Walking, Cats and Crying

Ollie has ventured, albeit tentatively, into walking. He has gotten up to 2 hurried steps from a standing position. He even did it without any encouragement from his parents. He was standing and holding himself up on an ottoman. He took 2 steps forward and reached the couch without falling. Of course he was coming after a cat.

Speaking of cats, Splatter finally got fed up with his 'petting' this weekend. Instead of leaving, like most of the other cats, she got in his face, growled and pawed at his head. I'm really happy we had her declawed! He wasn't hurt just scared. He cried for awhile, but was fine.

Mostly this weekend, he played by himself. He's getting better at that and seems to be playing with a single toy for awhile and then moving onto another one. He used to get distracted by other toys rather easily, I guess he is investigating them a bit more now. Guess we should call him Sherlock Ollie.

Playing

Ollie's newest trick for getting his toys out of the ottomans is to put his belly on the open edge of the ottoman, lean all the way in, lift and balance himself on the edge to get a toy. So far he hasn't gone in head first! He has 4 teeth out now, not fully out, but they've all pushed through the gums. I can't get him to smile big enough to get a decent picture of them.

Yes, all of his pajama sleeves look like that by bed time.


I'm this Big!

Going to Work

We've needed more income lately, so we've decided to put Ollie to work. He is qualified for many positions. Mainly fur grabbing, collar grabber, high-pitched screaming, ear grabbing, smacking and cruising. His next promotion should include walking, running, door opener, destruction of parental property, loser of things he shouldn't have to begin with and kitty wrangler. Eventually, he'll become the Chairman of the house. When he's about 18, he'll have to make the difficult decision to fire his parents. But for now, he'll just have to pretend and wait for that day to come.


You're Fired!

Hats

Hats are something Ollie dislikes. He dislikes wearing them, he dislikes me wearing them. Everytime I wear a hat, he has to take it off my head. I put it on his head, he takes it off, then my head, he takes it off. We go round and round with this game for awhile. We found a bucket hat that he wore for several hours on Saturday while we were out around town. He eventually figured out it was there and took it off. Of course, there is always this type of hat that doesn't stay on long.

Wiggle Worm

Ollie has become a major wiggle worm when it comes to changing his diaper. If we are lucky he'll sit still for a few seconds without moving and we can get one on him. Bath time, however, is another story. Usually his momma gives him his bath and if she's lucky, can get a diaper started on him. She's devised several distraction tactics to keep him in one position. This ranges from standing him up to play with his toys or distracting him while he's on the ground with toys. Sometimes, it takes both of us to wrangle him into his diaper an jammies. More often than not, it turns into play time with the following results.

Stand

Ollie has become very good at standing by himself. I caught this picture on his way down.



He has taken 1 step on his own without support. We keep prodding him by setting him between us and trying to coax him into walking. He usually lunges (actually leans far forward) and falls. We are always close enough to catch him. He does better when he stands on his own with a wide base and takes baby steps. He cruises like crazy, sometimes going from one object to another. He is not too far off from walking. We are not too far off from running around after him.

Yet Again

This picture displays the kind of activity Ollie was doing last night between 3 and 4 AM! Of course the whole scenario started a few hours earlier at 1 AM. He started his eh eh mmmmm eh eh eh around then. He had been putting himself back to sleep earlier in the evening when this happened. We waited a 1/2 hr for him to go back to sleep. That didn't work so, I turned on his vacuum CD and tried to move him back into the middle of the bed. That made things worse and the banshee returned. So, I picked him up and gave him a bottle. He went to sleep, I went to put him back into bed and he woke up and wouldn't lay down. So, I repeated the cycle without the bottle with the same result.

So, he got medicine to help with his teething, put back to sleep on my shoulder. To which he promptly woke. Nothing was working, so we let him cry it out. We thought he had gone to sleep, I went in to shut off his CD. He was sitting up being quiet! Little stinker. Of course when I went into the room he started wailing. I attempted to lay him back down, but he would have none of it, so I let him cry it out again. His momma went and got him to try to put him to sleep in our bed. He wouldn't lay on her, he kept reaching for me. I tried putting him on my chest, but he kept lifting his head. We moved to the couch, so his momma could sleep, with the same results. About 3, I decided to just let him get up and play. His momma came in to watch him until 4, so I could sleep. If we were all lucky we got 5 hrs of sleep each. Here's to hoping it is a quieter night tonight.

Cupie Doll

It's still a bit hard to see his hair sticking up, but you get the idea. You can see it better if you increase your monitor brightness. No, we didn't win this cupie doll at the carnival.

Don't you just love his necklace? He loves playing in the bathroom, the office, our room and anywhere he can get into things he shouldn't. The toilet paper rolls and toilet handles have never had such a workout! At least he hasn't gone fishing in the toilet.

He is about 3-4 inches short of reaching door handles. He was on his tippy toes reaching for the handle and was just a bit shy luckily. Once he's tall enough, we are in trouble. At least his growth is supposed to slow down soon. Now only if his incoming teeth would hurry up and get here.

He keeps waking up from 7 to 10 pm occasionally. They push through, he screams like a banshee. Sometimes he goes back to sleep without intervention, other times we try to soothe him back to sleep for quite awhile. Then when we put him down he wakes and cries again! We need a good tooth fairy to make teething easier on him.

Trim

Ollie had his first trim this past weekend. I tried to get a good picture of the before, but this is the best I could do. His hair had grown over his ears and it makes him look like he's an old man. It bugged me. You can kind of see it over his right ear in the photo. He also has a bit of cupie doll look on the top of his head. His hair on top just isn't heavy enough to sit down on its own. I'll have a picture of it up tomorrow.

Onto the haircut. He sat, stood and wiggled in my lap while getting his hair trimmed above the ears. He was more interested in looking at the hairdresser and the shiny scissors she was using than what was going on. He never cried or got scared. He at least looks like he isn't a small old man any more. Just a cupie doll.

Vacuum

When Ollie is on the floor and we vacuum the carpet, he gets a bit scared. If he stands up, he's better. Usually he one of us has to hold him. When we are busy Ollie gets carried around with the person who is vacuuming. He was 22 lbs. a month ago, so he gets heavy fast. To placate him while we are vacuuming, he usually sits in a chair and watches us vacuum. That usually makes him happy as a clam.


Still a Ham for the Camera.

The seal in the picture is his favorite stuffed animal. Any time he is near his toy box, he gives the seal a kiss. Mickey is a bit jealous, all he gets from Ollie is a smack on his feet.

Jabber Box

Talk, talk, talk, talk, talk, talk. That's what Ollie did for most of the weekend. We have no idea what he was saying, but he was saying it, so it must have been important. He is definitely expressing his wants more assertively. We still have to guess a lot, but it is easier to figure it out.

He continues to play by himself more. Last night he played by himself for about 2 hours. We didn't have to be beside him to help him with things. When he got bored with that one, he moved on to the next toy. Usually we have to drag him away from somewhere he shouldn't be, but not last night.

He also went out on our screened in porch by himself to play with the cats. If it wasn't so windy I would have let him stay out longer. The wind made it pretty cold, but Ollie didn't seem to mind. It was something new, so he was curious. It is supposed to snow here tonight, so no going out for him.

I do have some more pictures, I just have to get them scanned in! I'll try to have some up this week!

Bonk

Ollie likes to play with doors like any baby. He opens and closes our entertainment center doors repeatedly. Up until yesterday, he hadn't been able to get the doors on his sitters entertainment center open. When he did get it open, he got bopped on the head and a small bruise formed on his forehead. This hasn't been a good week for injuries. The good side is that he is his happy normal self.

Fat Lip

Last night was not a fun one for Ollie. While in his bath, he fell and his mouth started bleeding. It was only minor bleeding, no real damage. He got cleaned up and was ready to wreak havoc in about 15 minutes. Later on his fat lip from his fall appeared. I hope his goes down. I still have one from years ago that never went back down.

Later, he was playing with a door and had one hand on the handle and the other on the top of the door. He ended up pinching 4 fingers! He had a rough night to say the least. I'm sure there are tons more bumps and bruises to come. Especially with spring coming soon. Ollie will be walking and be able to go outside on the concrete! I guess we should wrap him up in foam before he goes out. He'd probably look like the Michelin Man, but that would be a bit over protective, no?

Blowing in the Wind

Kisses. That's what's blowing in the wind. Ollie will kind of blow you kisses. It is a really bad version and inconsistent, but that's definitely what it is. He'll put his hand to his mouth and fling it out at the elbow. No kissing sound though. It looks like a single wave with the back of his hand toward you. He did this when I picked him up from the sitters yesterday. I couldn't get him to repeat it the rest of the night. Stubborn little booger.

Last night while I was picking up dinner, Ollie decided to chase the cats...up the stairs. Usually we close the gate at the bottom, but we forgot. He got half way up them before we realized it. Then of course Ollie had an extra snack later in the evening. He decided to have some cat food! We usually put the cat food up when we are downstairs with him, but forgot. Before we found him, he had managed to shove 4 pieces into his mouth and had several more in his hand. Digging food, especially cat food, out of a baby's mouth is rather gross. He didn't seem to mind though, must be getting used to it.

Tooth Update
2 teeth now through, waiting on 2 more. What a drool machine! Sometimes, it is 1 long strand continually flowing out of his mouth. He is not in too much pain though, so that is good. Can't wait for molars, fun.

Race Track Born

On Friday Ollie went to the sitter, his mom and I put in our laminate flooring. 12 hrs. later Ollie has a brand new race track surface. On the carpet we took out, he would push his toddler truck at a fairly slow pace. Now with the new flooring... watch out! He takes off like a dart. He's pushed his truck too far ahead of himself and fallen more in than in the past, but he isn't getting hurt. Not much difference than before other than the speed. He still can't steer, so we are constantly correcting his path. At least he doesn't get mad when he runs into things, he just keeps on going. Of course in the chair vs. Ollie and the toddler truck battle, the chair wins every time. Ollie usually ends up somewhere on the ground, sometimes over the overturned toddler truck. Maybe he needs a crash helmet!

Tooth Update
One is poking through, another is on the way out. We just need the next two to start and we may get a short reprieve. He's still crabby and clingy, but sleeping through the night. At least he's getting closer to eating real food full time.

Fill 'er up

Usually on the way to the sitters Ollie is fine playing with his toys and looking out the window. His car seat still is facing backwards, so he doesn't realize that I'm in the front driving. We stopped to get gas this morning and I waved to him. Not a good idea. He started crying and wanted out. Of course this went on the entire time the car was being filled. We paid and he went back in the seat, but he knew I was in the front seat, so he cried all the way to the sitter's.

When we got to the sitters he calmed down long enough to get to the door and into the sitters arms. He turned around and saw me and started bawling all over again. He reached for me and cried harder. I tried to help calm him down, but it only made it worse for him. He's usually fine when I drop him off unless he's crabby. Today's lesson is to not get gas without someone in the back seat with him.

Tooth Update:
One looks like it is on its way. We saw a hole forming for a new one last night. Tresa saw the tooth, but it isn't out.

Trading Spaces

We watch Trading Spaces all the time. At the beginning of the show, they clear the room of all the stuff in it. They speed up the film and clear the room in a matter of seconds. Now every time the music they play over this section of the show comes on, Ollie stops what he is doing and stares at the screen. He'll get excited, scream and smack what he's holding himself up with. One night he stopped drinking his bottle, sat up and watched it across the room. Once this quick section of footage is over, he's back to whatever activity he was doing. I guess this is how you get kids addicted to TV shows!

Still no teeth. The good thing is he is still sleeping through the night. For awhile there I had forgotten what that was like.

Weekend

Crabby, clingy baby all weekend. He took longer and more naps than usual. His temp going up was sporadic this weekend. It didn't go up at all on Sunday. We are certain it is his teeth coming in, just no pearly whites just yet. For his sake, I hope they come in soon. He's been waiting for them for 3 1/2 months. He tries to eat everything we eat and pretty much likes it all. His chewing would improve with his teeth though. Maybe a bit less choking too.