February 26, 2015

Mr. Articulate

Oliver Kimball Rogers,
YOU are wise beyond your years. You freak me out with how knowledgeable you already are about many things. Where do you learn these things? I assure you, I do not know.
Yesterday, Ollie was playing in the bathroom sink while I got myself ready for the day. He loves to "wash" all his toys {from Mr. Potato head's shoes & hat to all your Mickey Mouse figurines and everything else I will let you dump in the sink}. This particular washing involved Legos. He would fill them up with water and dump them into empty ones and started getting everything {rug, cabinets, floor} wet. I got after him and told him he could only dump over the sink because he was making a mess. While I continued getting ready I watched him sulk. After a few minutes of his very entertaining pouty lips I asked him what was wrong...
"I'm sad."
"Why are you sad?"
"Cause you be mean to me."
Bleeding hearts of the world unite {fave quote from The Grinch} that broke my heart.
Just one small example of my little dude getting too big for his & my britches.
{Above picture: "Look, Mom! It's an 'x'!" He also knows that 'O' stands for Ollie or "Oddie" as he refers to himself.}
Our routine lately has consisted A LOT of going outside so Ollie can ride his bike {it's actually a tricycle, but I can't get him to say trike instead of bike}.
 {Usually Donald & Blue Blankie are always invited along for the ride.}

We spend many, MANY hours outside each day.


Lately, we have been going down to the "lake" with Grandpa so Ollie can throw rocks.

 {Red Mountain in the distance.}
This piece of land is owned by my dads family and they are in the works to sell it.
There has been an enormous bulldozer there for the past few weeks grading the land so it has a nice gentle slope down to the "lake" {err...rainwater/irrigation runoff}.
It's strangely addicting to watch this bulldozer go back & forth smoothing out the land.


It was an absolutely beautiful day so we spent a couple hours just throwing rocks.
 
Another obsession lately has been "fixing" broken down toys with Ollie's tools. It started when he took a tumble with his scooter. As seen by these very dramatic pictures.

He dusted himself off and decided because the scooter fell over it was broken. He went and got his tool box and spent an hour "fixing" it.
Awesome sauce. Now whenever something performs differently than he thinks is normal, it is considered "broken" and out comes the toolbox.

Our Valentine's day was not very exciting. I was really sick & Ollie came down with a bad fever along with me. I spent the day in bed but managed to make some sugar cookies with Ollie a few days prior to getting sick. He LOVES helping me in the kitchen. I drag a stool over and he dumps in the flour, sugar, salt, water, whatever and helps me mix things together. His favorite thing was to smash these cookies with a cup {then I used my finger to shape them into quirky little hearts}.
We have been juicing oranges and Ollie loves to juice himself a cup, drink it, and juice some more. So far we have made cookies, juiced orange juice, scrambled eggs, made pancakes, more cookies & fixed him PB&J.

And just because we spend most of our time outside, I'm going to finish off with more pictures of Ollie doing what he loves best...

 


 
playing outside. I love me that little tree frog.


February 25, 2015

A Foot of Snow

I made plans to visit my sister in Denver about a month ago. I invited my mom to come along with and always look forward to hanging out up there for a few days. I was nervous it wouldn't happen because we all got super sick the week before and I was so grateful when I got to feeling better and could move forward with my plans. Denver's February has been unseasonably warm and filled with sunshine and beautiful weather. As soon as we got there for an extended weekend, winter decided to roll into to town as well.  It was fun to see the snow {from the warmth of indoors, of course}.
We ate yummy food
& I was 100% satisfied with the trip all because I got this...
We saw a fabulous movie {I highly recommend it}, McFarland, USA. When we entered the theatre there wasn't a drop of snow on the ground. When we exited the theatre there was 3-4 inches of snow and blizzard conditions. It was fun & cold.
The next morning we woke up to 11 inches of the fluffy white stuff!
 

 

Before we headed back to 75 degree weather we made a mini-Thanksgiving dinner. It was just as tasty as the real thing!
Ollie was in good hands with his daddy all weekend long. I was so excited to see him Monday morning and when I opened his bedroom door he said, "No!...Not You!!...I want my daddy!" He warmed up to me in no time. Betrayal is always his first emotion when one of us has left him for a longer than normal time. I'm just thrilled he didn't cry because his mama was gone the whole time. Thanks for coming with me Mom & thanks Elyce & Anita for another fabulous trip!


February 5, 2015

Abducted By Aliens

Apparently, all you have to do to get your kid to be a complete angel 100% of the time is take them to Disneyland. Since a couple days after we got home Ollie has been a DREAM.COME.TRUE.
I'm not exaggerating. He has been perfect. It had been a HUGE struggle to do anything with the little guy for many, many months now. He threw complete tantrums {exorcism style} anytime it was time for bed or a nap. If it was time to get in the car, if it was time to change a diaper, if it was time to put p.j.'s on, if we looked at him wrong...   Difficult doesn't even come close to describing the challenge he had been. Going on a week now, he has completely changed gears. I mean a complete 180 degrees people. For example, if I tell him it's nap time, he picks up Goofy and his blue blankie, walks to his room, climbs in his crib himself, grabs his baba {sippy cup of milk}, and pulls the blanket over himself. Then get this...he ACTUALLY goes to sleep!!! What the heck! Where did Ollie the Tyrant go? Then, just today, I picked him up and he gave me a hug and said, "I love you, mama." Simple, but when your kid only ever sometimes said "Love you too" after hearing you say it first it's like Christmas morning. Be still my beating heart!
He has also been eating actual real food. Until lately he drank 4-5, 10 ounce spinach smoothies a day along with random stuff I could get him to eat here or there. Lately, he has maybe 1 smoothie and eats almost everything I give to him. Progress people. Serious progress! So THANK YOU alien friends who traded Olivers with me. Feel free to make this arrangement permanent!
Ollie loves his yeggo's {Legos}. He has been building and building and destroying and re-building for hours each day.


I think the following pic looks like a mini Max {Ollie's cousin}.
 
I took them outside for him and he played for hours.

 "Bappa's sweepin' wiff my yeggos."
This morning he built a choo-choo train out of his blocks.
'This looks like a nice spot to rest my head!' Silly boy.
Yesterday, we went to grandpa's BIG plot of land and watched a bulldozer knock over all sorts of exciting things like bushes, dirt, rocks, sticks. Ollie threw about a thousand rocks into the great wide "lake" and afterward we went to Ted's Hotdogs for lunch. Ollie is a fan.


 I am so happy my sweet little boy has chilled out. I love him so much and am grateful he's ours.
I almost forgot to mention. I went back to work. I got a phone call before we left for Disneyland from the Endodontic office I worked at pre moving away. They had two assistants break their arms {not at work} within two weeks of each other. They asked if I would be willing to help them out once a week. I obliged and it has been fun wearing a different hat once a week and knowing I am still good at other things besides mommy things. I have enjoyed talking to adults and getting out of the house. It is a short term thing, but I am grateful it came along and grateful to my babysitters {parents} who take such good care of the little man while I go to work!