Monday, June 27, 2011

Over a year...

I've decided, in an attempt to force myself to keep posting pictures of my child at a somewhat regular rate, to continue giving you monthly updates, even though he's already past the "year" marker. I think we can continue to explain his age in months for now, don't you? So, the following pictures are from Oliver's 12th month (which ended on Friday, by the way).

My one-year-old boy started off the year mischievously. He began by climbing into the armoire in the dining room...
That doesn't sound so bad, does it? But the real deviousness began when we had a babysitter. After a diaper change, the babysitter went to find a new pair of pants for Oli, while he crawled away... With new pants in hand, babysitter set out to finish dressing Oliver who, by that point, had disappeared. When Oliver was nowhere to be found, and as the panic began to set in, a small giggle was heard from the armoire. Oliver had not only crawled in, he had shut the door and found it HILARIOUS that the poor babysitter almost had a heart attack due to his disappearance. Quite the little devil!
The he continued a few days later by diving headfirst off the curb and into the gravel. Sporting his war wounds...
Which were still visible several days later:
That same day, I caught one of my favorite Oliver expressions. As he crawls toward you, ready to dive into your lap, he makes the most hilarious faces. Though the focus isn't great, I had to share them with you:
In other news, Oliver is still not walking officially, though he walks with his car all day long, around and around and around the apartment (forgive his partially dressed condition):
He still eats like his legs are hollow; he is obsessed with ricecakes; he drinks his real milk from cups... He's almost not a baby anymore! But I did manage to catch his photo right after he got his one-year shots (see his little bandaid!); I gave the poor little guy a bottle in his old chair... He almost seemed like a baby still. :)
He also loves his little pals. Though he's kind of an observer and is often happy to play alone (if there are new and interesting things to examine), he is really enjoying spending time with friends. Oscar spent the whole afternoon with us one day, and these two were precious!
I know that there are a million challenges that come with twins, but I have to admit that I saw some of the benefits today (there are NO secret messages in this comment, by the way!) as these two really entertained each other. If they weren't playing together, they were simply watching each other:
And we had the privilege of hosting another playgroup this month, too. At first, I thought our attempt to photograph all four boys was hopeless:
This expression on Oliver's face cracked me up!
But we did actually have some miraculous success, too...
Four one-ish year old boys smiling all at once! Are they precious or what?!?!
And, to embarrass my child someday, I leave you with possibly the most awkward picture of Oliver yet... When Hailey was visiting (more on that to come soon), she managed to capture this:
No matter how awkward, we love him!!!

Tuesday, June 21, 2011

Oscar's Birthday Party

Oscar and Oliver... The two little "O's" How cute are they?!?!
We've been so blessed to befriend Oscar (and his mom who is my jogging partner - yay!) over these past few months... And we had the privilege of celebrating his birthday with him at Champs de Mars this past weekend. Look at this birthday boy go!
I keep telling Oliver he should take some tips from his little friend, but Oliver seems content for the time being to stay on all fours... Oh well. The party was a blast anyway. The Champs de Mars was packed that day:
But we still managed to have a lovely little picnic:
And we enjoyed the music being played around the corner:
Oscar's grandma even brought some goodie bags for the boys, complete with little noisemakers which the boys loved (I know Oliver doesn't seem to care in this picture, but I assure you he enjoyed it...):
Oscar was especially cute eating his little cupcake:
Check out that goatee!
We decided Oliver didn't need any cupcake... he seemed plenty content with his banana:
Most entertaining was the attempted photo shoot of the boys in their birthday hats... Since Oliver kept pulling his off and Oscar was much more interested in his soccer ball, these were the best I could manage:
But the birthday boy did finally give me a great smile:
Really, is this kid adorable or what?
Those eyelashes kill me every time...
And, of course, I had to take advantage of having another photographer around to snap a shot of me and my boy:
The weather held out for us... just barely. Right before we left, we tried to snap a few pictures while the skies were darkening. They may not be the best, but I love pics of Oliver and his buddy Oscar!
So great to have wonderful friends like this! Happy one-year, Oscar!!!

Tuesday, June 7, 2011

It's My Party....

On June 4, we had the privilege of celebrating Oliver's birthday with our friends here in Paris:
I spent the morning decorating cupcakes... Since I had found an adorable evite with a train, I decided to try to continue that theme with my cupcakes. Way too much work, but I thought they were cute!
The weather was lovely, and many friends came out to the park to celebrate with us:
We even got a couple of family pictures:
Even better, everyone wanted to play with Oliver!! (Great break for mom!)
Tiffany was a big hit with the bubbles:
Oliver found them particularly entertaining:
He also stared in utter rapture at the older kids playing soccer:
And made a beeline for the fresh dirt, of course:
I'm telling you, this kid was in heaven!
We tried to get a "kid" (+ Justin, who graciously joined them) picture...
A little tough to get them all looking at the same time:
We almost forgot Jude and Julia Kate (the one on the way), though:
Of course, we sang happy birthday:
And Oli got his first taste of cake... Like all food, cake was quite a hit with the little man:
Just as thrilling for Oliver was the gift opening:
He was focused:
Enraptured:
Intense:
And overjoyed:
Best of all, he gave everyone a round of applause when he was done!
He then climbed on top of his presents to declare his kingship:
By the end, we had one tired cookie...
But he had a blast, and he even sent out train-themed thank you notes the following day.
Oliver had fun and, most importantly, we all enjoyed celebrating the little blessing that he is!