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.

My directorial debut

Does that mean you're hungry, or that I should steal second?

Oliver's oral language abilities haven't changed much in the last month or two. His receptive language is clearly well developed, and even though he's not speaking recognizable words, he has a lot to say with clear voice inflection. As such, I've been continuing to teach him signs. He knows and can use more, food, please, and banana. We use signs for bath, change, drink, and help with him, but he hasn't signed them back. There are others I want to learn, and I'm trying to decide which once will most help him in being able to express himself before he can use words.

The only problem is that Oliver often uses the sign interchangeably. I'll ask if he's hungry (and do the sign), and he'll sign for more -- even if he's not eating yet. When he's fussy and I ask him what he wants, he signs for food -- even if he's already eaten and probably not really hungry. Sometimes, though, when he's trying to communicate something, especially if he is upset about it, he uses all the signs at once -- food, more, please (while waiting for me to fill up and hand him a sippy cup of water) and then maybe hand clapping. It reminds me of the story a friend told recently about his younger child, now 2 1/2, who stuttered when he first talked because, having talked late, he had a lot formed in his mind before he could say it and it all wanted to come out at once.