Summer Fun

Summer has just flown by as you can tell by the lack on posts lately. Oliver and I got to spend a lot of time together. I earned my Masters degree this summer and I could finally enjoyed not having weekly homework which then meant Oliver and I had more time to have adventures together. I figured that I would put up the pictures we took on our adventures throughout the summer.

Below are some pictures from a few trips to the Wollerman cottage. Oliver sure loved it up there. It was his first time swimming in a lake and boy did he like it. The water was so warm this summer it felt as warm as bath water. Even I jumped in with my pregnant belly and enjoyed the relaxing weightless swim. Grandma Chris took Oliver and I for a cruise around the lake in the old row boat. Of course Oliver has a blast. He loves anything that moves and lets a breeze blow through his hair. 

Below is a picture of Oliver and I. He is sitting on the same rock as I did in 1985 when I was a year and a half old. Believe it or not the boat in the background of my picture was the one Grandma Chris took us for a ride in. Time moves slow up north and not much changes. Maybe that's why I love it so much. It's always predictable and reliable.

Oliver got to go to his first parade in Winneconne. He is finally okay with fire truck sirens but his favorite part was of course the tractors. 

As summer fades away and fall rolls in Oliver and I are back to our old routine. He spends Mondays through Thursday with Grandma Chris and Fridays with Grandma Katie. Grandma Katie grew a huge batch of pumpkins which Oliver would get to check up on throughout the summer. When it was time for harvesting Oliver was happy to help out. Lately when I get home from work Oliver and I head out the field to ride with Erik in the tractor. Sometimes he even gets to drive! 

Time is ticking down and the doctor said that I am due any day now. I have a feeling the next post will be of our new addition!

The Adventures of the Salm's Backyard Water Park

This is the Salm's Backyard Water Park. Oliver is beached on the whale slide in the picture above. Oliver loves to be outside and since it has been so hot here I figured a mini water park would allow him to play outside but not get to overheated. He loves to play with all the toys and haul water in his dump truck. I taught him how to slide down the slide and as he would go down I would say weeeeee. Oliver picked up on this and when got to the bottom after the third time down he looked at me and said eeeeeeee. 

 When we came into the house after the backyard water park I let Oliver run around the house naked. It only took 2 minutes until he had to go and I didn't realize until after I took the picture what Oliver was doing but apparently Oliver is watching himself pee.

Oliver is now able to walk on his own pretty well. He uses the walker when he wants to run. You can see the look of shear determination on Oliver's face in the picture above. This is because he is trying to run away from me as I try to put a diaper on him so no more accidents happen because after the pee incident I was really concerned for the other type of accident to happen. If you look real close in the picture you will see a Wisconsin license plate with Oliver's nickname attached to his walker. We felt that since he drives that thing around the house like a mad man it deserves a license plate.

Well summer has officially arrived for me. School is out and although I am still working on classes for my masters degree my summer is pretty free for fun with Oliver. He has really grown in to a little man. I looked in the backseat of the car today while I was driving and Oliver was looking out the window so contently. I couldn't help be awed by him. He has grown in so many ways in a years time and keeps amazing Erik and I daily. 

The pictures above and below are of Oliver and I enjoying the awesome weather we have been having. Oliver really enjoys playing with his water table splashing and pouring water on back and forth into different containers. He is completely soaked and loving every minute of it. 

In the picture below I asked Oliver where the tractor was and he was pointed where the farmer had planted corn this year. He sure loves his tractors and cows.

Year One Look Alike Contest

It's been a year and out come our old baby pictures for a year one look alike contest. So compare Erik's and my year one pictures with Oliver's and vote on who you think it is.

Oliver

                 Erik- 1 Year                                                                              Heidi- 1 Year

Happy Birthday Oliver!

We'll a year has passed and of course it is hard to believe. On Oliver's birthday Erik and I talked about the day Oliver came into the world and it's hard to believe a he has grown so much. He is now 25 pounds and a very tall little man.

We had a small birthday party with close family which was really nice. Oliver was his usual show off self, performing for all the relatives. We tried to give him so cake but he wasn't very interested. He would rather have some blackberries and raspberries. I guess that's a good thing.

Oliver is really close to walking and has added several words to his vocabulary. His new words are truck, tractor, ball, and maa (When you ask him sound a cow makes or he sees a cow). Oliver is able to understand most of what we tell him. Yesterday Erik had his feet kicked up in the recliner and Oliver stood up next to them and I said tickle tickle. Oliver sits down on the floor and starts tickling his own feet. It was the cutest thing I have ever seen.

Happy Easter!

The Little Man

Oliver sure likes to keep himself busy. He loves to lean up against the windows and check out what is going on outside. Erik was out doing some yard work and Oliver was glued to the patio doors watching Erik walk back and forth across the yard. Every once and a while Erik would pop out behind the Blue Spruce tree in our yard and made laugh with delight.

 Oliver is going to be one next weekend and he is sure becoming a little man.Today was his first experience with spaghetti and boy did he love it. The picture above is of the beginning stage and the following pictures are the aftermath. I had to take him straight up stairs and to the bath but boy did we both have fun in the process.

The Busy Little Man

Oliver has really had some big gains in the last 3 weeks. He pretty much eats all solid foods now. Erik and I decided it was time to teach Oliver the word no since he loves to feed Gunner while he eats. So the first attempt at teaching him no, I held down his hand as he was about to throw the food and I told him "No". Oliver just looked at me and threw the food. So when he was about to do it again I grabbed his hand and lighted slapped the top of it and said "No". He responded to this by laughing. So I figured since Erik and I never yell or raise our voice I would raise my voice when I said "No". Well boy did this work. Oliver was a blubbering mess. I don't know who felt worse me or him. I have been working for 10 months to keep him from crying and now I'm making him cry. It's heartbreaking but in a sense nessary. So later that day I put Oliver in his jumperoo and Erik said to Oliver, "On your marks. Get set. Go!" Well GO sounds like NO and we had a blubbering mess of a child again. Long story short, he knows what the word no means now.

Oliver is off and crawling these days and is everywhere and into everything. He also finds the stairs a fun place to play. The word no and lots of tears happen on those stairs now. He also loves to crawl over to the bookshelf and pull off his books and flip and babble through them.

Oliver has also graduated to a new carseat. He started to become like a stuffed sausage in his old one so it was time to move on. We have to still face him backwards until he is a year old but at least he has more room. It's hard to believe it has been 10 months since he was born. It's sure amazing to see how much he has grown and changed in such a short amount of time. It's hard to think of what he will be doing in another 10 months.

Happy Valentine's Day

                                                     Happy Valentine's Day everyone.

Weekends With Oliver

I always look forward to weekends for multiple reasons but spending time with Oliver is on top of the list. Erik and I soak up all the time we can with Oliver and take in all the little gains he is making. I have went  into Oliver's nursery lately and found him sleeping on his side and stomach! This is a definite growth but it leads to diaper leakage issues. :) I can point the wiener down every night but he still wakes up in the middle of the night wet. Erik and I are now looking into nighttime diapers which hopefully will solve the leakage issue.

Oliver also loves to stand and play with some of his toys. He will play with his Incrediblocks toy and watch the blocks spin around on the turn table and then he experiments with all the little attachments and of course tries to eat everything.

We read to Oliver during the day and every night. I guess it's the teacher in me that knows how important that is to the learning of little ones.  Now Oliver  hauls books around the house and flips through the pages and babbles to himself. It's too cute.

Moving and Shaking

Oliver sporting his first Stormy Kromer hat

He put it into reverse and back himself into the bar stool

Gettig tired

Oliver's playing with his buddie Gunner

Well Oliver has starting to move around the house. No, it's not crawling or walking it's rolling and pushing himself in reverse.Oliver will see something that he wants spin a 360 until he's lined up and roll until he gets there. Most of the time he will achieve success but many times he seems to wedge himself into the only objects that could possibly be in the way. Oliver also waves hello and goodbye to people which is too cute. He sure is growing fast.

The Holidays

 

  Our Chirstmas Tree                                                          Some of Oliver's first ornaments

                                     Oliver's sporting one of  Aunt Kathy's handmade hats.


Christmas with a baby is a LOT different then it use to be. The holiday agenda gets longer and moving from place to place takes even longer. By the end of the holiday week I feel like there needs to be a vacation after the holiday. First on the agenda was the Christmas tree.  Oliver got to help us pick out and cut down his first Christmas tree and decorate it to. Oliver received many beautiful ornaments from family and friends so he could have a part on the tree too.

Next on the agenda was the annual Wollerman gingerbread house contest. All of my cousins and family came over to decorate a house my Mom put together for us. Oliver slept upstairs with his cousins while Erik and I worked our gingerbread house magic downstairs. Erik worked until his patience was gone and what was on TV became more interesting. He did pretty well and has made huge gains from his first year. I worked until my "Martha Stewart" skills (as my brother-in-law would call it) ran out and the creative juices were gone.

 

Then we were onto Christmas Eve. First we had a gift opening at the Wollerman's house with my immediate family. Oliver sure got a lot of really nice gifts from everyone. Then we were off to the whole Wollerman Christmas party at my Aunt and Uncle's. Oliver enjoyed playing with all the family and did pretty good but then bedtime came and left and Oliver became a ticking time bomb the needed to go to bed. We were off to my Mom and Dad's to put Oliver to bed so we could then head to the Salm's without a cranky baby. My brother and his girlfriend Kellie came along to show off our gingerbread houses to the Salm family and friends. On the way home from the Salm's the group of us stopped at the local establishment (The Bee Hive) and left our gingerbread houses for the patrons to enjoy. This concluded Christmas Eve.

A gift from Uncle Eric

When Christmas day came Oliver woke Erik and I up and we went downstairs to open some of Oliver's gifts from Santa. Then we were off running again to the Salm's for Christmas breakfast with the immediate family. Then off to my parents house for lunch with my Grandma Shirley (Seltzer) who Oliver loves to see. After lunch we were off again to the Salm's for gift opening with the family, were again Oliver got some nice gifts.

The next two days were spent with my brother, sister, and nieces. It is the only time of the year that the whole family is together in one place and is a very special time of year for my family. Oliver enjoyed playing with his cousins and hanging out with his family. Oliver also got to spend some time with my very dear friend Emily who I refer to as Auntie Emily. Oliver lights up when he see her and of course I enjoy it to.


 Erik and Oliver working on tip-ups                           Grandma Katie watching Oliver

After all the traditional festivities were over we were off to the Salm's cabin in Manitawish Waters in Northern Wisconsin. We had a great time enjoying the outdoors. Oliver got to experience his first sledding experience as we toured the lakes. He was so excited was watching diligently as he was pulled in the sled. Grandma and Grandpa  Salm watched Oliver so Erik and I could do a little ice fishing together. Erik caught a couple nice fish which we fried up and ate the next day. I caught a few snowflakes.


 Christmas Story?????                                                  First sled ride

 Three Generations                                                           The Salm Family

                  A beaver lodge                                                          Nothing like a good snowfall.

Unfortunately the holidays have ended and as I am typing to all of you I think about how grateful we are to have such wonderful people in our lives. I look at our frig covered with all the cute Christmas cards and really feel so blessed know all of you. Thanks for being a part of our little family and for a great 2011.

 After all of the running around someone's tired




                                                                                                         Thanks Everyone!