first (non-home) haircut

After our somewhat failed attempt to cut Oliver's hair ourselves a few months ago, we decided to leave his next haircut up to the professionals. We took him to a place that specializes in children's haircuts. Apparently the key is televisions playing Mickey Mouse, lollipops, and stickers. Oli did a great job and didn't protest or get upset at all. He looked so little in the big red smock, yet so grown up with his hair cut and slicked back. Here are a few photos to remember the occasion. The first is a "before" shot of his hair and the others were taken during and after. Watching him experience "firsts" never gets old!

20 months

This age has been really fun overall. Oliver's language development has continued to where we have a hard time counting how many words he knows and he can repeat almost any word. It's amazing to hear him saying so many words for the first time. This month he started saying names (Auntie, Izzy, etc.) and putting words together more ("bye bye, kids", "water great"). He still loves counting (can count to somewhere between 13-19 - the teens all sound the same at this point when he says them). We continued teaching him the alphabet with help from some alphabet magnets on the fridge and he can now recognize and say almost every letter. J and K sound alike when he says them and W is still tricky (he currently says "double"), but otherwise he knows them all.

Chicago & Madison

At the beginning of May we headed for Chicago (for an annual conference I attend there with other faculty and students in my department). I brought Chris and Oli along last year and we decided we'd all go again this year. We drove to Madison Tuesday night and stayed overnight at my sister's before heading to Chicago on Wednesday. At this age Oliver is a little higher maintenance than he was last year (when he just hung out in the baby carrier), but we all had a great time! We ate a lot of good food and saw a lot of beautiful sights. Favorite foods for me were the tart frozen yogurt at Freshii in our hotel and the kale salad at Native Foods Cafe. Oli especially loved exploring the city streets, playing in the hotel pool, and watching the trains.

Chicago at night

taking some meeting notes in the hotel room

picnic dinner in Millenium Park

color coordinated with the tulips

Oli and the bean

happy about the bean

father and son near the bean

posing in Millenium park

hotel pool!

watching the trains

loved exploring Chicago

He also loved the hotel bed, as evidenced by this video:

Saturday afternoon we stopped at Chicago Diner, one of our favorite Chicago restaurants, before driving back to Madison . Spring had arrived in Madison and we grilled in Shell and Graham's backyard. The weather was perfect and it was great to sit and talk with each other and watch the cousins play together. Sunday Shell packed us a picnic and we went to a park. Shell and I got a little sister time and went for ice cream too (Do you see a food theme?). Thanks for the great visit Ayres-Wilhelms. We always love seeing you!

cousin picnic in Madison

living the dream -
eating grapes outside with no shirt

Bodie and his great smile

my niece is adorable

scootin'

Izzy and Oli sit on the front of a firetruck at the park

Spring

Spring has finally arrived in Minnesota! (Well, if I ignore the forecast which says a rain/snow mix is headed our way later this week.) The weather has been mostly sunny and in the 70's and so we've spent as much time as possible outside. In the last 4 days we visited 7 different parks, went to the Como Zoo & Conservatory, ate many of our meals outside, and enjoyed the sun and fresh air. We are all so glad to be able to spend time outside again after such a long winter. Hooray for spring!

19 months

In some ways Oliver is not much different than last month and yet when I was re-reading last month's post, I realized how much he has learned this month. Last month he counted to 2 and now he can count to 10. He said 1 and counted to 2 last month and this month he counted to 3, 5, and then 10! He recognizes 1-10 and can say them all (although 6 and 7 trip him up a little). We are now starting to teach him letters. Right now he can repeat most of the letters, but he calls every letter "B". When he's repeating the alphabet and I get to "W", instead of repeating it he just says "X" (can't blame him as "W" is senselessly long compared to the other letters).

Unfortunately he was still sick much of this month with an ear infection but (finally!) seems to be feeling better. We've had an unusually long winter season (snow in late April!?) and we're all hoping that spring is around the corner!

After using his cousin's chalkboard, we decided to get Oli his own easel with chalkboard. He has been loving it and often brings us chalk so that we'll come draw with him.

He has a ton of new words, too many to keep track of. He likes to name everything on his plate during meals and is starting to name a lot of things in books too. My current favorite is his word for quesadilla. He just shortens it to "dilla". He also says "Toby" and "Oscar" now and can tell them apart. He has been saying "nice" and "alright" for awhile but this month added "cool" and "I did it".

frozen blueberries are a new favorite

enjoying one of the sunny days before we got more snow

first candy, a dum dum at a Korean restaurant in town 

blocks are fun to play with...

... and eat.

music making with dad

already a pro with technology 

goofy face

reading 

exploring the neighborhood 

baby legs 

joy 

serious at the chalkboard

a coffee to celebrate turning 19 months

And last, a few videos from this month.

One year ago, at 7 months. I know I'm biased but I think he was such a cute baby!