Ollie's Playground

Ollie has really started to LOVE the playground that is about eight steps from our back door. We finally got a little bit of snow this week...and though Ollie's not crazy about being stuffed into his snowsuit, he was rather curious about this stuff called snow. Whenever he wants to go outside now, he points and asks for the "snoooooow" (oo as in oops).

Checking out a view of the playground from the kitchen counter.

I love this picture because Ollie fell asleep holding Bla Bla in one hand and his blankie in the other. Our friend Sarah made his blankie for him.

Ollie's gotten pretty brave about going down the slide by himself. We were a little worried the first time he wanted to go solo...but he told us to step back and chill out. ha ha

Ollie Visits the Children's Museum

Our little guy...all tuckered out after his big day at the children's museum.

Despite his down-to-business face, Ollie LOVED the slide! He kept climbing and re-climbing the stairs and then waiting at the top for Mama or Daddy to take him down.

These glow sticks were pretty cool. They lit up whenever Ollie slid them in their slots. He was amazed.

Keep your eyes on the road, Ollie!

A Visit from Grandpa

Ollie sure does love Grandpa Paul!!

More Playtime with Ollie

We love Ollie's noises! And, we think it's so cute to see him learn the parts of his body. "Shoes" is another one of his favorite words.

Playtime with Ollie

I love this video because of how intently Ollie is watching his daddy.

I love watching Ollie play with his daddy! Ollie's started calling water, "lala." It's pretty catchy. I think he should start a new trend.

This is one of Ollie's favorite toys. It gets a little dangerous at times, though! :) Poor Ollie.

Happy pounding!

The Ollie Hat

Ollie loves to wear hats and has gotten pretty good at putting them on and taking them off. On this particular day, he found the baby hat Aunt Jennifer made for him when he was born, and he insisted on wearing it around the house. Too cute.

Ollie investigating the kitchen cabinets.

One of Ollie's favorite foods is cottage cheese...and "cheese" is another one of his favorite words these days. As he's learning to feed himself, we sometimes have very messy meals! Apparently, cottage cheese is not only tasty but seems to work quite well as hair product.

Ollie the artist after coloring with washable (thank goodness!) markers from Aunt Jennifer.

Bumbo Play. As Ollie is experimenting with new words, we've discovered he narrates most of his activities (which makes sense considering we narrate most of the time with him, as well). In this little clip, he babbles for a while about his "bumbo" chair, tries to pick it up and bring to "Daddy," and asks, "What's this?" when distracted by the paper towel used to wipe his face after breakfast.

Ollie's buddy, Sean, gave him these cool "Boom Whackers," which are tuned percussion tubes. While Ollie still hasn't quite figured them out, he really likes to twirl them around and throw them!

Ollie Visits the Aquarium

I love this picture because it shows Ollie's beautiful curls!

Daddy came up with the brilliant idea of taking Ollie to a nearby aquarium. Ollie LOVED it! Besides being intrigued with all of the underwater creatures...he enjoyed running around the open spaces, watching and following as many children as possible (or "babies," as he calls them. He recently offended a little girl he saw while we were shopping. He pointed and called out, "Baby!" to which she indignantly replied, "I'm not a baby! I'm a big girl!" He didn't make any new girlfriends that day!), and pointing out any balls he saw in the water tanks.

Ollie is such a good helper around the apartment. He especially likes to help sweep the floors.

Ollie plays with the "babies" from his little toy school bus. (Another one of his favorite new words is, "bus," which sounds a lot like "pus." There's a bus stop outside of our front window, which Ollie watches quite frequently, alerting us promptly whenever the bus arrives. How helpful! He also likes to ride the bus, himself, or wave to Mama or Daddy when she or he leaves for school or work.)