Best Daddy Ever!

Happy Father's Day

We had a great day today. This afternoon Matt's parents came over for a BBQ and Oliver showed off some of the new toys we got for the backyard. The big hit right now is a Little Tikes lawn mower. Matt made some delicious chicken wings and chicken sausages on the grill. For dinner we went over to Nana and Grandpapa's and all of the cousins were there. Oliver tried out the bounce house for the first time and had a blast. Brock showed him how to be crazy and Brayden made sure he was safe - such a good combo!

Birthday Boy

Oliver's first birthday party at Edinburough Park was almost three months ago, but I forgot my camera that day, and Emily Reitan acted as official photographer. She gave me a great cd of photos and video last week, so we now finally have some documentation of Oliver's first birthday party on his blog. We had a great time with lots of family and friends!

Birthday Cake

Climbing!

Oliver has been climbing on everything lately - he is our little monkey!

It has been so long since I posted! Oliver is turning into such a big boy, as you can see from the photos below, he is running all over the place these days and incredibly busy. Oliver loves to play with all his toys and, much to Matt and my delight, he is starting to get into books (yeah!). His favorite so far has been "Goodnight Gorilla". He always points out the ball on one of the pages and roars when we get to the page with the lion. He will pick up a book now and bring it to me to read and then back up and fall into a sitting position in my lap if I am on the floor. It is so cute.

Words!

Oliver is talking more and more these days. Most of what he says is still just babbling, but we are starting to make out more actual words. So far his vocabulary consists primarily of:

• ball (this is by far the most popular word)
  
• uh-oh
• da or dada
• ma (which can mean mama or milk)
• a panting noise (which means Sam)
• woof (which pretty much sounds the same as his monkey noise)
• hi fi (high five)
  

Kissing Bandit

Oliver has started to give kisses lately and it is so cute. When Matt and I ask for kisses he toddles over with a big smile on his face and lays a very slobbery kiss right on us. Sometimes he also tries to imitate our smooching sounds so he makes a hilarious fish face.

We also heard that he kissed Lydia (another one of the babies in his class at daycare) last week. In his classroom there is a ramp that leads up to a raised platform with plexiglass sides that the kids can climb up and apparently Oliver and Lydia met up at the top of the ramp during playtime and gave each other a little smooch. We heard a report a few months ago that they were holding hands, so apparently the relationship is progressing quickly :) Although, we probably don't need to be too concerned because Oliver's favorite kissing partner is still Sam the dog.