more wine!

What a way to start off a Sunday morning! Here is how Oliver's wine drinking has progressed in the last 9 months, thanks mostly to what he has learned from Jim Baer. Oliver was a little too excited when Jim dropped off a case of different wines yesterday with just a taste in each bottle for Nick to try.

And here he is last April:

Saturday morning

Cuddling in bed with Elliott and Penny while the older boys were at family coffee this morning.

Elliott's maple tree

Oliver received a Japanese Maple tree when he was born, so we saved a place in our front yard for a similar tree for Elliott. Since we have them planted in the front of our house, Nick wanted to get the same type of tree. So I thought, no problem, Oliver's is a Japanese Maple, we'll just go pick up another one. After calling the nursery, it turns out there are many, many variety of Japanese Maple trees and the only way to tell them apart is by their leaves, of which Oliver's tree has none since it dropped them all for the winter. I was disappointed and thought we were going to have to wait until spring to get Elliott his tree. A few days later, while scrolling through some of Oliver's baby pictures, I happened to find this picture of Oliver's maple tree when we first received it, and by zooming in, I was able to clearly read the variety, Hogyoku Japanese Maple.

What a lucky find! I called the nursery back, and it turned out they had just one left since they don't stock them in the winter. Thank you to grandma who went up there and picked it up for us! Because it was the only one left, we didn't get to select the size, and it turns out the tree is much more mature than Oliver's tree is, standing a good foot or two taller. Hopefully Oliver's will catch up soon :) Here is the family with Elliott's tree below and I'll take an annual picture of Elliott and his tree like I do with Oliver.

Elliott's tree, and Oliver's behind it, in the snow and decorated for the winter

preschool

Today was Oliver's first day of preschool! We lucked out and got in off of the wait list when another family dropped out mid-year. From now until June, I'll go with Oliver every Thursday for two hours. The neat thing about this coop preschool is that infants are allowed into the classroom for 6 months, which means Elliott will also be joining us. Next year when he's older. there is an on-site sibling room where he can stay while I'm with Oliver in class.

Oliver was so excited for class and got ready very quickly this morning. He was also excited that it was pajama day, which meant he didn't have to change his clothes and he got to bring a flashlight with him. His friend Tessa was already in the preschool and having her there helped him feel more comfortable in the beginning when he was feeling shy. By the end of the day, he didn't want to leave.

on the floor

Oliver loves to keep Elliott company while he's practicing his tummy time on the floor. Today he helped entertain him while I cooked dinner.

60

Jim Baer turned 60 last weekend and celebrated with parties all weekend long. Bapa and uncle Evan even flew in for the occasion. On Saturday Cynthia threw him a huge surprise party at a nice restaurant. On Sunday, his actual birthday, she had a small group of us over for more delicious food. I hear there was also a wine tasting event the following night. Here are some pictures Evan took at the gathering at their house:

There were enough people to entertain Oliver and Elliott that at times I found myself child-free and actually able to participate in an adult conversation.

birthday boy holding Elliott

Oliver will play iPad with anyone who owns one. I never thought my two year old would be into Angry Birds.

Nick enjoying a nice glass of wine

Bapa's shoulder must taste good!

being goofy

as always!

a rare photo of the two of us

Cynthia's mixer is one of Oliver's favorite things to play with at their house

lots of concentration to cut the birthday cake!

Oliver even brought his own candle to blow out!

snow day #2

The rain didn't come like it was supposed to today and instead we got more snow! I got a chance to play with Oliver today and we made snow angels, ate ice and went sledding in a clothes basket down our street.

And here are some pictures of my littlest snow bear enjoying (briefly) his first big snow. Elliott is 6 weeks now.

snow day

Seattle got it's once-a-year snow storm today, bringing us a wonderful 5 inches of snow. Nick worked from home, Oliver played outside as much as we would let him, and I mostly stayed indoors taking care of Elliott. I did make it out for a walk later in the afternoon and it was just gorgeous. Too bad rain is coming tomorrow, boo!

Nick took the kiddos, Oliver and Penny out to the park

bundled up! Oliver has never worn so many layers before

walking in our backyard

Penny loves the snow!

building a snowman, Nick's first!

the snow was really dense, so it wasn't easy to do

best buds!

Penny played catch with snowballs in the backyard

and tried to eat the blueberry eyes!

all decked out in Oliver's safari hat and Nick's Boeing scarf

our Christmas lights under the snow, how cool!

uncle

Uncle Evan was visiting for the past 5 days, much to Oliver's delight! Oliver had a lot of fun running downstairs in the morning to wake him up and playing trains pretty much non-stop during his trip. Penny loved having an extra ball-thrower around the house too! He was also a big help to me by taking Oliver out during the day while I took care of Elliott. I was kind of hoping his flight would get cancelled due to the snow storm we are expecting, but the updated forecast says the big snow isn't coming until tomorrow morning. We did get enough snow this morning though for them to build a few snowmen for Oliver.

watching train videos on Evan's phone

getting ready for Jim Baer's 60th birthday party

nice hairdo!

but they settled on this

holding Elliott for the first time, but Elliott is not quite sure what to think of his uncle

he warms up quickly

and soon gives Evan a nice smile

an even bigger one!

he really likes his uncle!

playing duplo with Oliver

oops! maybe Oliver shouldn't play duplo while on the potty

bath time flashback

Can you guess who's who? Nick definitely had to glance twice to figure it out.

Elliott (above) at 5 weeks, Oliver (below) at 6 weeks

first snow

We arrived home from family coffee this morning just in time for Oliver to enjoy the first snow of the year. It's been so warm up here that we weren't sure Oliver was going to get to see snow this winter. There's not yet enough for him to build a snowman, and I doubt there will be, but it has kept up for over an hour already.

first snow outfit, including his backward facing lion hat

reaching for the snow

hmm, this looks good

i think i'm going to try some

yum!

an hour later - second snow outfit