoyed walking around town and seeing the river and ducks.

Oliver now says many more words and phrases. His new favorite word of the week is "caballo" (horse in Spanish). If we tell him to say something he repeats after us, but does not really know what he is saying yet. His favorite phrase right now is "whoa!". Oliver can identify most of his body parts in English, and his favorite one is his tummy. He likes rubbing it with both of his hands. For those of you who have spent time around Oliver, you know that he is really into "Go Diego Go" (a cartoon about a boy who rescues animals). His favorite person besides his mama and dada to be around is his "ba pa" or Grandpa Dave. He also LOVES playing with children, especially his cousins.

Oli still loves playing ball, and he is getting better at kicking a ball harder and aiming. His newest skill is that he can catch a ball (about 15% of the time- but still pretty good for a 2 year old) and drop kick one. He recently has gotten more into toy cars and trucks. Like many children, he is fascinated by big trucks and machines and often stops dead in his tracks to watch them if they drive by or are operating within viewing distance. At the grocery store that we go to there are some carts that are cars- with the front of the cart being the cab of the car and has a steering wheel. He gets so excited when he figures out that we are going to the store so he can drive the cart around. It is the only way that we can get any shopping done with him lately.

Starting in August Oliver definitely started acting his age. He sometimes throws tantrums when he does not get his way or gets woken up from a nap early. Like everybody, he has good days and bad days, but we are all looking forward to when his bad days become less and less. His favorite word is "no", but he is still very loving and fun to be around. He gives hugs and kisses on his own (without us prompting him).

There are many things that we are looking forward to in the next few months. Oliver will be turning 2 very shortly (September 24) and he is going to have a Diego Themed Birthday party. We look forward to being in our good friend Melissa's wedding- Oliver is going to be an adorable ring bearer and wear a tux and his mom is going to be a bridesmaid. Also in October we are going to meet his new little friend Caien for the first time, and of course are excited to see Catie and Dennen also! Hopefully we will have nice weather for a bit longer so we can enjoy going to the parks and playing outside as much as possible. We are already dreading a long and wet winter with a little boy who does not like to stay indoors. But with a funny, smart, and cute little guy like Oliver by our side, we are ready for anything that comes our way.