ollie update

oliver is almost a year and a half old already! it's been awhile since i've done an ollie update post and he is up to so many funny and wonderful things lately that i wanted to sit down and document them.

first of all, he is a car boy. he loves anything with wheels. he likes watching the busy street in front of our house (which is something i used to do with him last summer when he was itty bitty and fussy. it always calmed him). he loves toy cars. he has his "brrrm!" sound absolutely perfected and scoots along on his bum while he pushes his cars along. one of his first words was "ba!" for bus and this week he has added "tacta" (tractor) to his vocabulary. he rarely plays with anything but cars and books.

also, as photographed above, he has a curly mullet. i waffle back and forth every single day. to cut or not to cut? it's a mullet. cut. it's curly! don't cut. he gets called a girl often. cut. but it's curly! don't cut. you can see it's quite the dilemma. 

as i mentioned above, he ollie is starting to say some words. "mama" and "dada" were the first, but "ba!" was his first "real" word. then he caught onto "eyes" and insisted on showing everyone where their eyes are. and by that i mean, he pokes everyone in the eyes. they must be touched. he nods his head and shakes it too, which is the cutest. just yesterday he started saying "bubble" at bathtime. it's really fun to hear him try to repeat the words we say!

ollie enjoys being messy. if a park has water and sand, he will play for hours. he will play and play and not realize he's tired and then he'll freak out when i take him home but he'll zonk out as soon as we get there. and yes, i am speaking from experience. 

he makes the silliest face, which remind me a lot of brian. brian has a very expressive face and ollie definitely got that from his dada. the photo below is one of his newest faces. cute, right? ha!

just when i was quite certain ollie would never walk, he finally got brave and started taking steps on his own. it's been a few weeks now and he still mostly prefers crawling, bum scooting and bear crawling to walking, but he is doing it more often. he stands up on his own all the time and loves hearing us cheer when he does. he has started to take more steps this week but i think it'll still be a little while yet before he walks all the time. he loves driving his cars around too much to stand up and leave them all alone on the ground. 

when i was trying to get ollie to sleep through the night better, i read about giving your child a "lovie"; a comfort item that they can use during the night. so i started giving him a soft muslin blanket to hold onto while i nursed him before naps and bedtime. he has attached himself quite well to his blankie and carries one around with him often. if i hand it to him he grabs it and then bunches it up, carrying it around in a ball by his head. it's so funny and cute. and yes, it does help him sleep better, so hallelujah! 

speaking of sleeping, this boy is a joy to travel with. he usually does quite well with naps in the car and loves seeing semi trucks drive past us on the hi way. doesn't he look like an angel? beautiful boy. 

he loves his nose. that sounds so weird, but he touches it all the time. (second picture below.) when he's happy, he grabs his nose. when he's crying, he grabs his nose. he just loves it. it's a funny little quirk he and i don't want to forget about it. 

and this last picture is just awesome because it looks like he is sword fighting with a piece of grass. 

almost 18 months, ollie boy! that means he gets to go to nursery soon! i can't believe it. he is getting so grown up. he is becoming more brave and outgoing. he jabbers and tries diligently to repeat words. he is still such a calm, sweet and sensitive boy and we love him!