Summer Bucket List Update: Sidewalk Chalk

Jo was mad that Oliver had a piece of the chalk.

She recognized her name!

* Watch a fireworks display on the Fourth of July.
* Bake a berry stars & stripes cake with Oliver.
* Run through the sprinklers.
* Go to a splash park.
* Play in the "creek" at the Children's Mordecai Gardens at the Denver Botanic Gardens.
* Watch our first parade.
* Ride the outdoor train at Belleview Park.
* Visit a petting zoo.
* Take the kids for a swim.
* Have a real outdoor picnic on the grass with a picnic basket.
* Watch a sunrise.
* Go for a hike in the mountains.
* Go on a road trip.
* Go out for an ice cream cone, and eat it outside!
* Make our own ice cream, and let Oliver choose the flavor.
* Pick and eat vegetables out of the garden we're growing at Grandma Judy's house.
* Eat cherry tomatoes right off the vine at Aunt Bonnie & Uncle George's house.
* Throw water balloons.
* Go tent camping overnight.
* Look at stars in the sky.
* Visit Andrew at work for lunch.
* Take the train downtown to visit Grandpa Larry for lunch.
* Go to the Fireman's Museum.
* Use sidewalk chalk.
* Blow bubbles.
* Take Father's Day photos with the letters that spell out "DAD" again.

                                                         

Letter Love

Oliver learned all of his capital letters by his second birthday. I started teaching him letters one at a time. I started with the letter "O," because I thought it looked simple to recognize. Then, I chose "I" because it looked so different from "O." I mostly used magnetic letters to teach him. Once he recognized some letters, I took a friend's advice and started to point them out at signs and boxes at stores. It took nearly a year to teach him all 26 letters.

                                                                                            

Some of his letter learning took a back seat after Jo was born. I still kept up with what he already learned so he wouldn't forget, and I familiarized him with the lower-case letters. I can't say he could recognize all his "little letters," but he knows most of them.

When we're hanging out, I sometimes mention what letter a word starts with. Like, when we're playing catch together (with a big ball), I might say, "Ball begins with B. B says, 'buh, buh, buh, ball.'"

Sometimes, I just pick a letter and tell him all the words I can think of that begin with that letter. I say, "What begins with B? Let's see. B says, 'buh.' Ball. Bear. Boy. Back. Butt. Bumble Bee."

Oliver has started telling me what words begin with a letter now. It still takes me by surprise! Last week, I asked him, "What begins with B? Bear!"

He yelled, "Bath!"

Holy cow! I was so excited. I'm not going to lie; I gave him a cookie.

This morning, he walked around the kitchen with his magnetic letter, "P." He came up to me and said, "P is for pan." It was 7am, but I still gave him a cookie. I gave him lots of praise, too, of course! I even took him upstairs to tell Andrew what he said. Oliver was so proud. Then he took a big bite out of his cookie, just like Cookie Monster, so that it looked like a C. He held it up to me and said, "C is for cookie!" Haha.

Speaking of Cookie Monster, I realized I never posted a video I took of Oliver last week. What's the point of being a mom if you can't embarrass your kids every once in a while? Here's my hilarious little man acting out and singing to the "C is for Cookie" video on the Sesame Street channel on Youtube. That plastic circle is actually a piece to his toy cookie jar, so he pretends it's a cookie:

Oliver Turns Two

I can't believe Oliver is two today. His second birthday! Where has the time gone? At two years old, he's full of laughter and mischief. He's goofy and snuggly and just a whirlwind of joy. It's amazing how much these little ones grow and change in two years. Two years ago today, we brought him into this world as a newborn! Amazing.

Here's Oliver's two year update:

Oliver's language has been developing a great deal over the last few weeks. He speaks over 100 words, but he's just started pronouncing many of them properly (or, at least, more properly). Instead of only saying the first syllable of words, Oliver's beginning to emphasize entire words. For example, he's started saying "water" instead of just "wah." I don't think his language has reached a level yet where strangers would be able to understand most of what he says.

Oliver has also just started using two-word phrases. He's not using them all the time, but he's recently started saying some things like, "Flush potty," and, "Push button." He knows all of his capital letters, but he can't say, "K," or "Q." Oliver doesn't sing well yet, but he tries to sing the alphabet song. Unless you're listening for it, you wouldn't be able to discern it from babble. When we play Sesame Street videos for him, he'll try to sing along with some of them, especially "One Fine Face." Oliver excels at understanding language. Andrew and I have to constantly spell words because Oliver picks up on everything we say. He can understand multi-step directions, such as, "Oliver, can you go use the potty, and then we'll get your shoes on and head to the store."

Speaking of using the potty, Oliver is fully potty trained. When he's wearing loose clothing, like sweats, he can take them off himself to sit on his little potty. Otherwise, he comes up to me and tugs at them to indicate to me that I should remove them. Sometimes, he'll say, "Pah," (his current word for potty), and other times he'll say, "Boop" (his current word for poop). Accidents are few and far between during waking hours. I'd estimate he has an accident one to two times a month. He still wears a diaper overnight, and he pees during his naps about 1/4 of the time.

Oliver still sleeps in his crib. We're slowly working on getting him more comfortable with the big boy bed. We now do the nighttime routine (reading books) on his big boy bed. I hope he'll be sleeping on it in a few months or so, and then we can start setting a potty next to it at night for him, too. Unfortunately, he still wakes up a lot around 5am, which makes us hesitate to move him out of the crib. We have to go in to his room, offer him water, and let him know that it's still bed time. Oliver then goes back to bed for another hour or two. I worry he'd just get up and start playing with his toys if he slept in a bed instead of his crib.

As far as fine motor skills go, Oliver has always amazed us. That still continues. He now takes screwdrivers and puts them to screws and tries to unscrew covers on his toys. He's gotten close a couple of times. Oliver is basically obsessed with figuring out how everything works, and he gets very upset if we don't let him do something himself. When I bake with him, Oliver gets to do basically all of the steps, including breaking eggs and spooning in flour to dough. Of course, he doesn't understand risks and dangers yet. If it was up to him, he'd be opening the oven door and turning on the stove top and adding ingredients to pots on the stove. I have to be very observant whenever I'm cooking or baking.

Oliver's gross motor skills are OK. He runs a lot in the house, but he falls a lot when he runs outside on unstable ground. He doesn't jump yet, and he's still not very interested in climbing. He goes down some slides on his butt, but he usually prefers the more stable method of sliding down on his belly. Although he likes sitting on his tricycle, he hasn't figured out how the pedals work yet. He has shown some interest in going up and down the stairs like adults do, but, for the most part, he still climbs up and down on all fours. That's OK by me!

Happily, Oliver's starting to become a little more social with other children. He loves to run up to all the neighborhood kids and watch them play. He watches and laughs and claps for them. At music class, he likes to pick up toys that other kids drop and hand the toys back to them. He doesn't really understand boundaries, though, and he gets confused when other children act possessive over things. For example, one boy had a truck at the park yesterday. Oliver walked up to it. He didn't touch it, but he leaned in to examine it. The truck's owner ran up to it and yelled at Oliver. Oliver seemed confused and upset, which made my heart ache for him. Today at the zoo, there was a button to push at one of the exhibits. Oliver loved pushing the button, but one older child (maybe 7?) yelled at him because he didn't want any other kids pushing the button. This type of behavior makes me sad because Oliver isn't exposed to it very much. He doesn't understand, and all he knows is that someone is yelling at him! Of course, I know Oliver will go through the "mine!" phase, too, so I try to be understanding.

Finally, I want to say that Oliver's favorite thing to do is still help people. He wants to help everyone with everything. He wants to do the laundry. He starts the machine himself (same with the dish machine). When a load is done, he goes upstairs and collects more clothes to wash. He's in charge of doing things like brewing coffee and making smoothies. At Grandpa Larry's and Grandma Judy's, he enjoys cleaning out the lint trap and loading and unloading the dish machine. He likes throwing away everyone's garbage, and he wants to flush the toilet for everyone. He wants to be the one to unlock the cars. Oliver wants to help Daddy get dressed every day and gets his clothes out of the drawers. He also hands him his lunch and closes the door after he leaves for work.

In all, we have an amazing toddler. I really love how active and fun he is, and how he still loves lots of cuddles and affection. Oliver's going to be a great (and very helpful) big brother soon.

Oliver Knows Some Letters

Oliver and Letters

Oliver's really coming along with his alphabet (or "letters," as we tell him). He officially can recognize and say the following letters: S, R, G, O and I. Oliver has also done pretty well with the letter C, but he calls it the same thing as S (sss). I think he knows they're two different letters, but I don't show him C very often because I don't want him to get confused. He recognizes them whether they're his magnetic letters, puzzle letters, or written on his chalk board. We only use capital letters, though.

Here's how he says each letter:
S - ssssss

R - UGH! (he grunts it out)

G - guh

O - oh

I - eh
C - sssss

I tried to get a video of him saying them a few minutes ago, but it's too close to his nap time, and he wasn't interested. I'll try again after his nap and lunch :)

ONE AND A HALF!

Oliver is officially a year and a half today! Oh my!

Recently, we've been focusing on Oliver's letters. Oliver has mastered the letter "O," and he can find it almost anywhere--even on a keyboard. However, he doesn't say the letter O yet.

He understands the sounds of "G" and "S" very well. Usually, if I hand him the letter G, he'll look at it and say, "Guh!" If I ask him what the letter S says, he responds with, "Sssssss."

Oliver's shyness is getting even worse. He cowers at the grocery store when the clerks say hi. If I set him down on his feet in public with people around, he starts screaming or crying and has a complete meltdown until I pick him up again. I've ended up extremely embarrassed places, including the park. Yes, Oliver no longer enjoys the park because there are people there. He cries when I set him down on the wood chips. We went outside to play with Owen earlier this week. Oliver mostly freaked out when I put him down on the grass, and I soon had to take him inside. He just couldn't deal with being around Owen unless I was holding him. It's very sad, and I don't know how to teach him to be more independent.

Oliver's Likes and Dislikes:

Likes
*Watching music videos
*Stuffed animals
*Helping with chores
*Daddy (Daddy has recently surpassed Mommy as being Oliver's absolute favorite person in the world)
*Bubbles
*Chalk
*Learning to kick and throw a ball (he's pretty good at kicking!)
*Dogs
*Books
*Nighttime routine

Dislikes
*Baths
*Strangers
*Walking in public
*Dinner time

Numbers and Letters

Olivers knowledge of numbers and letters has started to improve rapidly. He now understands the concept of "one." For example, if he's trying to eat a handful of something, I can tell him to just eat one, and he will.

He also recognizes the letter "O" in various settings. He points to it in books and such. Just today, he started pointing to letters on other objects. He pointed to each letter in the word "Cheerios" on his cereal box. He says something that sounds like "This?" when he wants me to tell him what something is called. Anyway, he started pointing to each letter in "Cheerios," and he was especially delighted about the letter "O" in the name.

I really like when he wants me to tell him what things are called. He touches the wall and asks, "This?" and I say, "It's the wall." Then he'll touch the bed and ask, "This?" The game continues for about half a dozen objects until he moves on to another game. Oliver doesn't repeat words and sounds very often, but he definitely has a large vocabulary in terms of understanding what words mean.

Oliver Learns a Letter