Fall is Here

Well, we went from Summer to Fall in 4 days.  Labor Day was hot and sweaty, less than a week later I was pulling out sweaters.  Oliver is embracing Fall by embracing his blankie that Grammy Anne sent him.  It's fleece, so I pulled a tricky Mom move and cut in in half.  It's still big enough to serve it's purpose, but now I can wash one half and let him have the other (and he trips over it less).  

Speaking of embracing Fall, we went apple and pumpkin picking last Saturday.  It was so much fun! Oliver was in love with the pumpkins, and spent quite a bit of time sitting among them, on them and rolling over them.  We went with some friends who's son is one day older than Oliver (but I swear this kid could bench press Oliver- he's so strong!).  The two of them shared the wagon for a bit and both had fun frolicking in the fields (and running under the apple trees, making them hard to follow). 

And in Fall craft news, this masterpiece came home from daycare last Friday.  It was covered in a pound of glitter.  

The sun may be setting earlier, but days are still long.  At the end of the day, Oliver likes to be goofy:

And Peter zonks out on the floor next to the dog.  

Oh- and an update on words and such.  We have added: why, water, apple, cookie, Daddy (DAD-DEEE) and help.  "No" continues to be a favorite.  He has also learned how to jump and is especially proud of this feat.  He continues to be very attached to me, going so far as to cry for Mama if Peter picks him up when I am in the room.  It will pass...  It's a little frustrating, but we can ride this out with patience and some reassurance (to both Oliver and Dad-dee).  He does mostly ok at daycare drop-off.  It helps if I get him seated next to his friend and put a pouch of yogurt in front of him.  Oddly enough, there are more tears at pick-up.  I think he realizes that he hasn't seen me all day and gets mad about it.  Yesterday we had our first tantrum that involved leg kicking and throwing himself on the ground, flailing.  That was not fun, but I was proud that I didn't lose my cool.  They say the "terrible twos" can start as early as 18 months.  So- I guess we are right on track.  That's good, right???

Summer Wrap-up

The Blue Hill Fair is this weekend, so I guess that means it's the end of summer.  We've tried to back in a much summer-y stuff as we could handle.  Here are some of our latest exploits.

Oliver loves the tractor and begs to go outside and get on it. We're taking him to the Antique Tractor Pull at the Fair on Friday.  I think he's going to love it (and the french fries he will get to eat). 

This is what he usually look like at the end of the day.  I look worse.  

And then in the morning- full of goofy smiles and Cheerios.



Oliver got to visit a house I worked on.  He was more interested in the rocks in the driveway.  Oh well.



Oh- and Peter and I have managed a few date nights.  Here is Arcade Fire at the Bangor Waterfront.  Excellent show and excellent people watching.




Mmmmm.  Goldfish.



At Naskeag Point.




Jumping!




Aaannnddd running!

Typical mornings...

This picture sums it up. 

Oliver and the Driveway Walk

Yes- he's walking.  And he has a few words- cah cah (car car), nana (banana), uh-oh and... MINE (which kinda sounds like Mom, but he points to himself for emphasis).  Next up will probably be NO, followed by a bad word that will embarrass me when he says it over an over in public.

Oliver and the typical afternoon

This is pretty much only interesting to family members (and maybe not even then...). But- if you just want to watch Oliver for 4 minutes, here you go!



 

Holidaze- July 4th Edition

What a weekend- a parade, a storm, a major power outage...  Holidays seem to be particularly cursed around here.  Either natural disasters or major illnesses abound.  Oh well, we still had a really fun weekend.

Friday we set off for the Brooklin parade.  It is longer than the Blue Hill Memorial Day parade, which means it lasts about 15 minutes instead of 10.  :)  Heh.  It was fun, though and Oliver LOVES fire trucks.  Any trucks, really.  Or trains. Or tractors.  The atmosphere was festive, relaxed and fun.  A real slice of Americana.  I loved it.

We went home and finally played in the kiddie pool.  The fun game was to toss toys out of the pool, climb out, throw toys back in, then climb in covered in dirt and grass.  The rain started by early evening, but we got in a lot of outdoor play time before then.  

Saturday morning was stormy.  We all woke up at 7am (we were tired from the day before).  The power was out, so we had a leisurely breakfast of Cheerios and milk. Thankfully the milk was in a bottle, not on the Cheerios.  

We packed up and then headed out to Bangor.  Target was almost empty- that was pretty awesome.  We also checked out an indoor play zone in Brewer.  Oliver loved it.  He took off and climbed right in without even looking back to see if I was following (I was.  Closely.). Best $4 activity ever.  We will definitely be going back. 

We were disappointed that the power was not back on when we got home (and really sad when I checked and our restoration time had been pushed all the way back until Tuesday).  

Sunday was absolutely beautiful- sunny, breezy, warm.  Still no power but we headed out and had a picnic at Thompson Island (the little island you drive over on your way to MDI).  It's part of Acadia and a nice picnic spot.  Oliver was practicing using a fork, stabbing at pieces of chicken from what I am calling the 'Murica Bucket from Walmart.  I hadn't noticed until after I ordered it that is was three pounds of food.  Most of it is still in our fridge.  

After eating we headed down onto the beach.  It was low tide, so we stayed up at the top of the beach in the rocks.  We found a little (uninhabited) tide pool and Oliver had fun moving the pebbles around.  In and out of the pool, back and forth along the beach.  

We ended the weekend by practicing Selfies.  I'm making sure Oliver learns all the important things.  

Mom and Dad had gone to Northern Maine for the weekend, and when they got back on Sunday afternoon we were just learning that my Mom's very dear friend Pam had passed away suddenly.  So, please take this as a reminder to call your loved ones, hug them and let them know you love them.  Those of you that were at our wedding may remember Pam as the exuberant lady who did the flowers. She was a fiercely spirited and kind woman.  Generous and loving.  Amazing horticulturist.  Funny and made a great cup of coffee. We'll miss you. 

Oliver and the goofs

I don't know how we've made it this far without him needing stitches- he's quite the roughhouser.

He's taken a few shaky first steps, but is walking pretty well while holding onto just one on my hands. Plus- he's cruising around holding onto furniture pretty quickly.  He's also figured out how to climb up on most things.

We've been spending a lot of time outside, either at the town park or now, at home on his new swing!  The swing set only has one swing, but we'll add some other stuff, including a slide soon.  He's really thrilled to have his own swing.  Big grins are the best.  And of course giggles- enjoy the video of Oliver being a goof 15 minutes past his bed time on Saturday night: