Christmas Decorations

Who knew Christmas decorations could make the most entertaining toys?  Yes, maybe not the safest toys, but I keep a close eye on them.  These two kids love to play with each other!

Oliver: 7 Months Old

Oliver is seven months old and keeping us very busy!  He crawls everywhere, dragging his belly along the floor.  Every few seconds he pulls himself onto all fours and then returns to the army crawl.  His latest trick is to go from crawling to sitting and crawling to balancing on his hands and feet.  Man, he is so physical!  He wants to be where his sister is and do what she is doing. 

Brooke and Oliver are best friends and playmates.  It melts my heart when I see them play and I know this was the very best gift we could have given our children.  In the mornings if he hears his sister's voice he starts crawling down the hallway to her door.  I put him in her crib and they roll around wresting and playing.  They also love to play hide and seek.  Oliver crawls after Brooke and she screams and hides behind my legs.  "Aber's coming!  Aber's coming to get me!" 

 

Oliver is LOUD.  "AUGGHHH!" is one of his favorite things to say, well yell.  He babbles, grunts, and makes the funniest noises.  He knows how to get what he wants.  If he wants to be picked up, he crawls over and yells at you!  He is very ticklish, even the back of his neck makes him laugh.  He kicks and bats his arms wildly at anything hanging overhead.

He is super sweet and full of boundless energy.  What a fun, challenging, and entertaining guy he is!  And as my Mom says, his smile just draws you in.  The camera loves him and so do we!  Oh, did I mention that he is twenty pounds?  That's larger than Brooke was at one year old!

Thanksgiving Weekend

Thanksgiving weekend was spent in in Northeastern Washington.  It was very cold and snowed quite a bit!

Brooke wanted to sleep in "Mommy's bed" so we let her.  When we peeked into the room we saw her in the perfect relaxing pose.  I think she loved that warm bed!

The two kids kept everyone on their toes.  Oliver was crawling around and Brooke was running and singing.  Each found lots of new "toys" to play with.  The toys I brought were quickly traded for the more enjoyable toys like brooms and dusters.  Many cups of "tea" were poured too!

Brooke fit right in with Grandpa and Grandma with their newspaper reading.  She also enjoyed sitting at the "big girls table".

There are always lots of birds and turkeys to watch.

Brooke and Oliver warmed up with a nice bath!

Oasis Visit

Here are some photos from our little walk in the oasis!

The Living Desert

The Living Desert Zoo is a must see if you have kids and are visiting the Palm Springs area.  The $15 admission fee is well worth it!  We went on a Monday morning and the place hardly had anyone there!  No fighting hoards of people and baby strollers like in the Washington D.C. or Seattle zoos that we have visited recently.  Plus we could ride a camel!  It was awesome!  I just wish the ride was twice as long... I guess I'll have to go to Egypt for that.

The volunteers at the zoo are very helpful and knowledgeable.  I learned so much about the giraffes and we even got a chance to feed them.

Brooke's favorite part of the zoo was the petting zoo where she patted and brushed every single goat.  One headbutted her in the leg at the end, so we decided we had enough of that!



This baby giraffe was really fun to watch.  One of the volunteers was explaining to me that while the adult giraffes were being fed, he was upset that the ostrich was getting into the giraffe food.  I guess he's not old enough to scare the ostrich so it was pretty fun to watch his reaction.

Palm Springs

Caitlin, Brooke, Oliver and I planned to visit our family in Palm Springs this week.  We packed up and were ready to leave home at 4:30am on Wednesday but got a call that our early flight was canceled.  This pushed our plans into the afternoon (towards nap time).  The flights with two kids were fun, challenging and adventuresome.  I can't tell you how happy I was to have Caitlin there!  The most challenging time was descending into Palm Springs.  Brooke was tired of being cooped up and her ears were hurting her.  It was so tough to see her in pain.  This was by far the worst trip on an airplane for her.  The people around us were very nice and felt bad for her.

 When we got to Palm Springs we got to introduce Oliver to Great Grandpa Wally...

and  Great Grandma Koke.

Oliver is in good spirits and is having a great time down here!

 Oliver is crawling around so he likes to get into everything Brooke is doing.  He is eating bananas and now wants into all of Brooke's food!

Grandpa John took Oliver for a walk around the block in the Ergo!

Day Three

I remember thinking back on seven months as a wonderful age.  Brooke sat with a bucket of toys pulling out each one, inspecting it, chewing on it, and placing it aside.  She entertained herself for fifteen to twenty minutes and was always where I left her.  I was really looking forward to that time with Oliver.  But, as you can see from the video he will probably not stay in one place for fifteen minutes.  With day three of crawling under his belt, he is moving faster than Brooke did at eight months.  Boys are different creatures, that's for sure.

Dress Up and First Flavors

I'm trying to write down random funny things that Brooke says.  Lately she has been using the word "love".  The most recent statements include: "I love water, Daddy." (while in the bathtub) and, "I love meat, Mommy." (at the dinner table).

Brooke loves to dress up.  Her tutu, sparkly shoes, headband, sunglasses, necklaces and purses are all accessories that she likes to wear.  After getting into her outfit she runs over to the ipod and asks for music to dance to!

Oliver had his first solid food a couple days ago.  He's not too sure of the texture or flavor of carrots so we switched to applesauce.  He didn't choke or cry but kind of shivered with the new sensation.  I'm not sure if he really wants to eat the applesauce or if he's really excited about chewing on the spoon.  At least it's one more new thing to keep him occupied while we are eating dinner.

Learning to Crawl

Two days ago I was propping Oliver up on his knees to show him how to crawl.  What can I say, I like to motivate.  Today he was moving across the room like I couldn't believe at six months old!  I have to ask myself... what was I thinking?!  Time for baby proofing again!

Translation:

Brooke: "Yum yum ball" (I guess because he's going to go eat the ball)

Annie: "Oliver, can you say 'dadada'?"
Brooke (in a singing voice): "say Mama, and Daddy, and Grandpa."

Happy Halloween!

Oliver in his cute bee costume.

He seemed a little embarrassed by Kent's hairy face.

We weren't going to go trick-or-treating, but Brooke was so excited about her costume that we decided to stop by a few places.  At 5pm they had a "trunk or treat" down the road from us so we stopped there to see what it looked like.  Lots of fun games for kids to play and win candy.  Everyone seemed to be having a great time but the games were a little too old for Brooke.

A short break (for our arms!)... no smiles, just stunned faces with all the excitement on the main street in Cashmere.

Caitlin's neighbors really have fun with the 200+ kids that stop by their house on Halloween.  You can spot her neighbor working the smoke from 5-9pm!

Pretty spooky!

It didn't scare Brooke!  She walked right up for some candy!

This place a few houses down almost made Brooke cry... but we left just in time!  Brooke had the best time at home answering the door.  She said, "hi" to the kids and "see ya later alligator!".