The Protector

Unlike his mother, Ollie is very protective of his sister and watches over her carefully. He always includes her in whatever he is doing, even if she is not interested, and takes her by the hand often. It is quite the sight to see the two of them grasping hands and running down the hallway.

What We Missed

While the kids were away, Huts and I played, and like most parents, we eventually ran out of steam and started to miss our little ones. I missed the blur of little bobbing heads as they ran through the bathroom while I took a shower, while Huts missed the scampering of feet. We missed the smiles, the questions and the laughs, and when we finally arrived at the meeting point, we were both glad to see how excited the kids were. Ollie's face lit up immediately, and Tori reached out to me with a stunned look on her face, as though she couldn't believe her parents were finally in front of her. Of course, Ollie keeps saying he wants to be with us forever, but that will change one day, and then we can look forward to being the doting grandparents.

No New Room

Annie will be moving out in the next couple of months, and Ollie has dibs on her room, though he doesn't know it. We bought him a bunk bed and will be moving him to the larger bedroom once Annie leaves. Ollie hates change, so we have been trying to prepare him for the move by telling him about it now. We have shown him his new bed and told him we will be painting the room, but so far, his one response is "I don't want to move out of my room." Oh well. He is going, and I bet he will like it once he gets used to it--that is, as long as there are no shadows in it. For the past two nights, Huts has been chasing the shadows from Ollie's room in order for him to go to sleep. After the chasing, they discuss where the shadows have gone and Ollie will finally go to sleep. I keep telling Ollie that the shadows go to Arby's to be with Annie, but he doesn't believe me.

One More Present

After missing in action over two weeks, Ollie finally returned to the babysitter's yesterday and received one final Christmas present, a blue Power Ranger on a bike. He was very happy with it and played with it most of the night. Tori got a Dora doll which she tossed aside in favor of her Dora DVD.



Hunter, Ollie's buddy at the sitter's, is now potty-trained. We are hoping Ollie will follow in his footsteps. He will get on the toilet now, with some moaning and groaning, but so far, he has had little success with the potty. He is going to wear Big Boy pants this weekend, so wish us luck. I am sure there will be tons of accidents.

Recovering

The recovery from the trip to Grandma and Grandpa's resulted in Mom having to take a day off work yesterday to let Ollie and Tori take long naps and get back to their normal routine. Ollie was exhausted and slept from 12:30 to 3:45. His stomach settled down and no more vomiting or diarrhea occurred that night. He appeared to be fine and slept from 9:00 to 6:15 this morning.

Since returning, Ollie has played with all of his loot and has discovered that he owns a lot of dinosaurs and a lot of Buzz Lightyears in every shape and size imaginable. We lined them all up last night, along with Jesse, Bull's Eye and all of his Woody dolls. He spent part of the evening shooting arrows from Buzz Lightyear's ship at Tori's Barbie dolls.

As for the clothes he received, he has been picky thus far, turning down all shirts with zippers and all extra layers. The turtleneck made it past his inspection this morning, though he pulled at it several times. He also turned down Sponge Bob and some other character outfit. Maybe next week.

He had a good time at Grandma and Grandpa's but doesn't want to "go there again any time soon." So for all of you out there who would like to see Ollie again, he wants you to know that he won't be leaving home again for a long, long time. In fact, he wants to stay with us "forever!"

The Holidays

For the past couple of weeks, we've asked Ollie if he wanted to spend a week with his Grandparents after they came to visit. He emphatically said "NO" every time we asked. They came for their visit and after opening his presents from them, he was asked again and was ready to go right then. We thought he'd get scared and decide at the last minute not to go. We kept asking him and he still said he wanted to go. He played with all his new stuff after it was put together and still wanted to go.

We went to dinner that night at TGI Fridays. He was tired and hungry, but he still wanted to go. We came home after that and he insisted Grandpa Steve give him a bath. Little did Grandpa Steve know that he was going to get squirted with the water gun. He ended up all wet. He was excited about going the next day.

He was up early that day and he was asked if he was still going. He popped out of bed and said he was ready to go. After getting dressed and getting set in the car with his stuff, he and his sister waved goodbye and left. Apparently, we aren't as needed by him as we thought. A couple of hours into the ride he was still doing fine. Once at my parents house he announce "Here we are at my new place for awhile". I think he'll be just fine for the week. We'll just have to see how he handled all the people at the New Year's Eve party at my Mom's last night.

From them he got clothes, Dinosaurs, Farm animals, shelves built by my dad that looks like a castle, a portable DVD player (which was used on his trip to KC), a new Land Before Time DVD, a talking Grill and a dinosaur matchbox pinball type of deal.





I also forgot the train table you see in the background of the picture. All in all he cleaned up pretty well this Christmas. Now if only we can get him to want to come back home next weekend!

Christmas

Ollie is ready to open presents. The first morning we put them out, he discovered them and tried to open one. Luckily we caught him in time. He was a bit upset at not getting to open them right then, but he's been building his anticipation and can't wait for Christmas morning. From my memory (and that isn't very good) here's what he's getting from us:

Walkie-Talkie Buzz Lightyears
Military men and 2 vehicles
Red Power Ranger
Dinosaur castle
Bank that makes train noises
Water toys
Curious George DVD

and a couple of other things that will have to be unwrapped for me to remember what we bought for him.

There will be a few things in his stocking like the juggling balls that he requested. Those will now get tossed aside because he's forgotten about them. He now wants a snow globe. Maybe we can find a cheap one before Christmas.



It'll be fun for him this Christmas, he knows what is going on and can actually tell us what he wants. It is great for kids and parents at Christmas when they are this age. You can ask and reasonably get them what they want. In a few years it'll be tougher because they'll want a flat screen TV. We'll enjoy it while we can.

Quick Pic

No Way!

One of the little boys at the sitter's is going to have a new sister in March. Last night Ollie and I discussed this and me getting pregnant some day a little brother or sister for him and he essentially told me no thank you. He couldn't get a handle on me having another baby, and is content with his Tori. He likes bossing her around and playing hide-and-seek with her in the linen closets. It's a good thing we don't plan to have another child until Tori turns three.

Dinosaur King!

Ollie has become the dinosaur king. He recently started watching the "Land Before Time" videos and hasn't stopped. He now refers to his T-Rex's as "Sharptooth's" as they do in the movies. We'll have to buy the rest for him, maybe for Easter and his birthday since Christmas shopping is done. He is getting tons of dinosaur stuff for Christmas. There's a dinosaur play castle with dinosaurs. A very large dinosaur and I'm sure some others here and there. Guess they'll just have to fight the power ranger and the military men for control of the castle.


Scary, Bruised Dinosaur Boy with his claws!

We ran into a problem the other night with dinosaurs. He had a choice between a "Max and Ruby" video and a small green dinosaur. He chose the video and we went home and watched it without a fuss. We passed the same store yesterday on our way home and Ollie suddenly wanted the dinosaur and wanted us to go back and get it for him. He wasn't happy when we told him no and cried all the way home. I hope we don't have a repeat performance tonight.

Christmas will be a great dinosaur revival, so all the roars you hear will probably be Ollie's dinosaurs tromping through our house looking for food.