Oliphant Blows His Trumpet

Given Olie’s early nickname (Oliphant), perhaps it is no surprise that his first animal sound turns out to be the trumpeting “braalooo” of an elephant. Whenever he’s shown a picture of an elephant or asked what sound an elephant makes, he howls out a high-pitched whoooo! He also makes more or less the same sound every time he hears a siren outside, which is not an uncommon occurrence in New York. Oliver will suddenly start howling and it always takes a few seconds to realize what has triggered him since for me, by now, these emergent screeching siren signals have mostly merged into the sea of background noise. While I suppress the sound of sirens, I am much more tuned in to Olie’s howls as they are audible evidence of just how much he’s soaking up these days.

Incredibly, Oliver also hears the engine roar of planes and helicopters overhead and points to the sky when he sees or hears one. Believe it or not, he’s done this ever since we flew to Maine about a month ago. He seems to have understood what planes are and that they fly in the sky. That really does amaze me as I would think flying in a plane would be pretty abstract for a 1-year old. In an attempt to seal his status as 100% baby boy, he also loves big trucks and dogs of all types, too. Again, with an abundance of busses, delivery trucks, garbage trucks, fire engines as well as pooches of all varieties in the city, there are ample opportunities for Olie to holler out “tuc” and “dat” and “dot” and, of course, “whoooo.”

Speaking of blowing trumpets, Oliver turned 1 this week. Despite his obvious conscious and physical leaps of late, it is still hard to believe a year has already passed. While a long year in many ways, it also went by very, very fast. This is a common complaint for parents, and we’re no exception. I’ve gained new insight into how shocked my parents were when I suddenly grew up and went off to college. How could they ever have been prepared for me to charge out into the world, even if they well understood that was what I was meant to do? We had a lovely week-long visit with my mother and father who came out to celebrate Olie’s 1st b-day and brought him a shiny, red Radio Flyer walker/wagon (just like his mom & dad had when they were kids). Uncle Chris also joined in on the festivities, providing Oliver with his first wooden mallet. No doubt much damage will be delivered by that cute cudgel. Unfortunately, Oliver really didn’t take to the birthday angel food cake his mother baked just for him. Perhaps next year we’ll entice him with a little frosting…