two and a half

Oliver turned 2 1/2 this week! It is such a fun age and I can't believe how fast he's growing up into a little boy. It's so much fun to have actual conversations with him and he's a great helper around the house, especially if tools or the vacuum cleaner are involved. He also gets very excited to pick up dog poop with his daddy in the backyard - be my guest! We bought him some "work" gloves and he loves to wear them when he's outside digging or helping Jim Baer do little jobs around his yard or shop. Nick and I were surprised at the speed of which his language took off after he turned two. He went from literally saying just a few words at a time to full on sentences in just a few months. Because of this, we've also discovered that he has his mommy's really good memory (I still get strange looks when I recite my credit card number to purchase something if I don't have my wallet with me). He knows his colors, can count to ten and knows a lot of the alphabet. We've even discovered that he recognizes some words, "Oliver" and "dig" are two of them!

He's starting to lean out now  and he's losing the toddler/baby look about him. He loves to wear his Thomas the train underwear and is getting pretty good at dressing (or undressing) himself. Nick got him dressed for coffee this morning and a few minutes later he was surprised to find Oliver naked from the waist down. This kid has never liked to have pants on!

A few of his current favorite things: baby Elliott, trains, trains, and more trains, garbage trucks, tractors and any construction equipment, "Run Baby Run" by Caspar Babypants (or Baby Casparpants as Oliver calls him), bacon, seaweed rolls with mayonnaise and sliced turkey, Jim Baer, Miss P (Penny), playing Duplo with Daddy, opening packages from Gramma, using any electronic kitchen tool, preschool, going to the playground with Daddy, riding his wood airplane around the house and telling me that he's either going to the airport to pick someone up, or going to wherever Jim Baer is if he is out of town (Mexico was the last place), mommy's milk and cuddling in bed at night.

I need to get better at writing down the funny things that he says, but here are a few that I can remember. We also have to be careful about what we say, because he repeats EVERYTHING.

• He calls me "Mommy Rae-Rae" (Rae is my middle name, but he has a friend named Rachel who he calls Rae-Rae).
• He says 1-2-3, go bye bye, when he wants Nick or I to leave his room at night.
• He's perfected the use of "ONE more time", "ONE more sip", "ONE more minute" etc. Although as he learned his numbers better, it became "TWO" sips, etc.
• This morning (Sunday) he asked for Reggae Saturday, a radio program on a local station and Bob Marley - someone has been spending too much time with Jim Baer! 

You can see what a good big brother he is! He is always concerned with where baby Elliott is!

Riding his airplane, decked out in his safari hat and backpack!

We love you Oliver!