Oliver's First Photo Shoot

For Mother's Day, Andrew's mom, Colleen, gave me a photo shoot for Oliver. The original plan was to have his pictures taken then, in the middle of May. I decided that the pictures would be better if Oliver was sitting, which he wasn't really at that time. So we waited until yesterday.

Yesterday, Colleen and I took Oliver to Wash Park to meet the photographer. He was dressed in his new jean shorts from Colleen and a plain, white T-shirt that I picked out for the occassion.

Our photographer, Lisa, brought a bucket and soft, white blanket with her. We took photos of Oliver in the bucket first. He was smiling and giggling, and it went well. We moved on to the edge of the pond and took photos of him sitting up on his own. He was even more smiley in those pictures. From there, we took a few pictures of him with Colleen. There were "serious" pictures of him studying her necklace as well as pictures of him in fits of laughter. After those, I set Oliver on the park bench, and Lisa took pictures of him smiling and looking serious. He sat there for quite some time, so I imagine there'll be a lot of good ones of him chilling on the bench. Last, but definitely not least, was my favorite of the bunch: Oliver wearing only his diaper, sitting right in front of a couple ducks. They were maybe five feet away, and Oliver was holding his stuffed, fuzzy duckling. The best part? He was crying. That sounds mean of me, but, I swear, it was so cute. At that point, we'd been taking pictures in the heat (yes, it was brutally hot even though we started at 9am) for an hour and a half. Of course he was cranky! But, I'm telling you, he looked absolutely adorable.

I'm dying to see all these pictures! Of course, she has to edit them on work on them for a bit. Lisa estimates we'll get our pictures in 2-3 weeks. Colleen was talking about buying the digital copies of them all so we can print from home, so I should be posting photos within a month!

In the Year 2100...

Last night, Andrew pointed out to me that, if Oliver lives a few months past his 90th birthday, he'll see the year 2100. That blew my mind! I realized I can't fathom the changes he'll see over his lifetime. In the 20th century, people saw the invention of the automobile and the airplane. I can't imagine not having those modes of transportation! I know the lightbulb was a 19th century invention, but it's kind of crazy how recent in our history we didn't have lightbulbs. Further, in the 20th century, the television was invented (no color TV for my dad as a kid!), as was the pager, the car phone, and the cell phone. Video games were born as well as computers and internet.

I think back to how different life was just a hundred years ago. Then I try to fathom the changes we'll see from 2000 to 2100. I don't have the mind of an inventor because I don't have a clue what all will be done in the recent future, but I'm excited for Oliver to see and experience it all. I'm also looking forward to starting sentences with, "When I was your age..."

The Snoozer

For three nights in a row, Oliver slept from roughly 7pm to 4:30am straight. I couldn't believe it! What brought on the change? Your guess is as good as mine. OK, so maybe I have some idea. It seemed to start when we began putting Oliver to bed still awake. Errrr... let me say, for night time, we used to put him to bed slightly awake all the time, and then we did it occasionally. For the last week or so, we've been putting him to bed when he's sleepy, but completely awake.

Back to last night. He woke at 3am. Three o'clock is still OK in my book, but it left Andrew & me baffled. What should we do? Should we let him cry for a while and see if he goes back to sleep until 4:30am? Should I go back to nursing him? Should we try to soothe him in other ways and pick him up, or would that mess up any method of teaching him to put himself to sleep?

I think we did everything wrong! First, we let him cry for about 5 minutes. He wasn't crying hysterically or anything, just fussing. Andrew went in and tried to calm him. It didn't work. After ten minutes, I decided I'd nurse him. I mean, waiting 9 hours between feedings is probably a lot for a little guy. So I nursed him and put him back into bed. He didn't go to sleep. In fact, his crying worsened and got borderline hysterical. I changed his diaper and nursed him again, but he was still freaking out. Was he in pain from teething so much? Was he hot? Was he cold? He seemed fine.

Finally, at 4am, we decided that maybe he just wasn't tired. It was Andrew's turn to deal with a ridiculously early morning, so he got up and grabbed Ollie Bear. No sooner was he down the stairs than Oliver was asleep in his arms. Andrew went back upstairs, he laid Oliver down, and Oliver slept for 45 minutes. He woke up fussing, and we assumed he was up for the day. After 30 minutes of play time with Daddy, though, he fell back asleep and slept until 6:30am.

We're still not sure what the problem was. Heck, maybe it was nothing. After all, Oliver's a baby! But I can't help but worry that he was in pain or something. His skin was a lot worse today. I'm convinced that it is eczema because he's getting scaly patches on his sides and elbows. Also, he's cried in the tub the last three days. He started baby yogurt about a week ago, and I'm going to cut it out of his diet to see if that will help his skin.

Oliver the Food Critic

Hello to my friends, family, and fans! My name is Oliver. I've been eating for over three months now, and I decided I'd like to share my opinion of food with you.

First, I'd like to start with rice cereal because that's what I ate first. I liked it a lot, but, to be honest, it made me constipated. Now I only eat a little rice cereal mixed in other foods to thicken them up. I'm OK with that.

After rice cereal, I tried baby oatmeal. Oatmeal is delicious! I like it mixed with Mom's milk, warm water, formula, or apple sauce. It's a good source of iron, and it's so tasty. When I eat it, my mom sings me a song that goes like this: "Noms, the oatmeal. Noms, noms, the oatmeal." It's very enjoyable dinner entertainment.

I've tried pears a few times. Mom makes them for me by pealing them, chopping them, and boiling them. They're spectacular. If you want something sweet, I highly recommend you go by yourself a pear. Maybe my mom will boil it for you.

This brings me to apples. While not dissimilar to pears, I prefer pears to apples. I'll eat applesauce straight, but I'd be happier if you mix them with bananas or oatmeal.

Oooh, speaking of bananas, I love them! Honestly, they might be my favorite food. Mom tells me they're cheap, sometimes just forty cents a pound! I guess you can't get better than cheap and tasty. I love bananas. Mom used to mash them with some milk, but she found I love them just as much straight up. I eat half of a mashed banana at a time, but I've been trying to tell Mom to give me a whole banana. Tell your mom not to mash your banana too smoothly because the banana chunks are the best part. My mom makes sure all the chunks are smaller than the size of a pea, though, to make sure I don't choke. That's a good idea. I would like to eat bananas always. I wish I could eat just bananas and drink milk all day, every day. The best part of bananas is when mom sings that children's song to me: Bananas in pajamas are coming down the stairs. Bananas in pajamas are chasing teddy bears!
Similar to bananas, though not quite as good, are avocados. I like avocado! I eat it plain or mashed with banana. Mom likes it because it doesn't require any cooking. I like it for the texture and flavor.

Mom once bought sweet potatoes and cooked them in the oven and mashed them with her milk for me. What kind of sick person eats sweet potatoes straight? Not this baby, that's for sure. The worst part is, she and Dad kept trying to give them to me. I'd make a face, I'd even cry, but they would bust out the potatoes night after night for a week. Thankfully, they've stopped trying to give them to me straight up like that.

I do, however, like roasted acorn squash mashed with milk. It's both simple and scrumptious. If you want, you can add a pinch of cinnamon to it, but you don't have to. If you're being good, your mom might sing a silly made up song that goes like this: Who likes'm squash? Ollie likes'm squash.

My favorite vegetable has to be green beans. Mom buys them in a jar instead of making them. I like looking at the jar, and I want to grab the jar, but she won't let me have it. Green beans are so good and flavorful. Mom made up a green bean song to the tune of "It Stoned Me." Instead of singing, "Oh the water," she sings, "Noms, the green beans." Isn't she silly? Bring on the green beans, Mom!

Speaking of jarred food, I also eat peas from the jar. They're an excellent food choice. Please, have your mom go out and buy you a jar of peas today. You won't be disappointed. Oh, and do you know that Beach Boys song, "Barbara Ann?" Well, when my mom was a kid, she said they made a Chicago Cubs commercial to that tune, and it went, "Cubs, Cubs, Cubs, here come the Cubs." She sings me that song, only she sings, "Peas, peas, peas, here come the peas. Peas peas, peas, here come the peas. Oh, peas. I love my peas. Love 'em steamed, love 'em mashed, I love 'em, love 'em, love' em, love my peas, peas, peas...." I smile and gobble those peas up!

Mommy makes me carrots sometimes, and, honestly, how can you go wrong with carrots? They're orange, colorful, flavorful, and sweet! I recommend eating carrots pureed until they're smooth. Although I normally like chunky foods, carrots are one of the few foods that are better smooth. Also, don't even think about eating them with dill weed. Mom added some dill weed in there once, and it was the worst thing I've ever tried. Worse than sweet potato, for sure.

There's one more jar food that I've tried, and it's called Nutritious Turkey Dinner. Mom makes a funny face when she gives it to me, but I really dig it. At first, I thought it was weird. After a few bites, I was sold. If you try Nutritious Turkey Dinner, don't be surprised if you don't like it at first, but I promise you, if you keep tasting it, it'll grow on you.

My Grandma Colleen made me some homemade turkey dinner. It had ground turkey, apples, onions, and sweet potato in it. At first, I didn't like the texture of the ground turkey and spit the bits out, but then Grandma blended it up more for me. She's a nice lady. I don't think I like the homemade turkey dinner that much, though. Maybe it's the sweet potato in it. Why does everyone try to make me eat sweet potatoes? I think it's a conspiracy. Next time you give Grandma a baby food recipe, Mom, make sure there's no sweet potatoes in it, OK?

Speaking of sweet potato disasters, get this: my mom mixed baked sweet potatoes with steamed carrots and parsnip! Well, I gave it a try, and I ate a whole serving for dinner. Mom took that to mean that I liked sweet potatoes mixed with other foods, so she started making all sorts of new foods for me to try from her baby recipe book. She even made sweet potatoes mixed with steamed broccoli! I decided to let her know that this was not OK. I didn't eat the sweet potatoes with broccoli, and then I refused to eat the sweet potatoes with carrots and parsnip again. Take that, Mom!

My favorite blend that Mom has ever made was the mix of pears, peaches, and blueberries. It was so good! I ate a lot, and I wanted more when it was all gone. I hope she makes that for me again very soon. If you're a good boy, maybe your mom will make some for you.

Mom didn't use all the blueberries she'd bought when she made my fruit puree, so she mashed up some blueberry quarters for me to eat as finger foods. It was too hard to pick those slippery guys up! Thankfully, she helped me and put some in my mouth. I really enjoyed chewing them!

I also eat Cheerio halves for finger foods. I like to look at the Cheerio pieces and grab them, but I don't put them into my mouth myself. I need Mom to do that for me. They're very good, and they're fun to mash in my mouth. I make sure to mash them really well before I swallow them. Sometimes, Mommy and Daddy giggle at me because I mash each half for a few minutes before swallowing it. Safety first, guys.

Last weekend, my mom let me eat Yobaby yogurt. Oh man, yogurt is so good. I'm not making this up. I have tried pear and peach flavor, and I can't get enough. Please, just keep spooning it in. Don't pause! Just shovel it in. I'll handle it from there.

Finally, the last food I've tried is hard boiled egg yolks mashed with Mom's milk. When Mom first let me try the eggs, I thought it was some kind of joke. It's like nothing I'd ever had before! I spit it out right away, and I scrunched up my face to let her know that I did not appreciate her egg joke. For added emphasis, I even gagged. And that was just the first spoonful! I'll tell you what, though. I'm a trooper, and I stuck with it. I'm so glad I did! By the forth or fifth bite, I really started to enjoy it. I decided I really like eggs! It helped that Mom made up a funny song. She sang, "Is your name Meg? No, it's not. Would you like an egg? I'd like it a lot."

Future Gamer Laughs at Wii Mote

Oliver Sits & Laughs

Third Tooth!

Never have I updated my blog so many times in one day, but Oliver's top right tooth just came in! He officially has three teeth.

Having a 7 Month Old Baby Means...

...leaving him to play on the floor is no longer a good idea. I laid him on a blanket with his favorite toys while I organized the cereal cabinet a few feet away. I was focused on the cereal boxes, and when I glanced down at Oliver, I found he'd rolled to the pantry shelves and was pulling on the ice cream maker cord! I moved faster than you could imagine, and when I took the cord away from him, he cried.

Growing Up

It seems like a lot has changed with Oliver in a short amount of time recently. I can't believe the changes from a few weeks ago. First, he started napping for longer periods of time about a week ago (he usually gets in one 2 hour nap a day and one hour long nap a day). Second, we put him to bed awake at night (sleepy, but definitely very awake), and he goes to sleep on his own. As noted in my previous blog, he even slept through the night last night without getting up to eat (although he woke up an hour earlier than what is normal for him).

Also, Oliver has started to sit up really well this week. Just yesterday, he sat on his own for at least five minutes before falling over. Then, I had his butt against my leg, and he played sitting up that way for about half an hour before I picked him up to take him for a walk with my mom.

It's so amazing! He's turning into such a capable baby. I think these are some of the first sign of what lays ahead for him and us, and I'm so excited! To think, in another month or so, he's going to be crawling and pulling himself up into a sit! I wonder if I'll be updating those milestones for his 8 month old update?

Crazy!

Sweet Dreams

Oliver set a new world record! Well, maybe just a Shattuck household record. He went to bed at 7pm last night, as usual. At 11pm, he woke and fussed about a minute or two and went right back to sleep. Then...

....he slept until 4:45am! Straight! I nursed him at 4:45am, and he was wide awake. I laid him down in his crib and whispered, "Good night," and left the room. He remained awake, but he laid in his crib for another half hour before complaining for me to come get him.

Hurray for his first (kind of) night of sleeping all the way through with no middle of the night feedings!