I love Happy Easter

Oliver declared today that he loves "Happy Easter".  The day started out in fairly typical fashion.  Oliver had a big breakfast, we picked our word for the day (Happy Easter) and then he wasted no time getting his trains organized.  Joe ran a couple of errands, so we waited to have him "find" his Easter basket.  When Joe got home, we had to convince him to leave his trains to come see what the Easter bunny left for him.  We've been reading a couple Easter books this week, so I hoped he might get the idea in his mind that the Easter bunny leaves eggs.  Once he finally came in to check it out, he was in total awe.  By far his favorite of the Easter treats were the three Easter eggs that had matchbox cars in them (one yellow car, one white car, and one fire truck).  He also got a book about cars that tells a story about a car, called the "Easter buggy," that brings treats to the other cars.  After reading the book he started calling the white car, Easter buggy.  He also got a bigger toy car to go with is little family dolls.  He calls this car his "Happy Easter car".  He spent most of the day playing with his new vehicles. 

We also painted Easter eggs.  This was probably the highlight of my day.  I had talked about coloring Easter eggs and our books have pictures of colored eggs.  But, I did not expect him to be so excited about coloring eggs or to dive in without any instruction.  I found some all natural egg dyes from Glob.  I set everything up and then asked if he wanted to color Easter eggs.  He ran to the table and was totally ready to go.  He kept telling us he was decorating the Easter eggs.  It was a huge mess, but totally worth it.

Then tonight, we baked banana bread.  When I told him we were making bread, he told me that bread is made with flour, eggs and sugar.  I explained that we were going to add bananas to the bread and he seemed to think that was pretty great idea.  After dinner, I asked if he wanted to try the banana bread we made.  After gobbling up a slice, all he said was "more banana bread, please!"

 He took his bath with and fell asleep holding the yellow car, the fire truck and the Easter buggy (in his egg dye stained hands).

Happy Easter!

Let's go fly a kite

Today felt like spring.  It was a perfect afternoon, and it also happened to be the day of the Kite Festival down on the Mall.  Last year we attended with our friends James and Meredith.  James is now back in Australia and Meredith is still in New York, but no longer frequents DC since her fiance is back in home.  We miss hanging out with them.  But, the dog kite they gave us from last year made the trip, and we thought of them during its flight.  We did meet up with our friends who have a little boy, Tommy, who is a little over a year old.  Oliver was super excited to fly a kite, see Tommy and run in the grass.  A nice woman also gave him a bottle of bubbles that he loved.  He did not want to leave and was a bit reluctant to get in the stroller.  He insisted on walking for as long as his little legs would allow.  It was no surprise when he fell sound asleep tonight--about an hour earlier than usual.  I still think this is one of my favorite DC events, and it really makes it feel like spring has arrived.

The scaffolding on the bottom half of the monument is due to the on-going repairs from the earthquake last year.

Oliver "helping" with the dog kite.

He kept saying, "Oliver flies a kite."

Lift off.

Happy to be outside and laughing because Tommy was playing with Thomas (train)

He did not blow quite hard enough to make the bubbles himself, but he got the idea.

The Mall

Walking and chatting on the way home.

Did he really just say that?

We have had a few moments lately where Oliver will say something and we will look at each other and ask, did he REALLY just say that??  Last night was a particularly good one...

Oliver and I were sitting at the table painting one of those light-weight toy gliders.  Joe was making supper and we were a little behind on the evening "schedule."  I could tell Oliver was getting hungry and tired.  But, we carried on.  He is all about telling us how various flying machines work (thanks to the "How Things Work" book that he loves--thanks again Amy).  So he was telling me about how the glider gets pulled up by a rope and finds thermals.  I got a bit of ribbon and tied it onto one of his little bi-planes and taped the other end to the glider so he could show me how it worked.  He played with this for about 10-15 minutes.  Then suddenly, he hit the tired wall.  He wanted the ribbon off or maybe on, he could not decide and he started fussing.  After about a minute of this, he looked at me and said:  "I'm frustrated!"

Joe's response from the kitchen, "did he really just say that?!"

Yes, yes he did. 

Not from last night, but pretty representative of the post-tired wall.

First Haircut

I have clipped Oliver's hair around his ears a few times in the past when it started getting long.  However, it had really started getting long in the back and was pretty untidy.  I knew the task was no longer within my skill level (especially given my uneven attempted bang chop a few months ago), but I was a little reluctant to take away the last of his baby look and free-flowing hair-do.  But, there is this little barber shop in Georgetown that we have driven or walked by many times.  A couple weeks ago, I saw a little boy sitting in the chair getting his hair cut, and I thought it might be the right place to take Oliver someday soon.

 Here are a few shots of his long locks about a week ago...

Oliver doing some light house work after emptying the contents of my jewelery box.

Looking cute, but a little shaggy.

Note the excellent utensil usage--a recent development.

Joe scheduled a massage and pedicure for my birthday in Georgetown.  When my boys came to pick me up, we had to walk past the barber shop to get to the car.  I asked Oliver if he wanted to get a haircut, and he seemed game.  So we walked in and Oliver got his first hair cut...

For a minute, we thought this might not be so bad, then the scissors came out.

We discussed the situation, and he calmed a bit.

But, things got much more enjoyable when Oliver got to watch the other man in the shop get his hair blow-dried.

Even better when Daddy let Oliver watch a video clip of a rocket blasting off on his iphone.

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Afterward, we had a nice long walk, a chat in the grass/dirt, and some fun at the park.  Our little man is growing up so fast.

A Friend

Our friends from graduate school, Scott and Heather, live in Virginia.  Their daughter, Celia, is one year older than Oliver.  She is a very sweet, smart little girl.  Oliver has spent time with Celia in the past, so when we told him we were going to Celia's house today, he was thrilled.  My understanding is that the feeling was mutual.  When we arrived, both kids got huge smiles and set off playing like good friends.  Oliver remembered some of Celia's toys and she kindly shared them all.  She even shared a stuffed turtle that he took quite a liking to--so much so that he was temporarily willing to trade Myrtle for it.  Oliver was pretty tired by the end, so the kids shared a bath, a few giggles and a sweet good-bye at the end of the evening.  It was nice to see Oliver start to form a connection, and I think this might be the start of a long friendship.

What is the matter.

I am enjoying the process of watching Oliver learn emotions and how to express them.  Here are a couple of his current "expressions" of emotion:

My favorite, of course, is his ever growing number of ways to show me he loves me or misses me.  We have had the book "Little Owl Lost" by Chris Haughton for a while and read it from time to time.  But, for the past couple of weeks Oliver has found a kindred spirit in the title character.  The story is about a little owl who falls out of his nest and is looking for his mommy, he describes her to various forest animals after asking "have you seen my mommy?"  This is a kid's book so in the end they find her (she has been looking everywhere for him).  Lately, when I come home from work or I am in a different room and he does not see me for 5 minutes, he comes running looking for me saying, "little owl, little owl.  Have you seen my mommy?"  This is usually followed with "pick me up!" and a big hug coupled with "love" or "love you."

As you can imagine, since becoming parents, we have used the phrase "what's the matter?" a time or two.  Oliver has come to use this phrase as a synonym to "sad".  Whether it is a sad moment in a book (the lonely puppy in the Golden Book), mommy leaving for work, or he does not get something he wants, he has had no trouble letting us know when he is a little sad.  It is coupled with a very dramatic pouting of the lips, batting of the eyes, and a whisper of the phrase. 

Here are two examples from this morning.  

We were reading a book that had a person riding a bike in it.  As often happens, this reminded him of a song (or book, person, memory, etc.).  The song was the Goldfish song where the fish take showers, ride bikes, or brush their teeth, but ultimately realize that "wait a minute we're fish, we don't [ride bicycles]…let's go swimming…."  So we started singing bits of the song and he suddenly realized that it meant the fish could not ride bikes. 

Oliver: "fish no bikes?" 

Mommy: "true, people ride bikes, not fish."

Oliver: "why fish not ride bikes?" 

Mommy: "fish don't have legs and you need legs, like grown-ups and kids, to ride a bike." 

Oliver: "fish, fins." 

Mommy: "True."

Oliver:  "kitties not ride bike?"

Mommy:  "That's true, kitties do not ride bikes."

Oliver:  "Gerald not ride bike?" (aka, Gerald from the "Giraffes Can't Dance" book)

Mommy: " That's true, giraffes do not ride bikes."

Oliver:  (sad face) "What is the matter." 

Later in the morning, Oliver asked to "sit in the rocker and read a book" (this is usually code for I am getting very tired).  So we were sitting in the rocker and he suddenly asked for a bottle (which he calls both bottle and ba-ba).  We have not quite broke him of the one bottle before bed routine, but he has never really asked for it during the day.  So I explained that no, he only gets the bottle before bed at night, not during the day.  I said he could have a cup of milk instead and asked do you want your sippy cup?  His response: imagine the pouty face appear before he says, "not same as ba-ba...what is the matter."  He did not get the bottle, but it was a good try.