Oliver is having a baby brother!

We found out the week of Christmas that we are having another boy (Due May 30)!  We trained Oliver to say "baby brother" and were hoping he would tell our families.  He decided to clam up at the oportune moment though...so we had to break the news ourselves.  I'm not sure he really understands yet.  It is going to be so fun having two little boys and Oliver will be a great big brother : )

Christmas in Victoria 2010

My parents both live on Vancouver Island and Mike's sister and her family live there too, so we decided to go over to Victoria this year to celebrate Christmas. It was really fun to be able to see nearly all of both of our families over the holidays, but it made for lots of coordinating and scheduling due to our limited time there. We ended up having 3 christmas dinners in 4 days! Oliver loved seeing everyone, especially his grandparents : ) Oliver was really into Christmas this year - the lights, the trees, santa and all the presents. With his birthday too, he opened a LOT of presents! He even helped make a gingerbread house.

Not so sure about meeting Santa...

On the ferry to Victoria



Christmas dinner number 1



With Grandma Jo and Cousin Toots

Christmas dinner #2

Christmas morning

Grandma Sue, Auntie Wisty and Lulu

Putting the finishing touches on the gingerbread house

All dressed up for dinner #3

Grandma Sue

Even Lulu got dressed up

Home alone?

Sweet Cousin Savannah

Hearding cats for a group photo with the Withrows

Oliver's 2nd Birthday!!!

Oliver turned two today. A birthday so close to Christmas certainly has its challenges. This year we were celebrating Christmas in Victoria with both our families, so we decided to throw a party for Oliver there. Auntie Katie and Uncle Andy offered to have it at their house, my mom made an awesome firetruck birthday cake, and everyone helped put up streamers and balloons. Unfortunately, Oliver wasn't feeling 100% healthy that day and he had a short nap. So when he woke up and so many people were there and all looking at him, he was a little unsure of things. He perked up when Andy got out his guitar, he got to open the presents and pop some balloons! He had been practicing blowing out candles for weeks so he had it down when the cake came out. He isn't a big fan of cake so he wouldn't try any, but he sure liked how it looked! It was a really fun party in the end and he can even say how old he is now : )

The amazing Firetruck cake!

Helping Auntie Aleah with the sprinkles

How old are you Oliver?

Uncle Andy saves the day with his guitar



Grandma Sue



Cable Bridge Run

Every year since we have lived in Seattle, Mike and his two best friends (Josh and Derek) go to Benton City, WA to run the Cable Bridge Run, usually the weekend before Christmas.  The wives and kids sometimes go too, depending on circumstances.  Why this race?  It is in Josh's hometown and he has run it all his life.  His parents still live there and they feed, house and drive us around for the weekend.  Josh's mom also watches Oliver during the race so I can run it too.  This was Oliver's second year (he was born the weekend of the race in 2008!) and he loves it.  Especially all the attention he gets from Alice and being able to see Trent so much.  He idolizes Trent (as you can see below).  This year, Josh's dad had an iPad, with some kid friendly apps downloaded.  It was a hit with everyone.  This year it also snowed the night before the race, making for lots of fun for the kids and less than optimal running conditions.  We went ahead anyway.  Josh has won the entire race a million times and he always beats Derek and Mike.  Derek has always beaten Mike when ever they are in the same race, ever since they ran track together in high school.  But THIS year, Mike beat him!  This was a big deal for Mike.  The three of them came first, second and third in their age group.  This year was my second time running the race.  While I used to run occasionally, I didn't start routinely running until after Oliver was born and I realized that I wouldn't be able to exercise if I didn't do it in the morning before work and running was the fastest and easiest thing to do at 7AM.  I have run 3-6 times a week since then, usually for 2-3 miles.  I started running a few races too, mostly because someone else wanted to, but I am glad I did it always.  I have run two 10k races and a few 5k ones.  I also ran occasionally for the first 6 months when I was pregnant with Oliver.  Last year, I ran the 5 k in about 26 minutes.  This year it was 30 minutes, which isn't so bad considering that the route was icy and snowy and I was 17 weeks pregnant!

The drive home to Seattle

   

American Thanksgiving

This was a very big week for us and Oliver.  On Monday night, it snowed while we were at work and the temperature dropped well below freezing.  We left early - around 4:30 - to try to beat the mad rush home.  It didn't work.  We headed downtown to 99 which is our usual route home, but it was closed due to a big accident.  So we went to 4th with the plan to go south to 509 and avoid the west seattle bridge.  While this may have been a smart move, it wasn't a great option either.  We were stuck in a slow crawl down 4th...after about 2 hours, Mike got out and walked over to get us fast food for dinner.  We had only moved a few car lengths when he got back.  Oliver was with us and he was starting to get pretty tired of sitting in his car seat.  He kept yelling "go go!", which was what we wanted to be yelling too.  We finally made it to the onramp to 509 and the traffic completely stopped.  It took another 30 minutes to go a single block.  Then we saw the problem - 3 semi trucks stuck on the onramp.  We finally squeased around them and made it up onto the freeway - which was actually pretty much wide open.  The only other dicey part was the big hill up to Roxbury - but our little 4 wheel drive CR-V made it up past about 15 stuck cars without a hitch.  We stopped for gas, since we were close to running out after the 4 hour commute home (normally takes 20-30 minutes).  It was an hour past Oliver's bedtime, but he didn't fall asleep until we were pulling into our garage!  It was a very long night for us, but many other people had it worse than us and I was very thankful that we were all together.  It stayed really cold the next few days and Oliver's daycare closed, so I stayed home with him.  We were getting pretty stircrazy, so we went out in the snow a few times.  That snowsuit has really come in handy!

On Thanksgiving, we headed over the pass to Quincy to see Mike's family.  Oliver's other grandma also got him a guitar!  I guess grandma's just know what they will love.  Oliver also had fun with the dogs and cat for the first time, only a little but afraid, but he knew all their names and he was giving them commands all day.  We had a great dinner together - Oliver only ate corn - and then drove up to Leavenworth to stay for two nights to avoid Mike's allergies.   

 Leavenworth was amazing!  There was a fresh coat of snow and the town was all decorated for the holidays.  We stayed at the Enzian and it was perfect - even had live piano music in the lobby - which Oliver really enjoyed.  It was just a block from the town and we headed out eary to go sledding.  Oliver loved it!  Everytime he had a huge grin on his face.  He also loved seeing all the lights and christmas trees - he kept yelling "christmas!" and pointing whenever he saw something.  We got him a guitar ornament to commemorate his current pashion.

 Grandma, Grandpa, Laura and Andrew all came up in the afternoon and we had a great time together checking out the shops and watching the musicians play in the gazebo. At 5 there was a parade with music and sant clause that we had been waiting all day for, but Oliver refused to nap that day and ended up passing out on Mike's shoulders a few minutes before it started! He woke up for dinner afterwards though.

We stayed the next morning and had lunch before driving back to Seattle through the snow covered mountains.  It was a beautiful day and perfect driving conditions. Oliver fell asleep just as we left and woke up when we were a few blocks from our house.  When he realized that we were back home he had a major tantrum and rolled around on the ground screaming for 15 minutes!  He kept saying "grandma Jo Jo coming?"  So sad and sweet.  He had a really amazing time with many new experiences.  We set up our tree after we got home and Oliver helped put on a few ornaments.  He was so excited to have christmas in the house, he kept squealing with glee!  I am really looking forward to sharing this time of year with him - he is so excited about everything, it makes it so much more fun for us too.  And his 2nd birthday is coming up too.  So much will be happening in the next month - we can't wait!

Trip to Victoria

Mike had a conference to attend in San Francisco so I was facing 4 days of single parenting...I decided to take this opportunity to go visit my mom in Victoria!  Oliver and I took the clipper, which is the fastest way there and with Oliver's love of ferry boats, I figured he would do a good job.  I was so impressed with him!  He sat and read books with me and played with his trains and ate a lot. 

When we got there we went straight to Katie, Andy and Savannah's house.  Oliver was very shy and wouldn't let go of my leg for the first 20 minutes...he warmed up a bit and was soon raiding Savannah's book shelf and playing her musical instruments.  Oh and tossing her many stuffed animals aside if they got near him!  This kid is not into stuffed animals.  We had a great lunch and after the kids' naps we bundled up and went to the playground.  It was so fun to see the cousins playing - not really together - but at least in the same general vacinity!  Oliver has been saying "cousin toots" when he sees her picture now though...She is so sweet and has a really great personality.  It is going to be really fun watching her grow up.

 We went to go meet my mom after work. Oliver LOVES his grandma Sue so much it is ridiculous. He ran into her arms and gave her a big hug and kiss. And he even asked where Lulu was. When he saw her, he was a little apprehensive and gave her a 3 foot birth on all sides, but he talked about her nonstop. "what lulu doing?", "hi lulu", "lulu sleeping?", etc... He finally gave her a few pats on the back.










Grandma had two surprises for Oliver - a guitar (that was supposed to be a birthday present - and a full snowsuit. He has been really into guitars lately so he really loved it - started playing it right away and really didn't stop much the whole weekend. Grandma Sue also had a small plastic slide she picked up somewhere and she set it up in the living room. That was also a big hit, although he started standing on the top and yelling "oliver standing" if he wasn't getting enough attention.

 The next day, auntie Wisty flew in by float plane from Vancouver and we went down to the dock to wait for her. Oliver loved seeing the planes take off and land and was saying "Auntie Wisty airplane land water" all weekend. It was a good thing Oliver had a snowsuit, because it got really cod and actually snowed on Saturday. We bundled up and braved the elements to watch a santa parade in Sidney - it was like it was made just for Oliver - a long succession of big trucks (including firetrucks and a cement truck) strung with christmas lights, a wagon with about 10 people playing guitars and a troupe of line dancing girls. He stared intensely for the whole hour long parade! When we were walking back to the car, we saw a snowman someone had made earlier. This was his first encounter with a snowman and he was pretty impressed.

We then headed home on Sunday night and again Oliver did an amazing job on the 2.5 hour boat ride, while older kids screamed and had tantrums.  Several people remarked at how great he was - I was a very proud mama : )

Halloween

Oliver had been having a rough time at school for the past few months...lots of "incident reports" for biting other kids and usually on the face. He bit us a bit at home too, but nothing like at school. We had a few meetings with his teachers and the director of the center but nothing seemed to help. So around this time, I was trying to think of a costume for Oliver. When I was looking at the options for toddlers, most require a hat to make the costume make sense and Oliver is very anti-hat at the moment. So I got the idea for him to be a vampire! No hat and with all the biting...fortunately, when we transitioned him to the toddler room at school he stopped biting overnight and hasn't had an incident report since. The costume was still cute.

The week before Halloween we went to a pumpkin patch with Mike's parents and sister, Laura.  It was pouring rain most of the day, but rain can't stop the fun in Seattle or there would never be any fun!  Oliver didn't mind at all and in fact loved the pumpkins and the hay ride (and spending time with his grandma!).  He picked out a pumpkin and we went home to carve it.  Oliver watched intently and when it was done showed his new found love for pumpkins!

Everyday when we got home from work he would exclaim "pumpkin" with delight and want to sit on the ground and watch it and look inside.  About 2 weeks after halloween was over and the pumpkin was getting pretty moldy, we had to say goodbye...Oliver was very distressed and said "Halloween go sleep?"

On Halloween, we went to the Zoo to see the animals play with pumpkins and to show off Oliver's costume.  He had a great day and really enjoyed seeing all the animals.  Every time we go he seems to get more out of it.  We then had a halloween party to go to at my friend Erika's house.  She has a 10 month old and her sister has a 9 month old so there were LOTS of little babies all over.  Oliver was one of the oldest kids there.  It was fun seeing how much he has changed since that age.

After the party, we stopped by to see Derek, Dawn, Trent and Grace, who were just about to go out trick-or-treating.  TTrent grabbed Oliver's hand and the three of them trotted off to get some candy.  When Oliver is with Trent, he will do things he would never do with us, like walk up to a perfect stranger and take food from him!  He went to about 3 houses and had a few candy bars clutched in his little fists.  He was yelling "more candy!"  the best part was that when we offered him a little taste of kit kat, he wouldn't even try it!  He likes the idea of candy I guess.  I will enjoy it while it lasts.

Oliver had one more opportunity to wear his costume - to our PEPs dinner a few days after.  It was like hearding cats to get a photos of them this year - last year they just sat there.  What a difference a year makes!

It was so fun to see Oliver really get into a holiday and the traditions around it.  We are really looking forward to Christmas now...