Saturday at Oma's

We were out of bed early Saturday morning to make a special trip to the local Farmers Market with Oma and Auntie Dana. What fun to pick out fresh fruits and vegetables. They all look so beautiful and taste one hundred times better. We're going to try to make that more of a habit.

Then we headed up to Oma's house for lunch and playtime. Some of Oliver's old baby toys were still at Oma's and the boys loved playing with "new" toys. After a nice long nap it was time to head outside to play with WATER. Thanks for all the fun and good food!

Simple pleasures

an animal line-up staged by Oliver:

practically perfect nature walk

There are days when my son becomes one of my best friends, his wonder & excitement enthrall my own inner child. There are and hopefully will continue to be days it all seems too good to be true.

This afternoon Oliver, Lucius and I met up with Auntie Em, Brianna and Eko dog at a new playground nestled in a beautiful park. After exploring the play equipment we went for a nature walk- I really just thought it would be a plain old walk till Oliver started pointing out things I wasn't even paying attention too. I have to admit I was busy talking with Auntie Em.

We saw a gaggle of geese, a dozen or more duck with their ducklings, Oliver spotted quite a few wild mushrooms, we found and held a small frog, and sat next to a small waterfall. Out of the blue I told Oliver to "keep his eyes peeled and possibly we'd see a turtle" because we were going to walk around the lake... you never know. Eventually he started saying "I open my eyes and maybe see turtle waking up"- it's always interesting to me to hear my words come out of his mouth slightly twisted around.

Little did I know Auntie Em had her eyes "open" and caught sight of a real live turtle, right there on the foot path. How interesting is that. We touched him but tried not to be too much of a bother. Shortly after saying hello to the turtle, we stepped back and watched him head straight to the lake for a swim.

Later in the evening I would be back in reality- gently reminded that he is in fact two. I don't choose to think about that; I'd rather remember our absolutely wonderful afternoon nature walk.

Petting Zoo

We ventured out to a local festival this morning to see the baby animals at the petting zoo. We saw all kinds of interesting animals: a wallaby, coatimundi, brahma bull, and then some goats, calves, and a couple antelope.

Oliver LOVES animals and I for one enjoy finding him every opportunity to see them in person.

This

This is our boy.

This is the new sandbox we put together for our boy.

This is us playing with shovels in this new sandbox we put together for our boy.


This is the little brother watching us playing in this new sandbox we put together for our boy.

This is the Popsicle tasted by the little brother who was watching us playing in this new sandbox we put together for our boy.

This is the older brother eating his popsicle before offering a taste to the little brother who was watching us playing in this new sandbox we put together for our boy.

and marvelous things shall come to pass

It has been a big week of milestones. Besides the Lucius crawling action... the stars aligned and Oliver went pee in the toilet for the very first time. Potty training, like many other things in our child rearing, has been rather lackadaisical. But I managed to catch a glimpse of something I thought might be a potty dance, grabbed Oliver as fast as I could, before any major arguments/ complaints, and rushed off to Mormor's toilet.

The kid has a bladder of steel and hadn't peed since 11:30am... so at 5:30pm when the event occurred there was quite a river to get excited about. It really turned a light on for him, grinning from ear to ear he said "maybe I go potty again!"

Yes, did he ever. We got home, ate dinner and before bath he tried again. (Less than an hour after the last time.) He squeezed and indeed he managed to eek a little out. Elated as we are that quite possibly he is figuring this out, we couldn't be more proud. Oliver again tried just before bed- only a half hour after bath time. I asked him several times if he was all done and he repeatedly told me "No, I'm still peeing!"

Further news: it's 8:30pm... Oliver is strangely still awake. I went up to check whats up, ask if he needs to use the toilet. Of course he does because that means he gets to stay up- smart boy. I can't say no now so in we go... and he again pees on the toilet. In three hours the boy has gone on the toilet four times.

Wait for it... wait for it...

We have been waiting & now, ready or not:

I'm going to go ahead and count that as his official first crawl.

Another milestone achieved. I suppose it's time to grow those extra set of eyes mothers invariably have. Two boys going in twelve different directions; the next 80 years should be crazy entertaining for those of you who love reading our "digital journal" (blog).

Ps. Lucius currently has no teeth and shows little interest in sitting up at this time. He's all about keeping up with Oliver.