New Advancements

Uncle Cory and Olie playing finger puppets

Chad and I have more trouble keeping up with our busy toddler these days, and consequently even more trouble keeping up with his blog (been writing this one for 3 weeks!). But here are a few highlights (Ok many actually):

Olie seems to have really turned the corner in terms of social interaction and imaginative play. He’s much more interactive with other child now, delighting in imitation play. Today (Father’s Day) he and 2 other boys ran around the Hippo Park with their little strollers like some kind of a mini-stroller gang. He shows much more interest in his stuffed animals, hugging them, giving them rides on his trucks, and even sharing his milk with them. (Olie is still pretty good at sharing.) He also loves to play finger puppets, at least when there's an adult manning one puppet and guiding the conversation.

Reading on the Cape

In addition to signing, Olie has been speaking more and more. I’m happy to report that he finally says “Ma Ma”! Yehhhhhhh. (Mama's been waiting for that one for a long, long time.) Words are still often monosyllabic, but when accompanied by a sign we can usually figure out what he means. Basically, he will attempt to say anything you say to him first and will also sign just about anything. New signs include: Grandma, Grampa, Bella, Park, Sit, Eat, Bug, Owl, Frog, Kangaroo, all colors, name (both the word and his own name), stroller, walk, potty (as in I’m going poo right now) and probably a million more. Well at least 50. New spoken words include, “Mama, Bella, sit, park, up, down, out, again, red, blue, green, orange, (or “Oah”), chair, pillow, bed" and many more.

Rock Harbor Swim

Olie is also communicating in “sentences,” aka stringing words or thoughts together to get a whole story across. Our first morning in Utah we brought Olie into bed at 5am to eek a bit more sleep out of him. After about an hour he shook Chad awake and signed “hear bird?” Chad confirmed that he did, at which point Olie crawled on me. I awoke to see his beaming face over mine signing, Mom, “hear bird?” The weekend after, while at the Cape, he kept saying and signing “boat, water.” He also clearly remembers things now. If you ask him what he saw on his walk in Utah, he’ll sign lizard. After Gramma Bird took him up to Snows to see the awesome model train set, he spent the remainder of the weekend pointing to Gram, then signing train and then pointing to himself. Now he finally responds when we ask him what he did while we are at work.

For example:
“Olie what did you do today”?
“Pa” he say while signing “park.”
“Did you go to the park”?
“Yah!” He's thrilled we understand him. Then he’ll sign, “Hippo.”
“Did you go to the Hippo Park”?
“Yah!” Followed by “Si” and the sign for “sit.”
“Did you sit on the hippos in the Hippo Park”?
“Yah!!!!”

Cars on the Cape

Clearly “yah” is one of his favorites, as is “no,” or more often “no, no, no,” while shaking his finger back and forth. Last Saturday we went to the NJ shore with little (Girl) Bella and family. At the board walk, we went on the flying elephants ride, which we naturally thought Oliver would love. He did not. When we asked him if he did, we got the full-on, finger waving, head shaking, “no, no, no.”

Olie has also fully mastered his colors. “Blue” is the easiest to say and sign, so that seems to be his favorite. We're working hard on “orange” as that is our own favorite color.

One of Olie’s other favorite games is “up” “down”, which he says while crouching down and then standing up or sometimes just when pointing. “On/off” is also still really fun. I guess were figuring out opposites.

Sitting with Bella, his partner in crime

The Dreaded Elephant Ride

But hands down, Olie’s favorite activity is now trains. It all started with the Heber Creeper in Utah. Then Gramma Bird gave him my brothers’ old Brio train set complete with miles of track. Olie plays trains for hours (at least toddler hours, which are the opposite of dog years...7 minutes equals one toddler hour.) Often, after Oliver goes to sleep, Chad or I have to pry little trains or cars from his grip. (BTW, one of Oliver’s favorite tricks for staying up later is to sign, “book” every time I put him into his crib. “Oh you want to read, smart Boy? Ok just one more.”)

One of our favorite Oliverisms is his habit of inhaling deeply when you give him a gift that really excites him. The first incident occurred when Gramma Updyke gave him his first set of Matchbox fire trucks. “Uuuuuhhhhh!!!” The following weekend while on the Cape he noticed a sail boat that R&E had bought for him. “Uuuuhhhhh!!!” And the other night Chad came home with more trains for his set. “UuuuuuHHH!

Big Shoes to Fill

Olie showing George the Ropes

P.S. Happy Father's Day goes out to Dad's in NYC, SLC, Virginia, Seattle, & the Cape!

Dance Class Diaries

6/1/07
Olie and I had a great day today. Dance class was small, and for the first time Olie actively interacted with some of the other toddlers. One girl seemed particularly enamored with him. The utterly adorable Julia literally pursue him around the classroom. And I do mean pursue as today’s theme was “fast” and “slow.” Olie passed going fast with flying colors, tearing around the room with Julia in hot pursuit every time the teacher said, “fast.” Oliver did not do so well with slow. Once Julia finally caught up with O, they were inseparable for the remainder of class. They even performed a little duet in which they copied each other’s movements. Olie reaching up high then squatting low (that was another class’ theme.) Julia doing the same. Julia going side to side; Olie doing the same. At playtime they laughed and laughed as they threw balls into a bucket.

After nap Olie and I went off to the Hippo Park with our smart boy signing “hippo” and “trees” (=Hippo Park) the whole way. There we played in the sandbox, with the water fountains, and on the jungle gym with Olie climbing the stairs and going down the slide all by himself.

6/8/07
Each dance class we have a set exercise routine during which the kids sit on our laps, and we move their arms and legs. Oliver has never been too keen on this, preferring to run around the room while the rest of us dutifully go through the motions. But this Fri., for the first time, Olie actually sat to do the exercises, not on my lap, but on his own, performing the moves himself: reaching high, kicking his legs, and falling backwards, sometimes even anticipating the next move. He’s the only child I’ve seen do this. I guess he was paying attention after all.

Olie on the Art Scene

Remember my post about Olie's polar bear painting? Well the artist, Marisa Haedike, posted about some of her littlest fans on her blog, Creative Thursday. (Post below.) Notice Oliver among them.

So let's review, how au courant is Olie?

1 - has his own blog
2 - has a frequent flyer card
3 - "speaks" 2 languages
4 - already on the national art scene
5 - eats Cheerios off the floor

Well, 4 out of 5 aint bad.

From Creative Thursday.....

My littlest fans

June 8th, 2007
From left to right, Bryn, Olie, Lainey and my little Bea, who I get to see in a few weeks! (Bea is in her crib, with the bedding that I painted.) I’ve been wanting to share my youngest art collectors with you, because how can you not just smile looking at these precious, precious babies! It makes me so happy to know that my art is making these little ones happy