Fun in the Sun

We started off this warm day with a trip to the zoo! Not such a great day for visiting the animals as they were mostly sleeping in the shade. We did make it to the petting zoo before Oliver fell asleep. In the afternoon Oliver went swimming at Tessa's house. He had so much fun that I'm considering getting a pool for our house, which I know Penny would enjoy as well. He spent an hour in the water!

Oliver's favorite method of transportation

Meeting a goat

I'm not sure how the penguins cope in this weather, but the sign claims the water always stays at 55 degrees. I wish I could get my house to do that.

Silly tongue

Thank you Shannon for the cute outfit!

Cups are a favorite toy

Teething Necklace

We recently bought Oliver his first amber teething necklace. It's supposed to help reduce the pain of teething, and considering he's now getting six teeth at once, it's a good thing we have it!
Amber is a natural analgesic and when worn on the skin, it releases tiny amounts of healing and pain relieving oils that helps babies stay calm and relaxed. Amber is a resin whose main component is succinic acid. The oils from the amber are easily absorbed into the skin and go directly to the blood stream. The amber accelerates our natural immune system’s ability to heal wounds and is known to help with the reduction of inflammation in the ears, throat, stomach and respiratory system.

Summer!

Here is our 5 day forecast!

Newspaper

I had a few requests to redo some recent pictures to include Oliver reading a newspaper. Here they are:

Happy 4th of July!

We're going to head over to Wallingford pretty soon to watch the display at Gas Works Park. Penny is wearing a ThunderShirt today to help with her fear of fireworks. We've also been playing firework sounds in the house for the past four days to help her get used to the noise. She's doing really well so I think this year will go much better than previous years when we haven't even been able to get her out from under the bed. We're all ready for the holiday to be over though because we're getting really annoyed listening to firecrackers go off all day long!

A Concert

Today I took Oliver to his first Caspar Babypants concert at Snooze Junction. Caspar Babypants is Chris Ballew from the Presidents of the United States of America. He sings great music for kids and Oliver had a great time dancing with all the other kids and babies that showed up. The place was packed. You can listen to some of his music here:

Walking, Crawling & Climbing Stairs

Using his push walker for the first time!

June 22nd

While Nick is in Tucson for a few days, Oliver, Penny and I are soaking up the sun that is finally here! Cynthia brought back the necktie bib he's wearing from France. He's been drooling up a storm lately, so maybe teeth are in sight? His toilet seat also came so I got a few pictures of him testing it out. He's quickly learned how to unravel the toilet paper roll!

Month 8 Video

It's a little late, but here is a video with a clips from last month!

Happy Father's Day!

Thank you Tracy!

Tracy sent Oliver his first pair of ecco tennis shoes yesterday! They are so cute! They just about fit him which is perfect since we don't think it will be long before he's walking. He can already stand in them on his own without support.

California Trip

Oliver and I got back last week after spending 10 days in California visiting family, training dogs, and most importantly attending Binny's 80th birthday party! You can view that video again here. My mom took so many pictures that we didn't get any with her in them, but she is in this video:

Video clips from California

Opening a present from Grandma - a guitar shirt!

Ready for bed

Get me out of this car seat!

Visiting with Grandma Julie

Cuddling with Great Binny

And ready to take a nap with Great Grampy

Playing computer with Grandpa Bruce

Do I look silly?

Hangin' with Uncle Evan and Grandpa Gregg

Eating guacamole, one of my favorites!

Playing Uncle Tom's piano

On the potty

Dancing with Grandpa Mark

Even Daddy joined us for the afternoon!

8 Months!

Oliver is 8 months old today! We have had a busy month! He's been crawling for about four weeks now, which has changed everything. He's getting fast and he's really good at crawling to all the things he shouldn't play with, like the garbage can, Penny's water bowl, Nick's guitar and any type of cord on the ground. He is pulling up on anything and everything he can get his little hands on, which involves a few tumbles now and then. His favorite word to say is Babababa! And he still doesn't have any teeth. He enjoys eating, but breast milk continues to be his main source of nutrition. The elimination communication is going great! Our average diaper count is down to just 1-2 per day and in the last week he has started being dry at night about a third of the time!

Nick is on 2nd shift right now, which means he doesn't go in to work until 2pm. He was able to go with Oliver and I to story time today, and Oliver crawled away from us for the first time to check out some bigger kids! We also got Oliver his first library card and signed him up for the summer reading program.

I have a ton of video clips to put together as well as photos from our trip to CA, so stay tuned. . .

Going for a short hike in our neighborhood

Oliver's first hike in a backpack

Taking a potty break

Penny loves to go hiking too!

Oliver still has to taste EVERYTHING, including Daddy,

Daddy's ear,

and the kitchen cabinets.

He's been helping out more around the house

and even helps load the dishwasher!

He started taking baths in the big bathtub

Look at that hair!

Wearing Daddy's engineer hat

He loves to crawl

Binny's 80th Birthday Party!