So fast...

An hour ago I put Oliver to bed for his last night of sleep as a one year old. I can’t get over how quickly the last two years have gone by. I can’t believe he’s already two years old but at the same time I struggle to remember what life was like before he came along.

He’s changed so much in the past two years. Tonight he and I went to dinner together and he told me exactly what he wanted to eat - chicken and edamame - and we spent the entire meal having a conversation about what he had done that day, what he was eating, what he wanted to do tomorrow, etc. We talked about how Grandma is coming tomorrow and he told me that when he sees Grandma he is going to say: “Hi, Grandma! I need hug! Big kiss!” 

He’s become such a lover boy just in the last week. We’ll be pushing him through the grocery store and he will look up, spread his arms wide and say: “Hug, Mommy!” It’s awesome (although it does add a considerable amount of time to our shopping trips). 

Sometimes I find myself getting nostalgic for the little tiny baby who came into our life two years ago

but then I watch our little bundle of energy, running wildly across the yard declaring: “I fast! I fast!”

or leaning up against the garage door, counting to ten to play hide and seek

and I just get so proud and happy to be the mom of such an amazing little boy. He is spirited, almost always smiling and laughing and just a heck of a lot of fun to be around.

Happy Birthday, Oliver! Can’t wait to see what the next year has in store for you.

Austin, Texas - A Love Story

Oliver and I woke up this past Saturday morning at my mom’s house in San Antonio. We got up, got dressed and went out for breakfast (we had “Gackos” or “tacos”), and then headed north to Austin for music class. Music class starts at 10:30 and we left San Antonio at 8:45, seemingly with plenty of time even considering that I-35 was shut down in the south of Austin (which I knew before we headed out). My plan was to continue driving north on 35 until it started to slow down and then get off and take the surface roads the rest of the way to music class. It didn’t work out so smoothly. The highway never “slowed down”. It just stopped. Dead stop. We went from going 70 mph to going 2 mph. It was horrible. I knew we weren’t going to make it to class and I felt awful. I was so angry at myself but even angrier at the city of Austin. I mean, what sort of city has ONE north-south thoroughfare and shuts that road down for an entire weekend? What kind of city makes it so impossible to get anywhere? Shuts down roads every two minutes for some sort of festival or race, etc? Ugh. Austin was on my list. I was so over it.

Oliver and I got to music class thirty minutes late but our teacher was nice enough to let us sit in on the next class so Oliver didn’t have to miss it entirely. After class we headed home and Oliver and I both took pretty decent naps. When we woke up, Dauphin and Kelly called and said that there were headed to Zilker Park to fly kites and hang out. We headed down to the park and spent the next three hours running around, playing soccer and flying kites. There were hundreds of people out at the park but it wasn’t crowded. Oliver ran and ran and ran and met tons of people. He kept running up to people and saying: “Hi! I Oliver!” It was too cute. We stayed until the sun started to set and then headed back to the car. On the walk to the car I caught one of my favorite pictures of Brian and Oliver of all time.

 MoPac up to the house was smooth sailing and I found myself falling in love with our town once again. Well played, Austin. You’ve got a fan in me.

Chuckles

I don’t have the time or energy for a long post tonight but I wanted to jot down a few things that Oliver has done lately that have completely cracked me up. And most of them are related to his new trick... counting.

• Oliver started counting last week. He did great with one and two but kinda lost it after that. One of his first attempts went like this: “One. Two. Nine. Done!.” Now he consistently counts to three (I will get a video soon and post it). He will get to the top of the slide and sit down and yell: “One! Two! Three! Go!” and then slide down. The other day we went to the park with Dauphin and Kelly (more on that later because it was an awesome day) and Oliver was setting up to race Dauphin. He lined up with Dauphin and then counted to the start: “One! Two! Go!”  He totally skipped three. That little cheater. 

• We’ve been using time out for certain “infractions” lately with mixed success. The thing that always always always lands him in time out is playing in the dogs’ water bowl. He’s done well for awhile but in the last couple of weeks he has repeatedly splashed in the water bowl. When he screws up we put him in time out and tell him why he’s there. We also will tell him how much time he has left. At one point last week Brian even counted down the last ten seconds for him. On Sunday afternoon Oliver splashed in the dogs’ water, I put him in time out and told him why he was there and then tried to ignore him while he served his time. A few seconds later, however, he started shouting: “Ten! Nine! Eight! Seven!...”  He was counting down the end of his time out. It was so so so hard not to laugh. 

• He now calls the cats “girls” since he follows his dad’s example. Brian walks into the garage every morning and says to the cats: “Hi, girls.” Oliver now says the same. He can’t say boys for the dogs so he says “guys” which is his go to word for a lot of things - his toys, the dogs, the men who drive the recycling truck (who, by the way, made an unscheduled second pass on our street a few weeks ago because Oliver was outside cheering them on), the five year old boy who lives across the street whose name is Zakai (it’s pretty close, right?). 

That’s it for now. More later this week.

Slumber Party

I have been begging Laurie and Robin to let Lydia spend the night with us for awhile now both because she’s a super cool kiddo and the whole Contine family loves to spend time with her but also because Laurie and Robin do not have family near by and therefore don’t get a “night off” very often. Brian and I are lucky enough to get at least one a month with my parents so close so we really wanted to pay that good fortune forward and let Laurie and Robin experience something that we almost take for granted at this point (but mostly it was just because Lydia is so stinkin’ cute).

They finally obliged us the weekend before last. Lydia came over late Saturday afternoon and her parents headed off to dinner and a movie with plans for sleeping in and brunch the next day. When Lydia arrived we threw both kids into the car and headed to the grocery store to pick up some staples. How do you handle two toddlers at a grocery store? Like this:

Whoever designed this cart is clearly a genius. Or the parent of two kids. Two steering wheels = no fighting. They had fun the entire time spinning their steering wheels and honking their horns.

We got home and started the bed time routine. We got both kids in their pj’s and read stories:

And then Brian took Oliver to his room and I took Lydia to the office (which we had set up with our Pack N Play and the rocking chair from our bedroom) and we rocked and sang to our respective kiddos and put them to bed. They both chatted for awhile but were fast asleep before we knew it. 

The night went really well. Lydia woke up around 6:30 and Brian got up and played with her while Oliver and I slept in. When Oliver woke up around 7:30, Brian opened his door and let Lydia walk right in. Oliver got so excited to see “Lyds.” Brian picked her up and put her in the crib with Oliver and they played this game for about fifteen minutes:

Okay, I know I’m biased because I’m head over heels crazy about these two kiddos but that is ridiculously cute, right? I mean, when Oliver says: “All done!” and Lydia looks up at him with her big beautiful eyes and asks: “All done?” Sheesh. Too much cuteness. The game was eventually broken up by Lydia’s declaration that Oliver had pooped. She even checked his diaper to be sure. 

After the diapers were changed and everyone was dressed we all headed to Dan’s for breakfast where Oliver showed off his friend to the staff. After breakfast we headed back home to play. We went on a long walk (well, actually it was short walk but it took a long time):

And then had some snacks

How beautiful are they? Seriously. The kiddos played so well together the whole time, just a few squabbles that were easily settled. It was awesome how much they talked to each other, too. They would have entire conversations and sometimes Brian and I even knew what they were talking about.

Before we knew it Laurie and Robin were back and the slumber party was over. We all had such a great time and would do it again in a heartbeat.  

Music Class

Laurie and Robin started taking Lydia to Music Together classes at the Austin Lyric Opera last year and were always raving about how much they all loved it. So, for Christmas we asked Grandma and Grandpa Contine to give Oliver music classes. The session started the second week of January and we have been having such a great time with them ever since. It’s been awesome to see him enjoy the classes and learn so much. While he often takes a “sit back and watch” approach to the class while he’s there (the only exception being when it’s time to clean up), he is doing so many things from class at home. He’s even started to “sing” a little which is so cool to hear. He’s also completely in love with the teacher, Paula Rae. He sits right in front of her and just stares and stares when she sings (she has a beautiful voice). 

The class came with a CD of the music we sing in class and Oliver has listened to it so much he now has it memorized and has a sign or a word for each song as it plays (“Pop” for Pop Goes the Weasel, dance movements for songs like Don Alfredo Baila, miming driving a car for another song). Aidan and Lydia are both in his class and Oliver loves getting to hang out with them every Saturday morning. I’ve noticed that he’s had a bit of a verbal explosion since the classes started and I think the two are probably related. Every morning he wakes up, points at the stereo and says: “Class on please!” which is how he asks us to put the CD on.

Music education was a really important part of my childhood and I’m so excited to see how much Oliver loves listening to and making music already. I am so grateful to Ann and Bill for giving him this opportunity. Thanks, Grandma and Grandpa!

NFL Ref in Training

I watch a lot of football but I'm not really that into the game. I mostly watch for the referees. It's weird, I know. But I love all the penalty signals. I even have favorite NFL refs. So, once football season started I tried to teach Oliver the penalty signals. He's gotten pretty good. 

Happy 80th Birthday, Great-Great!

My grandmother turned 80 on January 12th and to celebrate my mom, Oliver and I drove up to spend a couple of nights in Midland. Oliver once again proved himself a decent traveler. We woke him up at 6 am on Saturday morning and threw him in the car for the six hour drive. It’s not the most exciting drive and Oliver did some protesting. He also proved himself to be pretty manipulative. Earlier that week he had learned to say: “I pooped” which was music to my ears since it signaled to me a step towards him being interested in potty training. However, it became his ticket out of his car seat on the long road trip. When he got bored he would look at us and say: “I pooped.” We were, of course, in the middle of West Texas without a gas station or rest area near by so we would tell him he had to wait and then we would stop. At this, he would wait a few minutes and then start whining: “My bum! My bum!” over and over again until we finally stopped. Every single time he did this we stopped and found an empty diaper. Every. Single. Time. He’s the boy who cried poop.

But the trip wasn’t all a waste. At one point I asked Oliver who we were going to see and he said: “Great-Great.” The first time he’s said her name. So, his birthday present to her was to say: “Hi, Great-Great!”

Anyway. We got to Midland on Saturday afternoon and went directly to my grandmother’s house. That night we all went out to dinner to celebrate Great-Great’s birthday. 

Sunday morning we went with Great-Great and Uncle Ken to their church. Oliver was so funny when we got there. He walked right up to all of my grandmother’s friends and held his hand out to shake theirs. He won a few fans. Sunday afternoon we spent some time with family and playing at Great-Great’s house. 

We had to head back on Monday but we had such a great time in Midland and were so glad to get to celebrate Great-Great’s 80th birthday.