Car Seat Tricks

Tonight I was getting ready to go out when I heard Matt and Ollie giggling in the bedroom, their laughter was so contageous it made me smile and I had to go see what was going on. They were both ready to go so they were playing around while they waited for me. Matt had him all buckled into his car seat and was flipping it upside down giving Ollie a rollercoaster ride inside- he thought it was great fun and his giggles were making Dada laugh too :)

It's beginning to feel a lot like Christmas

I came home today to find Christmas music filling the house and Matt and Ollie setting up the Christmas tree. What a great surprise! And they looked like they were having a great time building memories of our first Christmas together at home- can't wait!

Only one thing to do...

Ollie left us a little surprise after lunch today. After one quick look we decided there was no way to handle the mess other than to take him out in the court yard to spray him and the high chair off with the hose!

Yep, that's exactly what you think it is seeping out of his diaper- disgusting! Can't cry about it so I mind as well document all the joys of being a parent :)

 

He has no idea what is about to hit him!

 

The water was a tad bit cold so we let him off the hook while Dadda sprayed out the high chair he played around in the courtyard oblivious of the mess he had made, and was still totting around!

Just Because

Ollie and I were getting ready to go out on the town to a baby shower, he looked so cute sitting on the bed all dressed up waiting for me that I couldn't resist pulling out the camera for a quick picture of my handsome little man!

10 Months Old

 

I definitely think I set a record with this photo shoot- I only took 15 pictures, the photo of him in his diaper was the first of only four pictures. Look at that attitude! Haha maybe he thinks he's too big now to get pictures in his diaper. He was much happier in his clothes but he has figured out that when I take a picture I can see it on the back of the camera so he wants to see it now and won't sit still for long.

 

New things in Ollie's little world: He is still crawling. He gets up and stands in place but doesn't really try to walk yet. He walks all around the coffee table, bed, chairs, anything he can hold onto but doesn't really venture out to try and take steps on his own. We are excited for him to walk but alo know it will bring new challenges. But honestly I think I would rather have him walking because with all the tile in the house I'm constantly taking extra efforts to keep it clean because I know his little bare hands are crawling all over it, I won't have to be so stressed about it when it's just his feet.

 

In some ways he has grown up a lot- he isn't scared of loud noises/kids anymore. In fact he is pretty loud himself now and joins in on the noise, he loves to talk and get animated we just don't know what he is trying to say. At church he is quite the entertainer. He loves to slap around all over the pew and smile and play with and try to talk to the people behind him, or anywhere around him. He is pretty social, he just crawls right up to whomever is around us and will start looking for things in their purse, or will happily let them pick him up and play with them. He's crawled right under the pew to the family in front of us, luckily no one seems to mind and there are a few cute grandmas that can't resist picking him up and playing with him when he crawls over to them, which is good because it can be exhausting trying to contain him all the time!

 

Going out is not as easy as it used to be. He is so active now that he takes constant care. The last few movies we have taken him to he is no longer content to sit and watch, he just wants to crawl all over the place, up and down the stairs and he gets a bit loud when I try to restrain him from doing things like picking up the popcorn on the floor and putting it in his mouth! So gross.

 

On the topic of gross- we have to keep bathroom doors closed at all times because as soon as we forget he is in there slashing his hands around in the toilet. Sick!

 

He is "all boy." Matt and I say this to each other all the time. There is nothing girly about his tough little self. He gets on his horsey and loves to ride it, he loves to wrestle especially with Matt (in fact if you look at his right eye in the pictures you'll see some wrestle wounds from last night- apparently there was some kind of contact with his face and Matt's foot or toe LOL), he also loves to wrestle his kittee, Missee, hand puppets and his teddy bear of course. I feel sorry for Missee because he really does get so excited every time he sees her but he is still learning what it means to be soft, he just wants to throw her around and wrestle her like a rag doll. Luckily she puts up with it. Other boy things about him- he loves balls, getting dirty, and I love watching him put his head down and crawl full speed at whatever he is attacking next. He still goes crazy for electronics, but I try and balance it out with toys that are simple and hands on. His latest is a set of balls that he is supposed to hammer into a box, he hasn't figured out the hammer, but he loves smacking the balls together and pushing them into the box.

 

 

Food- he of course still loves to eat. He eats pretty healthy but he is starting to get picky and he does like to feed himself which means I am cleaning him and his high chair three times a day- bottle feeding was so much easier! But I'm happy to let him dig his hands in and make a mess. I call it a contained mess because it can all be easily wiped up, otherwise I wouldn't be having it. I've been to quite a few 1 year old birthday parties where the kid was reluctant to touch a messy cake, I have no doubt Ollie will not have that problem- he loves to dig into any food with his bare hands. We'll have to start working a little harder on using utensils, so far they are a just a distraction to him and since he can throw them they don't fit very nicely into my contained mess.

 

Sleep- since he was about 4-5 months he was sleeping in his own bed all through the night. At about 9 months he started waking up again, and now he is back to sleeping through the night but pretty much only if he is in our bed. It's one of those hard things because I love waking up to his little hand touching my neck or face because he wants me to wake up and play with him, and I love his snuggly little self at night, but I'm also a person that needs her sleep and he rolls all over the bed and has to sleep between Matt and I so...he needs to sleep in his bed. But getting him to sleep in his bed is a 30-45 minute process right now. I have to put him down, let him cry and then when I pick him up he instantly falls asleep in my arms, I rock him for a few minutes to make sure he is asleep and then the very second I put him down he instantly cries again and we repeat the process. Sometimes I'm too tired to go through 45 minutes of this so some nights I give in and we both fall asleep in my bed exhausted.

 

Words he can say right now: Mama, Dada, Kittee, and his latest...Stinky! It's pretty funny. He will wave his hand in front of  his nose and say "stinky, stinky" while making a disgusted face. He must have learned that from us making a stinky face every time we change his diaper.

 

Things I worry about- Ollie getting spoiled. Being an only child he does get a lot of attention, and I don't exactly know what to do about him always wanting my attention because there isn't another kid around for him to play with- there's just me. I would be bored too! Luckily he has lots of cousins to keep him happy. It is so nice to go see them because unlike when we are home, if there are cousins around he could care less where I am because he's too busy playing with them.

 

He's growing fast, but in a lot of ways he is still just a baby. He can drink from a sippy cup but still refuses to hold his bottle. But I still don't mind because it means I get to snuggle him while he eats. And he still likes to snuggle with me- I hope he NEVER grows out of that!

 

My other favorite things right now- he's old enough now to get when we are saying family prayer and old enough for us to do our family tradition of putting our hands all together in the center, counting to three and yelling out our last name. He gets a big smile and a twinkle in his eye when we put our hands together and he laughs every time we scream our name. So fun.  Dancing- he moves to the music and it is so cute, especially when you start dancing and tries to immitate you. Singing- he tries to sing and it is so precious. It's not words, just ahs that he sings trying to move his notes up and down. He also waves his hand around at church like he's trying to lead the music every time we sing. Still crossing my fingers that he'll have some musical talents. There is so much more I could write and say about this little guy that is overnight becoming his own little individual self. There are new discoveries every day and we are still so, so, so thankful for him every single day!

Bath Time

Ollie made a mess at dinner so he earned himself a bath. Once he figures out that baths are related to him being dirty I think he will make himself dirty a lot more because he LOVES the water. It's simply play time for him. Matt got to be the one to give him a bath tonight so I had a little fun sneaking to capture their play time on camera. He gets so excited to play with his little fish basketballs...

  Dada distracted him for a moment by squirting him with his little killer whale we picked up for him in Alaska...

 Ollie listening to us tell him to throw his little fish in the basketball hoop...

 He doesn't like to let go of the fish so he tried the killer whale instead.

 If he bites down hard enough on the little fish water squirts out of the mouth, but I think he bites it because he likes biting things :)

My favorite part of bath time is seeing him get so excited that he crawls back and forth from one end of the tub to the other splashing around as wildly as he can. Little squirt!

Optimistic for the Future

Today is Sunday, the start of a new week and I am grateful for that. We had regional conference today. It was a bit different then those in the past, all of Arizona- all 95 stakes attended a broadcast that was done from the conference center in Salt Lake City. What stood out to me today was Elder Eyrings talk about being wisely optimistic about the future. After a devestating week, watching Obama get re-elected there has definitely been reason to feel pesimistic and worry about the future of our great nation, in part knowing that Ollie will not know the same America that I grew up in. Yet we of all people still have reason to hope and have faith in the future. We know the gospel will never be taken from the earth again and that there will be a Zion people here to welcome the Savior at his second coming. Elder Eyring spoke of the strength of the rising generation and I looked at little Ollie and all of his innocence and I do feel hope. There is still so much goodness, and so many good people with good values both inside and outside the church, how could we not have hope for the future? Especially when I look in those beautiful big eyes?

As for Ollie, it has finally cooled off in Arizona- this morning it was 45 degrees! Which means I can finally start pulling out all his warm clothes I bought him last year just waiting for him to get big enough and for it to get cool enough fr him to wear them. Sadly there are outfits he will never wear. I thought my drawer was full of 12 month outfits, but today I found another 6-12 month outfit that I forgot about. Luckily it still fits and hopefully he can wear it a few times at least. Here he is after church looking all adorable as he plays with one of his favorite toys- the remote!

Sharing with Missee

Today we fed Ollie in a different part of the kitchen than we normally do. Since his high chair ended up next to a chair Missee found a way to try and snag some of Ollie's food.

He loves his little kittee and was so excited to have her visit during his meal.

He didn't seem to mind sharing his food with her at all...

Bad Missee!