Pennsylvania | Part two

While in PA, we went to visit Tim's other grandparents (his Dad's mom and dad).  They live a good way out so I was pretty thankful that we got to go in his sister's Suburban.  It was outfitted with a DVD player which kept Oliver and his cousins occupied when they weren't sleeping.  For the record, we probably watched Cars 6+ times just in the car alone during our whole PA trip.

 Having lunch at Donna's...

  

Oliver has been loving all the dandelions. He has become a master of blowing the seeds.

   

We then made another day trip to go visit Tim's dad. He lives in a super remote area apparently because I had no cell service there, and an hour before and after. :-\ His dad bought a bicycle (actually tricycle) that had a basket in the back. I was freaking out because Tim wanted to ride around with him in the basket. Oliver did fine - just sat and didn't try to jump out. Crisis averted.

   

Lastly, we went to go visit one of Tim's cousin's working dairy farm. Oliver went last year also. This year, he was very excited to sit on the tractors and check out the cows.

 

We had such a hard time pulling him away from the barn! Our little city guy loves the farm life! We had a wonderful, wonderful, wonderful trip. Tim's mom said it was probably her favorite week off as she got to spend it with her son and daughter and all her grandkids. We are so grateful for their love and cannot wait to go back.

Pennsylvania | Part one

I know it has been a long time since I posted!  We have been extremely busy at work so my downtime between calls has been non-existant. 

Tim, Oliver, and I just returned from Pennsylvania where we visited Tim's family.  I was SO looking forward to some time off.  We were a bit concerned about the flight (Oliver did wonderful) and whether he would warm up to Tim's family quickly (it was pretty immediate).  Oliver had a absolutely wonderful time.  Here are a few highlights.

We had delightful weather for the duration of our trip, with the exception of a day and a half of straight downpour. Oliver was a madman running through the grass.

We celebrated Oliver's birthday / Mother's Day with Tim's family.

 

Oliver had some cake and ice cream, and also got nice cards and gifts from the family. 

 

Oliver had a lot of cousins to play with. The one above shows Sarah (back to us) who is his 2nd cousin, and Lexi who is one of his first cousins. Lexi and Sarah are both about 10 months younger than Oliver - but like I mentioned in a previous post, Lexi is big. She is the same height and weighs more than he does. She has bigger clothes and shoes.

I am going to end this here and hopefully will get the rest finished! 

Parks and stuff

Lucky Oliver has many parks at his disposal.  We went to Volunteer Park the other day with my mom (Nona).

This weekend was beautiful! Tim, O, and I got to go to the beach on Saturday and the park on Sunday.  Oliver had such a great weekend! 

 

Yeay instagram!

To say we love this wonderful 70 degree, sunny, and light wind weather would be an understatement.  And to say that I think instagram is awesome would also be an understatement.  :-)

With that said, here is a instagram only blog post!

Easter weekend

It was the first gorgeous weekend of the year.  After months of cold, rainy, and windy weather, were so thankful for SUN!  Oliver and I went to the park Saturday while Tim was at work.  We went down the slide a few times, and a few other structures, but eventually made our way over to the sandbox.
 

 

He LOOOOOVES getting dirty.  And playing with the bulldozers.  And excavators.  He is such a boy.

We picked up Tim from work and headed over to use a Groupon at Alexa's Cafe in Swanson's Nursery.  I have mentioned Swanson's numerous times - this time we went to visit the baby chicks!  Our fearless boy loved putting his finger in the cage to feel how soft they were.

Easter Sunday - cannot believe it's been a year since this foolishness...

       

This year, both Oliver and Chelsea refused to wear bunny ears.  We went down to my Dad and Jana's house for Easter egg hunt and BBQ (the tradional Easter meal :-) ).  Oliver got the hang of picking up the eggs right away.  Chelsea was hot on his trail.

 

In the eggs were marshmallow Peeps! Oliver has had a pretty clean diet of mostly organic food, nothing too processed, and sweets on occasion (he loves ice cream something fierce). So when he opened the egg, he wasn't aware it was something to eat until about half an hour later when he took a small bite on its tail. Then another small bite. And then he SHOVED the rest of it in his mouth! He ate another one just after this one... he was on his way to finding a third when we moved his basket full of the eggs.

 

One little video of the two with eggs and bubbles going.  We all had a wonderful time!  I know Oliver did - he fell asleep pretty quickly on the way home. 

Crazy man, Oliver

His vocabulary is getting bigger and bigger every day - he delights us with his words and signs.  He signs for "more" and "please" with ease, and words like "milk" and "binkie" are becoming his favorites.  :-)

Another word, as discovered last night, is "bubbles."  Don't judge for me blowing bubbles in the house.  I'm pretty sure this is going to be a huge hit once we can go outside and really let loose.

He went crazy for them.  I bought these bubbles at the store the other day - I can't wait for some decent weather to try them out!

I know I have this photo up above, but I'm pretty sure this is the best photo of his smile to date.

And how is it that he looks like a full-blown TODDLER in THIS photo?! Where did my baby go?

I absolutely love this guy. I don't know if you knew that or not. ;-)

Oliver and Chelsea

Oliver has been spending some quality time with his cousin, Chelsea.  The other day, we went to my brother's for dinner; my mom then deemed them both to be stinky so they took a bath together.  So cute.

Oliver loved having a bath buddy. :-)


Sunday, we watched Chelsea for a while. I thought it was going to be a scary situation as they were both due for a nap at the same time. Luckily, Oliver slept like normal in the crib, and Chelsea took a nap with me in the bed.

She has taken her first steps so soon enough she and Oliver will be chasing after each other. Speaking of the crazy man...

Eating like a dinosaur.  Just like his Daddy.  ;-)