santaland

i had really wanted to take ollie to see santa while my mom was here. not just santa -- THE santa, at macy's on 34th street. however, we ran out of time. i wanted to go on a weekday to try to avoid the crowds, so i finally took him on a monday. jamie works near there, so i was able to call him when we were getting close and he met us there. the line wasn't too bad, 45 minutes i think. and ollie did great! however, since we were trying to wait for jamie, i had to keep letting people cut us in line and so it started taking longer and longer. when jamie got there oliver was still in good spirits, but soon started getting fussy. he decided he was hungry. i had brought a bottle, but he doesn't get given bottles much, so he wouldn't take it. he then decided he was STARVING!!! so i had to figure out a way to nurse him. now, let me explain the situation: it's freezing out, so i've got 2 shirts on, oliver in the carrier, a coat, a carrier cover, a diaper bag strapped across my chest, and another bag i'm carrying. we are literally a couple feet from santa, and i have to find an opening through all of this to feed oliver, while standing in line with 100s of people. and i did it! i am super mom! i was so proud of myself. although, we could only keep letting people pass us for so long, we had to go to santa and oliver wasn't done eating, hence the crying baby with santa picture. oh well. maybe next year! the good news is we got to do a family picture before we got to santa while ollie was still happy. it turned out pretty good. we had fun and now we can tell oliver he went to macy's santaland and met santa.






















did i mention how disappointed i was in santa? his beard didn't even look a little real. and he had on a ton of make up, and he wasn't fat! what's the deal???

cereal

we've been noticing a lot lately that oliver is VERY interested in food - our food! he watches very carefully every bite we take. that, in combination with him suddenly not sleeping through the night anymore, lead us to deciding it was time to start him on cereal. we gave him his first bite on emme's birthday! he didn't miss a drop. from the very first bite he knew just what to do, he even got mad when we weren't fast enough! jamie is starting to worry he's a little TOO obsessed with food!

this is him on thanksgiving day watching very carefully while jamie ate his pie:


i have been trying for WEEKS now to put the video of him eating cereal for the first time on here, and it won't let me. i guess i will just have to put these pictures:


he is no longer using the bouncy seat to eat. we thought it might be easier for him starting out, but no no! he is a pro! the next day he was sitting in his high chair eating like a big kid.




i know this is blurry but it shows how happy he was with himself when he finished.

thanksgiving week

my mom was able to come to our house for thanksgiving! we were so happy to have her, for many reasons, a few being that without her we would have been all alone, and another MIGHT be that the week before she came, oliver decided he doesn't like to sleep anymore! she flew in the monday before thanksgiving and was supposed to get in at 11pm. However, every time she comes here something seems to go wrong with the flight, so unfortunately my poor mom didn't get to our house until almost 2am!!! shortly after she got here and settled in bed, oliver woke up. so she got very little sleep that night (most nights actually!) but that didn't stop her from being granna! she has more energy than anyone i know. i honestly don't know how she does it!


here she is, playing with oliver before she even had a chance to get out of bed!



my mom has always wanted to go to the macy's thanksgiving day parade, but i HATE crowds, and the thought of dealing with those crowds with a baby, that early in the morning, in bad weather, just didn't sound doable, so instead we decided to go see the balloons being blown up the night before. i figured it would be crowded, but i thought surely less crowded than the parade. i'm not so sure it was! it was soooo crowded! you basically go around the block of the natural history museum in this "line" of people (it's a mob!) and then you file back out. i especially felt sorry for the little kids who's parents brought them in strollers because they are down on the ground, with people all around them, and they can't see a thing! it would be really scary to me to just be surrounded by legs. they were crying and screaming and i honestly didn't blame them a bit. i think we are glad we did it though, it was definitely a once in a lifetime experience.




oliver was not amused.




once we got to the front of the museum, we went up the steps and into a roped off area and we could see everything! it was so nice up there (and not crowded!)







that night, again we got very little sleep, so we got a late start on the meal. jamie and my mom had bought a turkey breast to share but it ended up taking FOREVER to cook, so we ate the meal without it. i don't think they even missed it. it was a delicious meal and of course we made WAY too much food!


oliver was helping with the rice!


in honor of her uncle clay, sophia got her "ear-do"


this sweet boy was so excited for a holiday that focuses on food!







it was a really nice day and everything was delicious!

baby O is 4 months old!

sorry it has been forever since i've posted anything. i have a lot to share, but not much time to do it! we had a wonderful thanksgiving and are so thankful to have oliver to share it with! my mom was in town and we had so much fun with her. i will try to post some pictures from her visit this week, but for today pictures of ollie turning 4 months! i really like these pictures because they truly show where he's at these days: chewing his fists, putting things in his mouth, clasping his hands, etc. he has changed SO much! i feel like this month i see the difference more than ever.


we put our tree up the day after thanksgiving and he LOVES the lights!









here is the the 1-4 month comparison (notice how much bigger his tummy gets each month!):