Early Christmas!

On Saturday we had our early Christmas. In the morning we were on the webcam with Grandma Colleen in New York so she could see Oliver and Mikayla open their presents. Then at 4pm Grandpa Ray and Grandma Sandy came over along with Sandy's kids and their kids!! So, we had 9 adults and 7 kids here in total :)) It was chaos but in the best way. When the presents came out we could barely see our floor for gifts, paper and cardboard!! Oliver was really in the swing of things this year - he would open one present and then say "more" :)) And, yes, he still has more to open. We saved gifts from us and other friends and family and we're spreading them out over the week. Yesterday he got a new truck from Granddad Graham which is a big hit. All he wants to do is put the cars on the truck and then take them off again (it's a hauler). Might be time for another present tomorrow to save my sanity, ha ha!!

We are getting ready for the big trip on Friday. The suitcases are out and I've started packing. Still have a ton of stuff to do but we'll get there. Look out for a new update and lots of UK pics when we get back in the New Year :)) Merry Christmas everyone!!!

Oliver loves his Leaptag Junior :)

Puzzles!

Mikayla on her new trike

Meticulous present opening.....

Monkey travel pillow ready for SLEEPING on the flight!!!!

Where's the floor??!!

Opening gifts with Daddy

Where else would a bow go but on the head?

Mikayla taking an interest in Oliver's new car :)

The grandparents with all the grandkids: Mikayla, Alex, Madison, Blake, Isabelle, Oliver (yes, the only one not looking the right way!) and Anna

He's definitely a boy......

Well, obviously he's a boy you may say but let me clarify. In the past week Oliver has become increasingly obsessed with the contents of his nappy. Oh yes. He likes to point at his bottom and say "poo" when he's performed. He also likes to say "no poo" just incase we missed the fact he hasn't. Oh, and the funniest is when we change his nappy and he says "bye bye poo". I know in 10-15 years time he'll never believe he did this so we had to catch it on video. Don't worry, there is nothing on show so you're quite safe ;) We all know the next thing will be farting - oh, I just can't wait for that......

The big news is that Oliver is now sleeping in his big bed!! He had napped in it for a few days then one night a couple of weeks ago he chose to sleep in it at bed time and (touch wood) he has been absolutely fine. He loves to get in his bed just to read books during the day as well. So, the cot has been moved into the baby's room and he seems to realise that is where the baby will sleep. He goes into the nursery and says "hi baby" and then "bye baby" when we leave again :) And yesterday he was helping me sort out some of the baby clothes.

We had a lovely Thanksgiving weekend. On the day itself Ray and Sandy came over to have dinner with us. They returned the favour on the Saturday when we all went over to them. I think Oliver enjoyed having Daddy around for 4 days in a row :) We even dragged the Wii Fit out of the cupboard and Oliver just loves that. He tries very hard to do all the yoga poses and likes to join in :)

This past Thursday we went downtown to watch the Holidazzle Parade with Jennifer, Matt and Mikayla. We got a great (and warm!) spot in one of the skyways where we could watch the parade go by. We grabbed some pizza and had a picnic while we were waiting :) Then afterwards we took the kids to Macy's to see their annual Christmas display. They both really seemed to enjoy it and Oliver was running back and forth to look at everything.

Winter is finally upon us here. We were spoiled with some warm weather in November but that is no more. We're now well into the days where it never gets above freezing (in celsius). We've had just a dusting of snow so still awaiting the first big storm but you sense it's not far off - just stay away on the night of December 18th so we can fly out without a delay please :))

Next Saturday we are having a big family get together here so we can exchange gifts before our trip. I think we are having about 16 people here so should be lots of fun. I'll try and get another update on before we leave!

Oliver got a new car for being such a star in his new bed

And here it is in action...

Doing Wii Fit with Daddy!

Snuggling up with all the toys at Grandpa and Grandma's house

And snuggling up with Sandy just before going home (very tired....)

Playing at the Eagle's Nest indoor playground this past week. I am taking Oliver here on the morning we fly out with the sole purpose of making him tired!!

Having a picnic before the Holidazzle parade

A bit blurry but the kids watching the parade go by

No!!

Hi!! I just dropped Oliver off at daycare for the morning. It's getting better but he still has tears in his eyes when I leave him and now he waves and says bye to me as he's crying :( I just have to turn around and walk out quickly and you can guarantee that when I go back to pick him up he'll be having a great time playing and will hardly notice me walk in the room!!

Oliver's talking is coming on slowly but his favourite word by far is "no" (very closely followed by Daddy!). The only problem is that "no" can mean "yes" and sometimes it's hard to tell what he means. The true test is when you ask him a question you know he'll say "yes" to, e.g., "Oliver, would you like fish sticks for dinner?". This is always going to be a yes even if he's eaten them for the past x days beforehand. I took a quick video of him this morning saying "no" but at least he managed to say "Daddy" and "burger" too :) He also loves to say "Hi Nanna" and "Bye Nanna" when he speaks to Nanna Pan on the webcam every week!!

I think he is also becoming aware of the baby. If we ask him where Mummy's baby is normally he'll point at my tummy and sometimes he'll give it a kiss as well :) But...... if you ask him where Daddy's baby is then Daddy's tummy gets pointed at and the same with Oliver's baby etc etc.!!! I finished painting the baby's room last week and a friend of mine is going to make the curtains so now all we have to do is get the furniture in there and some wall hangings. Speaking of the baby, it has started to get very active in the past few days and I am being kicked left, right and centre whenever I sit down and relax! It's a great feeling at the moment - probably not so much when the space becomes more limited ;)

Oliver has started sleeping in his big bed at nap times! I started this on Friday and so far he has napped without a problem 3 out of the 4 times. At night time he still wants to go in the cot so I'm not pushing it yet but this is a good start and I hope it continues :) The funny thing is that he hasn't worked out that he can get out of the bed himself. He'll wake up and still wait for me to come and get him!!

Thursday is Thanksgiving so Daddy gets to have a four day weekend - yippee!! Just as well, seeing as he is the parent of choice at the moment ;))

The new rubber glove fetish. It doesn't extend to actually washing the dishes though!

Oliver came to the end of class ceremony for the Hennepin County Sheriff's Office Citizen Academy that I attended and got a Junior Deputy badge :)

CAR!!!!

Halloween catchup and 20 week scan

Sorry it's been a while - we had some issues getting our photos from the camera on to the computer. Anyway, all sorted now!!

Halloween this year was great fun. Oliver dressed up as a firefighter - not too keen on the hat though!! He helped Daddy carve some really cool Sesame Street pumpkins which were greatly admired by the trick or treaters. Daddy even took Oliver out to a few houses and he came back with a huge stash of treats. Oliver doesn't know how to say "trick or treat" yet so Daddy got to say it and look silly on his behalf :)

On Halloween morning I ran in a 5K race with some friends of mine - the first race I've done in ages and probably the last for a while. I did pretty well but the bump is only getting bigger..... Speaking of which, we had our 20 week scan yesterday which went really well. Everything is looking great and baby was nice and wiggly! We didn't find out if it's a boy or a girl - we want to have the same amazing surprise we did when Oliver arrived so I'm afraid it's team yellow for us and keeping everyone else in suspense!! The baby's size looks right for the dates given at the last scan so our due date has stayed at 24th March.

So, what else?? Well, we have been having some amazing warm, sunny weather over the past week or so to make up for the early snowfall. We've even been able to go out without jackets on which is fantastic! Yesterday Oliver and I played outside in the afternoon and he had a great time kicking the ball around and drawing pictures on the driveway. He even found his first caterpillar - I saw him pulling at something in his hand and he was stretching the poor little thing!! Luckily it survived and then Oliver was scared of it!!

Last week we had a play date here with 10 kids!! It was absolute crazy chaos but so much fun. I think all the kids had a great time and no toy was left in the toy boxes :)

I have now put together Oliver's big boy bed and he has some really cool bedding with cars and trucks on it. He's not sleeping in it yet but it's in his room so he has chance to get used to it being there before we take the plunge and move the cot to the baby's room (we have to decorate the other room yet anyway). So far he seems to like it but at nap time and bedtime he still goes straight to the cot. That's OK - at least we get some sleep then!!

The countdown is on to our trip to the UK. We are trying to get organised with present buying and we have a full agenda when we are over there. I'm sad we can't see everyone but we'll do the best we can.

Halloween playdate at a friend's place - the first wearing of the firefighter outfit!

Another playdate - Oliver loves these bead toys :)



Taking the seeds out of the pumpkins - check out that face!!

Ready to go out trick or treating - looking just a little apprehensive....

The finished Elmo and Bert pumpkins - nice work Daddy and Oliver!!

Doesn't my baby look grown up in this picture?? Wearing the full Vikings outfit for the very important Green Bay game (which we won - woohoo!!)

Oliver looking small laying on his big boy bed!



Fantastic playdate at our place last week - of course Oliver climbed into the toy box!





Baby Jozwiak number 2!!

Fall fun

It's more like autumn at the moment than winter and for that I am thankful. The snow came too early but was gone again quite quickly. We'll get enough of that in winter proper thank you very much!! So now the days are sunny and cool and the leaves are falling which creates a lot of fun for a toddler. Yesterday afternoon I decided to tackle raking some of the leaves and was quite successful after an hour. Oliver helped me by rolling around in the big piles I made :) However, today you wouldn't even know I had done anything! Serves me right for starting the job before all the leaves have fallen but 10/10 for effort right?

Last week the splint came off Oliver's finger for good and I'm pleased to say everything seems fine. He was using his finger and hand normally when I got him up the next day and doesn't seem to miss the splint at all. We're still wondering if the nail will come off but I hope not.

On Saturday morning we had a family photo session at home. A friend of mine has an aunt who has recently started doing photography professionally so we hired her to come to the house and she took a lot of pictures inside and out. I really can't wait to see them! Oliver was a star for the most part and did his very best to look super cute :) Of course this meant that he needed to get a haircut last week so we tried a new salon that has opened just down the road which is specifically for kids. This place has different chairs (cars, planes, etc etc) for the kids to sit in. Oliver chose the fire engine of course which even had a bell that he could ring! He did really great and came out with a sticker and a comb to take home :)

On Saturday afternoon we went off to a Halloween event at a farm about 45 minutes away from us. We had a horse drawn wagon ride and there were lots of animals to see. There was a also a haunted loft (Oliver wasn't so keen on that!) and lots of crafts for the kids to do. Oliver coloured some pictures which is one of his new favourite things to do. We have our pumpkins on the doorstep all ready for our Halloween visitors on Saturday evening. Oliver has a costume ready although we're not sure whether we're taking him out or not - if we do, it'll just be around the cul-de-sac. Let's hope we don't run out of candy this year!

All is well with me and the bump. I keep saying to Jon that I need a new bump picture then we both forget!

Enjoy the new video! Oliver's new favourite tune is by a group called Daughtry and he likes to sing along at the start and finish (the part were they just sing "ooooh, ooooh"!!). It's not the greatest quality - mainly because Oliver has a mouthful of toast......!

Getting a haircut in a fire engine :))

Testing out the comb he got from the hairdressers

It's been a while since we had a Scoop picture. Here she is with the biggest bone ever after being stuck in her crate while we had pictures taken on Saturday!

Checking out the chicken coop with Daddy

On the wagon ride - I think they were looking at the people dressed as a skunk and a butterfly!!

Halloween fun = candy, so here is Oliver with a lollipop!

Grandad Graham's visit

It has been a busy couple of weeks for us. This past week Grandad Graham and Dawn came out to visit which was a lot of fun. They were only here for 5 days but we visited the arboretum and the sculpture garden, ate out a few times and spent one evening with Ray and Sandy. Oliver just loved having Graham around - Oliver thought he was pretty funny :)) Graham just seems to be on the same wavelength as kids, ha ha!! Graham and Dawn even got interviewed by a local news channel when we were at the arboretum but sadly they didn't make it on to TV - they were quoted by the reporter though! Oliver managed to say Graham a couple of times but mostly called him "boobaa" which is the same word he uses for Grandpa Ray. Yesterday when we watched Graham and Dawn go through airport security he said "byeee boobaa" which was just lovely. Matt, Jennifer and Mikayla came to Ray and Sandy's on Wednesday night as well. Oliver and Mikayla were running around the basement like mad things! They played so great together - and puckered up a number of times for a kiss but I just couldn't catch it on camera. So cute :)

The week before Graham came out we were all sick with nasty colds which was no fun at all. Oliver also got a strange rash for a couple of days which we thought was chickenpox but obviously wasn't as it disappeared. So, we were stuck in the house for a few days going crazy. Oliver's finger is still in a splint but we are able to take it off on Tuesday. He had it x-rayed again which did show a very small fracture so they wanted him to keep the splint on for another couple of weeks. Oliver has been very good with it and seems to prefer having it on but it will be great to take it off for good this week. And it'll be far easier to get his gloves on!!

Ah yes, gloves! Boy has it been cold!! We had our first snowfall of the season on October 10th. Nothing very much but still a bit of a shock to the system. We've had a couple more snowfalls since then and I think the first two weeks of October have been the coldest on record. It is much nicer this weekend and we are enjoying a couple of warmer and sunnier days.

Monday is Oliver's first morning at daycare so I am frantically getting everything ready for him. I am almost there - just making sure his name is on all his clothes! Hopefully he enjoys it and doesn't miss me too much ;)) Tuesday is my next doctor's appointment - the belly is getting bigger and I think I'm feeling some movement but nothing too much as yet.


The return of the snow....

Not very impressed with this year's winter gear!

Checking out the pumpkins at the arboretum

The big kid and the small kid playing cars

Oliver pretty much drank all of Graham's lemonade!

In Grandpa's basement




Mikayla and OIiver being the crazy cousins!! I just love the last picture - it looks like Mikayla is finding Oliver's bottom highly amusing!!

Walking through the sculpture garden - Oliver only wanted to hold Graham's hand

Drinking Graham's lemonade - AGAIN!!