Our Little Pumpkin

Family Play Dates

In October Oliver was able to see some family again and some for the very first time!  And since Oliver has never met a person he didn’t like, the visits went quite well.

First, Aunt Ouida and cousins Alisha and Brian were able to meet Oliver while in town for a wedding.  If only Louisiana and Tennessee were separated by fewer hours!  We all had a delicious lunch together and then Aunt Ouida was able to visit again later for some chili and cornbread.  What’s a good visit without good food?

Aunt Ouida and Oliver

The day after our visit with Aunt Ouida, Oliver and I packed up and headed for a visit to MeMe and Papaw’s.  They were headed home from their recent cruise and ended up being only 20 minutes behind us on the interstate, so we all got to stop and have lunch together.  After lunch, Oliver and I headed straight to Metropolis, Illinois for the annual Ft. Massac Encampment.  It was a beautiful day to hear some great music, watch the battle reenactment from The French and Indian War, and have some fresh kettle corn, and hang out with Aunt Erin and cousin Abby.  We especially enjoyed the music from Highland Reign.

The next day Grandmother came to visit.  We headed to have lunch with Meme and then went downtown to see what goodies were down there (there are always some).  Then Oliver and I headed home for a nap, which didn’t happen, so we played outside instead.

Loving the fall!

The next weekend was also lots of fun.  Aunt Aimee flew in for a visit from Dallas and was able to spend lots of time with Mr. Oliver on Saturday.  They were able to squeeze in plenty of quality time until we all see each other again at Thanksgiving.  Oliver also surprised everyone by being Dominoes champion and having excellent skills with a flying disc.  What a kid.

with Aimee

Urban Hen

Hey there!  My friend Sharon, The Urban Hen, is having a giveaway on her blog!  She makes some really great, unique stuff.  I personally love her purses, and the Christmas coasters I bought from her are one of my favorite Christmas decorations.  It’s sad when I have to put them up after the holiday season.

Check her out!

Oliver the Diplomat

Oliver has been working on his diplomacy skills lately.  That kid…we just never know what he’ll want to do next.  King Emmanuel Adebayo of Emure Kingdom in Nigeria have been visiting the area lately and today the public had the opportunity to attend a meet and greet.  I thought this would be a fun and unique opportunity for Oliver, so this morning we spiffied up a little and were off to meet a king!

King Adebayo had on a beautiful white robe with some sequencing and a hat to match.  (I didn’t manage to ask the specific name of his type of hat.)  He didn’t seem to speak much English but he was very willing to meet the locals.  My first idea was to let him hold Oliver for a picture.  However, I was unsure if thrusting my child into a king of Nigeria’s arms would be offensive or not.  I decided to play it safe and hold Oliver myself.  As you can see in the picture below, Oliver found King Adebayo quite interesting.  I wonder if we could get Oliver a robe like that…

Oliver meeting King Adebayo in the name of baby diplomacy

Happy Birthday!

Mr. Oliver had his very first birthday on Sept. 26.  We were so happy so celebrate our little boy’s birth.  He has truly been a wonderful blessing to our lives and we are thankful every time we see his smiling face in the morning and his sleepy face at night.

Oliver got to wake up on his big day and hang out with his Aunt Val and Uncle Jeremy.  He had a yummy breakfast and then played while we prepared for the day ahead. He was very non-stressed with all of the busyness around him.  His gift to mommy that morning was going down nice and quickly for a long morning nap.  What a great kid.

Morning time

The birthday party was set for a local park, so the rainy morning provided a little bit of worry.  We kept a close eye on the radar, though, and felt sure the rain would lighten up in time to keep us nice and dry under the park shelter.  And it did!

Despite the rain, the party was a lot of fun, thanks to many great friends and family members.  We had some delicious food with hot dogs galore and plenty of cake, too!

Once home and after a long nap, Oliver got to enjoy some of his new toys and books.  There have been so many new buttons to push and sounds to hear and pages to turn.  He sends out thanks again to all of his friends!

Seth and I are looking forward to another year of learning and growing with Oliver.  He is changing all the time!

He loves his new drum sticks

Oliver thought smashing the cake was lots of fun

Satisfaction

Oliver after guzzling a few ounces of milk.

Training for his first marathon…

Oliver has reached yet another one of his goals for the year 2009.  About a week before his first birthday, he took his first steps (toward greatness)!!!  Needless to say, we were excited.  Oliver, however, has chosen a wise path and decided not to do too much too fast.  He still takes some steps, occasionally, but for the most part he still sees crawling as his best option.

As Lotsa Heart Elephant says in the Care Bears episode “The Great Race,” “Slow and steady wins the race.” (I have remembered that for about 20 years now.)

All Better

Yesterday was not such a good day for Mr. Oliver.  He picked up some sort of tummy bug and spent much of the day regurgitating his meals.  It wasn’t pretty.  Fortunately, however, he never developed a fever and the bug left him some time during the night.

This is part of how God showed me, again, the importance of chilling out and asking, “Thy will be done.”

Today we are so thankful Oliver is better!

Library Card

Oliver applied for and received his first library card today.  He was so excited that he immediately began begging to check out some books.

The library is a super fun place for Oliver.  Two of the reasons for this are the bean bag chairs in the kids section.  Today he crawled on and squished the red and blue chairs, then crawled back to me giggling.  This was repeated several times until he decided it was equally as fun to crawl through the empty bottom shelves of the library stacks.  I had to stop this because there was a librarian present who I thought might not appreciate this mild form of rough-housing in the library.  I’m not sure everyone appreciates Oliver’s cuteness as much as I do. Another form of fun for Oliver at the library is all of the big-kid watching available.  He LOVES to watch big kids.  They’re fascinating.

These are the books Oliver checked out with his first library card (please hear voice of Lavar Burton):

“Creation: My Father Loves Me” by J.D. Wise

“Wake Up House!” by Dee Lillegard

“Dinos to Go” by Sandra Boynton

Bed Head

Oliver’s hair usually does something a little funky in the morning, but this day brought extra funk after naptime.