Ballooooooons

We went to the park tonight to work on a top secret birthday project. But since we took a LOT of photos to get that slightly unattainable "prefect picture", I figured I'd show you a few that are pretty fun. But I'm not giving away the surprise just yet.

Thank you Auntie Mick for helping blow up all those balloons and for throwing them at Oliver.
Balloons are Oliver's favorite. He's so in love with them that we told him to stay on the carpet and he'd get to play with them. I don't think he ventured off that little rug the whole photo shoot. The only bad thing was the grass kept popping the balloons. Thankfully Oliver didn't seem to mind the loud pop.

Toes

You know how kids start as baby's finding their toes. Oliver never really paid too much attention to his. Then, as we're riding up north to for daddy's softball tournament Saturday, Oliver discovered he was able to do this:

Now, I gotta just say the slurping noise from the back seat was a bit odd. When I turned around I found out what was going on, and though it might be a bit gross to some- we just had to laugh.

Hello

Our tunnel turned into a castle with working drawbridge.

Peekaboo!

Singing a book

Don't know about all the other parents out there but both of Oliver's parents have at one point or another thought/ said "we've already read that book 20 times today".

In the last two weeks I've been doing something a little different. I want Oliver to always feel comfortable bringing me a book to read to him. And I personally want to love/ enjoy reading that book for the bazillionth time. So, once we've read the story a couple times I start to pick objects we see on a page and sing a song about them. If we see a sun we sing "mister sun, sun mister golden sun". When there's rain we sing rainy songs "singing in the rain" "raindrops keep falling on my head". If Oliver pulls out Beatrix Potter's 'Peter rabbit' he instantly asks for "here comes peter cottontail".

Oliver just started saying 'Bible', so when we pull that off the shelf and open it up he loves to hear bible songs. "the B-i-b-l-e" "Jesus loves me" "away in the manger" and so many more. It's kind of a test to see how many bible songs I remember from Sunday school- there's so many bible story songs to sing.

I've found by singing a book rather than reading it over, and over, and over again we're both more entertained. Instead of sitting on my lap for 4 minutes to read a short book (time may vary) he'll sit on my lap for a good 10 to 20 minutes listening to me sing different stories. Daddy even started singing (even though he believes himself to have the worst vocals in the world- I would have to disagree) and Oliver's been choosing whose version he likes best.

Here's my "I don't really believe I'm the first to think of this" original idea:

I want a series of children books that are illustrated kid songs. (If people might not know the song it could come with a CD.) I don't even need the words written out- maybe just the title page gets the song started and we sing the song as we turn pages.

Sunday

Oliver and I had a fun little walk before his morning Nap. We walked through the neighborhood and then stopped by the "bath" (what Oliver calls any body of water) aka the Lake to have a little snack. To prove I was really there- you can see my foot! A very peaceful end to a fantastic mini vacation.

After Oliver's nap we made a tunnel out of an old cardboard box. We like to recycle AND save money around these parts. Good for the earth and the imagination too!

Oliver even figured out how to get his Broom thru the tunnel with him. Crazy Smart kiddo.

What happened on Saturday

Today I woke up and thought it would be a fun day to go to the beach. Daddy decided to join us and we were off to go swimming. Oliver had tons of fun and lucky for us it wasn't too hot. Unfortunately for Marmee and Daddy the swimming area at the lake was super small and we couldn't get deeper than our knees. But I suppose that was a good thing for Oliver since he just wanted to get to deeper water. We all had fun splashing and enjoying each other.

Later we went to Auntie Mick and Uncle Hung's house for dinner. It was really nice sitting outside relaxing in the shade with a light breeze. Oliver enjoyed all the snacks Auntie Mick kept feeding him. She's a great hostess if you've never been to her house before, you'll never go hungry.

MN Zoo Slideshow

(Click the photos to see them bigger and to view the movies.)

Our day started with Oliver eating cheerios in a bowl with Milk and using a spoon. Big Boy.
Then it was off to the MN Zoo on the free Museum pass from the library.

I took a couple of days off work to have a little family time. I called it my mini vacation.
Thursday was the Zoo and today Oliver & I went to a friends house for a play date.

More Relatives

Sunday was Marmee's cousins Ashley and Kylee's Graduation open house. Oliver joined the party and I think he quite possibly found all the balloons.

We saw a lot of Marmee's side of the family. Aunties and Uncles, Great Aunts and Great uncles, Mormor & Morfar and a even Papa Great.

I just have to brag a little here:
Ashley and Kylee were first and second in their class. I'm fairly certain that their class was at least a hundred students, but someone else will have to tell you just how many they topped. AND they're related to ME. Sweet.

After the open house we went and watched Daddy play softball. It's the first time all season we've been able to make it, since Oliver usually is in bed when the games start. He stayed up past his bedtime so I could go watch. And he was such a good kid. I threw a blanket on the ground and asked him to stay on it. He totally did the whole night- through two games. Wow I love my kid. (Oliver was Daddy's good luck charm. He made quite a few great hits!)

lots of relatives

Last night we went up north to see Uncle Jason before he headed south for the summer.

Oliver got to see Oma, Opa, Grandpa Gale, Uncle Scott and Auntie Jo Jo. Whew. He ran around the whole night at the small town resturante. No one seemed to mind, we tried containing him but he was having way too much fun running back and forth holding the bouncey ball Auntie Jo Jo bought and the quarter toy Uncle Jason bought for him. Grandpa Gale had the pleasure of being Oliver's high chair while he ate dinner. Oma and Opa got goodnight hugs and kisses before we headed back home. It was a great night. (I forgot the camera so you'll just have to take my word for it)

Today we headed south to visit Grandma Great and see Daddy's cousin Taylor play baseball. Sadly, Oliver kept cheering for the other team (any time there was clapping, he'd clap- the other team clapped a lot) and Taylors team lost by 3 runs. Bummer.

After the game we went to Daddy's Aunt Shelli and uncle Bob's house. Oliver was having fun getting Taylor and Jade to take him up stairs, then downstairs, then back up again. They searched the house for toys for Oliver and found a pile of stuffed animals. Oliver decided rolling in the animal a good way to play in them.
We had a lovely lunch with Shelli, Bob, Taylor, Jade and Grandma great. Shortly after lunch Daddy's other Aunt Lona and his Uncle George stopped by. We picked a great day to go visiting. The weather was beautiful and Lona and George were in town (we don't get to see them often because they live two hours away).

Crazy hyper kid

When he's tired anything will make him laugh. He's so crazy silly. I love you Oliver.

brownies

i wanted to make some brownies last night. so i sat Oliver in his high chair with a bowl and a spoon. Eventually I put a few small amounts of ingredients in his bowl for him to mix up (he's really good at pretend stirring with his spoon and bowl normally). He loved the whisk and measuring cup I also gave him to use. Mostly, though, He liked just dumping everything i put into his bowl out on his tray.

Oh well, i got the brownies in the pan and then, my favorite, I licked the bowl. I sat on the living room couch and Oliver climbed on up to see what was going on. He thought it was so funny to see my tongue hanging out wiping up the yummy chocolate goodness. (I love hearing his laugh) He put his tongue out but when I offered him a lick, he would bite the spatula.

Sorry no photos, i was living in the moment- taking mental memory notes and thinking how fun Oliver is to hang out with.

Give these animals a halo

We couldn't ask for more patient pets since Oliver seems to think they're here for his own personal pillows. Oliver's quite the animal lover, never too mean. But both cat and dog put up with a lot for never having grown up around young children.

Last weeks nature walk

Theres a tiny little garden on the walk to the playground from our house.

It even has these fun cement benches shaped like an open book. How cool?