Some kind of trouble

Oliver is learning all sorts of new tricks these days.  Yesterday afternoon he was in the kitchen for a while, and I wasn't sure what he was doing.  When I walked in, I found that he had opened the cabinet door under the sink (the only one in the kitchen without a child lock) and emptied out everything in there.  And he was so proud of himself.

Oliver has become really good at a lot of those kinds of thing.  That evening, the dryer buzzed and he immediately walked over to the laundry closet and banged on the door to open it up.  I put the laundry basket on the floor, and he moved the dry clothes into the basket without any help.  (We did have to stop him from putting the wet clothes from the washer in there and redirect them to the dryer.)

Tonight I got back out his Christmas present -- a mallet and pegboard that was put away a while ago when he got a little...zealous, shall we say, with the mallet.  He can hammer each peg down using the mallet.  As a woman at the park pointed out today, he really is very coordinated (ah, the irony that my child would be at eighteen months very coordinated but not yet talking!).

And his personality is coming out more and more -- ALL sides of it.  Sunday he got his very first time out at home, followed by his very first time out at daycare on Monday (the note home said the he "had a hard time listening").  He has a tendency to sometimes smack at my face and doesn't respond to my admonitions to stop.  I put his hand down to his side very firmly and tell him "No" in my most authoritative voice, but he just laughs.  If I'm playing with him, I'll stop.  If he's up on the couch with me, I'll put him down.  But he persisted (mixing it up by kicking the dog to provoke her to growl at him -- hilarious, let me tell you).  So after attempting and failing to put him in time out in a chair, I hauled him upstairs and put him in his crib for 2 minutes by himself.  He didn't get upset while he was there, but he clearly understood when I came back that he should feel back about something.  He was contrite (as much as a toddler can be) and sat happily in my lap for at least 20 minutes.  He went back up again later that day, very upset that he was separated from us, and was sobbing when I went back for him.  Once again, he was very solemn and sat with me awhile.  I know it's just the next part of him growing up, and in some ways it's really interesting to watch, but it's also reality setting in that he's truly not a baby anymore.

Jelly

Play date

This morning, Oliver and I met a classmate, his wife, and their daughter at an indoor play area called The Monkey's Treehouse.  The place is fantastic.  It has a huge treehouse-like structure with twisty, tube slides, drawbridge crossings, climbing nets, and little rooms with windows.  The posts of the treehouse look like actual trees!  There's a center sandbox, but instead of sand, it's ground-up rubber pieces, with a wheelbarrow and shovels.  Ollie really liked that part and spend most of his time in the pit with a shovel in hand.  He was not happy about having to let go of the shovel when he got out of the pit. There's an under-2 area with big Legos, a ball pit, a small slide (that Oliver went down probably 30 times while we were there), and a soft tunnel.  There were dollhouses, an area for arts and crafts, a grocery store with shopping cart, and lots of other small activities.  We were there with the kids for probably 2 1/2 hours, talking while they played.  Oliver was much more reticent to try things out than he is elsewhere, but that seems to be the way he is in new situations and with new people.  He warms up and jumps in eventually, but it's a process.  The place did get really busy by the time we left, and it was mostly bigger kids who were not always being well-supervised by their parents, but for $7.00 it was a lot of fun.  I would definitely take him back, preferably with Wes so we could help him more on things like the slide (hard to do with one person).  It's not worth the money to go all the time, but it's a fun treat and nice option, especially for rainy days.  Ollie was exhausted by the time we left.  As I predicted, he fell asleep on the car ride home but woke up to eat lunch and run around the yard in the nice weather for a bit.  I put him down for a nap 20 minutes ago, but he's still upstairs chatting.  Hopefully he'll give in and get some sleep soon.

We will get to see our playdate pals again tonight.  We've made a trade-off deal, so Vivi (their daughter) is going to spend some time with us tonight while they go out to dinner.  The kids are maybe 8 months or less apart, so while they can't do a lot together, it's also pretty easy to have both.  Plus, it's free babysitting!

Monkey see, monkey do

Oliver has been mimicking us a lot recently (see the goldfish + milk incident of late).  He tries to do everything we do.  Yesterday afternoon, when I came home, I spent probably 15 minutes walking around the backyard, hunched over, bucket and shovel in hand, looking for dog poop so I could clean up the yard for playtime.  When I finished, I went inside to wash my hands before playing with Ollie.  As I stood in the bathroom, I heard a clanking noise and couldn't figure out what he was playing with that would make such a noise.  I went back outside and found Ollie, hunched over, bucket and shovel in hand, wandering around the yard.  I welcome the day he can take on that task as one of his chores.

And so it begins

A week or more ago I heard one of the parents of a child in Oliver's class talking to Ashli, one of the teachers, about potty training.   Ashli said to wait until the child seemed ready but suggested getting a potty and letting the kid sit on it just to learn what it's for.  So the next time I was at Target, I got Oliver his very own frog potty.  I also got him The Big Potty Book and that seminal work of scatalogy Everybody Poops for, you know, reading material.  Since we got it, Oliver has sat on his potty maybe half a dozen times.  We're not consistent about it in any way, but he's shown no signs of being ready to potty train, so I'm not pushing it.  He definitely likes to sit on the seat that's just his size and look at his books or be read to.  Sometimes when he's just in the bathroom with us, he'll sit on the toilet -- backwards -- fully clothed, reading a book -- upside down. 

This will be a long process I fear, when it really begins.  But for now, I love seeing him sitting on potty with his pants around his ankles, book in hand.  Maybe I can win him over with a promise of toilet paper.

Last weekend, I made cookies while Wes watched some sporting event -- the Pro Bowl or a basketball game or something. Oliver helped me in the kitchen. One day, I know, it will be otherwise.

Precious Moments

Today, as Oliver and I were leaving to go to Target, he walked over to Lucy, who was sitting on her bed in the middle of the kitchen, kissed her gently on the nose and waved goodbye.

Then tonight, I gave Oliver some goldfish and a cup of milk to get him started on dinner while I heated up some other food. Wes started his dinner with Oreos and milk. Shortly thereafter, I looked over at Oliver and found him, yes, dunking his goldfish in his milk.