Happy Halloween

Oliver had a great first Halloween. He was Charlie Brown and looked adorable! We took him to BookPeople this morning for Halloween storytime. He spent time with my friend, Madeline’s, little four month old, Miles, and showed off his costume to some of my coworkers. After BookPeople, we went and ate some lunch and then headed off to a Halloween party at a friend of a friend’s house. It was a baby Halloween party and there were lots of super cute babies in even cuter costumes. Oliver committed the unfortunate faux pas of coming dressed in the same costume as the party’s host. Both were Charlie Brown. How embarrassing! Oliver had lots of fun playing with all the other kids and Brian and I had fun visiting with the parents and cooing over all the adorable costumes. Here are pictures of his costume. I think it turned out great!

  

Trip to San Antonio

We had a great time in San Antonio this past weekend visiting with my parents and grandmother. We went down on Thursday afternoon and stayed until Monday morning. On Friday we hung out at the house while Mom was at work. I did some work and Brian and Grandmommy entertained the kiddo. Friday evening we all spent time watching Oliver play (he can sit and play for so long now!). On Saturday we hit the town. Mom and Richard joined the San Antonio Zoo earlier this year so we went there on Saturday morning, thinking that was going to be our big outing for the day. The San Antonio Zoo is amazing and we had perfect weather to explore it. We were there for hours and the weather was so cool that the animals were all out and active. We pushed Oliver around in his stroller and then would take him out every once in awhile so he could get a better look. All of us really enjoyed seeing all of the animals but I think Oliver was more interested in the people. He did his best to look for the animals, though.

After we had been there awhile, Oliver quietly drifted off to sleep in his stroller while we explored more of the zoo. We left the zoo around 1.:30 and headed to lunch at W.D. Deli. The deli is owned by some of my dad’s friends (Wayne and Michael) and was where I had my first job. Oliver also had a first, there. Sitting in a real high chair for the first time.

My favorite part of the deli (apart from the awesome food) is the wall of pictures that Wayne has put up. There are pictures of his family and friends and I love going to look at them since there are quite a few pictures of my daddy. While everyone finished their lunch, I took Oliver to look at picture of his granddaddy. 

If you squint, you can see the pictures of my dad right above Oliver’s head. Love this picture!

While we were at lunch we decided that since Oliver was being such a trooper that we would try to squeeze a visit to the San Antonio Botanical Gardens into our day because there was an exhibit of giant bug sculptures there that we wanted to check out. When we got there, I found a nice secluded bench and fed Oliver for awhile before we got up to explore. The gardens were beautiful and we got great pictures of flowers and butterflies... and Oliver! Oliver was in such a good mood all day that he didn’t take a bad picture the whole time - he was all smiles and giggles! 

After a few hours at the gardens, we were all pooped and headed home (it was practically bed time by the time we got home although we did squeeze in some swinging). We all marveled at how good Oliver had been all day. He is such a social baby and loves being a little man about town.

On Sunday, Grandmommy and I took Oliver up to my parents’ church so Mom and Richard could show him off. That afternoon, Great-Grandmama took him on a shopping spree and got him some super cute clothes (that will definitely be making appearance in future editions of Sundays With Oliver) and an adorable stuffed hippo. We spent our final evening together sitting on the back porch and pushing Oliver in his swing (which was lots of fun until Oliver got pelted in the head with an acorn and started screaming). 

Oliver got up early Monday morning so that he could tell his grandmother good-bye before she went to work (so thoughtful of him... although it meant I had to get up at 6:45). We spent some time hanging out with my grandmother before we packed up and headed back up to Austin. It was such a great weekend with the family and Oliver was a joy to be around the whole time!

Sundays With Oliver - Week Twenty-Eight

We have been in San Antonio since Thursday afternoon visiting with my parents and my grandmother who flew in from Midland. We’ve had a great weekend. We dragged the kiddo all over town yesterday - to the zoo and to the botanical gardens... I’ll post about that later but I wanted to get some pictures up before I went to bed. Oliver had a good week - he’s getting really interested in going places. When he’s on his belly now, he gets up really high on his hands and knees and rocks back and forth. When he’s laying on the floor he rolls every where and when he’s sitting on his butt he bounces up and down until he manages to scoot where he wants to go. I’m afraid I won’t be able to keep him immobile for too much longer. Grr.

  

There were eight in the bed, and Oliver said...

Roll over! Oliver is a rolling machine these days - finally having figured out that it’s not only good for getting himself into a comfortable sleeping position but that it’s also a fairly decent mode of locomotion. We put him on the floor with his toys spread out around him and he rolls from one end of the blanket to the other. My favorite Oliver rolling moment came this morning, though. After a champion night of sleep (in bed at 7, slept until 4:30, back to sleep right away), Oliver woke up around 8:00 or so but decided to let his mom and dad sleep in. So, he woke up, rolled to the other end of his crib, and slapped the button on his mobile so that he’d have something to entertain himself. We woke up to the sounds of the mobile, went into his nursery and found him happy as a clam underneath the mobile, swatting at the toys. He’s tried this particular mode of self-soothing before but this was the first time he was successful and he seemed so pleased with himself. 

Here’a a picture of how we usually find Oliver after a nap:

Sundays With Oliver - Week Twenty-Seven

We had a pretty typical week here at the Contine household - work, class, hanging out with the kiddo. But we had an awesome weekend. On Saturday, Lindsey and Dauphin came over to watch the UT game and made us chili and chocolate chip cookies. Yum! We spent today hanging out with Jennifer and Tom who were visiting from Richmond, Virginia. We haven’t seen them in over a year so it was great to spend some time with them and introduce them to the knucklehead. On Liz’s request, we spent the afternoon playing games. We only managed one game of Monopoly (I won!) but it was a lot of fun. Oliver was a little fussy but pretty well-behaved. I think he’s still trying to get over his cold - his nose won’t stop running, and his eyes were red and puffy all day (you’ll see that in the pictures). He might be making another trip to the doctor this week anyway because he’s started doing this really weird thing where he flops his head (or entire body) to the left while you’re holding him. We showed the doctor while we were there on Monday but she wrote it off as him flirting with her. We’re not entirely convinced he is completely in control of the movement when he makes it, though, so we want to take him back and have her really address it. I’m sure it’s nothing but it’s got Brian and I both a little wigged out so it’s better to have her look at it than to let it keep weighing on our minds.

Here are the pictures from this week:

  

Six Month Wellness Visit

Oliver is six months old today. I can’t quite wrap my head around that milestone yet so I’ll save any ruminations on it for a later post. But for now, a down and dirty post on his six month wellness visit:

Stats:

Weight: 19 pounds, 3 ounces (80th percentile)

Height: 26.5 inches (50th percentile)

Head Circumference: 17.8 inches (85th percentile)

He’s a bowling ball apparently. The doctor expects that he’ll drop a few percentile points in weight by his nine-month visit, pointing out that breastfed babies are often chunkers (but that breastfeeding provides protection against obesity later in life). So, hopefully at the next visit he’ll be a little more proportionate. 

Development:

Oliver is right on track with his social and physical development - even ahead of the curve in some aspects. 

Other:

He got four shots today (three regularly scheduled vaccines and a flu shot) so hopefully he’ll react well to those.

We’ve got to get him tested for lead poisoning since our house is so old. It’s a quick blood draw but he’ll have to do it once a year for as long as we are in this house.

The doctor, once again, couldn’t stop gushing about how cute Oliver is, even telling us that he should model for BabyGap. He is all smiles and giggles when she’s around so I think he’s got her pretty well wrapped around his little finger.

Here’s a shot of Oliver in the waiting room before his appointment:

Sundays With Oliver - Week Twenty-Six

Well, Oliver had a first this week that I had been hoping to avoid for a little longer.... He’s got his first cold. And, the little stinker gave it to me so we’ve both been under the weather the past few days. Oliver seems to be handling it better than I am - his nose is really congested, it seems like his ears bother him a little and he’s been coughing. But, all in all, he’s in really good spirits and it hasn’t affected his sleep too much. I am, however, miserable. Apparently, I’m a bigger baby than Oliver is. Oliver and I went to my mom’s house this weekend so that my mom could take care of both of us (Brian works Friday night and I didn’t really have the energy to take care of the knucklehead all on my own). We came back from San Antonio this morning and Brian has been taking care of us ever since. I got to park myself on the couch with blankets and pillows while Brian took care of the kiddo, bringing him to be when I needed a cuddle or he needed to eat but otherwise keeping him completely entertained and keeping me well fed. I’m very lucky.

So, besides that first, Oliver also had a last. His last week as a five month old. Tomorrow he will be six months old. I can’t believe how quickly the time has gone or how big he has gotten and how much he has changed. We go to the doctor tomorrow for his checkup so I will post an update tomorrow evening on all the vital stats. Brian and I are taking bets on how much he weighs at this point. Brian says he’s over twenty pounds. I’m holding out hope that he’s not but I have a feeling (the aching in my back) that he has, in fact, broken the 20 pound mark.

  

Sundays With Oliver - Week Twenty-Five

Good week. We stayed busy with work, school and the knucklehead. Oliver is getting really good at sitting up on his own and is even taking his baths in the big tub now since he loves to splash and I don’t like cleaning up the kitchen for thirty minutes after each bath. We tried sweet potatoes this week and he didn’t seem to be much of a fan. We keep trying them but he’s not liking them too much (and I’m not too pleased with what’s coming out the other end when he eats them). But we will soldier on and try offering him some other veggie and see what he thinks. Oliver is sleeping really well now - averaging nine or ten hours when I first put him down and then another two or three after he gets up to eat around 4 or 5. He has also discovered that he likes to sleep on his belly and since he can now roll over either way with no problem, often flips onto his tummy and goes to sleep when we put him down. The other day we put him down for a nap and watched on the video monitor as he rolled from one end of his crib to the other and sat under his crib batting at a toy on his mobile and slapping the control pad (maybe he was trying to turn it on?). He then gave up, rolled back to the other end, stopped on his belly and fell asleep. The days of him being in the same spot when he wakes up as when we put him down are over. True mobility isn’t far away.