Emmeline feeds the dog.

On a Thursday

The kids with Carol Broderson,
a family friend and neighbor.

On the playground at Mt. Rogers Combined School

Ice cream cones!

Oliver asked for one every night.

Emme never managed to finish a whole one.

Lucy loved being off leash for the week.

A little boy and his dog

French kiss

Tattletale

This morning, Oliver and Lucy were in the living room playing while I was taking a shower.  Ollie came into the bathroom with a very concerned look on his face and reported, with great consternation, "Lucy up on couch."  I told him to go back and tell her, "Get down, Lucy."  Evidently, his efforts failed, as he came back moments later to re-report the situation.

Lucy denies the allegations.

Say what?

Oliver keeps going around the house saying, "No, I like dogs!"  The first time he said it, he was yelling it at Lucy while he was his high chair.  Since then I've heard it mixed into his ongoing dialogue to no one in particular and said very nicely in response to a question (that has nothing to do with whether or not he likes dogs).  Sometimes the statement is prefaced with the name of one of his daycare buddies.  Regardless, I have no idea what he means when he says it or where it came from.  Or why it begins with, "No."

But he does really seem to like dogs.

All in a day's work

Things Oliver did today:

• Got poop on his pillowcase, which necessitated the washing of all bed linens
• Moved his alphabet puzzle to the bathroom while I showered, but then abandoned it to "rock rock" in the rocking chair
• Selected a donut from the extensive variety at Fox's Donut Den
• Drank two sippy cups of milk before 9am
• Helped brush Lucy's teeth and gave her two dental treats
• Read Lucy (now pronounced "Woosy") his Ten Rubber Duckies book
• Tried to ride Lucy's back while she chewed on her bone and tried, unsuccessfully, to play rope with Lucy
• Spun around in circle while singing the snippets of ring-around-the-rosie until he got dizzy
• Had a time-out, or several

Down and dirty

If Oliver knows how to do one thing, it's get dirty. And recently, he's had Lucy to help him. We recently pulled some plants out of the yard, and now Lucy has uncrowded dirt to dig holes in. Last week (and again today), I found Lucy and Oliver plotting together in the backyard. (If I'm working in the kitchen, I'll let them be out there without me, and I check in on them every few minutes if I don't see them out the window.) Lucy digs, Oliver throws dirt against the side of the house and on Lucy, and they both get filthy.
Trouble, I tell you. Trouble.

A (more than) three hour tour

Oliver, Lucy, and I went to see my parents in Georgia last weekend, the same afternoon that Grandma Kay had to go home, too.  The trip is normally three hours on the dot, if there's not a lot of traffic and I don't have to stop to clean up dog barf.  This was not to be on this trip, though.  Around fifty miles out of town was an enormous sinkhole on I-24E.  The eastbound interstate was closed, and the traffic was rerouted through a tiny rural town for almost 10 miles.  The delay was two hours.  I had timed the trip so that most of the driving would happen while Oliver was napping.  So when he was the most tired for his nap, we were in stop-and-go traffic.  He woke up and fussed most of the way through.  I, on the other hand, had a crisis situation (one that will not surprise my sister) detailed on the other blog.

Oliver cried and slept on an off the last two hours.  It was awful to hear, but I knew we couldn't stop long enough with the dog in the car (on a warm day) to really give him any relief, so I thought it would be better to just get there.  We were both very happy to arrive.

Oliver spent the weekend playing with mom and dad's vastly more interesting array of toys and traipsing around the beautifully landscaped outside.  He visited my dad at school, played reluctantly in the wooded area behind their house (liked: tossing stones in the creek; disliked: falling in the water), and really enjoyed the playground in the neighborhood.  He got really upset when I took him to the nursery at church on Sunday, but the woman working in the room said he calmed down pretty quickly.

The trip home was, mercifully, much easier.  Lucy did not barf (which she did on the way down), Oliver napped and sat happily, and the whole thing was over in around three hours.

I love Lucy

Up on high

Now that we have a new kitchen table that boasts benches versus chairs, I wanted to get Oliver a more traditional high chair that stands alone and doesn't take up so much room. Wes and I both really love the old-fashioned wooden high chairs, but they're very pricey, so we decided to go the uber-cheap route and get one of the restaurant-style wooden high chairs. It'll fit him until he's big enough for a normal seat at the table, and it's absent that blasted tray, which, while functional, drove me nuts.

The other virtue of this high chair for Oliver and Lucy is that there's less to keep them apart during feeding time. Oliver can reach down to share his Cheerios or Goldfish or banana puffs with Lucy -- in some cases just giving her a lick before enjoying it further himself (ewww!).

At home, at last

One for each hand

When you move the changing pad to the floor

It's only a matter of time.

Ollie's Journal, Weeks 23-29

Things I did (must've been a lot since I haven't journaled in a while):

1. Started eating solids. Oh, I love em, I love em, I love em. So much so that I quickly moved from Stage 1 to Stage 2. Garden Vegetables, Mixed Vetetables, Apples and Prunes, Turkey and Rice Dinner. New for tonight: Mangos! I cut back on my milk a little for a while but am just starting to catch back up.
2. Cut some teeth, which are slowly inching in. Mom checks on their progress every morning. This morning she could feel little pricks where the tops are through the gums. Sometimes it hurt a lot, but mostly it didn't bother me.
3. Traveled -- a wedding two weeks ago, Nashville this week. I've taken three airplane rides in 6 months and now that we have a car (a great place to nap, I should mention), I'll be getting out even more!
4. Fell in love with the dog. We are so BFFs. Every time I see her I get a big grin on my face and start to laugh and giggle. I really like Jack, my friend who comes with his mom to take care of me when mom and dad are at work, and Jack likes Lucy, too.
5. Got to moving. I won't stay on my back -- I'd rather just roll over and see where I can get to. It's a good thing mom and dad are moving soon, cause I'm going to need more space to explore soon.

Right now: Making funny noises as I wake up from a 2 1/2-hour nap in my crib.

Gotcha!

Ollie is on the move. He's not crawling, and I'm not sure if he can move this well on carpet, but on the hardwoods he is definitely a man with a mission -- or fifty constantly changing missions. He stretches, rolls, wiggles, squirms, and inches his way around the apartment -- especially the living room -- anytime he has the option. The primary object of this movement is to seek out the dog, but since she's a roving target, he often goes for her toys. Specifically, he likes the dog rope. While almost certainly just as disgusting as the rawhide chew, it just doesn't look quite as nasty. And he usually doesn't put it in his mouth -- just play with the strings. If nothing else, all this movement seems to be wearing him out a little so he'll nap and sleep at night more soundly!

Who needs toys?

With a knick-knack paddywhack

He holds the bone, he tries to eat the bone, and then with some encouragement, he "shares." Lucy is unbelievably gentle during this very exciting process. Ollie usually won't give up the bone easily as he has such a strong grip on it, and Lucy very carefully get ahole of it and pries it out of his hand. I've even seen her back off and try again when she couldn't get it from him. The funniest part is that now she visits Ol in the Exersaucer periodically to see if he happens to have a dog bone.

A dog and his boy

Evidently, Oliver's adoration for Lucy is not unrequited. On Tuesday, when our sitter arrived, I ran Lucy outside for a quick walk before leaving for work. When I came back in with Lucy and let her off the leash, Lucy ran around the living room looking for, I assumed, Katie. Lucy totally ignored Jack, who was on the floor. She found Katie in the nursery and followed her out to the living room. Lucy then sat on the monkey mat, tail between her legs, barely containing her excitement as Katie lowered Oliver down onto the mat. Once he was down, he got thoroughly slathered by Lucy, and I had to send her to her bed before she loved him too much.

It's so nice to see such sibling bonding.

Temptation

She stays just far enough away so that he can't reach her. I think this, coupled with his already-crawling older friend (our sitter's son), will be what motivates him to crawl when the time comes.