Wednesday, October 22, 2008

Walking video!!

Oliver started walking unassisted on Saturday, October 11th. He now walks everywhere! This video was taken on the 19th. We are amazed how much he has perfected his technique since then. He now enjoys walking with toys in both his hands. He will even stop to pick them up and keep on going. We are so happy that our little man has accomplished (and perfected) almost every major baby milestone. Enjoy!!!

Sunday, October 19, 2008

Pumpkin Patch

We stopped at a local pumpkin patch on our way home from church. We should have, however, done this outing the previous weekend. It was about 75 degrees last weekend and 50 this weekend. Nothing was going to stop us from finding the best pumpkin! We bundled up and managed to find a daddy pumpkin, a mommy pumpkin and a small little Oliver pumpkin! He is holding his in the picture. This drain tile is the ending of the maze. Oliver just looked to cute and small sitting there. He doesn't mind having mittens or his hat on. We just need to make sure that we buy hats that snap or have velcro so he can't pull them off, which he is notorious for!
Larry and Oliver taking a break in the maze.
Oliver wanted to crawl through the maze all by himself. He is stopping to scope out his next move.
They had ducks, chickens and roosters among all other types of animals. Oliver was so intrigued by all of them.
Mommy and Ollie near the big kids corn maze.
The goats kept trying to get out of their fence. There was an occasional corn kernel in the walkway that they would stretch their necks as far as they could to get to. I am sure if we got close enough, they would have eaten our shoes! A few of the goats were pregnant, so I don't blame them for being hungry!! haha

Oliver loves to zurbert!

Oliver loves to zurbert! He will do to anyone on any open skin that he can find. Last week, Larry's leg just happened to be the closest thing! As you can tell, we were all completely amused by this silly action. Just keep in mind that this is only one minute and 18 seconds of his 4 minute zurberting session!

Sunday, October 12, 2008

Birthday Cake!

Oliver's cake was decorated like a soccer ball to follow the sports theme. It was an awesome cake and only took about an hour to decorate!
I will set the scene a little for the next few pictures. Oliver woke up at 6am. I fed him in bed and we snoozed until about 7:30. The party started at noon and this cake was served up around 2:30/3ish. He hadn't taken a nap nor was showing any signs of sleepiness until we were eating dinner. As the pictures progress, you can see how tired he becomes!
The song and the candles......
The momentous first dip into the cake......
and then into the mouth!
Getting tired or a little shy? I bet he is wondering why all these people are starring at him and why do most of them have cameras?
And he looses it! No longer interested in the cake....it is nap time!
We took the cake away along with the tray....not such a good idea! He smeared the frosting EVERYWHERE! Look above his ear...you can see perfect finger swipes!
Dad comes in with the sweep away...careful....don't get any on that Purdue shirt! I wouldn't want it to get dirty! (GO IU)
Followed immediately with a bath! (and then a nap for all of you who were keeping up with the chronological order!)

*MOTHERS NOTE* for all of those mother's who are serving up a cake to your little one...DON'T use black frosting! What in the world was I thinking? I am still finding stained black frosting everywhere! It even stained my Pampered Chef no stain spatulas! Next birthday we may have an all white soccer ball! (What a boring mom, huh?)

Birthday Party Number 2

We celebrated Oliver's birthday with a sports themed party at our home. We spent the day eating ball park themed food and beverages! From the pictures below, you will see that everyone wore their favorite sports gear (there was a prize for the most spirited) and were so gracious towards Oliver with such generous gifts! He is definitely a spoiled little boy. We are working on our manners, but haven't yet mastered the sign for thank you. I think by the looks of the smiles when he saw a new gift was his thank you!
Mommy wearing IU, Daddy wearing Purdue and the birthday boy wearing PU. It was almost unanimous about the Purdue jersey. I am a minority around here with all the Purdue people. I agreed ONLY because the jersey had a appropriate number 1 on it!

Kim wearing the Steelers adn Bob wearing a Purdue jersey with his hockey pads underneath. Yes, those are black painted bandaids under his eyes! GO BOB!

Dave wearing Michigan and Katie wearing the Colts head to toe.....literally! Note the presents are decorated with cream and crimson ribbon and black and gold ribbon! Katie is so crafty!

Amanda in Steve's jersey, Maya wearing her cheerleading skirt and a Purdue jersey, Ryan wearing his Colts jersey and Steve wearing his jersey. Amana has eyeliner under her eyes! What creative partygoers!
Ryan wearing Michigan State, Jackson wearing Michigan State and Claire wearing a basketball necklace!
Matt wearing IU, baby Joseph, and Jessica wearing Michigan State.
Larry picked up all the balloons at the party store. The balloons placed around the deck are in the colors of the partygoers colleges! It just added a special touch!
We had to remind Oliver that was only 1 not 21! Just another 20 years to go buddy! Maybe Ryan can show you how to deliver a beer in another year! Ryan will walk around asking everyone if they need a beer....regardless of your answer...you get one!
Soccer decorations
Basketball decorations with Maya! She loved the stars!



The table all decorated. We served hot pretzels, hot dogs, brats, nachos/fritos with cheese and chili, peanuts, cotton candy, and big league chew!

These are the cakes and cupcakes that I made! Oliver's cake is the soccer ball and the pennant is the cake for everyone else! Oliver LOVED the helicopter that Amanda and Steve got him. We kept trying to get him to open more presents but the toy kept making noises and would grab his attention.
Everyone enjoying the party.
A book! There is always time for one of those! He absolutely loves to read!
STANDING! He can stand by himself for quite some time now. It is amazing to me that is his able to do these things. I am going to blink and he is going to be running soon. What a wonderful birthday party! We thank all of you who came to share in the special day with our little man! We appreciate all the things that you have done for us and for Oliver this past year! We look forward to many more memories with all of you!!!!!!

One Year Checkup

Oliver had his one year checkup this week. I cannot believe that a year has gone by already! Where has the time went?
We were put in the monkey and zebra room this time. It was perfect because he LOVES when you say the word "ZZZZ-ebra"! He was giggling and it was really cute! He became more timid of the doctor at this visit. He inspected him with much curiosity this time. The doctor is pleased that he has putting on a little weight and says to keep encouraging him to eat more and more! We gained a little insight from the doctor on discipline as Oliver has been hitting lately. I have to say that is hard not showing any signs of emotion (laughing) when he does it sometimes. He says he may be showing signs of the 2's already. Does that mean that the will be over sooner than usual or are we stretching it out longer? Agh! He is an excelled little boy and we are enjoying every minute of him. We are so blessed!
His stats are as follows:
Weight: 21 pounds 10 ounces 31 percentile
Height: 30.5 inches 67 percentile (thanks to daddy)
Head Circumference: 44 cm 35 percentile

Birthday cup"CAKE"

On the day of his birthday we couldn't pass up the opportunity to let him dive into his ceremonial cup"cake"! His big party was planned for Saturday and he was going to have cake then, but we thought it was necessary to have one one his official birth date!


I think he enjoyed himself!

First Birthday Celebration!