Table

Ollie and grandpa putting up the umbrella at the table

Wonder Boy

Little boy blew his nose. He's been a bit sick lately. Started with a fever 2 days ago, but that has disappeared, now he seems to have a nasty cold. He hasn't been sleeping well to begin with, so this has just compounded things. He was so tired last night he fell asleep on the floor.



He arrived at his usual time to our room in the middle of the night. Then he began his routine of tossing, turning and hitting. Hitting so much that his Mom's face is a little swollen. It is best to keep your back to him or you will end up black and blue.

He got a nap on the way to the sitter's and didn't cry when I left. Maybe he got some of the crabbiness out of his system on the way over. If we are lucky, he'll get a good nap and go to bed early.

Blues Clues Makes Zombies

For the past couple of weeks, Ollie has been crying when I went out the door at the sitter's. The past 2 days, she's had Blues Clues on the TV when we arrive. This has not only stopped the crying, but it has turned Ollie into a zombie. Yesterday, I put him down, he stared at the TV not wavering a bit. He also held his candy in a bowl about chest high and it didn't move. I went out the door without a peep from Ollie.

This morning was almost a repeat. I handed him off to one of the sitters, he sat in the rocking chair and turned into a blue zombie. Apparently, this is the chair to watch blues clues in because he does it every day. It looks like we'll have to get him something with Blues Clues on it for Christmas.


Ollie and TJ, just because

Memory

Sunday night, I put Ollie to bed. As it regularly occurs, Ollie began to cry because he didn't want to go to bed. We can usually tell him one of the stories and that will calm him down. If that doesn't work, we can ask him about the bunnies and the food he put out for them. He'll then launch into telling you about feeding the bunnies.

None of it worked on Sunday. I asked him about the corn and squirrels. That was the right one! He started talking about how his Grandpa got the corn for the squirrels from the farm. How he saw the tractors and we brought the corn home for the squirrels to eat. How he put it out for the squirrels to eat. He repeated each part of his story several times. A month later he remembers everything. He won't remember everything by the time he grows up, but it will stay with him for a long time. For the things he doesn't remember, we can show him this and remind him of when his Grandpa and he picked corn for the squirrels that didn't eat it.

Grandpa and Ollie

A Bit Late

I'm just now getting around to scanning in the pictures from Labor Day and 2 more rolls. This'll be a bit behind for awhile.

We'll start off with the run around gang. Actually, it was just Uncle Paul and Ollie. Ollie soaked his uncle from head to toe. Paul ran and ran and ran up and down the hill while Ollie trudged along with the hose and squirted him. He had decent aim, but missed the majority of the time. Paul was still soaked by the end of the game. I guess this is payback for falling with him a few years ago.



Yes it was a fall and you did drop him! Paul ended up going to bed at 9 pm because he was so tired, Ollie lasted until we put him in bed at 10. Guess the older folks can't handle that much activity.

Readjustment

Ollie has readjusted from the trip. He is back to his normal self. Normal temper tantrum 2's. Ignoring them has worked well for the most part. Sometimes, it does no good. Overall he is a good kid, he just doesn't understand a lot of things yet.

He stayed up late on Tuesday night, which caused him to be crabby Wednesday. About 8 pm last night he said he wanted to go to the Homer bed. He didn't look tired and wasn't acting like it, so we waited. He asked a couple more times and about 8:30, he was in bed for the night. He is big enough now that he can get out of bed easily, so we are a little skeptical when he says he wants to go to bed. Sometimes he just wants you to tell him stories.

1. Three Little Pigs and the Big Bad Wolf
2. Goldilocks and the 3 Bears
3. Little Red Riding Hood
4. The Ugly Duckling (thanks Grandma)

All of the, in that order. We are still trying to get the stories straight. He especially likes the ending because he says "The End" at the end of every story. We'll let him tell them to Tori. I'm sure he'll love it as much as we love telling him the same stories ad infinitum.

The Trip

The weekend consisted of a lot of travel and activity for Ollie. We left Friday afternoon and made it the Cape Girardeau by 6 pm. Ollie got to play with 3 kids that were older than him. His Uncle Frankie brought them by. Ollie had to have his uncle Frankie give him a bath. Keaton wanted a bath as well. 2 two year olds got a bath at the same time. They seemed to have fun.

Then bed time came and it wasn't so much fun. Ollie was out of sorts and tired. Then he realized he'd have to sleep in a bed he wasn't familiar with. This brought the tears, but eventually he tired out and fell asleep. The next day was filled with Ollie running around hastings and Target yelling for his grandma. Then we went to the park with Travis, Diane and Tyler. He slid down slides, threw rocks in the water and swung on the swings. The babies were getting tired so we headed back to Travis' for dinner.

We made it back to Ollie's grandma's house and played with his new fire truck from Target. Then his bath and bed ordeal again. Sunday started off with us going to Tyler's baptism. Ollie handled it pretty well, though he didn't want to be separated from his parents. He went to the front for the baptism with us. The rest of the service, he snacked and sat in his mom's lap. We headed for home after a quick lunch at Ollie's grandma's. We listened to Ollie's new CD's of childrens songs until he went to sleep for his nap.

We got home and he was a bit cranky. All the travel took its toll. I went to get dinner and when I returned he was crying. "I was sad about you", he said through the tears.

He didn't want to be left behind. He missed me. Then he wanted to take a shower with me. He never wants to take a shower, so I knew he was tired. I also knew I would be the one putting him to sleep that night. He actually got in the shower this time and got wet, he just didn't like it in his face. The rest of the night he played fairly well. Then it was time for bed. I told him stories and when he was done hearing them he told me to go to sleep!

After a restless night of sleep he was up around 5 am for the day. He was tired and crabby. He fell asleep on the car ride to the sitters. I tried laying him down on the couch, but he awoke and threw the largest fit in his history. I calmed him back down, handed him off to the sitter and the banshee scream returned, this time waking his sister. I hope he gets a good nap and gets back to his normal self tonight. He travels ok, but returning home is a nightmare.

The Good Times Have Stopped

We had several nights of rest alone in our own bed. Last night that all changed. Ollie was up at 1:30 and in our bed with us. Good things don't last forever and I guess 3 days is the limit. While he rolled, his mom and I were relegated to the 1 inch section on the sides of the bed. Of course, he had to sleep on top of the covers, which pulled the covers off me! I slept the rest of the night in the Homer bed. I wish there was a way we could keep him in there all night all the time. Maybe by his 3rd birthday, he'll be able to stay in his bed all night as well as be potty trained. We can hope for miracles.

This weekend we are off to see his cousin Tyler baptized. I'm sure he'll sleep with us. The good thing about trips is that they tire him out more than usual. He should have fun for the entire trip. The traveling isn't fun for him, so we are going to try and time it so he takes a nap for most of the traveling. I hope he isn't wired after sitting for so long, but as toddlers usually are wired, I won't be surprised when he is extremely active.

No! I Don't Wike It!

Those words reverberated through our ears for an entire hour Saturday afternoon. Ollie likes Planes, Trains and Automobiles of all shapes, not necessarily sizes. We took him and Tori to the Wheels o' Time Museum this weekend. It has cars, tractors, trains, fire engines and many other things from people's personal collections. We thought that Ollie would like the tractors, fire engines and trains because he is always talking about them. We were wrong.

We entered the building and started walking down the first aisle of cars. Ollie was ok with this, but when we neared the first turn, he saw a racing car that he thought was a plane. When he was brought closer to it, he said "NO, I DON'T WIKE IT!". That was the beginning of the end of our enjoyment of the museum. Everything else after that, he didn't like.

No horns beeping, no model trains running, no bicycles, no fire engines, no clocks, no nothing. Every time we neared a vehicle or display case he wouldn't like it. He even didn't like the flashing lights. On our way down the stairs, there was a blinking yellow street light. Ollie didn't like it, but we had to pass it to go downstairs to get out. Luckily we could turn the corner to so he wouldn't see the unlikeable light.

We eventually made it through all 3 buildings and went to see the train outside. A full sized steam train. He wouldn't go near it. So we took turns looking at it because Ollie didn't like it. He eventually made it up into the engine, but it didn't last long. The moral of the story, don't take Ollie to places that have big versions of his toys because he won't wike it!

Farm Finale

Just a few more to finish up the farm series. Guess which of the following chickens pecked Ollie?



They thought he had food in his hand and took a bite of his finger. He was tired and hot on the way home.



He slept well that day. This weekend, the indoor car museum!