Pouring the oil into the bowl...the dinosaur is helping...
Stirring- notice the dinosaur in his hand. Cute.
Oliver had a really good morning, he went with Daddy to Grandma's to test his new remote control monster truck. He said it goes really fast and he is going to keep it at Grandma's house. He came home and hung out with Mommy. We baked some yummy apple muffins. Oliver and our dinosaur helped with adding the ingredients and stirring them up.
Oliver spent the rest of the afternoon and evening with Daddy. They went to the Remick's and celebrated Emmi's 5th birthday. Happy Birthday Big Girl!
Daddy, Oliver, and Grandma went to Souplantation tonite and then to Toys r' Us....they got this cool remote control monster truck- its charging in Grandma's garage. Lucky boy.
Babies Watching the Fun Stuff
Sponge Racing
Oliver's been doing a lot of fun new stuff around the house. He is having fun with different water games and also with building Oliver's Restaurant. He likes to talk about what he is going to sell and then he finds materials to build the actual restaurant- last week he took all the potting soil from an indoor plant and laid it on the floor in piles to create his restaurant. (It was hard to be upset when he was being so creative!) Funny Kid.
(Mommy took a neat video of Oliver telling her he was going to serve burritos, horchatas, quesadillas, and shrimp burritos- but she can't upload it. Bummer.)
Oliver and Mommy started a new project today. We have a box full of paper bag puppets to make. Oliver chose the elephant. We had fun making it together. Afterwards, Oliver brought Mommy Oliver by Syd Hoff. We read the book together and made some text to self connections! The main character in the book is an elephant and his name is Oliver. Two great connections for Oliver to make to our reading!
Mommy's favorite reading strategy to teach in the classroom was making connections. There are three main ones: text to self (you make connections with what your reading to your life) text to text (you make connections with what you are reading to something else you have read) and text to world (you make connections with your reading and something on television/movies or something that you have seen in the world). It is a wonderful feeling when a child comes to tell you that they are making connections with their reading- Mommy can't wait to teach these to Oliver when he becomes a reader! Mommy loves making connections with her own reading!
Being a ham at CVS- he was making a lot of customers laugh
Oliver had a great day with Mommy. We played in the morning and had fun with Aunt Ali and baby Rachel when we helped take them back home from the VW dealer. Oliver loves sitting with his cousin in the car.
Afterwards, we made our way to the Y where Oliver had fun playing and Mommy had fun exercising. Then we went to Stagecoach Park! Oliver loves to run in the sand. He lets his shoes fly off (he calls them tires) and he had a great time climbing!
In the evening, he hung out with Daddy. He is sleeping peacefully now with his baby Elmo.
Looking at the Dinosaur- Kind of in a Whiny mood...
We have decided the dinosaur is done. It hasn't grown any bigger. It was a fun experiment and now we have a pet dinosaur that may walk some day. (Oliver hopes...) Oliver had a great day with Korey and Viana. He had fun playing with Aunt Ali, Baby Rachel, and Shannon in the afternoon when Mommy went to another appointment. Oliver is peacefully sleeping now after a long exciting day.
We put the dinosaur in a bigger bowl with fresh water. It is supposed to get even bigger. We'll see...
Love this!
Checking out the Dinosaur
Oliver had a great day. He has been having a lot of monster truck shows and race car shows for Mommy and Korey. He asks Mommy a lot of questions and sometimes she responds with a, "..hmm..." When she does this Oliver says, "No, just talk!" So Mommy has to say yes or okay. But Mommy came across a poster the other day that her girlfriend Amy made her that is similar to the "101 Ways to Praise a Child" poster above. Mommy always liked the poster Amy gave her and she has been saying some of those things now when Oliver says, "Just talk!"
Oliver had a nice day helping Mommy with Korey and then had a nice evening hanging out with Daddy.
Picture from the first day...Mommy wanted him to hold the egg up a little bit for the picture-so she asked Oliver to hold the egg up- He held it up pretty high....cutie patooty
Observing the Dinosaur Egg Again
The hatching of the egg is coming along very nicely. Oliver likes looking at the egg throughout the day and can't wait for it to pop out of the shell. Once it is out of the shell we will put it in new water and it should grow even bigger. Oliver has been very patient.
Oliver spent a nice morning with Mommy racing around the house, cuddling, playing with water, and playing on the oak tree trail. He spent the rest of the day with Daddy doing fun things. It was a nice Sunday.
Daddy and Oliver- They spent most of the day together and visited Grandma. Fun.
The Dinosaur is starting to hatch
Looking at the egg
Oliver investigating his dinosaur egg
Mommy's last classroom rule was- Be Respectful. Oliver is a pretty respectful kid- he says please and thank you, gives lots of hugs and kisses, waits patiently for things and in lines, and most of the time is respectful to other children (we are still working on this one when kiddos come over to play- he has a hard time sharing Mommy sometimes). This morning Oliver was very respectful. He came to get "Mama Cuddles" and he hit Mommy really hard in her face, she is okay. But Oliver said he was sorry and that he loved her. He has got this last rule down!
The second rule in Mommy's classroom was- Solve problems. Mommy has been using this with Oliver just a little bit. When he gets frustrated and screams about something she talks about how we can solve the problem- we talk about what we can do and how we can fix whatever it is without getting frustrated. Today we had a little problem. We have an egg that has a dinosaur in it. We need to get the dinosaur out. So we worked on solving the problem. We read the package together and found that we needed a bowl of cool water. We placed the egg in the water and now we have to wait two to three days for the dinosaur to hatch. Oliver had fun putting the egg in the water. But after two minutes he wanted the dinosaur to come out. He was a little frustrated. So we talked about solving his problem....Oliver understands now it will take awhile, but he still checks on it frequently. (Hopefully it works....)
Korey was having fun reaching out and touching Viana
Sunset at Aunt Ali's and Uncle Kelly's House
Oliver was really cute hanging out with family- he is staring
at Larry in this picture. In the car he was asking about Larry's beard...
Oliver had a fantastic day and made really great choices.Mommy has been using this phrase with him for a while now.When he is misbehaving, won’t put his “regular” clothes on, asking “why” a lot, or just doing something that is kind of annoying- Mommy will ask him if he is making good choices.Oliver knows what it means- and it helps because his Grandmas, Aunts, and even Uncles are asking him the same question.It is positive discipline in action and Mommy is starting to see it work for Oliver. (Sometimes people kind of get frustrated because Mommy isn't a little bit stricter- but Mommy is going to make a good choice and continue to use this method because her little thinker is starting to understand the concept.)
Today he asked Viana to make a good choice when Mommy asked her to put her sippy cup on the table.Oliver also said today that he was making a good choice because he “decided to share” his cars with Viana.It was a sweet moment for Mommy and for Viana!Today was really nice and full of good choices.
Beautiful Rachel- She looks a lot like Uncle Kelly!
Oliver and Mommy had a good day together. We played in the morning, hung out at the Y, and then Oliver got to play at Aunt Ali's with Rachel, Rusty, and Shannon, while Mommy went to an appointment. Oliver had fun talking to them and playing with Rusty. We came home and Oliver took a nice bath, then played in the dirt (wonderful), and finally he is taking a rest.
Mommy has been thinking lately about the rules she and Amanda had in their little classroom last year and how they worked pretty well for all 40 1st and 2nd graders that were learning in there. The rules created a wonderful sense of community and were helpful to us in being patient and calm (most of the time) with the scholars. The rules were:
*Make Good Choices *Solve Problems *Be Respectful
Tomorrow Mommy will talk about how she uses one of the rules with Oliver. They are great tools to use with little ones and nice rules for everyone to remember!
Oliver and Mommy had a good day. This morning Oliver was playing on the porch with Mommy's weighted ball and he dropped it and he said, "Crap" to himself. He came inside to explain that he had said, "Crap, because he dropped the ball." Mommy didn't hear him say crap but is happy that he was honest and can explain his actions.
Aunt Ali and baby Rachel came to visit and they brought Oliver a yummy quesadilla from the Mexican restaurant close to their house. Oliver loved it- lucky boy. We had fun feeding baby Korey and baby Rachel at the same time. Mommy set Korey down to take this picture and we were laughing pretty hard because baby Korey can hold up the bottle on his own- pretty good for a 4 month old! Mommy and Aunt Ali switched babies and Aunt Ali got to experience the cuddliness of baby Korey.
In the evening, Oliver and Mommy went for a drive and rested. Oliver is now down the street at the toy store with Daddy.
We had a slow but busy day at our nest. Mommy didn't get to take any pictures, so she is putting this beautiful picture of Oliver and Danielle from Oliver's party. Oliver is resting after a day full of play and sleep with Mommy and play with Daddy in the evening. Sleep tight little man.
Today would have been Uncle Tommy's 31st Birthday. Daddy and Oliver went to Grandma's house in the afternoon to honor a special Uncle and his birthday. They watched home videos of Daddy, Uncle Joey, and Uncle Tommy when they were little. It was a great way to celebrate a special Uncle's life and a great way to keep Tommy's memory alive. We miss you Tommy.
Precious- Rachel was hot so she is just in her diapy
More preciousness- Aunt Jess and Rachel on the couch. Aunt Jess could not stop saying how she loved her.
Playing on the track
Rusty and Chad
Rusty with a little toy that Oliver brought for him
Cousins
It was hot today. You know it is really hot when Ranger lays in the doorway and doesn't even get up when Mommy puts her running shoes on. (He knows what Mommy looks like when she is ready to exercise and he always thinks that he will get to go running with her.) He just let Mommy step right over him. He also drank some of Oliver's water that he was playing with.
Oliver played with Daddy for awhile and then Mommy came home and we went to Aunt Ali's to see baby Rachel, Uncle Chad, Aunt Jessica, and Grammie. We had fun watching Rachel, Oliver enjoyed playing on the track with Uncle Chad, and talking to Aunt Jessica. We always like seeing Aunt Ali and baby Rachel.
Oliver had a pretty good day. He is still adjusting to sharing Mommy with two other babies. He is making a lot of progress. In the evening Oliver was excited to see his Daddy who came home from a week away in the mountains. They played, ate dinner together, and worked outside. It was a nice day.
