Happy Halloween!

Some fun and excitement from Oliver's 3rd Halloween!

family costumes

pregnant belly pumpkin art

the cutest Babar ever!

And here are some video clips and more pictures:

Poulsbo, hats and 33 weeks!

We spent this gorgeous Saturday in Poulsbo, Wa, with Nick's aunt and uncle, Hans and Nancy. His cousin Jessica and her family also joined us for lunch. We couldn't have asked for a better fall day. As you can see from the pictures below, we all had a great time. Penny played ball for nearly the entire 4 1/2 hours we were there and would cool off in the water when she got too hot. Oliver thoroughly enjoyed driving the lawn mower "tractor" and can't wait to go back to drive it again.

Nancy is also responsible for making all the cute hats you have seen in my posts, including the recent elephant hat. She has been on a bit of a knitting high lately, and sent us home with at least twenty hats, mostly matching pairs for Oliver and his brother. Oliver was so excited and tried them all on when we got home. Now I'm responsible for taking good pictures of the boys with their hats so she can include the pictures with her patterns that she hopes to sell. The lion hat was quite popular today :)

On a final note, I am 33 weeks pregnant today. Time is just flying by these last few weeks. Oliver arrived at 39 weeks and 2 days, which is just a little over 6 weeks from today! I continue to be feeling great, and really don't feel pregnant much of the time. Except of course, when I bend down and my stomach gets in the way. I have a few back pains at night, but I'm hoping my chiropractor will remedy that this week. My weight gain has picked up a little, and I'm now up to about 9lbs. I feel the little guy moving all the time and he seems to be well planted in his head-down, back towards my right side position, as I feel most of the movement on my left. I probably say this every time I do a pregnancy update, but we really can't wait to meet him!

lion hat on the potty

Penny spent the day doing this

going for a ride on the "tractor"

my handsome guys

true love

the cutest lions you'll ever see

mid-air catch

33 week belly

and a few family shots

toad hat

multitasking

engineer + train table

Just one of the things that happens when I leave the two boys together.

honey

There's nothing better than baking with honey!

off to the library

Oliver wanted to carry his own snacks. He loves his backpack, even though it's a bit big on him.

midwives

For those of you who are interested, here's a short video about the midwives that I'm seeing for this pregnancy. I couldn't be happier with the care that I've been receiving so far, and the atmosphere is so wonderful. Oliver loves to come to the "baby" appointments with me and talks about the toys that he'll play with while we are there. This evening at my appointment, Oliver was trying to hurry me onto the exam table so he could hear the heartbeat (his favorite part). For the rest of the appointment we sit on couches and talk while Oliver plays with a box of toys. I'm 32 1/2 weeks today, still measuring a bit ahead of schedule, and baby is healthy and head down!

rainy day

It was very wet and rainy this morning and Oliver and I had to walk to his first gymnastics class about four blocks away. It's a good thing he enjoys his rain gear so much!

hand whistling

Oliver's best friend, Jim Baer, has been on vacation for several weeks now. He asks about him every day, and recently he started practicing Jim's signature hand whistling.

my 2-year old

Oliver had his 2-year check up this week and he's happy that he doesn't have another one until he turns three. We switched doctors a few months ago to an office that has both a family physician and naturopathic doctor. And that's it actually, aside from the lady who sits at the front desk. It is so much nicer to go to a place where the doctor spends as much time with you as you need. I think she was with us for at least 45 minutes. She's also the one that gives the shots, measures, weighs, etc. Oliver is healthy as can be. He weighed in around 26lbs and 33.5 inches. I say around because he was so squirmy that he wouldn't sit still long enough to be weighed or have his height measured. We both ended up getting our flu shots too, so we'll be ready when the new baby arrives.

Here are a few more fun facts about my new 2-year old:

• He's still nursing, once or twice per day at bedtime and/or when he wakes up. 2 years was my goal, so I'm happy we made it this far.
• He recently discovered how to open the child-proofed drawers! So much for keeping him out of the pots and pans. He can now freely open every drawer in the house - time to find a better solution. Nick's engineer genes are responsible for this one :)
• He's obsessed with money! Being a CPA, I suppose he got this from me :) He loves to put coins in his pocket and piggy bank and if you ask him if he wants one coin, he'll say "two!" and hold out both hands. 
• A few of his favorite toys are his duplos, trains, and anything with small pieces and parts. He's very fascinated with small things and does quite well with them. He has even become an excellent hard boiled egg peeler. He is able to do simple two and three piece puzzles. His baby doll continues to accompany many of his daily activities as well.
• He loves books. He enjoys going to the library every week to pick out and return them. The checkout process is a big hit with him. And I'm pretty sure he'd let us read forever if he never had to go to bed at night.
• He is very comfortable at his friend Tessa's house. This is huge, because it means we have another place to drop him off, besides Jim and Cynthia's house. Tessa's mom and I have been doing some childcare swaps lately which has been really nice. And he has so much fun at their house that he ignores Nick and I when we come to pick him up.

Here are some pictures from our rainy day walk yesterday. He always has his wooden dog in tow!

a brief visit

My aunt, uncle and cousins were in town very briefly last weekend and they made time to stop by and see us. They brought Oliver a birthday present of Old MacDonald finger puppets. They were quite a hit!

upon arrival, Oliver got quite a production of Old MacDonald with his new puppets

he wasn't quite sure what to think of it at first

so he hung close to me

time for a quick group shot: Janna, Tory, Kara, Adra, Doug, Me, Nick and Oliver

After everyone left though, Oliver tried singing Old MacDonald on his own:

where does daddy work?

Video: Oliver's 2nd Birthday Party

a hint

For those of you wondering what we are going to name this new little guy (who could be here in just over 8 weeks!), here's a hint:

elephants

Oliver and I went to the zoo today to see the elephants. He chose to wear his elephant hat and his green jacket which sparked many comments while we were there. Everything from "cute hat" to "he looks like Babar" to "can I take his picture?" He had fun and would smile when people talked about his hat. For Halloween, we're going to dress him in a grey top and pair of pants, and he'll wear his green jacket. Then he'll really look like Babar.

matching

It's not that often that I get to match Oliver's shoes to his clothes. In fact, it's never happened because until yesterday, he has never owned more than one pair of shoes at a time. But thanks to my friend Tracy, we now have two pairs (in different colors)in his current size. This means I can actually pick out his shoes to match his outfit. Yay! My friend joked that this is about as much matching as I'll get with two boys. Most of my friends have at least one girl, with tons of shoes, accessories, etc. to choose from. When I dress Oliver (on the days that he doesn't choose his own outfit) it's usually about picking out a shirt, and either jeans or khaki pants to go with it. That's it.

Today I had fun matching his yellow vest to the yellow highlights on his new shoes. Nick laughed at me later when I put a warmer (blue) jacket on him and also switched to his blue shoes. Luckily Oliver doesn't mind as he is happy to wear any of his new shoes.

airplane and bouncing

Having fun with daddy in the evening. Oliver is 24 months here, playing airplane and bouncing on a new toy!

pumpkin patch 2011

We had fun celebrating Oliver's birthday at a pumpkin patch on Sunday.

ready for some pumpkins

help! this one may be a bit too big.

riding a cow train with Mommy

lots of tractor ride-on toys

sneaking a kiss for Grandma

enjoying the hay ride to the pumpkin patch

on a mission

picking out just the right one

he loves wheelbarrows

5 pumpkins!

heading back

group shot on the hay ride

they even had  a playground

riding a pony for the first time! when we first arrived, Oliver was too scared to even look at the pony, and by the end of the day he was riding it all by himself!

we're so proud of him

so much fun!

maple tree, year 3

Oliver's maple tree comparison, year 3. Look at that growth!