Oliver's New Shovel

Dorothy is planting now so when we went to Lowes we spotted a metal kids shovel for Oliver.  He loves helping Doro dig the big holes for the plants.

Sometimes the hole digging becomes flower-mud soup in the christmas tree stand.

Whenever he plays with his trucks in the dirt he has to take them to the truck wash, which he creates by hanging the hose off of the deck, and then driving through it.  In this picture it is dark outside and the trucks still need washing.

Sometimes I am mistaken and think that it is bedtime when in reality it is time to build an elaborate train track.

He loves to play in or with the water.  We put the a tiny nozzle for water balloons on the hose, which he realized can shoot far if he kinks it first, and then it progressed to the real fire nozzle and spraying everything in sight, including the house, open doors, open windows and us.

You... no you... no you... no you... no you...

The Easter Bunny came to visit Oliver.  He knocked on the door after church and left a basket outside for him to find.  He was so excited, especially when he found that there was chocolate under the foil on the bunny.

Now that the weather is getting better Oliver and I are going for bike rides.  He stills fits in the seat on the back of my bike, and now gets really excited about his "race helmet."  We ride over the big bridge, go see the ferries and boats and the whole time he points out all the fire hydrants.

"I'm going to spray you daddy"

Oliver's new thing now is telling us 'you' when we say it to him.  It usually goes like this, 'Oliver take a bite of your dinner,' which is followed by, 'no you' and then turns into, you, no you, no you, no you, no you, no you.   He usually starts pointing one finger at us, which then progresses to two fingers, and sometimes a french fry.

 

Oliver's Fire Hat

This is one of Oliver's favorite games.  I hold his hands and he climbs up my legs until he flips over. 

He recently discovered how fun play-doh is.  

Doro found him this fire hat and he loves it.  Now he carries around the fire extinguisher, says it for emergencies only, and points out every fire alarm he can find.

We recently went on a residency retreat to the mountains.  We went to the same rental house last year and Oliver was obsessed with shoveling the snow.  Nothing changes apparently because he was so excited to do it all over again.  We went sledding and he had a lot of fun.

Doro recently discovered that Oliver made it snow in his room using the baby powder.  He was so excited about what he did, but made a huge mess.  What a hoot.

We took him to the Seattle science center and the only thing that he wanted to do was play with this clear box full of moveable water jets.   We stayed here for a long time while he played with the water. 

He found this huge checkerboard and wasted no time at all making a big rocket out of the cones.

When I am on call at the hospital Doro and Oiver frequently come visit me.  He got interested in my stethoscope and now wants to wear it.

We made a fire station for his fire trucks out of his mega blocks.  He was super excited.  

Oliver's Astronaut Helmet

This is what we found one day after Oliver discovered this plastic bin.  When we asked him what he was doing he told us he was an astronaut.  He wore his helmet around outside all day.

Oliver's excavator that he got for Christmas finally succumbed.  Doro found replacement parts on the website, they ordered them together, and Oliver anxiously waited for them to come in the mail.  He was so excited when they arrived and we fixed his excavator.  

He always wants me to build a "big rocket" out of his mega blocks, and then wastes no time in destroying it with his excavator.  

Oliver Goes Sledding

Apparently the cat's food wasn't ground fine enough so Oliver had to crush it in the garlic press.  This is how I found him.

Oliver Fixing his 'broke broke' excavator

Sometimes Oliver comes to visit me at work and we find little chocolates for him from somebody's candy jar.  He is holding a little peanut butter cup.

Oliver's snow rocket

We decided to go to a little village in the mountains so Oliver could see snow and go sledding.  We weren't sure how he was going to do, but we bundled him up in his little snow pants and he loved it.  All he wanted to do was go sledding and collect snow.

Oliver moved into a twin bed in the next room over which had purple walls.  We primed and painted it blue for him and then got little rocket and planet wall stickers for his 'rocket room.'  He directed where the stickers went and had a lot of fun watching us paint.

In the first video he was being silly at a restaurant.  There was a guy playing the accordion and Oliver ended up under the table dancing to the music.

In the second video we were eating breakfast at the hotel.  He went to all of the window sills collecting the christmas trees, and then hid behind the large tree with them.