Good Little Traveler: The Asheville Leg

The Asheville portion of our trip was loads of fun too.

Ollie got to see Grandma Ruthie.

And Grandpa David... although as you can see, Ollie was a little skeptical of him and his mustache. Or maybe it was lack of beard, since his Papa, Grampa, and Poppy all have beards.

He also had royal accommodations with his own room and jacuzzi bath!!

And it was confirmed that Ollie is definitely a jug man.

But the best part was how much fun he had walking up and down the hallway with Grandma Ruthie.

Good Little Traveler: The Charlotte Leg

Our trip to NC last week started out great. That lady next to us on the plane gave us that look when she sat down—you know the one—"oh crap, I'm next to a baby". But Ollie showed her and slept like an angel the whole way on his papa's chest. He loves trains and planes. But not so much cars. He hates being stuck in his car seat. Maybe that's because he's his mama's son and would rather be driving.
Our first stop was Charlotte to see Nana and Poppy.

Ollie helped Poppy rake the leaves.

And pick the ones off the trees that hadn't fallen off yet.

And eat them.

And then they took a little break after working so hard.

Later there was lots of playing. Nana brought out this freaky wiggle ball which Ollie was scared of at first but then warmed up to.

Then he got some play time with his cousin Brooke.

And papa practiced what it would be like to have two.

It was a great visit!

animal house

while mama sorts through the pictures from our trip to north carolina to see nana and poppy and grandma ruthie and grandpa david, i'm gonna tell you about the fun we had yesterday.

since my swim class is over, we invited all the babies and mamas and papas from class over for a yummy potluck brunch. we had 12 mamas and papas and 6 babies and lots of good food in our apartment! it was crowded and tons of fun.

clara tried my jumper and jumped like a pro. although she doesn't actually need to be in there, cause she's already standing and balancing—all on her own!

emmett and finn showed off their mad crawling skills and had races around the apartment.

milo showed me how to climb up on things, he's a champion climber, and fearless, as you can see by the boo boos on his face. (i think he's going to give his mama a heart attack.)

and zoe and i used the kitchen chairs to practice our walking. as you can see from our faces, it's hard work!

America's Next Top Model

Ollie's modeling portfolio—he's going for the Victoria's Secret look:

(I learned it from watching you, Dad!)

my first kiss

a few weeks ago i went over to my friend elodie's for a playdate

we've known each other for a while, so i finally gathered my courage

and went in for a kiss

or more likely i was thinking of a bite

later when i looked at these pictures, i noticed that elodie looks like she smelled something stinky. maybe i need to brush my teeth next time before i try to smooch a girl.

thanks, elodie's mom for the pictures of my first kiss!

HIGH-larious

When you're a baby, is it like being stoned all the time? This is somehow the funniest thing in the world to him—it went on like this for about 20 minutes. But whatever works*, cause we sure love that sound!

*No babies were actually stoned in the making of this video.

A Quiet Moment

yee-ha!

mama is wrong, my favorite game is riding papa!!!

laundry day

i sort, mama folds.

everybody wins!

mama's got the best deal ever worked out with my friend zadia's mama. every wednesday morning, zadia's gonna come over and play with me while her mama goes to the gym. then every thursday morning, i'll go over to zadia's to play while mama goes to the gym. so far both mama and me love it! when zadia came over, we played the steel drum, knocked over cup towers, crawled all over the place, and practiced our standing skills.

 

mama doesn't have pictures from when i went to zadia's cause she wasn't there! mama also says it's good for me to get used to other people besides her taking care of me sometimes. it's fine with me... i pretty much just glanced at her when she came back to pick me up and then went right back to my playing. mama was happy that i didn't mind her being gone, but told me next time i should at least smile at her when she comes back... that i'm not old enough to be disinterested in her just yet. 

enough of this standing thing already

what do i do after i'm bored with just standing? well, mama wants to get rid of this coffee table cause she's afraid i'm going to crack my noggin open on the sharp corners, but i think i need to keep it to practice my walking!

i'm 8 months old today!

lately i'm really into sticking my tongue out

it helps me concentrate

especially on my new favorite activity of standing up

combine that with my old favorite activity of chewing on things...

 

and i'm a pretty happy little guy.

Whose Little Boy Is That on Our Blog?

Wait, it IS Ollie... he's just growing too fast!

Visitors From the Netherlands

A few months ago, Mama's friend from high school, Tammie came to visit with her two adorable little munchkins.

Isabella

 

and Johannes (this was the best picture I could get of him since he wouldn't hold still!) were bundles of energy.

They helped us figure out what needs to be childproofed in our apartment.

Tammie brought a Netherlands national soccer uniform for Ollie and he's finally big enough to wear it.

He clearly has some natural soccer skills.

But still has the occasional hand ball called on him.

Pouncing Tiger

Ollie has been sick since Saturday, but in between his many naps and heartbreaking crying stints, that didn't stop us from enjoying his new favorite game (and possibly mine too from the reaction it gets). It involves him lying on the bed and me repeatedly pouncing on him.