Kites Up High

Ollie loves to have things hanging from our living room ceiling. He especially loves helping Mama and Daddy hang them up by climbing on our step ladder and pretending it's a drum. (He drums on EVERYTHING these days...his favorite being the lids of metal garbage cans. He tells us he's a chapel drummer. One of Ollie's favorite things about chapel is watching the musicians.) For a while this year, we had kites and rainbows hanging from the ceiling (we now have suns and teddy bears). I'm posting this pic because of the video below...another clip from a while ago that I found as I was sorting through pics & videos. I think it's from June. I already miss the pudginess to his body, which is starting to go away...and the cute way he spoke then.

Color Day! We sorted some of Ollie's toys by color which he thought was really cool. He's pretty much got his colors down now. (And he does a super job of counting. Though, the other night, we were at a 27th birthday party for a friend, and Ollie started counting the birthday candles. "un...two...free...four...cow!" Not quite sure what that was about...maybe the effects of too much sugar! but he got a good laugh. heehee)
One of his favorite things to do is tell me when to stop or go at stop lights. And, when a light is red, he'll point to it and say, "Turn green!" He's pretty good at getting it to change colors for me. :) The other day, we were at a 4-way stoplight, with all four lights red. He was telling the red light to turn green when he noticed that, instead, the lights going the opposite way had turned from red to green. Surprised, he said, "Mama those other lights over there turned green. Go!" Probably a good thing he wasn't driving that day.

I like to take air out of that beach ball...

Ollie insists on sleeping with all of his buddies. They always start sitting around the crib, by the rails...but when we go back to check on him, he has them stuffed underneath him...like this. We think it's so funny. This is Ollie with Celia (his baby), Ellie (the elephant) and Platypus. Bla Bla Monkey is pinned underneath Ellie, poor guy.

A pic from a while ago...but one of my favorites. Ollie loves to be wrapped up in blankets and towels.

"I like to take air out of that beachball."

We had some dear friends visit this week from Australia. (I will post pics soon from that visit.) Ollie LOVED playing this beach ball game with Steve. Ollie would squeeze all the air out, stick the deflated ball to his tummy, and then demand that Steve blow it up again. (Yes, our little guy is in his birthday suit. This was right after bath time.) The game went on for quite a while...until Steve fell to the floor nearly passing out...which Ollie, of course, thought was just as much fun! :) This is also a neat clip of Ollie's talking these days. I know I'm his mama and think everything he does is "unbelievable"--but I still can't get over all of these words coming out of his little mouth!

Happy Halloween!

Wow...I can't believe it's been this long since I've posted anything!!! We've been just a little bit busy. We had an amazing summer...spending about six weeks visiting our families back home. I will post "summary" pics sometime soon. This semester has been CRAZY. I am looking forward to next semester (my last) when doctoral applications will be done and I can simply enjoy our last few months here.

Ollie is a pleasure, as always. He's our little conversationalist...engaging just about anyone he can in dialogue. Sometime near the end of the summer, he started using complete sentences. Few people believe that he is still one year old...and speaking so proficiently. He amazes us. There are still funny mix-ups, especially with pronouns like "I" and "you"...which help to remind us just what a little guy he is. :)

For Halloween, Ollie was a tomato! He loved the day...trick-or-treating at Mama's school, Daddy's work, and participating in a Halloween parade with other children from our apartments. As soon as he saw his daddy at work, he ran down the restaurant alley, tomato costume bobbing up and down, shouting, "Trick-or-treat, Daddy! Ollie's a tomato!" Coffee drinkers at the sidewalk cafe along the way were pleasantly amused. We decided not to trick-or-treat this year, but gave Ollie full control over answering the door and distributing treats. He was hilarious! He would squeal with delight each time the doorbell rang and carefully select the candy he deemed appropriate to give away to each little visitor. Our neighbor across the hall was wonderful with Ollie...encouraging trick-or-treaters to say, "Happy Halloween, Ollie," which Ollie, of course, enjoyed. Each time we would arrive at the outside door at about the same time, he would have a new trick or game to play with his little neighbor, Ollie. I'm thankful for good neighbors! A few times Ollie asked kids to come in and play...which was very cute. He was especially excited when he recognized a costume or character...and once even gave a little boy a hug! The most exciting trick-or-treater of the evening was when Daddy came home early from work. Ollie insisted he go outside again and again to ring the doorbell so that Ollie could answer it and give him new treats.

Ollie trying on pieces of his costume as Mama makes them.

Fun Stuff

Ollie likes jumping on his big blue chair! Here's the transcript:

"Kick. Kick. Two kicks! Wake...Mama." Ollie's gotten pretty good at counting up to two. Anything over three is a free for all, usually being called six, his favorite number.

Playing with his picture cards. There are still a few he's working on...but overall, we are amazed that he has the patience to do these!

Singin' a song with Mama. Ollie loves to sing. He does a cute, in-tune, rendition of his ABC's, repeating, "ABC, ABC, ABC, ABC," over and over again...and ending the song "with me!"

Two conversations yesterday:

#1. Riding in the car, we see a big, red banner hanging over the street. Ollie says, "Flag. Red flag. Under red flag [as we drive under it]. More flagses!" he spent the rest of the car-ride looking for banners and flags.

#2. Playing on the playground, he hears a plane in the sky. "Plane?" He looks up, searching for the plane. "Helicopter?" Still doesn't see it, so he looks around him "Lawnmower?" I point out where the plane is in the sky. He says, "Hmmm...tiny plane." I explain that it looks tiny because it's so far away but that it's actually very big. He watches as it disappears across the sky, then puts up his hands and asks, "Plane go?" I tell him it flew away, and he says, "Missing." I agree and say it must be missing. Then he says, "Hiding. Find plane." I tell him I'm not sure if we'll be able to find it but that we can wait for another one. He searches the sky and notices two trail-lines of smoke from the plane. "Trail! Plane trail! Two trailses!" He reaches up to the sky. "Kiss 'em." I tell him they're too far away to kiss. "Hug 'em." I tell him we can't reach them to give them a hug. "Hmmm...up high." Yes, Ollie, they're up very high. "Clouds...high." Yes, clouds are high, too. "Birds...high." Yes, birds are high when they're flying. "Birds...sing!" Birds do sing. You can sing, too. At which point, he has forgotten about the plane and toddles away singing, "ABC...ABC...ABC...ABC's." I love the way this little guy thinks about things!

A Trip to the Beach

Ollie LOVES the beach! We're trying to go as many times as we can this summer to take advantage of how close we are to the ocean. As you can see by Ollie's wet hair and clothes, he has no fear of the water!

Jumping in "puddles," as Ollie called it.

More Block It

Ollie can't get enough of playing this funny game with his daddy. He's saying, "Nice day," as the video begins...a phrase we here often...especially when he's doing something fun. He's also started saying, "Lucky day!" whenever he gets excited about something...like seeing orange construction cones. He loves orange cones!

***Ollie's really into kisses right now. While he doesn't have much interest in television (we're glad about this!), two of his favorite movies are: "White Mane" and "Beavers: IMAX." At the start of both movies, he runs up to the screen to give kisses to the horse and the beavers...hilarious. This morning, we all went to the beach. When we arrived, Ollie looked up into the sky and saw the moon still visible. He reached up and said, "Moon! Touch it! Kiss it!"

Scat Man!

I'm sorry...I couldn't help adding one more harmonica video! My favorite part is when Ollie gets so into it, he starts scatting as he takes over for the harmonica. I love it.

***New stuff: Ollie loves to play pretend...especially, pretend eating, driving and sleeping. This afternoon, Ollie served a pretend "supper" on the playground that consisted of apples and pudding. I think he made some good food choices! Then, he stood behind a steering wheel, asked for my keys so he could start his car, and drove me to the post office. Interesting destination, I thought. He's also REALLY into stuffed animals lately. Last night for his "real" dinner, he insisted on taking turns with his animals. First platypus got a bite of pudding, then Ollie did (poor platypus needed a good cleaning after dinner). First elephant got some spaghetti, then Ollie did (elephant fared better than platypus with just a few spaghetti noodles left dangling on his trunk). This morning, Ollie encircled himself in stuffed animals and started chanting, "animal house...animal house." I'm not sure if he built a house for himself, contructed of animals...or if he was building a home for the animals, out of animals. But what I do know is that it was really cute! He also loves to pretend to sleep. He'll curl up on the floor...or in our bed, close his eyes and whisper, "Shhh...baby sleeps."