This boy will sleep anywhere

This is a very tired boy at Grandma's house.

I tried to put him down for a nap in Grandma's room with no luck. 

Grandma had better luck than I did...but she was willing to read.  Endlessly.

Here he is, sound asleep.

Hmmm... something is not quite right about this picture. 

Let's take a look from another angle.

He fell asleep while crawling off the bed.  Good grief.



Trading places

Oliver had so much fun on papa's shoulders during our family date nights,

that he decided to give Andy a turn.

Family date night--part two

For our second family date night of the week we went to Sea Life Minnesota Aquarium.  We had so much fun looking at all the different sea creatures. 

I think we blew Oliver's mind.

{Octopus.  Cool.}

{In awe at the coral reef display}

{Shark}

{Shark tail}

{lots of sharks}

{shark belly}

{smiling at the fishies}

{Oliver and mama}

Thanks for the fun time, papa!

Family date night--part one

Last week Andy was on spring break and as a result, Oliver got some quality Papa time.  They both had a lot of fun all week and are looking forward to lots of Papa-Oliver time this summer.

We had some nice family date nights as well. 

One night, we decided to head to the Mall of America for dinner and some fun.  We ate at CRAVE and it was yummy.  I heard mixed reviews, but everything Andy and I had was good. 

We started with prosciutto wrapped scallops with wilted spinach and spiced edamame.  Andy had a pasta dish and I had a flatbread pizza and we shared with Oliver.  And, I had my new favorite cider, Crispin. 

Then we went to Nickelodeon Universe, where we took Oliver on his first-ever rides!  Oliver thought it was pretty neat.

He had his first ride on a merry-go-round.

Then we rode the ferris wheel--at first Oliver was a little nervous.

{Oh.  Hello handsome husband! Don't they look alike! No wonder I'm so smitten with Oliver!}

But, eventually Oliver warmed up to it and had a lot of fun pointing out all the "balls" (any circular shape) and the rest of my pictures are blurry.

How the tables have turned

My best friend, Katie, has a little girl named Abby. 

She is all girl, and very sassy. 

For example, she does not tolerate interruptions during story time.

See--sassy.

Last summer, when Oliver was about 7 months old, we went to visit Katie and Abby.

Oliver was smitten and insisted on kissing Abby.  He would put his hands on her face and plant a very wet one on her (this was the open-mouth-wipe-slobber-on-you kind of kiss).  Abby H-A-T-E-D it.  And she let him know by shreaking and brushing him away.  Later in the day she would shriek and say no-no! if he came near her.

Abby came over last week and --ah hem--

came to her senses and realized that Oliver is adorable and she decided to cash in her kiss rain checks.

Exhibit A:

Exhibit B:

After they were done kissing eachother, they went around

kissing other things. 

Stuffed lion. kiss. kiss.

Abby's doll. kiss. kiss.

Plastic zebra. kiss. kiss.

I can't wait to show this to them when they are in high school!

Pizza. It's what's for dinner.

There really isn't much that Oliver won't eat.  He loved the corned beef and cabbage we had at a St. Patrick's Day party, and thought Grandpa's rubens and Irish stew were yummy. He is pretty willing to try anything.

He has his favorites.  Ice cream, for one.  But the boy also loves pizza.  The lighting was really good in my dining room the other day so I thought I would take advantage of the natural light, and Oliver's pizza fueled silly-ness.

At first he just looked at me like "Mama, I'm eating."

But then the smell of the pizza got to him and he dug in.

Nom nom nom. 

 Newman's Own organic, nitrate-free uncured peperoni pizza.



Don't worry mama, I have not bitten off more than I can chew.

{Hmm... wonder if he knows he has pepperoni on his shoulder?}

What?  It's good!

Who knew pizza could be so much fun.

I was just so mad...

Do you know the Mercer Mayer critter series books?  One of Oliver's (and mine) favorites right now is a book that is called "I was just so mad" and that about sums Oliver up in this picture:

If you look closely, you will see his cheeks are wet with tears and there is a big fat one rolling down his right cheek.

I had to wake Oliver up from a nap!  I know--bad idea.  Especially where Oliver is concerned...waking up is never very easy.  But it was 7:00 pm, he had been asleep for 5 hours and hadn't eaten dinner.  I had to do it.

But I had a plan: muffin-pan dinner.  I have seen this idea a couple of places, most recently on Meg's blog.  I've done this for Oliver before and it's been a big hit--especially when what Andy and I are having for dinner isn't really appropriate for Oliver at this stage (i.e. soup or salad).

Oliver cried and cried and cried when I woke him up.  When I showed him that Ba-pa was home (he had been gone all day) it didn't cheer him up.  Finally, I plopped him in his highchair in front of his muffin pan dinner and for an instant, the corners of his mouth turned up.  He caught him self though, and continued to cry his protests through his first three grapes.  Andy and I had to work hard not to laugh.

In the end, he forgave me.

Talking up a storm

Oliver added three new words to his vocabulary this weekend:

bye-bye

ma-nana (which is, of course, banana)

and stinky.

When I mentioned that third word to a few friends they all had the same reaction... "that is good--he's getting ready to potty train."You see, they all thought that he was saying "stinky" to alert me to an issue in his diaper. 

Unfortunatley, we call him stinky.  As a nickname.  So when he said stinky, he was referring to himself!  Oops.  We are going to have to start calling him Oliver.  We've been practicing Oliver with him, but so far he's only got "Ol"--I guess it is better than nothing.

Oliver still loves wearing our stuff.  Shoes, hats, mittens.  Here he is wearing Andy's volleyball jersey:

Baby Poseidon

After Oliver's bath Auntie made it stand up all over.  I think he lookes like a baby Poseidon.

An empty wrapping paper roll makes an excellent trident.

And this is what Baby Posiden looks like with dry hair.  It was completely unruly for two days!

Sometimes I can't believe how red his hair is getting!