Goodmorning Oliver

Saturday we spent the whole day out of the house. It was a spontaneous decision, we started the morning thinking we would go get a cup of coffee and a muffin for breakfast at Starbucks. Oliver loves the cinnamon swirl coffee cake. Then we stopped by Target to pick up a few things I needed around the house, mostly cleaning supplies. Across the street is a Borders, and Oliver wanted to show dad the place where we went to “bookclub” aka story time earlier in the week. Since the only thing we’d had for breakfast was a measly muffin we were hungry, so we moved on to the Mall food court.

Although we didn’t know about it before hand, the Mall was having some kind of shop till you rock thing going on. Tents with Wii game competitions, a modeling competition,  and a few stages were set up. We had our lunch, the little one discovered a love of bottled water

and Oliver consumed more food (the rest of that bowl of pasta after eating an entire slice of sbarro pizza) than I have ever seen him eat in one sitting.

On our way out we stopped into a few stores, but didn’t buy anything.

If that wasn’t enough, we did have plans to go to a BBQ at the house of a playgroup friend. We went home for about an hour, in an attempt to have the boys nap before the BBQ. They didn’t so we headed back out, picking up a bag of chips on the way to the BBQ.

Oliver played hard. The backyard was beautiful, very open with lots of room for kids to run and play. The next place we live I want one just like it! Lack of nap and lots of fun caught up with us though and both boys fell asleep in the car on the way home. That’s fine by me, early bedtimes are always appreciated. Oliver was so tired he slept in, nearly 2 hours longer than usual. Every weekend should be so much fun.

Went on a Pet Co tour. They bring out the animals for the kids to pet and talk about the species likes/dislikes etc. The snake scared me by twitching  and flailing upward at the same time Oliver was trying to touch it. Yeah, was not pleased with that. Did you know that parrots have the same intelligence of a 5 year old and a parakeets are closer to a 2-3 year old. They also live nearly as long as humans do. We got to pet the Guinea pigs, which are supposed to be the most child friendly of all the rodents

My favorite was the chinchilla. Oliver liked the kittens. Max thought the cart handle was tasty.

We saw an anenome in the aquatic area,

and this lizard thingy that kept trying to bite the tour guide. I am really not interested in knowing what kind of lizard it is.

We have been to several indoor play places where Oliver insists on climbing up into the tunnels, getting scared, and refusing to come down until I climb up in the tunnels to get him.

We have tried the park a few times. Once it was nice but then started to rain on us forcing  a mad dash to the car. The other times it was crazy hot and we couldn’t stay long because if Mama can’t handle the heat the infant is probably not ok.

Ryan folded lots of paper airplanes for Oliver and we tried to keep them out of babyZilla’s crushing, biting grasp

We have gone swimming a few times. Max loves being pulled around in the inflatable boat, and Oliver just loves the water.

We snapped Max’s 8 month sticker pictures. He decided that morning that he was going to smack his forehead against the side of the bathtub. He couldn’t wait a day to have an injury.

We watched lots of World Cup soccer. Waiting for a goal that never came.

Did I mention I got a new computer and I think I have the referenced library thing down now? All these pics are kind of noisy this time around. I am still getting the hang of shutter priority.

You’ll find lots of Max pics in the photo blog this time around. One, ’cause he’s just so cute. Two, Oliver has grown tired of the paparazzi and, like a good little rockstar, is shielding his face with his hands. Oh well, what can you do.

I got a brand new computer! Hurray! It’s very exciting, something we have been wanting for a little while. However, having owned PCs all my life and now the owner of a brand new Mac, I am a little off my game in the picture importing/editing etc department. I have a few posts ready to go they just need the photos to be complete. I am working on getting my new photo program up and running with my library of pics and reorganizing the way they are stored, but I am doing something wrong and not all the pictures are being added. Adding the recent ones I have taken is a little like buying a new piece of furniture right before you move. So, bear with me a bit while I get this photo thing sorted.

I keep a basket of toys, many of them cheap kids meal toys or smaller toys from Oliver’s collection, in the car to occupy the kids when we are driving around town. Max has a new routine of choosing his toy. As soon as his butt hits the car sear he leans over as far as he can to rummage in the basket before he will even let you think about strapping or buckling him down. Sometimes the nose dive into the basket is so enthusiastic that I am conceded he is going to tip himself right out of his seat.

I was telling Ryan about it a few weeks ago and he laughed, I’m sure he thought it made for a nice story. Until he had to get Max in the car a week or so later, when he made the comment “woah! You weren’t kidding, he is all about picking his toy!”

And, because I can, he started pulling up today July 14. He thinks he is so big, standing and all.

These pics were taken with my iphone.

Was relatively uneventful, and mostly centered around food. We started the morning with a trip to Starbucks for foofy espresso drinks and coffee cake, Oliver’s favorite is banana chocolate chip. Then back home where we made brunch and later, green chile chicken enchiladas, Ryan’s choice of course.

I love laid-back weekends!

This month we have new teeth (3 of them!) All on the top.

22 lbs and not sure how tall, but working his way into the 9-12 month size of clothes. Yikes!

Sweet Max you have the best smiles, they put everyone in a good mood. I would have bet money you would start crawling sometime this month but now, writing this a little late, I know that won’t be true.  You try so hard and want so much to be part of the action. You have your serious moments, investigating the world around you.  Your favorite toys are not the soft baby things we have for you, you would much prefer to play with Oliver’s action figures, dragons and dinosaurs. It will be a challenge to baby proof them.  One of my favorite things is watching you interact with your brother. You love him very much, and he loves you. You are endlessly interested in what he is doing. I anticipate a few sharing problems down the road because you both have a stubborn streak.

You, like your brother, are not the biggest fan of pureed foods but when I hand you a rice cracker look out! We have experiments with different foods, different flavors but not much has kept your interest. It seems like you are always wanting to eat whatever we have in our hands so I try to make sure I always have something on my plate that is ok for you to try. You love sitting at the table, eating your cracker and being part of the family activity, you wouldn’t have it any other way.

We all love you very much sweet boy.

Buzz started to get too small. So I searched target for a replacement. Sadly they did not have the same style of Buzz anymore.

I bought these at walmart. At first they weren’t as good because they don’t have wings.

But then he realized that they do have a laser button on the arm.

A few days after we got home from our trip we jumped right back into the action here at home and went to the Wild Wilderness Safari with our playgroup friends.  We came here last year as well, although this time we decided not to drive through since Max sometimes cries in the car when he’s awake, and it’s dark, or the car is moving too slowly, or who knows but he’s not the biggest fan.

There won’t be any pics of Max in this series because he was on my back most of the time.

We walked around the little zoo area and saw these adorable little tiger cubs. You could go in and pet them if you wanted but Oliver declined. Strangely next to the tigers was a cage full of, from all I could see, kittens. Like your common variety house cat fluffy little kittens.  They must have been scary house-cats though because the cage had warnings on it. The kids seemed to like those kittens better than the tigers so why am I bothering paying money to see the wild animals? Next time, we go to the animal shelter!

The baby camels, also interesting to me and not so interesting to the kids. I guess they just don’t compare to the big ones we saw last year.

They added some sheep to the goat enclosure in the petting zoo portion, along with a big sign that said “Don’t chase the sheep!” Of course 3 year olds can’t read and when something runs, guess what they do? Yeah I had to keep telling them “Don’t chase them, don’t run!” This sheep kept giving me the eye though

We had a great time and lots of stories to share, as well as a ton of pictures! Rather than try and write one gigantic post about our trip I’ll try and break it up into a few smaller posts, dated according to the day they occurred rather than when they were posted.   I hope everyone’s summer is off to a good start!

We left on the last day of May, after spending an entire month in the Netherlands. We  had said our goodbyes to Pie the night before and we said goodbye to my parents at passport control, always bittersweet.

The first leg was long, nearly 9 hours. It’s always longer heading west. We weren’t lucky this time, the plane was completely full so we didn’t get any extra space to stretch out. The boys only slept 1.5 hours each. Even the little one who can sleep anywhere in the carrier decided he wanted to raise a ruckus. At least some time was peaceful.

We watched Wall-E, an old favorite of Oliver’s. We played dinosaurs. Even the nice older couple sitting beside Oliver got in on the Dino action. They messed up the child’s meal I special ordered for Oliver and gave him a diet meal instead. Half a pita and a tablespoon of hummus for lunch (that’s it!) so he shared my sandwich and ate my chips.

Max wiggled, and screeched and, although the noises were happy noises, he was still awfully loud.

When we got to Chicago there was lightning in the field so we had to wait on the runway before taxiing to the Gate. Apparently workers are not allowed out on the tarmac for 15 minutes after a lightning strike, and if there is another strike the time gets reset. As a result the whole airport was backed up. Flights canceled and delayed, customs PACKED.

Then it was 3 and finally 4 hours late.

We had planned to have dinner at home with dad but instead we had fast food sitting on the floor of the airport, behind a bench near the window because it was the only open space to be had When a seat opened up we took it and Oliver fell asleep sitting up.

He woke up long enough to board the flight then fell back asleep with his head on my arm. When we arrived in Arkansas, at almost 10 pm, he had a hard time waking up to walk, and I don’t remember why I couldn’t get him in the stroller. It broke my heart to hear him cry that he didn’t feel good and he just wanted to go home as he struggled to walk (his legs had fallen asleep?) and wake up so I picked him up and carried them both and all our carry-ons down the long hallway to the terminal. I heard a woman say “oh my god” as I walked by looking like a packmule but it wasn’t really that difficult, although I don’t think I have ever been so relieved to see Ryan and the car and to know that we were almost home. Oliver cried again when he saw Ryan I think he was tired and happy all at once to see his dad.

It was a long day, difficult and frustrating as only travel can be. But you do what needs to be done, because there really is no other choice. You get through it.

Because the alternative is to never go anywhere and, for me, that would be much worse. Waiting at the end of the trip is the promise of a fantastic visit with family and friends, the joy of being somewhere you love, the excitement of exploring someplace new or the comfort of home. All are equally worth the journey.