Oliver is on a roll!!

I have to give a shout out to Cormac. Last week I read Staci’s blog. She had noted that her son, Cormac, who is exactly one month younger than Oliver, rolled over. I was of course thrilled to hear of Cormac’s accomplishment, but I was still waiting for Oliver to achieve the same milestone. Oliver had appeared to be ahead of the curve at about 3.5 months when he started rolling to his side and acting like he was going to roll over…but he stalled and lost interest in the full roll. Opting instead, for alternative ways to scoot to get around to his toys, or during tummy time just resting his head down in protest until we flipped him over. I’ll admit that I think a little competition in life can be a healthy motivator. So on Thursday I mentioned to Sheryl that O’s friend had rolled over at 4-months and that maybe we were being too soft on Oliver. I followed up with some “PTT” (power tummy time) sessions on Thursday and Friday morning. Well by Friday afternoon, I had a text from Sheryl saying that he had rolled over (I am posting the photos she took). We had several repeat performances this weekend. So thanks Cormac for giving us the little nudge we needed!

Grandma came to visit this weekend. Oliver was spoiled with lots of love and Grandma-time (including a few good snuggle naps).

This next picture is of what we think is Oliver trying to clap. He was bringing his hands together and shaking them up and down (while still clasped). At first, we were not sure what he was doing, until we realized that when we clapped, he would do it. So we think this is his not quite clapping, attempt at clapping.

The picture below is fittingly a bit blurry, because it is from Sunday night when Grandma and Oliver were dancing and he was full of giggles.

A few other nuggets I want to include for my memory…

-O got a xylophone for Christmas. He has only ever wanted to put the stick to the xylophone in his mouth and chew/choke on it. Tonight when I was playing it for him, he started reaching for the stick…I gave it to him ready to snatch it back before he rushed it to his mouth. But, much to my surprise, he started trying to bang on the xylophone. We went back and forth like this for a good 10 min. I would play the scale a couple times, he would reach for the stick, I'd hand it to him, and he would try to bang out a few notes.

-Oliver also attempted to catch and roll the ball back and forth with Grandma this weekend.

-I had to work late on Friday and Joe had a work thing too, so he dropped O off at the office in the evening. Oliver was so good and played in my office while I finished my work. At one point I had to take some files upstairs and ran in to a couple co-workers in the hall. Oliver was great and flashed them his adorable smile, but only after sheepishly tucking his head into my neck and peeking out at them. This is the first time I have seen him distinguish strangers from his inner circle.

-Oliver has really started to become aware of when Joe and I are drinking and eating. It has been going on for a few weeks now. Tonight, he was watching me drink from a plastic cup with total intensity. So I got him a matching cup to see what he would do. He brought it right to his lips, but since the cup was too tall, he did not get any of the milk out. So I pulled out the sippy cup and sure enough, right to his lips and into his mouth. He got a little milk out and gave us a huge smile.

-Grandma was the first to recognize that Oliver could pull himself up to stand. She let him grip her hands and pull himself up from sitting. He is getting so strong! The only problem is that once he pulls himself up, he wants to let go—slow down little man! I love the independent spirit that Oliver is starting to show, but I can only imagine all the ways this is going to challenge us. My little baby is growing up so fast!