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.)

Daddy's Family

Grandpa, Grandma, Boo, and Ollie

Grandma, Daddy, Aunt Amy, & Ollie.


Some "down time."


Ollie with his girlfriend, Aunt Amy...or "Mamy," as he lovingly calls her.

Ollie loves playing with silly Uncle Scott!

Ollie LOVES to put on shoes...so he was very excited to open this particular Christmas present from Grandma and Grandpa. As if the novelty of a new box to play with wasn't enough, there were shoes inside!

Mama's Family

Ollie takes a break from shooting some hoops to push some buttons.

He thinks his cousins are sooooo cool...and pretended to be a "big boy" by playing with their toys. They did a super job of sharing!

Mimi and Ollie spent quite a few early mornings together. One of their favorite games: hiding the basketball in the box! It was fun to hear Ollie ask for "Mimi" whenever he wanted to play. One of his favorite things to do now that we're back home is to look at photos of his family and point out "who's who." He's quite proud of himself and often applauds his own successes! How funny.

My, what big teeth you have, Uncle Jonathan!

Ollie with Mimi and Granddad.

Getting cuddly with Aunt Jennifer. Ollie kept calling her 'Mama.' Dex and Jax kept calling his mama 'Mommy.' Christmas can be so confusing! ;)

Sneaking up on Uncle D.R.--investigating his presents.

Hmmm...does Granddad have any gifts I'm interested in?

Ollie sure had fun playing with his cool cousins, Dex and Jax. He wishes he could play with them more often!

Merry Christmas, Ollie!

Building a Christmas tower with Mama. Ollie's got his thinkin' face on.

Going on a Christmas afternoon walk with Daddy. Ollie loves to hold Daddy's hand and carry the keys!

Figuring out his new hammer-ball toy. He likes to pound with the hammer pointing down, like this. As soon as he figured out how to get the balls out, it became a race to see how quickly he could hammer all four. He still likes this toy and excitedly shouts "ball!" each time he successfully hammers.

Ollie loved our Christmas tree and taking the ornaments off and on. Our little lamb tree topper is from Auntie T. Thanks, T!

Mmmm...yummy angel.

Mama and Ollie. Daddy was camera-shy on Christmas.

An Ollie fashion statement: pants optional.

We all took a walk Christmas afternoon after spending a relaxing day together. Merry Christmas!

Mitten Monster

Ollie had soooo much fun playing with Lindsay during finals week while Mama was writing. Thank you, Lindsay!!!

Okay, I guess she wasn't writing the whole time. She did take break to snap some pics of Ollie & Lindsay.

Ollie thinks it's incredibly funny when Daddy turns into the Mitten Monster. Mama thinks it's incredibly funny when Ollie finds something incredibly funny!

Snow Baby

One of Ollie's favorite activities is climbing up on our coffee table and looking out the window. He loves to watch the cars, squirrels, and "babies" (his new favorite word that applies to any human being smaller than his mama and daddy, as well as his baby doll, and a little lamb pull-toy). What a silly little guy.

Ollie's first play-day in the snow--very wet, sleety snow. It was short...but he had fun!

Daddy likes the snow, too!



Every once in a while, Ollie goes through a phase in which he rediscovers his soothie. This is one such day. We love just following him around the apartment!

Time to go inside to warm up!

Ollie's 1st Birthday

Almost more intrigued by the box than the puzzle that came in it!

Ollie & Peter hanging out.

Lindsay & Ollie playing with his birthday blocks.

Sean, Ollie & Lindsay.

Ollie climbing up Christina.

Ollie's first present in the morning.

So focused on opening his birthday cards.

Moments from Ollie's birthday--morning with Mama and Daddy, afternoon with friends. What a great first birthday!