15 MONTHS

Tonight I got emotional putting Hanley down for bed.  As tears welled up in my eyes, I asked Cody why he has to grow up so fast. Without skipping a beat, Cody said "Honey, he was smearing handfuls of sh*t all over his crib this morning.  He's not that old!"


Well, yes.  That did happen this morning.  Hanley was indeed caught this morning finger painting with goods from his own diaper. Not really how we wanted to start the day...but it's still hard to believe my baby is becoming less and less of a baby each day.

At 15 months old...

-Portland got snow in February! We got a 5-6 inches at our house but other parts of Portland got up to 10 inches. It was Hanley's first experience with snow!!! He wasn't too sure what to think about the snow at first and wasn't thrilled about getting bundled up in his snow gear.  We pulled him around on the sled but it wasn't until Cody took him sledding down the driveway, that he really seemed to start enjoying it. He's a natural dare devil. By the 2nd day, he had no problems getting bundled up because he knew it meant he got to go out to play! And by the 3rd day, if he saw his snow suit out, he begged to put it on!

-I have been reading to Hanley since day 1 and he has always enjoyed it.  In fact, before he became mobile, reading to him would calm him down when he was cranky. When he started walking he lost interest in reading.  He wanted to constantly be on the go and acted like he didn't have the time for that anymore! Just in the last couple of weeks, he started getting back into reading again!!! Which totally makes this Mama's day! I will often find him sitting there just flipping through different books on his own.  Sometimes he will even bring me a book and crawl up on my lap so I can read it to him. 

-Earlier I posted about Hanley's use of vocabulary.  What I didn't mention is that somehow we escaped (at least for now!) from him using the word "no".  I know far too often, that is a favorite first word for kiddos.


-If he wants you to do something, he will grab your hand and place it on exactly what he wants.  It's so cute but demanding at the same time!


-We spent Super Bowl at Mindy and Clayton's house.  Hanley had lots of fun breaking in all Baby Jaclyn's new toys! At nap time, we put him in Jaclyn's crib which is equipped with the video monitor.  We have never used a monitor of any kind at our house but I have to say, I loved being able to see him put himself down for nap! I think Mindy made me a believer in the video monitor...Future Olson Baby #2 may just get a video monitor someday!


-One night last week, Hanley woke up twice in the middle of the night.  This is really unusual for our great little sleeper.  He's working on another molar so I couldn't blame him too much though!  The first time, we let him settle himself back down but the second time I went in to check in on him. I picked him up and rocked him back to sleep.  He fell asleep immediately but I just couldn't bring myself to put him back down. I rocked him for 45 minutes before going back to bed and let me tell you...I LOVED every moment of it! Since we like to encourage self soothing, intervening isn't something I would normally do.  But in the back of my mind, I thought I better take advantage of the opportunity because someday he's not going to want me to rock him. He's only little once and darn it, I was going to indulge in the moment! So, I did just that.

His Growing Vocabulary

Today I got an extra snow day (okay, more like an ICE day) at home with Hanley! Today has been one of those days that makes me wish I was a stay at home mom.  All I am going to say is that Cody better come home and remind me of the "difficult" days at home before I walk into work tomorrow and resign...


Today also happens to be Hanley 15 month birthday! We celebrated by finally getting out of the house to play (after being snowed/iced in since Thursday evening)! The roads weren't too bad (I only hit one slick spot that made my heart race).


This month I really noticed Hanley's ability to communicate has increased drastically but I don't believe I have really blogged about his use of vocabulary.  So here it is...


1) His first word was "bye" at 10 months old. I distinctly remember going to the grocery store on a Sunday in September (the day after Cody's high school reunion).  He went around the store waving to everyone, saying "bye".
2) His second word was "hi" at 12 months old.  He shocked Cody and I both when he picked up the phone and said "hi".  This was also his first phone call.  Here is Kim's account of that call on Nov 19th...

"I had my first phone call from Hanley last night. It went something like this:
Oma: Hello ( a little jostling of the phone) hello, Hanley is that you?

Hanley : Hi (clear as a bell)

Oma: Hi Hanley ! How are you today?

Hanley : (a little Hanley speak Oma has not learned yet)

Oma: Have you been a good boy today?...

Hanley: (very enthusiastically ) Da!

I think that is Norwegian or Canadian for 'Hell yeah!'
And then he hung up! I love you little man!"

3)A few days after that phone call he FINALLY started saying "Mama" and "Dada".

4)More recently he has started saying "uh-oh" whenever something is dropped (He often purposely drops things so he can say it! He also says" stinky" and plugs his nose!

5)Other words he says but aren't as clear are "thank you" and "cracker".

Date Night!

I called my Mom a three weeks ago and begged her to come up to give Cody and I a night out.  Okay, lets be real, there was no begging involved! My Mom jumped at the chance to have a night with the boy Hanley lucked out and got a night with not only Meme but Grandpa too! This can only mean one thing...he was double spoiled :o)

Cuddles with Grandpa!

We started our night with dinner and drinks before the Blazer's game.

The Blazers were playing Minnesota and Cody happened to get great seats from work! The last time I watched Kevin Love play was at Mac Court and we all know the local boy didn't get any love there (after choosing to play for an out of state team-UCLA). It was fun to watch him play again and see him receive lots of support from the crowd. We both had a great time cheering on the Blazers and were happy to leave with a win that night!


After the game, we went out for ice cream before heading home. It was a fun way to spend our night out together.


I was a little worried about leaving Hanley just because he had been so clingy since our return home from vacation.  It would be the first night since then that someone else put him to bed. Of course he did great! My Mom said the night was filled with lots of laughter and he went to bed right on time with no problems.


Meme was extra lucky that night. Not only did she get to spend the evening with such a happy boy but she got to be the last one to give him his VERY LAST bottle.  After that night, he was done.  Done for good.

14 MONTHS!

By far, the coolest thing Cody and I have ever done is create the cutest little man on the face of this earth.  How is it possible that he is already 14 months old?!

At 14 months old...

-Still wearing size 3 shoes.

-Got in his very first MOLAR tooth! (Of course it was making its way up the week that he was home with Oma). That makes a total of 9 teeth (if you include his upper right one that is just partially in).
-Started having serious attachment issues to Mama upon our return home from vacation.
-He cried for the very first time dropping him off at daycare last week.  Talk about ripping your heart out as you have to just turn and walk away. Thankfully, he only did this for 2 days. Now, he seems to be okay with drop off's again.
-Gained another buddy! Colton Wayne was born on January 16th weighing an adorable 6 lbs, 12 oz!! His tough Mama, rocked an unmedicated birth!
-We have recently noticed he can be shy about playing with other kids. Cody says he's just a "one man wolf pack"! Hopefully, he will become more socially engaged with age.
-He shares his love for watermelon like his Mama! He thinks watermelon is good now...come August when they are actually in season, he's in for a real treat!
-We have finally dropped the morning and after nap bottle (he did this completely on his own). He dropped the morning bottle about a month ago, and we just got rid of the after nap bottle last week.  That means we are only down to the one bottle before bed. I haven't really pushed to bottle issue because Hanley is pretty good about just deciding when he's done with these kind of things.
-He gives the best kisses.  He puckers up and everything. It's adorable.  The one catch.... he ONLY gives them to DADDY!
-He seems to pick a few favorite foods of the month.  He no longer likes yogurt (uh, that was totally last month...).  His flavor of the month seems to be Quorn nuggets, peanut butter toast, and fish sticks.  Oh and nutrigrain bars, he usually has one after nap each day.
-We finally did Hanley's 1-year photos with Marissa Lynn Photography! Thank you Marissa for another job well done! What are we going to do when she moves across the country this summer?! Check out his photos at http://www.marissalynnblog.com/2014/01/one-happy-family/


Blogger is not letting me post any photos tonight, so make sure to check out Marissa's website!

Palm Springs

Another Olson vacation is in the books.

I first realized how life as a mother has taken it's toll on me, when we boarded our flight and I passed out immediately.  When I woke up, I leaned over to Cody and whispered in a fairly annoyed voice, "What are we doing....? We have been waiting on the tarmac for like 30 minutes now." He just looked at me and smiled, then opened the window shade so I could see we were already in the air.  Moments later, the pilot announced we would be landing in less than 20 minutes. Ha. I suppose I was a little tired. Sounds about right for a working Mama.

We landed in Palm Springs to spend 5 glorious nights and 6 sunny days on vacation with just the two of us.  Hanley was back at home with Oma.

We spent the first day lounging at the pool, racking up a bar bill charging it directly to our room. Yup, that will get you in trouble real quick!

We spent the second day with our friends Jeff and Jeana who live in L.A. We met them for coffee, went up to Big Bear Lake and did some goofing around.

Big Bear Lake

 

 

We spotted Marilyn!



 

Dinosaurs anyone? 
There is a gift shop INSIDE this dinosaur...We passed on the entry to the mechanical dinosaur museum in the back. 
Can you see Cody in the picture?

 

We spent the third day back at the pool. Then played a friendly competitive game of tennis. All you need to know is that I won and Cody owes me a back massage! Later that evening we planned a date night: Mexican food at my request and a movie. You know your husband loves you when he lets you drag him to the second Hunger Games movie, even after he hated the first! Despite Cody also hating the second movie as well, we really enjoyed our night out. This was the only night of our trip we stayed up past 10 pm.

 

Nothin' like starting out your day at the pool with a bloody mary and some California sunshine!

Getting ready for our date night!

We woke up before the sunrise on the fourth day for a hot air balloon ride.  When Cody first mentioned the hot air balloon ride, he thought he was going to have to talk me into it but I said YES right away.  It wasn't until I was standing in the balloon ready for take off when I started having second thoughts. We soared through the air at over 1,000 feet at the grace of the wind while we watched the sunrise (and all the dogs below bark at us!). It took us about an hour to travel about 17 miles across the desert. The guide had us me a little worried about the landing, mentioning several times "it's not going to be smooth", "bend your knees", "don't be surprised when we bounce and all kinds of stuff". The landing was actually lots of fun!! We bounced 3 times but overall was much better than he had mentally prepared me for. I am so glad we did the hot air balloon ride! We actually used our Christmas money from my Grandparents to splurge on it, so I better make sure to call my Grandma and let her know how much fun we had!

I wasn't panicking just yet :o)

Morning sunrise with our fellow ballooners in the air

When we got back to the hotel, I immediately spiked a sudden fever. We spent the rest of the day cooped up in our hotel room and had to cancel our dinner reservations for New Years Eve.  Later that night, Cody spiked a fever too.  We were quite the pair let me tell you. Sick and missing our baby was not a good combo.

We laid low the fifth morning.  After a bad case of cabin fever and getting some antibiotics in our system for our strep throat, we decided to make the drive to Salton Sea. It's a pretty interesting place.  The beach looks sandy but it is actually nearly 100% barnacles. The "sea" is large but shallow, it's 55% saltier than the ocean (and increasing in salinity with each passing year), there is an abundance of tilapia (so much that there is not a fishing limit), and the once popular destination area is practically deserted nowadays.

That is all barnacles on the beach! Dogs aren't allowed on the beach because the barnacles will get stuck and infected in their paws. I was in flip flops and worried about my own feet!

Beautiful day at the "sea"!

On our way back to town, I insisted we visit a date farm (we saw a couple date farms from the air on our balloon ride that struck my interest). So, we stopped at Shields Date Garden right off the HWY 111.  It was NOT what I expected! I wanted to learn about the growing process and harvesting of dates but instead we got a biblical tour. Seriously...

Date Palms!
We made sure to enjoy a Date Milkshake while we were there!

Jesus on the Cross

We spent the rest of the day back at the hotel trying to recover from our day out.  It was probably more than our bodies were ready for.  We were back in bed by 7:30 pm when both our fevers came back.  Neither of us got any sleep that night.

By the sixth morning, we were ready to be home, back in our own beds and more than ready to re-united with Hanley.  Other than getting sick, we really enjoyed some quality time together.  We had zero expectation for this vacation other than trying to sleep in (which yeah right, our bodies are just wired to be up at 6 am regardless) and relaxing. We successfully got in lots of relaxing down at the adult pool during the day and soaking in the hot tub in the evenings.

We didn't do any research before leaving, so we stole Jeff's motto of "Google that shit" for all our little adventures (which included checking out Elvis' neighborhood and house-totally retro by the way), restaurant reviews, etc.

On flight home was hard.  I was feeling HORRIBLE by this time and I couldn't stop thinking about getting home to Hanley.  There was a 1 1/2 year old that started crying just before boarding our flight which in turn made me cry.  I missed Hanley so much.  Cody said (with a smile) the baby girl crying, did just the opposite for him.

We landed. Oma welcomed our return and we peeked in on our sleeping boy.  My heart was full and my throat was sore. It was indeed another Olson adventure.

The next morning we got to wake up to this little guy...

Thank you Madaline from Peak Travel (http://www.peaktravelgroup.com/) for booking this vacation for us! Despite getting sick, we had a great time!!! The resort was beautiful and the weather was more than perfect!!!

Big Boy News

Well, the boy recently decided high chairs are for babies.  So, he sits at the table like a big guy now...

That's right! I'm a big boy!

Asking for "more" is serious business...

I suppose we should consider purchasing a booster seat..?

Occasionally he will try to stand on his chair at the table but more often than not, he just sits and eats his meal. One morning, he was full of energy and we had a hard time getting him to focus on eating breakfast. Cody was getting frustrated with him trying to stand on his chair.  From the other room I hear, "Hanley, only losers and future felons stand at the table! Now. Sit. Down." Hmm...I wonder what parenting book Cody got that from?

In other big boy news, Hanley starting signing "milk" this week.  Now he signs "more", "all done", "eat" and "milk".

13 MONTHS

 

At 13 months old...

-I am still finding it hard so say, "I have a ONE year old". It just seems humanly impossible for the past year to have flown by so fast.

-I always thought our child and his interest in the bathroom wastebasket was unique until Courtney emailed me this article...
http://theuglyvolvo.com/2013/12/10/a-ten-month-olds-letter-to-santa/

That Christmas wish list couldn't be more dead on. I always knew kids loved keys, glasses, dog food, etc. but I was relieved when I saw #5-the contents of the bathroom waste basket! "Really? It's not just my child?" was the first thought to cross my mind.

The other day, Hanley picked up a dirty tissue from the waste basket (gross...I know!), blew his nose into the tissue (Hey, at least he knew what to do with the tissue), then put it back in the trash. Then continued to dig through the trash for another trashcan "prize" of some sorts.  Glad to know, that just makes him normal.

-He got his first fat lip tonight after a wrestling match with the kitchen strainer.

-He laughs at me when I dance in the car.  My rhythm is just as horrible as his, so we can really relate with each other.

-Oma and Opa bought him a camo duck blind for his birthday and he loves it.  He is so wild in that thing (always making it rock and roll from the inside), it makes me nervous at times!

-He eats a ton of solids but is kind of picky.  So far, I think his favorites are pb & j sandwiches and greek yogurt. We always try to feed him what we are having for dinner (or send leftovers in his lunch for daycare), it's a hit or miss if he eats it/likes it.

-Despite his love for grilled cheese sandwiches, we had to cut them out of his diet after realizing he is dairy sensitive.  He made this pretty clear to us when projectile vomit of grilled cheese sandwich and goat milk was all over me, my hair and down my shirt. I still gag at even the thought of that smell that night.

-He still loves to clean.  He loves the broom at April's house, the vacuum and dishwasher at our house, and likes to help with the laundry at Oma's house.  What a dork! Cody always tells him to get another hobby.

-Everyone told me once your kid transitions to 1 nap/day, its usually a nice long nap (2-2 1/2 hours). Well, that hasn't been the case for Hanley. He still just takes ONE 1-1 1/4 hour nap.  Last week there were 2 days that he took nearly a 2 hour nap.  I hope that he eventually transitions into those longer naps.

-He goes to bed by 7:30pm and wakes up at 6:00am -almost to the minute.  He is very scheduled when it comes to bedtime.

-I hate the fact that Hanley is in bed before I get home from work on Thursday's but I think he enjoys the evening with Daddy.  They seem to have a great routine down for their special evening together.

-I mentioned that The Elf on the Shelf arrived at our house after Thanksgiving. We decided we wanted Hanley to name him. So, we will wait until next year when Hanley can have some input. So, here's our elf that has been so much fun...

First day!

Taking a ride on Eli!

Heading back to deer camp!