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."

Harmonica Session

The Cereal-Time Blues

Giggles!

The Uh-Oh Game.

Hat Day

Ollie loves to play with hats--baseball caps, winter hats, knit hats. This was a two-hat day. Ollie's a trend-setter. I'm sure this'll be the next big fashion trend.

Cheese!

Diaper-Changin' Blues

Ollie found Mama's harmonica and loves it, to this day. And, we love to hear our little musician play it! Both of these videos are from when Ollie was seventeen months old. Yes...I'm still playing catch-up!

One of Ollie's favorite books is "Eating the Alphabet," a great storytime pick for aspiring little chefs. In this video, he's just starting to figure out some of the fruits and veggies.

***This morning, at around 4:30, we woke up to the sound of Ollie saying, "Baby...hold baby. BlaBla...hold BlaBla." He loves to hold, hug, and kiss his baby doll and his BlaBla monkey. As soon as he located his sweeties in the crib, he fell right back to sleep!

Ollie loves to "play with" the birds and squirrels on campus. This afternoon, as he was running around trying to catch and "hug" birds and squirrels, he decided to transfer his attention to the little blue lawn flags marking the sprinkler heads on the campus lawn. He ran from flag to flag, bending down and placing his cheek against each flag, "hugging" it. I have no idea why he felt compelled to hug all of these blue flags...but it was soooo cute!!!