a message to mama

well we are back at home.

papa tells me i have to let mama sleep in today cause it is "her day".

so while waiting patiently for mama to get up i thought i would get reacquainted with my toys and write a message to my mama.

mama you are the best.

i love you.

Ollie's Take on Culture

One more post from Mexico...we'll be home tomorrow to tell you about the rest of our awesome trip. But for now...

On Day Two of our trip (which was now over a week ago, but hey, we've been a little busy here) we visited a few museums in Oaxaca--the Modern Art Museum and the Oaxacan Cultural Museum. 

Ollie put on his new walking shoes and we were ready to go hit the streets.

Hmmmmm... not sure about this modern art, I think maybe I could draw some things like that myself.

He much preferred to climb around the old buildings the art was in than to look at the art.

Note his filthy pants. This is pretty much how dirty he has been the whole trip. Just imagine what his hands look like. 

He did, however approve of the soccer ball exhibit in the Modern Art Museum. Until he found out he wasn't allowed to touch any of them, that is.

The Cultural Museum was way more interesting though. Long hallways for silly running.

Tons of steps for (literally) hours of fun.

(He can't quite decide if he likes going up or down more.)

Signs to shake and knock over.

Oh, right... we're here for Culture. Do plants count as culture?

Meh, culture, schmulture... let's go play some ball in the park. 

And lucky for us, Ollie's a pretty adaptable little boy and can usually take champion naps on the go in his stroller.

Well, adaptable up to a point. He's still not a fan of the shower. He will definitely be happy to get home to his bathtub!

And to end our successful day of Culture, Mama and Papa, put Ollie to bed, took the monitor out on the hotel balcony and sampled the local foods, wines, and beers (as they continued to do every night thereafter). That counts as culture, right?

Hola, Amigos!

After a long long trip here--two flights and a layover in Houston and an arrival time way past Ollie's bedtime, we got in a cab and made it to our hotel here in Oaxaca City. We were all pretty exhausted and Mama will admit that by this time she was thinking, "what the H-E-double hockey sticks are we doing here with our one year old son in this place with it's rickety deathtrap of a crib, malarial mosquitoes, and bacteria-filled water that we can't even drink!?" And when Ollie refused to go to sleep, by what was now midnight, and cried inconsolably for what seemed like hours, Mama joined in, and with tears streaming down her face, wailed, "I wanna go home!"

But we didn't need home! All we needed really was a good night's sleep, some morning sun, and a cheerful "buenas dias!" from the concierge, and Mama got her travel legs back and Ollie acted like he'd lived in Mexico in a previous life. 

For his first Mexican breakfast, Senorito Blanco (Little Mister Whitey, as our waitress dubbed him) preferred the spicy taquitos over the Yucatan style huevos. More jalepenos please!

Which he washed down with a cerveza grande.

And then was quickly off to charm the hats off the enamored waitstaff. (We're still getting used to people here not only touching Oliver all the time, but whisking him out of our arms and waltzing away with him.)

After a nice morning nap (more for Mama than for Ollie, really), we headed off to the plaza in the zocolo, a nice shady spot for us to take it all in.

And just as good for ball playing as any park in Brooklyn.

Towards the end of our day of wandering, we stumbled upon some sort of traditional dance party and Ollie and Papa got their groove on.

Although Ollie was a little more interested in the refreshments than the dancing. Oaxacan string cheese is a great substitute for mozzarella. 

And you can never go wrong with empanadas.

and you were worried about me! silly mama, i love this place!

Bad, Bad Bloggers!

We know we've been slacking! We're so sorry loyal Ollie fans. Mama has had a boat load of freelance work to do this past week and the backlog of adorable photos is piling up. But she needed to do that freelance work so we could afford our trip to Mexico! Which (more bad news, Ollie fans) we're leaving for in about 20 minutes. So we're leaving you with a few random cute photos of your favorite little boy and will post all the adventures of the past week, plus our Mexican excursion, when we return. But fear not, we may actually have access to internet on our sunny vacation, so we will try to send you a little love from Mexico in between all our tortilla eating and surfing.

Slap Happy

Sometimes Ollie gets a little slap happy over something random. Yesterday he thought it was the funniest thing whenever Mama said "yeay!"

TEEEEEEEEF!!!!!

The lil man has a second molar coming in. Yikes!!! Check out his first one.

It Never Gets Old

I know I've already posted pictures of Ollie swinging several times, but he just loves it so much and has the happiest faces that I have to share these.

It Was Time to Get Rid of That Mullet

Ollie had his first haircut yesterday and he was SO good for it.

He looked like such a big boy in the taxi chair.

His stylist, Daniell said that she's seen her torso posted on facebook many many times.

We're pretty sure big bird had something to do with how calm and still he was.

Since he was completely mesmerized by the tv.

We're thinking next time a mohawk might be the way to go.

When the haircut was all done, he got this spiffy certificate and a lock of his hair to keep.

Honk honk! Watch out, here comes Oliver, officially a big boy now.

Thank goodness, it'll still be a while until he needs a shave though—Mama can't handle him growing up too fast.