Oliver's First Hair Cut

Oliver's hair was getting out of control so it was time to make him look like a little boy again.  Doro was really sad to see his hair get cut, but he looks even cuter now.

Doro found this dump truck for him and it is his new favorite truck.  He pushes it around the house delivering whatever can fit into the back.  The other night he started speeding around the table pushing it and made Doro and I chase him with his other trucks.  When I paused to take a picture of him he would come around the corner, see the camera and flash his cheesy smile.

Apparently you have to tear up the tortilla, put it into the backhoe and then dump it out before you can eat it.

Oliver's Love of Trucks

Doro got him some bubbles whenever they would get close to his face he would squint his eyes.

Doro found him some little construction trucks and then I thought it would be fun to look them up on youtube so he could see them in action.  I found a kids series dedicated to trucks with specific videos for the backhoe and bulldozer, which are his toys.  Now the first thing he does every morning is grab his truck and push the chair over to watch the videos.  He makes his little backhoe scoop when the video is doing it.

"One at a time Oliver"

"Oliver do you want some milk?"  The first picture is what he does when we ask him to smile.

Oliver's Snowy Adventures

So although the weather here in Bremerton Washington is supposed 

to be mild all year round, it seems like we may have brought

some of Buffalo out here with us. Two weeks ago the area was hit with

a dose of snow and freezing rain that stopped everything. We didn't

mind because it reminded us so much of home! We took the

opportunity to introduce Oliver to this strange new sight...

Despite the snow, it was warm out and it all melted away two days later.

Looks like home! (Except for the ocean water on the other side of the trees.)

This weekend we enjoyed the company of Adam's fellow interns and their families at the Intern Retreat! A great home was rented for one night up in Snoqualmie Pass (East of Seattle). We hadn't seem this much snow in... forever! The roads were just tunnels carved into the snow with 8 foot banks on either side. The house was very warm and cozy. We enjoyed dinner and board games late Friday night and then most people went out to hit the slopes of the GIANT ski resort less than 3 minutes away.

 Part of the resort was literally across the street from our rental! 

Adam was able to enjoy some snowboarding and 

Doro and Oliver enjoyed exploring the 

snow and reading next to a fire with some hot chocolate.

The minute Oliver spotted this shovel, he was hooked! He "shoveled" the driveway for twenty minutes and refused to let Doro put any mittens on his hands. Finally had to take him inside, which was a very traumatic separation for Oliver and his shovel.

Luckily, Oliver returned to his true passion... playing with water in sinks.

He managed to explore every sink in the house at least twice 

before settling in for his afternoon nap. Future plumber?

We're so grateful that we could spend time together as a 

family and enjoy the company of great friends!

Oliver's first Snick belly

It has been a while since I was able to post.  This was from our latest trip to Ikea.  He decided he was too big to sit in the cart and wanted his own to push.  He was charging around the store giggling with this tiny hoot cart and I kept having to divert him away from other people.

He is now interested in using the laptop in the kitchen.  He pushes the kitchen chairs to wherever he wants to go, climbs up and starts mashing the keys.

He got this huge lion for Christmas from Grandma and Grandpa Banas and it is his favorite animal.  It is bigger than he is and he carries it everywhere he goes.

I saw this recycling truck and could not resist getting it for him because he loves to watch the garbage truck come every Monday. 

"Oliver, show me your mouth"  Then he does this and says, Ahhhhhhhhh....  It is so cute.

He loves trucks and this is the book that he now wants us to read to him over and over and over.  He loves the garbage truck and the airport fire truck.

"Oliver, hold on tight tight tight"  He then clings on with both hands around my neck, squeezes as hard as he can and we go walking around. 

We got him a big wheel for Christmas.  He can't quite reach the pedals yet, but he love it and motors around with his little legs.

His latest favorite movie is "Pillow Talk," which is also one of Doro's favorite movies.

Hoot Hoot.  Erica made this for him.  Hoot Hoot.

We went to the Seattle space needle with Grandma and Oliver was more interested in the construction vehicles next door in true hoot fashion.

So we decided that it was a good idea to get a puppy and found a little black lab.  We named him Snick.   Oliver had a lot of fun playing with him and loved to feed him.  After a week Snick keeping us up all night, pooping and peeing all over everything, we decided that it was time to find him a new home.

Oliver's Playtime

Oliver has always been an active climber so we decided to 

channel that energy into safer, more controlled directions.

Oliver LOVES the teddy bear his Great Grandma Barbara gave him for Christmas last year. He hugs it tight every night when we put him to bed in his crib.

"What do you want for dinner Mom?"

One of Oliver's favorite things to do is to "help" Doro in the kitchen when she's cooking. Just this week he's realized that one of his toys looks an awful lot like a kitchen.

He puts the toy cups under the faucet and makes a "keeeerrrrr" noise when we ask him to fill up the cup. He's also nice enough to microwave it for us... but we have to provide the microwave noises.

We wanted to take a family picture with the 

newest member of our family: the Christmas tree.

Every morning Oliver wakes up and greets the tree. 

Every night he also waves goodnight to the tree. 

We dread the day when he wakes up and his buddy has left town.

Oliver's First Mustache

A few of us at the hospital grew mustaches for the month of November.  The last night I had it Hoo Belly decided that he wanted one too.

He just discovered that sitting on my foot while I walk around is super fun, so now a lot of the time there is a little hoot attached to my feet when I am home.  It is so cute.  I say, "hold on tight, two hands" and he squeezes as much as He can.

He never has had any interest in watching TV before this week.  Now he brings us over, pulls out "Bob the Builder" DVDs for us to put in, and then sits in his cardboard box chair and watches it.