Dancing!

Oliver got so many musical toys for Christmas that he has become quite an accomplished dancer!! There are a couple of videos here that show it although one descends into a playtime with Scoop :) We also got some more balls for the ball pit which Oliver seems to enjoy!

Happy New Year everyone!

That's more like it!!

Peekaboo :))

Christmas 2008

Hi everyone and Merry Christmas!! Wow, what a tiring but fun few days we've had. On Christmas Eve we went to Grandpa and Grandma's house for a family get together with them and Jennifer, Matt and Mikayla. We all got to open our presents together and of course the kids were thoroughly spoiled! We were amazed at how good Oliver was at opening his gifts - something that continued on Christmas Day! He got the hang of it very quickly so he'll be an expert by the time his birthday and next Christmas come around! We also got to webcam with Granny Colleen in New York. It was a surprise for her which I think she enjoyed :) Oliver and Mikayla opened their presents from her so she could see. It was great fun!

Yesterday the three of us spent Christmas Day at home together. Oliver got up about 7am and his stocking was waiting for him outside his bedroom. You'll see his reaction in the video below!! There were tons of presents under the tree and it literally took all day for him to open them (and we had to put them together in between times!!). He now has so many toys our playroom is stacked!! We were on the webcam with the family in England twice during the day which was great. It was the first time I'd seen my sister, brother-in-law and nephews since I'd left England so it was very special for me :)) The whole Christmas thing completely exhausted Oliver. He had a morning nap as normal but sadly we misjudged when he was tired again in the afternoon. He normally only has one nap during the day but yesterday he definitely needed two! Anyway, we set him down at 4:30pm for a short nap and had to wake him up at 5pm for dinner. Let's just say he really didn't want dinner and just wanted bed!!!

Today we've just been at home playing with all the new presents. Our friends Justin and Angie came over this afternoon with their little boy, Logan. He is almost two so he had fun playing with Oliver and all his toys!!

Well, I have a ton of photos to put on so I'll get on and do that! Enjoy the light switching on video - this happens every afternoon ;)


A couple of pictures showing how much snow we've had - I think Morgan and Rowan enjoyed seeing this on the webcam yesterday!

An unusual present to find under the tree......

Mikayla and Oliver playing peekaboo at Grandpa and Grandma's house

Opening presents with Mummy

The first step to becoming a guitar hero like his Daddy :)

I'm way too busy to actually look at the camera.....

Opening presents from Granny

Where's Oliver??!!

There he is!! Trying to make his escape from the highchair....

Jennifer made this bear for Oliver and as soon as he pulled it out of the box he gave it a big kiss - aaaah!!!

Here Dad - you probably need another beer :)

Back to the present opening on Christmas morning - these are from Aunty Margaret and Uncle John



Opening and crawling through the playtent from Nanna Pan

On my bounce and spin zebra from Aunty Mary and Uncle Malcolm

Trying out my new dressing gown from the Curry's!

OK, whose bright idea was it to buy a drum and musical instruments??? Oh, mine......

With my new truck from Mike and Jackie

I wasn't quick enough to get the picture of Logan and Oliver both leaning into the toy box!!

Snow!

As the title suggests, we have had some snowfall here in the past couple of weeks. The Friday before last it snowed when I was out with Oliver at a playdate in Minneapolis so I got to drive home in it - good practice!! It was fine really as most people were driving slower but the snowploughs were obviously behind me as the road still hadn't been cleared so I couldn't see the lines dividing the lanes. The main roads do get cleared pretty quickly but it's a different story on the residential roads. We had more snow on the Sunday so I had to take Oliver outside to experience it! He was fully bundled up in snow bib and snow boots but still he was ready to go inside after about 15 minutes! There is a video of him walking around in the snow and watching the older kids sledding down the path!! Jon also got a video of Scoop going hyper when I took her outside!!

Today it is silly cold (about -21C) so I'm staying inside as much as possible! Scoop still has to go outside of course but I try to stay in the garage as much as possible while she does her thing :) The weekend was so warm (above freezing anyway) so a lot of the snow melted and then the temperature dropped about 30 degrees so it's a tad slippy out there.

On Saturday morning we went over to our friends place - Jeanne and Corey - to hang out and for Oliver and Kate to have a playdate. They had a great time together playing in the ball pit, giving each other rides on the car and eating lunch together. It was a fun time.

Other than that there really isn't too much to report. Oliver has discovered hitting and hits me in the face every so often which isn't the greatest. And it's pretty hard to discipline a 15 month old who doesn't understand *sigh*. On the brighter side he is starting to learn parts of the body and now knows his head, toes, knees and bellybutton!! We are also trying to wean him off his bottle so we started putting his milk in a cup the past couple of days (learning from Kate!). He is fine having the milk in the cup but hasn't learned to tip the cup up so the milk comes out!! It won't take him long though.

Not too many pics this time I'm afraid but here's a few to keep you going!

Kate giving Oliver a push

Just hanging out

Playing in the ball pit

Yes, now I have to take my keys wherever I go because Oliver is capable of locking doors! This one leads to the garage so if I'm taking Scoop outside and Oliver locks me out.......well, I'd be very cold!!

Playing with the Christmas card I got from Nanna Pan - it lights up and I love it!!

Thanksgiving

The Thanksgiving holiday is well and truly over but we had a lovely long weekend. On Thursday we went over to Ray and Sandy's for dinner which was really nice. Mikayla and Oliver got to hang out again. The rest of the weekend was really quiet but nice family time (well, when Oliver wasn't crabby!!). We put up the Christmas tree on Saturday (thanks Nanna Pan!) and we're really pleased with it. Oliver was very helpful - he liked to take the baubles off the tree after we had put them on!! Thanks goodness we bought shatterproof ones, LOL but they do have a lot of glitter on them so he got covered in that!!

When Nanna Pan was here she bought Oliver a wooden Santa advent calendar so every day he had been getting a treat. Before now Oliver hasn't really had many sweets so we didn't know what to buy. We ended up getting M&Ms, chocolate mints and some fruit sweets (like jelly beans). On Monday I put 2 M&Ms in the Santa and in the afternoon got them for Oliver. He had never seen such a thing and handed them straight back to me!! So, I gave in and ate them *sigh* just to prove they were edible!! Then all was well. We have since tried the other sweets and he likes them all. Apparently Santa's ration of two a day is not enough so we do have a little performance afterwards :)

Last week Oliver had his 15 month check and ended up just getting a flu shot. We had to go back this week to get his other vaccinations as they couldn't do them all at the same time. So yesterday he ended up having 5 separate shots!! I was shocked. Some of them are normally combined according to the nurse but they didn't have any hence why he had so many. Anyway, he was great about it and not much crying at all. He was weighed and measured and now weighs 25lbs 11.5oz (50th-75th centile) and is 33.25ins long (95th centile!). The doc says he will be tall and skinny!!

Other than that, not much to report. We went on a little coffee playdate this morning and met some new mums and babies. Always nice to get out and see people. Catch the video of Oliver feeding himself yoghurt - a new thing :)

Oliver pretending to be a fencing star with a seive!

I remember this toy (one of Oliver's that stays at Grandpa and Grandma's)

Nice smile Oliver - thanks for that one!!


Spending time at the park on one of the warmer days (above freezing - celcius)


The Christmas tree in all its glory!