This holiday season with Oliver was so much fun! I am sure that he did not understand what was going on, but he loved being together with his family on special days.
We celebrated Christmas Eve with Juan Carlos' family, in which Oliver has so much fun playing with his 6 other cousins. On Christmas day we celebrated with Megan's family at Great-Grandma Evie's house. Oliver learned how to tear open presents, but lost interest as soon as he found a toy that he wanted to play with. He was given lots of great presents from all of his family, but his favorite was his slide that his grandparents gave him. So far he has spend many hours throwing down toys from the fort part of it, eating animal cookies in it, and learning all different ways to slide down it (head first is his favorite, but not mom's).
In the first part of December, Oliver was baptized. Now, for all of our Jewish relatives out there, remember that Juan Carlos is Catholic, so we compromised in baptizing him. He has some great godparents now, Israel and Sofia, and Oliver absolutely loves them! It is very nice for us to have two sets of extra eyes watching Oliver with us... and for all of you who have met Oliver in person know that he needs all of the watching that he can get into trouble faster than we can tell him "no".
For the first night of Hanukkah we went over to grandpa and grandma's house for Latkis, Matzo Ball soup and to light the menorah. Oliver loved the soup, and had fun watching us light the candles (even though grandpa tried giving him one to light- thanks grandpa Dave).
We celebrated Christmas Eve with Juan Carlos' family, in which Oliver has so much fun playing with his 6 other cousins. On Christmas day we celebrated with Megan's family at Great-Grandma Evie's house. Oliver learned how to tear open presents, but lost interest as soon as he found a toy that he wanted to play with. He was given lots of great presents from all of his family, but his favorite was his slide that his grandparents gave him. So far he has spend many hours throwing down toys from the fort part of it, eating animal cookies in it, and learning all different ways to slide down it (head first is his favorite, but not mom's). Oliver's skills have increased so much, we can not believe how fast he is growing! He can kick and throw a ball. His favorite thing to do STILL is play with any type of remote control or buttons, turning something on and off until he gets bored. He has figured out that if he runs full speed and yells, his voice makes a funny noise, which he practices whenever he can.
Oliver does not like to be anywhere for any long point of time (which is not a good thing for mom and dad). Once he gets bored of a place he says "bye-bye" and holds up his had by his head and starts waving it. Or, if he can find his coat or hat, he will try putting it on him and then go wait by the door to leave. Funny little guy, but we hope he grows out of that stage soon.
He has started to say some new words in January, including "more", "burr" (for cold), "kitty", "boat", and to Aunt Becca's much excitement "Becca". His favorite toys are balls, his new fort/slide, and he has recently gotten more excited about books (thanks to some new ones sent to him by his cousins Griffin, Jill, and Brian). He loves to dance, and even in the car shakes his head to the music when a song that he likes comes on. Oliver basically has non-stop energy and in just looking at him you can tell the little wheels in his head never stop turning!
