Wednesday, June 30, 2010

What Do You Say? My Baby is 8 Months Old Today!






































































































































































































Oliver is 2/3 of the way through his first year! I am loving being his mom, and my "job" just keeps getting easier and more fun. I'm starting to wonder when it's going to start getting more challenging again, but I try not to worry too much.


My Ollie Bear still isn't crawling and doesn't even try to very often anymore. I hope it'll be like his standing (which he learned to do while holding onto furniture this month), where he's not interested in it at all but then, suddenly, is able to do it and likes it. Oliver loves standing and playing upright. He's not as happy on the floor, but he'll play that way for a short while and roll around a bit.

His babbling is getting more intense and frequent. I can often be found near him, giggling to myself, listening to him talk to himself, his toys, or his daddy. He's just as curious as ever; he examines all his toys very carefully--flipping the, turning them, banging them, etc. He also examines his own fingers and toes a lot.

Oliver's not as interested in eating as he once was. When I hand him his spoonfuls of food, he plays with it instead of eating it. As a result, I'm now feeding him myself again. He continues to excel with finger foods (toast soldiers and Cheerios, mostly).

Taking Oliver out and about is easy. He still hasn't flipped out in public at all, which is amazing. He likes watching people walk by, especially if they have dogs. Speaking of dogs, Oliver hates all loud sounds except for dog barks, which he loves. Maybe that was a last gift from Bailey. But, yes, Oliver hates loud noises. He hates it when people talk loudly or laugh loudly (he starts crying), and he hates the sound of the vacuum cleaner and food processor (he starts screaming, afraid of it).

His sleeping continues to improve. He now completely understands that we're still around, even if we're not in the same room. When we wakes up, he starts babbling and cooing, which lets us know he's awake, as opposed to crying from his crib until we get to his side. He slept through the night 5 times last month. Most nights, he still gets up for a feeding, but almost always just once, and it's around 3am now (as opposed to 1am, which was killer for me). His naps are frequently longer. More and more often, he'll nap for an hour and a half, as opposed to the 40-minute ones he was famous for.

Oliver had his first camping trip this month (http://becky-shattuck.blogspot.com/2010/06/camping-weekend_20.html), and he generally gets out of the house with me daily. At the very least, I take him for a walk to the mailbox or out back to examine the trees and flowers (though he's not a fan of grass).

My baby still doesn't like being alone, but he tolerates it long enough for me to do things like take a quick shower or run downstairs to start/switch out the laundry. If I'm gone for more than about 3 minutes, he starts crying, but it's a half-hearted cry. He's also content (most of the time) to play by himself with me with him as opposed to me always playing with him. He'll sit in my lap and play with his toys, or he'll sit at my feet and chew his books (like right now). That's such a change from even a month ago where he needed constant attention from me. Don't worry; he still gets lots of my focus and attention, but it's just nice to be able to do something (like organize my coupons or flip through grocery ads) without him getting mad.

Finally, Oliver's attachment to me has gotten a lot stronger. He's happy to play with other people now like Andrew, my parents, and Andrew's parents, but as soon as he sees me in the room, he cries until I come to him and pick him up. If he doesn't see me, though, he's happy to keep on playing with other people.

Oliver's likes:

*
Cheerios
*Babbling
*Looking at lights and ceiling fans
*His indestructible books
*His toy shovel
*His toothbrush
*Standing
*Mommy
*Daddy (as long as Mommy's not around!)
*Jewelry (especially watches)
*His toy duck
*The camera
*Slapping the table with his hands
*Banging two toys together
*The washing machine
*Textures (he loves to scratch different fabrics and the carpet)
*Touching people's faces
*Drinking from a cup (if I'm drinking something, he tries to grab it out of my hands!)


Oliver's dislikes:*The vacuum cleaner (as soon as I turn it on, he cries)
*The food processor
*Laughter (no laughing, people!)
*Getting a new diaper put on, especially a disposable (Does this mean he'll potty train early? I hope so!)
*Having a poopy in his diaper. He wants us to change it right away!
*Wearing his sun hat

Tuesday, June 29, 2010

Babble

Oliver's always been quite a babbler, but, lately, he's started really stringing different syllables together. He constantly says nonsense words like, "Manamba," and "Gabadakuh." And, of course, he accidentally says real words, too, like "boy" and "hi."

Today, I was trying to play ball with him again (he's not a fan), and he babbled, "bah." I tried to encourage him to keep saying it and showed him his ball. "That's right! Ball!" He would repeat "bah" to both me and Andrew, but, to him, it was just a fun game of repeating sounds. He wasn't actually saying "bah" referring to the ball. He does that with "mama," too. One day, he'll learn these sounds have real meaning to us!

Monday, June 28, 2010

Things That Upset Oliver

The following things upset Oliver:

*Laughter
*The vacuum cleaner
*His toy ball

Popsicles!






















After taking a free class at Williams-Sonoma, I went home inspired to make my own frozen treats. I decided to freeze orange juice with some bits of strawberries and pineapple. I must say, the frozen pineapple in the pop ended up being quite tasty.

Oliver kept trying to get his hands on my popsicle, so I finally decided to let him try a taste. He was shocked by its cold temperature, but I think he liked it!

Peanut Butter Continued


Oliver continues to eat a little peanut butter every few days. I've slowly increased the amount each time, and I'd estimate I now spread about a teaspoon of peanut butter on his toast. I think that's a good amount for a little guy, so I doubt I'll increase it more than that.

In other peanut butter news, he now sucks the peanut butter off of his toast soldiers and then spits the toast out. The photo above is of said sucked-on toast pieces. Ha.

Peanut butter = noms
Toast = not noms

Saturday, June 26, 2010

"Talk" Play Continues

I really love how responsive Oliver is, and it never ceases to amaze me. Andrew or I will pat our hand against the table, and Oliver pats back. One of us clicks our tongue at him, and he clicks back. He really is mastering the art of repeating our sounds and actions back to us, and so I feel confident he understands we can communicate with each other.

I really look forward to the day he can talk to us and tell us how he feels. I decided it has to be hard for a child to verbalize his feelings, even when he can talk, so I've been practicing with Oliver. When he's upset, I verbalize it for him: "You're mad because Mom took the coaster away. You're mad, and you're sad because you don't have the coaster." I think that will make it easier for him to understand his feelings one day. I hope that will lead to him telling us how he feels as opposed to showing us through tantrums. I'll let you know how that goes!

Friday, June 25, 2010

Apricots and Blueberries







This is my first time cooking with fresh apricots. Oliver & I went to the grand opening of the Sunflower Farmer's Market in Greenwood Village on Wednesday morning, and we were given a free box of apricots.

I peeled, pitted, and diced four apriots. I tossed them into a small, covered saucepan with a handful of blueberries over low heat for a few minutes to soften. Then, I pureed them. It made two servings. For lunch, I made Oliver baby oatmeal and mixed in one of the apricot-blueberry cubes. It was a big hit!

Thursday, June 24, 2010

4th Tooth

Oliver's fourth tooth popped through today. It's finally his second bottom one. The first bottom one came in over a month ago!

Tuesday, June 22, 2010

Standing Milestone!




Oliver can stand while holding onto furniture!

This milestone came out of nowhere. It's only been in the last couple weeks that he'd really start standing while we held him up ourselves (he's always hated standing). Now look what a big boy he is!

Where's the Camera?



Oliver can play "hide and seek" with his toys. We started playing the game with his large toys. We covered them with a blanket and showed him they were underneath. Soon, he was pulling the blanket off himself. When I switched to hiding smaller toys, they'd frequently get caught inside the blanket. I started covering the small toys with one of his little Ts, and it worked well.

Sunday, June 20, 2010

Camping Weekend































































































































































































Andrew decided that he'd like to take a family camping trip for his first Father's Day and birthday weekend. We opted to "camp" in his parents' heated trailer on their land in Fairplay instead of trying out tent camping with the little one.

Oliver did so well! He loved touching the trees and pine cones and relaxing with us outdoors. The adventure was exhausting for him, though, and he crashed out for the night at 6:30pm. Andrew and I got to spend a few hours together talking, cooking tofu dogs over the campfire, and eating s'mores (with vegetarian marshmallows, of course!).

It was our first little vacation as just the three of us, and we really enjoyed the trip. We didn't get much sleep because Oliver had a rough time sleeping somewhere new, but I feel relaxed, anyway.