Intruder alert!

Well, as you've most likely heard by now, Ollie became a big brother on Tuesday 2 December. Lucy came home with Rach on Friday, and Ollie has been totally fascinated with her ever since. In fact, our main issue is trying to keep him out of her room while she's trying to sleep!

One blessing (among many) has been that he's not waking up in the night when Lucy does - so far. So although Rach and I might not be getting heaps of sleep, he's still trucking along as usual. He's been a very spoilt boy over the past week, getting to spend lots of time with his nan who he LOVES, and getting quite a few presents to help him forget that little Lucy is permanently elbowing into his life and taking away some of his parents' attention...

He's talking so much more these days, and seems to have new words almost every day. He's stringing together short sentences as well, and seems really keen to tell us all about whatever it is he's thinking at the time. It's lucky babies like a bit of background noise, because Ollie's providing a fulltime soundtrack pretty much all day every day!

Big boy bed

It's finally happened - Ollie has moved into his Big Boy Bed. Having finished all the renovation stuff at home we've managed to get ourselves moved into our new room, and Ollie into our old one. So on Monday night he had his first night in a bed with no sides!

We were naturally concerned that he'd refuse to go to sleep and would just keep coming out, but so far so good. He's gotten up a couple of times initially, but is pretty happy to go back to bed on his own. This morning he didn't want to get up, and would have preferred to hang out with his toys on his new 'pirate' bed!

So all is well a couple of days in - fingers crossed it stays that way!

Hey, long time no see!

Okay, I'm a bit embarrassed. Pretty much all the last few entries have started with something along the lines of "I know it's been ages..." but this time has been a bit of a record. I can't believe this hasn't been updated since June!

So what's been happening?

We seem to be pretty much all done with teething for now. Ollie got his eye teeth a month or so ago, and is currently cutting the bottom ones to match. He's nowhere near as grizzly about that as he used to be, which is a bit of a blessing! He's running Rach pretty ragged these days with his super duper energy levels, and is so keen to help his daddy with DIY stuff. Since I've put in the shed he's pretty much wanted to go in there every time he goes outside, and is really keen to 'help' by carrying around various tools. Which is great, but when you put a hammer down somewhere because you need it, and then go to get it...

He's turned into quite the little chatterbox these days, and constantly comes up with new words to say. He's started to link them together into two and sometimes three word sentences too, which is really cool, and he picks up all the little kiwi-isms we have too - he generally says "bye bye", but every now and again he's gone with "see ya" instead!

He has become very adept indeed at opening doors and getting places he shouldn't, and is a terrific climber too. The other week Rach came out of the shower to find him standing on a chair by the kitchen bench, with sugar all over the bench, the floor and himself. Guess who was on a sugar high for a couple of hours afterwards? There's not a lot that's truly out of his reach anymore, so we're into the next stage of baby-proofing!

I don't know how he's going to react when his new sibling comes along, hopefully they're close enough in age that he doesn't do the jealousy thing. He doesn't really have much of a clue about what's coming - he gets that Rach's tummy is getting bigger, but not what that means for him... There's a few imminent changes though - we're creating a new bedroom out of our spare/study at the moment which Rach and I will hopefully move into next weekend, so at the same time Ollie is going to move into our 'old' room AND into a big-boy bed! It's so strange to think of him 'growing up' since he's only just 21 months old, but he really is.

Anyway, some photos to keep you going - enjoy! Hopefully it won't be as long between updates this time round...


"Well of course I can dress myself! Yes, I know they're Daddy's, what's your point?"


"DJ Ollie McHat Dude"


"Pretty sweet Hog, eh?"

talking up a storm

Wow, I just realised when I looked on the blog exactly how long it's been since I posted anything new on here!

As ever, Ollie keeps getting bigger and stronger. He's starting to chuck the odd wobbly when he doesn't get his way (ie blanket) but is also talking a lot more. He's getting so many new words all the time, it's really fascinating to watch him. He's getting much more into naming stuff, and knows where his eyes, nose, mouth, ears and toes are. He's also come back to telling us when he's filled his nappy so we can do something about it, so we're hoping before long he'll give us some warning and we can whip out the potty and see if he'll use it. Just reading back over that sentence is a bit odd - I never thought I'd be that excited about poo!

Anyway, he just gets to be more and more fun every day. Last night before bed we were building towers from the nested boxes and some other blocks he has, and we got to a point where Rach or I had to lift him up to put the next one on, because it was taller than him! I'm constantly surprised at what he understands and what he can do, like recently he's stopped sitting in his highchair for all meals except dinner. So in the morning we get his breakfast and ask him to go sit on the couch, and he runs to it, climbs up and just waits to be given some food!

He's really enjoying daycare now, and is quite happy to go along. That's been a bit of a relief for us, since it seemed to take him a while to settle in. I guess it must have been tough for him though, only going a couple of days a week, and not consecutively. It's definitely improved since his two days are together now, and he's even stopped needing his blanky during the day!

Anyhoo, here's the requisite few photos for you - enjoy.


Chewing on something we shouldn't have...


Hangin' with Nan


Cheeky boy eating lunch


Puppy face paint after daycare (run at the bottom due to dribbling...)

fart noises are funny!

I just had to post this because we thought it was so funny - as did Ollie! He's come up with a new trick of blowing rasberries on legs when they're up on the coffee table, which makes tremendously funny fart noises. You're never too young to learn the basics of humour, obviously!



I didn't think he'd keep doing it if we got up to get the camera, but this kept him going and all of us laughing for about 15 minutes solid. The only problem is that he gets a little over-excited and starts to use his teeth a little more than we'd like...

Also, here's a couple of photos of him in the bath the other night. Rach styled him up a little mohawk with the shampoo which looked really cool!

Bigger, faster, stronger, cheekier

It seems like every day Ollie gets taller, faster, or cheekier - he's such a laugh! This week has been a bit of a change for us, as Ollie has had his first day at daycare. I think it was tougher for Rach than it was for him though! He seems okay and is going back again tomorrow. At this stage he'll go Mondays and Thursdays, and Rach will do some relief teaching on those days. Here's a pic of him doing some dressups there:



He's definitely faster these days, and can take a bit of catching if we're not careful. He runs pretty quickly, and seems to sense when we're not looking and just gap it. He has a keen sense of when doors are open into rooms he's not allowed in (eg toilet or our bedroom) and can often be found giggling away to himself because he thinks he's so clever to be getting away with something...



In other news, we finally got him some shoes (fat feet, hard to find any that fit) and think he looks hilarious in them so here's a couple of pics. They slowed him down for about a minute and a half until he got used to them.





And finally, as promised - some pics of the backyard project. We went from an empty space to this:



And then after a few more weeks, this. From left to right: garden, tree deck, sandpit (covered) and platform deck. The platform will become a fort at some stage, but for now it's just a place he isn't tall enough to get to. Based on progress to date, I do not expect that to last long.



That's it for now... cheerio then!

fun and games

So we've been out and about a wee bit, and Ollie's begun to really enjoy the whole playground thing. He's not quite keen enough to take on the slide on his bottom, but he loves going down on his tummy! Swings are pretty cool too, but mostly just running around and seeing what he can climb is the order of the day.

We're preparing a little bit more of a play area at home now too - I'm building some raised-bed gardens, and as part of it I'm building him a sandpit and a little platform above it that we can add a ladder or slide to later on when he's a bit bigger. It's (as always) more work than I thought when I started, but can't give up now that it looks like a building site!

We have seen a few more moves from him lately and he's talking more and more - so far we still just have 'dada', 'nana' (banana), 'pop' (poppa) and 'ta', but progress is progress! He definitely understands that he has to ask for things if he wants them, and loves to read books - either with us, or on his own. He runs up with a book, hands it to you, and then just waits to be picked up and read to. He doesn't wait long before he starts trying to climb up on his own though!

The sleeps still aren't quite sorted out - we think he's ready to drop a morning sleep sometimes, but it's just not consistent enough to be sorted yet. We'll just keep trying...

Anyway, here's a couple of playground pics. I'll post some of the new area at home once I'm finished.

Birthday!

So as most of you know already, it was Ollie's birthday the other day. We can't believe it's been a year but the calendar says it has, so we'll have to get used to the idea. He's gotten so big and has really turned into a proper little boy now - such a huge change from the tiny little guy we had a year ago. He's developed a cheeky little personality and a bit of a sense of humour - not to mention a sense of adventure! He beetles around tirelesly all day, only stopping to eat or when he's completely tuckered out. Being home for the last few weeks has been quite an insight into what Rach deals with every day, and I must say although I love him to bits I don't think I'd swap jobs!

So the birthday party was lots of fun - thanks to everyone who was able to make it. The weather wasn't quite as good as we might have hoped for a beach party, but it came right in the end and was certainly hot enough anyway. We (and Ollie) had a lot of fun, and really enjoyed seeing everyone. Thanks for all the presents, cards and emails etc - once again, we've been very spoilt.

Here's a few pics from the day anyway - enjoy!


Ollie and pal Abby


Happy Birthday Ollie!


Ollie and Daddy


Christopher likes cake - mmm, blue icing...


Cameron likes cake too


After the swim, nudie run!


Christopher watching for party-crashers

Back in action

I know it's been ages - again, not much of an excuse, just haven't found the time to blog lately.

So by way of an update: Ollie now has more teeth (5, with the 6th on its way now) and is well and truly mobile. Walking has now become the preferred mode of transport, and he's getting pretty quick. Running is not quite a happening thing yet, but he's trying...



Christmas was a relatively relaxed affair for us, although Christmas Day itself was still quite busy. 21 adults for Christmas lunch at Mum & Dad's place... We had Rach's parents here at ours in the morning for breakfast though, which was really nice and a bit of a quieter start to the day. Ollie didn't really get what the fuss was all about, and wasn't as interested in ripping into presents as we'd expected, but fun all the same.

He was very spoilt for presents, and now has a grand total of three sand trucks with spades and buckets and things! He also has his very own paddling pool, which he seems to like a bit.

Here's a few of the Christmas pics: