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The Monkey Ballerina's are by Margot Curran and are available at Oopsy Daisy: Fine Art For Kids (oopsydaisy.com) Margot paints rembrandt-like paintings of her daughter's stuffed animals.

This morning Grammy woke up to the pitter-patter of little feet running around the dining room. Oliver’s latest thing is to play “Chase” around the table. He will run in circles for what seems an eternity provided that someone is following him. Occasionally he will switch directions to unwind, but he will keep going until he is winded and out of breath. He’s gotten pretty quick too. When he does this he refers to himself as “Dash” from the Disney movie The Incredible’s. He has not seen the movie, but he loves his Dash doll. He even resembles Dash! Sometimes Oliver will run in place as if he is peeling out before actually gaining any actual mileage around the table. It’s a great cardio workout to start his day and it is the only real exercise I get these days.

When Grammy entered the room Oliver was a bit reticent because he did not initially recognize her. That did not last long however, because Grammy was holding a bag of toy cars she brought with her to give The Kid. As soon as he realized that Grammy was holding something for him, he jumped out of my lap and ran to her in order to inspect the bag of goodies.

Inside the bag were four die-cast metal cars that propel forward when they are wound up. [Think big Matchbox cars.] Initially, I noticed the small dangerous parts, but Oliver’s face lit up when he saw the cars. He said “CAR!” and it was all over. He loves these things. So much in fact that I could not pry one of them out of his hands at nap time. Now whenever any of the cars are not in his presence he whines the word “CARRRR!”.

Last night when Papi was putting Oliver down to bed, he had to struggle with him just to keep Oliver from sleeping with it. The first thing Oliver said to me this morning when he woke up was “CAR?!”.

It seems as though he has no other toy at this moment. I think Grammy may have opened Pandora’s box.

(PS:Grammy's luggage arrived at 10:30pm last night)

Grammy is here. Her luggage is not. The Luggage did not catch its' connecting flight in Atlanta and will be delayed. Grammy got in too late to see Oliver because he went to bed moments before I had to pick her up from the airport. Grammy did however arrive late enough to miss the 108 degree heat. (It was only 90 degrees at 9pm.)

When we got home we shared an ice cold lemonade and then hit the sack because we knew our Sunday morning would start early.

Could there be a better way to beat the heat? I think not. After spending the better part of the morning painting a garage floor with no power (and no air conditioning!!) We hit Uncle Walter's Pool Party. Oliver learned a new word when he saw Uncle Dilson in the pool with his wine glass: "Intervention". Say it with me everyone.

Tonight just as I walked in the door from work we had one of Los Angeles’ infamous rolling blackouts. Luckily it was still light enough to eat dinner by. Oliver had no problem eating his spaghetti and meatballs. Today Oliver is 17 months old, it's only appropriate that we make his favorite meal.

Afterwards we had a long bath and then off to dreamland. Around 3am all the lights came back on. So did the Jacuzzi bathtub, the stereo and television and anything else that was on at 6pm. I was so exhausted that I didn’t even wake up. Thanks Papi!!

Today we beat the heat by swimming in Uncle Wally's pool. In case you have not heard, like Lisa and David, Uncle Walter and Uncle Dilson are in their new home too. It's beautiful! I think we will be seeing a lot of them this summer because Oliver loves loves loves their pool! He never wants to get out of it. He already goes underwater (a trick he’s been doing for months in the bathtub) and if you hold him, and tell him to do it, he will kick his feet and move his hands as if he’s in a race. He hasn’t quite mastered jumping off the steps yet, currently it's more of a "leaning fall", but he is working on his “jump” and will no doubt have it down by the end of the month.

Oliver has made himself right at home at Uncle Wally’s and loves to put little dusty white footprints on his dark hardwood floors. On a good day there will be a complete circle around his living room sofa.

After spending most of the day sweating in Hollywood, we invited ourselves over to Ethan's new house. If you have not heard yet, the new house is built and Ethan and his Mom and Dad were setting up the grill for an Independance Day cook-out.

Oliver doesn’t stay up late enough to enjoy the fireworks, however he is definitely able to stay up long enough to eat Lisa’s appetizers and play with Ethan’s toys. Oliver is really good at destroing every bit of block-art Ethan can create. Ethan had to come up with creative ways to keep Oliver from destroying everything he created. Having destroyed one building, Oliver would make his way back to the kitchen counter for more food, giving Ethan just enough time to set up more blocks before eventually returning to smash the new creation. This circle continued most of the evening.

Later, Ethan entertained the guests on his piano. At one point Oliver accompanied him by banging on the keys until it hurt his fingers and he said “OW!” and walked away--opting to eat mounds of artichoke dip, cheese, grapes, and spicy quacomole instead. A child prodigy, no?

Hey Aunt Carol, is that enough Sauce for you?

This is Oliver using the Abacus to try and figure out just how old Grammy is. Sorry this posting is late, but Oliver started pushing those beads over a week ago and just now finished.

We woke up this Fathers’ Day with our usual Sunday trip to the market. After that, Oliver took the Dads’ to breakfast at Fred 62. It was a fairly standard breakfast for Silver Lake: We pet a Labradoodle at the next table; dropped some scrambled eggs on the sidewalk; lots of sweaty people with tattoos melting in the sunshine--breakfast as usual really. Once we finished there, it was off to Oliver’s favorite little store: La La Ling! We did some damage there as you can tell from the photos below.

We did however manage to keep ourselves from buying the cutest little True Religion blue jeans. We could not justify $118 just so that Oli would have a pair of jeans to match his dad. (Papi could not justify it, but I might be going back to La La Ling this week !!)

I suppose that your asking yourself “but Daddy, what did YOU get for Fathers’ Day?” Papi is saving up to get me THIS !!!! (Or at least he had better be.) Seriously, my gift is that I get to dress Oliver up in those elephant pajamas and dinosaur boots and play with all his new toys!! Now if only he would wake up from his nap, we could stop cleaning out the garage and get down to serious playtime.

Happy Fathers’ Day Everyone!

Today Oliver and I had the morning together while Papi was visiting the girls. We went to Woodbridge Park and played with the kids before going to Beverly Hills and picking up a little something for Papi to open up on Fathers’ Day. (See the photoblog) While we were driving across town Oli kept pointing out the cars (CAH!); Trucks (TRUK!); and Buses (BUSSSS). Oliver was having a blast the entire time.

He was very popular with the Sales Clerk at Tiffany’s where he picked out a beautiful money clip for his Papi. When we got home Oliver even addressed the card to Papi personally. If you click onto the hyperlink but have trouble reading Oliver's handwriting, allow me to translate: "Dear Papi: Happy Fathers' Day - I love you."

In the afternoon just before his nap, Grandma Angela stopped by with some melons. Yum.

When I was in Nashville I had brunch with a country music artist named Sarah Buxton. At brunch we talked about Oliver and she was surprised to hear that Oliver could play the harmonica. I mentioned that Oliver’s harmonica was a plastic hand me down one from his friend Ethan, and how Oli has been playing it since his first birthday. Sarah was so impressed that she gave me a real harmonica to give The Kid when I got home. I did just that. Oliver and Papi picked me up at the airport, and as soon as I got in the car I gave him the harmonica and he happily played me a tune the entire way home.

Maybe next year Oliver will come with me to Nashville and play his new harmonica for Sarah in person—until then this picture will be the only proof. For those of you who have not heard of Sarah, you should give her new album a listen. Here is Sarah’s MySpace Website where you can hear a few tracks from her cd.

Happy Sweet 16 Months Oliver!!
Still no broken bones or any major injuries to speak of. We haven't dropped him. No hospital visits. No major illnesses. Oliver hasn't fallen off the couch, fallen from a chair, fallen down any stairs, or fallen down the hillside.

Keep up the good work little man! We love you.

The first thing that I noticed when I got home from my travels was Oliver's crazy hair cut. Papi mentioned to me that he wanted to cut The Kid's hair when I was gone. I asked him to stick to the bangs because I really liked the way his curly golden locks were growing in.

I came back to an "Oh Brother Where Art Thou" hatchet job. It seriously looked like I brought him in from blue ridge mountains. It resembled a bad wig worn askew. On one side it sat about half an inch above his ear, while the other side it was just barely covering the tip of his little ear. The back went at a diagnal. The shorter side had a little duck tail below it off on it's own. The bangs resembled Jaws' teeth.

It bothered me so much that I came home early enough so that I could run him to the barber and try to even it out. They had to take more off than I preferred but it's respectable now. He kind of looks like a little jar head. Reminder to self: when traveling hide scissors.

Papi thinks that this blog entry is mean. It's not meant to be mean. (Hey, at least he was not bleeding--and I didn't notice any scarring.) I didn't have the heart to take a picture of his crazy hair-do (or should I write "hair-don't") but below is a picture of the hair I left a week ago. (You can see some shots of the new "do" in the photoblog.

Oliver and I have had a lot of time together in the past few weeks while Daddy's been working in NY, DC and BNA. While it's been great, and Oliver doesn't quite realize how long Dada has been gone, he does sense something is up. The last few days he's been waking up, walking into our room, and pointing at the unmade bed yelling "dada"...so I suspect he thinks dada is still sleeping.

In any event, we miss you dada (as you can see in the picture above).

We've grown, learned new words, and visited the Aquarium, the Zoo, Ethan's last baseball game, Zoe and Ella's house, the farmer's market, grandma's house and many parks. But we can't wait for you to get home tomorrow.

Oliver's vocabulary continues to grow. This morning, while he was busy scarfing down some scrambled eggs, I went to the fridge to grab a pint of OJ, and served myself a small glass. When I sat it down he looked at the glass, then at me and said "juice"...so I handed him the glass and after a big gulp, he repeated the word. This gets added to "Moon", "Nina" and "Nino", which he's almost got down,"dirt", which he loves to say, "Bus", and "poo, poo", which he shares with us when he's about to soil his diaper.

Since he knows what poop is, and he knows when it's coming, today was also the day we went to pick out training seats. Oliver picked out the Baby Bjorn seat, and booster. We'll start tonight and see how he does. He's just discovered a tiny chair in this room. so he's got the sitting part down. But he's used to pooping standing up, so we'll keep at it.

After breakfast we went to the flower market downtown to look at plants for our landscaping project, and Oliver got to sniff at all the different varieties.

Some of you may know and appreciate Oliver’s fine vocal talents and how he can shriek at octaves that Mariah Carey and neighborhood dogs can only hope to achieve. For some time now The Dad’s have been able to ignore Oliver’s screams in spite of the fact that he often waits until lifted directly near your ear before letting loose with one of his head-splitting shrieks. That is to say until this weekend. Oliver no longer has the patience to wait until we understand what it is he is trying to communicate before screaming. Now he just screams constantly. A scream when he wants to be lifted. A scream when he wants to eat. A scream when he wants a toy. A scream when he is happy. A scream when he is sad. A scream whenever. The same tone, and the same volume--Head Splitter.

In the car, on the way home from a delicious Poquito Mas lunch, Oliver shrieked so loudly and for so long that I had to roll his window down so the wind would whip against his little face--forcing him to close his eyes and hopefully his mouth for a moment. That trick did not work this time. He just kept on shrieking with his eyes closed and his beautiful blond hair blowing back from his face. He was not mad, or annoyed, or anything except loud. The Kid was so loud that people would jump in shock when they heard the screaming toddler from the passing SUV. He did this for miles—even when you could hear his vocal chords literally start to give out and sputter. When his voice would crack, he would take a couple seconds to swallow some spit, or swig from my water bottle and then just keep on screaming-on. If he doesn't get through this phase soon he is totally going to end up like Froggy from The Little Rascals: croaking his way through preschool by the age of two.

Baby Center.com’s “My Toddler This Week” email states that it is perfectly normal for a 15-month-old toddler to sound like a Hyena (or worse). Their email goes on to explain that a parent should kneel down and say “I can’t understand you when you talk like that. Please use your normal voice and I’ll be happy to listen to what you’re saying.” Of course they say that one needs to do this over and over and over until eventually the toddler realizes that the better tone of voice gets them what they want. I should mention that we noticed a three year old at dinner last week still shrieking just like Oliver.

We could not help but make a comparison between Oliver and our Saturday night dvd pick: King Kong. (Yes, we finally got around to seeing that movie!) The comparison is in the scene where Anne dances and juggles the rocks for Kong as Kong roared and beat his chest. At first it was difficult to determine whether or not Kong would eat her or just keep watching. I, of course, can be compared to the lovely and talented Naomi Watts--dancing for my Oliver Kong. Doing my best to keep the beast from getting angry and ripping my head off. Sadly, some times beauty is just not enough to calm the savage beast. I am hopeful however that this phase will pass quickly. We all know how the movie ended.

Sunday night we celebrated a belated birthday and Mother’s Day for Grandma Angela. Papi made some pesto, Dad opened a bottle of wine, and Oliver fed his Grandma some pasta. Later Oliver helped Grandma blow out her candles. Oliver loves his visits with Grandma and Bandit. Sorry Bandit, I didn’t get to snap a picture of you on this visit—but I did get some of dinner with Grandma.

Beth, the Pesto Dinner was in your honor. We were thinking of you all night!!

This Morning Aunt Christine took Oliver and the Dads’ out to breakfast to the Peninsula Hotel in Beverly Hills. We had a lovely; some might even say sophisticated, breakfast. Oliver and Aunt Christine both ordered the scrambled eggs. Aunt Christine brought a couple of presents for Oliver and in return she got to experience Oliver’s high-pitched Mariah Carey scream in person. Maybe the gifts and the hotel reminded him of his baby shower.

The Dads had Eggs Benedict. Yum. Don’t think however, that I overlooked the fact that the hotel has Oatmeal Crème Brulee on their menu. Seriously, it’s like this stuff came outta nowhere when I wasn’t looking. Who in Beverly Hills would order that? I suppose they might order a bowl of it right before going into their liposuction; but certainly not afterwards when they are recuperating from their surgery. I am not quite sure why I am so fixated on OCB, but for some reason I find the combination fascinating.

After breakfast we walked through the Beverly Hills Art Show. This time we didn’t buy any art but we did have a lovely stroll and conversation with Aunt C. We walked and talked and walked and talked.

We owe Aunt Christine a big thank you for the breakfast and the gifts. You spoil us rotten Aunt C!

Today we woke up late (8:45) and had oatmeal and berries. Sorry, no crème brulee in our oatmeal. After breakfast we decided to go to the LA Zoo and play in the Neil Papiano Play Area. Unfortunately for us the playground was closed for renovations. Instead we just ran around in the grass, admired the flower gardens and the pigs and then we headed home.

After our afternoon nap we played in the playroom and then went to Chin Chin’s for some Chinese food. Basically, just a lazy Saturday—one that was much overdue. I took some extreme close up pictures for the blog—you really get an idea of how much Oliver’s face has changed in the past few months. He’s such a little old man!

Happy Anniversary to the Dads!! This marks our thirteenth year together. It’s the “lace” year. In other words, we didn’t exchange gifts. We did however, celebrate with an eight-hour return flight from Rochester to Los Angeles (via Atlanta) in coach. Oliver did great. He slept the entire first leg of the journey and even caught another hour during the last part of the LA portion. He loved the book Aunt Carol bought him with the tractor and the wheels. It was a lifesaver at times.

Once we landed we had our anniversary dinner at AMMO. For those of you who read the blog regularly you’ve heard me go on and on about Ammo before. I don’t know if it was because the dinner was so good; the fact that we had been deprived LA cuisine for a week; or the fact that we were starving; but it was a wonderful meal nonetheless. It started with a couple glasses of chardonnay (The alcohol might have accounted for something too). After the chardonnay came an appetizer of Burrata cheese, on grilled radicchio accompanied with prosciutto; an amazing bowl of homemade soup; asparagus and mushroom risotto; and sea bass with artichokes and tear drop tomatoes.

After dinner we had the infamous ice cream sandwiches. Let me just say that Ammo changed their ice cream sandwiches recently without telling me. Instead of the gourmet ice creams sandwiched between the old school-style cookies, they now serve softer ice cream between homemade cookies. (YUM!) As delicious as the newer version is, I must say that the new version can be made by anyone, and the other variety is harder to come by. Still, I love Ammo, and I’d order the Ice Cream Sandwich dessert again and again.

After dinner, the three of us jumped into a tub to wash all the traveling off of us. Once clean, Oliver went right down in his crib without any fuss. It was clear to us that he missed his bed as much as we missed ours. We were all asleep by 8 O’clock.

We were happy to teach Oliver the sign for "MORE" so that he could tell us when he wanted “more” food at the dinner table. The sign for more is generally done by bringing two pinched fingers together as if they were hand puppets kissing. Oliver’s "MORE" sign is more of a mimed baseball catch into a glove as one hand is a fist and the other is opened. Variations are common when kids learn baby sign.

Oliver knows the sign for “eat” and “more” and uses these signs often. This is clearly evident given his ever-expanding waistline. The fun part about baby signing is that your child learns multiple uses for them so you need to be careful which sign you teach them.

This morning when I was getting ready for work, Oliver came into the bathroom said “dada” pointed at me—there is perhaps no sound better than hearing your son call you “Dada”. However, immediately after addressing me so pleasantly, The Kid did the “more” baby-sign. He then repeated himself signing “more” and speaking “Dada”. If you saw me at that moment you could have watched me deflate right there with my toothbrush in my mouth. “More Dada” is as sad as when he used to refer to me as “bye-bye”.

We are finally online once again. Thanks for being patient while we worked out the Snafu’s. I missed blogging about every little event, but the time off from has been very useful for me. I managed to get a head start on capturing all the video from my camcorder into my computer. Every night after putting Oliver to bed, I have been capturing about an hour of footage. I can’t believe how much he’s grown.

Speaking of growing, he’s been acting out a bit lately. Out of frustration, and sometimes out of nowhere, he takes an open handed swing at our faces. Yes, he’s become quite a hitter. A common occurrence at this stage of development according to my more seasoned parent friends, however it’s really annoying just the same. We are trying to be firm and consistent with him until he out grows it. Still, it’s like living with an abusive lover. He puts his hands up and whines to be picked up and loved on, only to slap you the minute pull him near.

One of the cute things that happened in the past week is he’s really taken to the word “boo”. He loves to play chase around the house and when you jump in front of him and say “boo!” he lets out the biggest laugh you’ve ever heard. (Or for those of you who only know Oliver through the blog, it’s the biggest scream you’ve never heard.) My favorite part of “boo” happened last week when I walked into his room in the early hours to wake him and as soon as he opened his eyes he let out this little “boo” and a big smile. He melted my heart.

Super nanny has made some great developments on the baby signing front. Oliver is great with the signs for “hungry”, “shhh” and “more”. It really is amazing to see those baby signs come to life.

Now if we can just teach him to stop hitting.

Hey Grammy,

We got your present in the mail today. Thanks for the box full of clothes! Oliver will grow into them in no time. You might be able to tell from the photo that he was hoping for toys. The Kid is getting better at ripping the wrapping paper off boxes.

XO

Easter Baskets; Candy; Hollywood Farmer's Market; Breakfast (Scrambled Eggs, Sausage, Tortilla); Melissa; Euchre; Naps; Playground; Poquito Mas, and Baths.

The Easter Bunny managed to hide a couple of baskets for Tori & Ella. He hopes that they find them before the chocolate melts.

The morning came early, but Oliver managed to sleep in. It was not the prettiest morning because the rain clouds still lingered. The threat of rain, however, was not enough to keep Cousin Shawn off his motorcycle—he showed up bright and early at 8:30. Papi whipped up his famous scrambled eggs with goat cheese and we all sat around the dining room table scarfing down the food. (Ella managed to swipe some extra pieces of bacon.)

None of us could believe how grown up Tori is. The last time we saw her she was Ella’s size. Oliver’s reaction to Ella was priceless—we were bummed that we didn’t have it on camera. When he saw two girls come into the kitchen he just stared Ella down—not sure what to make of this little girl who kept wanting to pick him up. She’s almost his size but bigger. It’s unfortunate for Ella that although she has size on Oliver, he may actually way as much. It looks as if she is going to throw her back out every time she tries and lift him. That does not stop me from allowing her to try every time she asks me: “Um Joe, Can I hold Oliver?” The way I see it, he can use a little rough housing from a well-intentioned little girl. It’s hilarious actually.

We went for a walk around the neighborhood, played some Euchre, ate some quesadilla’s with fresh guacamole and Oliver and the Girls took naps while the Guys played some more Euchre.

Later on the sun came out and we went to The Grove to visit the Easter Bunny. After hanging out in the lawn and doing a little shopping, we had dinner at the Cheesecake Factory. You can see from the desserts that we brought home that Tori liked the Cheesecake.

Mike, Rose, Tori and Ella arrived late Friday night (around midnight) and pretty much went straight to sleep. The rainstorm did not make for a very nice welcome to Los Angeles, however, the Hertz Neverlost system in their rental car did get them safely to the house. Ella first question to me was: “Um, Where’s Joey?” I think she was expecting Aunt Kathy’s baby to be smaller. Mikey and I had a glass of wine while everyone else slept. I kept Uncle mike up until about 2am which meant 5am NY time. Oops.

There was an interesting twist to the night time routine tonight. Oliver was particularly cranky when Papi handed him off to me around 7:30. Papi had been reading some of The Kids’ new books to him so we had ½ an hour of quiet time before actual bedtime, and he was not particularly interested in any more books. My singing was not going to help him either. I can’t imagine why my singing has grown old. I only know two songs: My Funny Valentine and Amazing Grace. I have mentioned in previous blogs how I can slow the tempo of the song, or speed it up to keep it interesting. I also mentioned how sometimes I hum a whole verse before singing it again softly. Now I can even seamlessly blend the two songs together in a way never done by any other vocal artist. I amaze myself sometimes.

Alas, my voice and song choice were not enough for young Oliver tonight. He wriggled and squirmed on my lap as I tried to rock him. It was at that instant that I pulled out the heavy artillery. It was time for a back rub. I placed him seated on my lap facing outwards into the room. I started out with a light rub, more of a Swedish massage style. He immediately stopped writhing and crying. As he started to warm to the massage I switched up the technique, imploring more of a Shiatsu/Deep Tissue thing. Oliver was eating it up. He especially liked the deep pressure point technique behind his shoulder blades.

He was putty in my hands at this point. Silent as a lamb he just sat there taking it all in. Occasionally I would do his arms, hands, and then legs and feet. I know how hard he’s been working on walking and lifting things so it must have felt amazing. Eventually his head just fell forward, he let out a fart, and he was asleep sitting up.

I pulled him back in so that he was lying down on my chest and looking up to the ceiling for a moment. Yep he was out cold. I picked him up, stumbled to the crib in the dark, dropped him into bed and covered him up with his favorite blanket. He didn’t even wake up for a second. It was 8 o’clock on the nose.

Tonight after our very relaxing bath, Oliver and I read book after book after book. (Or as Oliver refers to them: “BAH!”) Finally, after about a dozen books I started to sing my usual lullabies to Oli. He has come to realize that singing means bedtime, so he began to cry in frustration at the thought of having to go to sleep. The funny thing is, if the lights are on and you sing to him, he cries; if the lights are off and you sing to him, he sleeps. So I completely understand why he was getting grumpy but instead of jumping up and turning off the lights, I decided to take this opportunity to test Oliver a little.

This time, when Oliver screamed at my singing, I just let him wriggle down off my lap and onto the floor. He was screaming and squirming so much, I just didn’t want to fight him. Once he was on the floor I was left there holding his blanket and his stuffed monkey while he looked for yet another book for us to read. Instead of reading another book or the same one for the third time, I decided to hold his stuffed monkey in my arms like a baby and then pulled Oliver’s favorite blanket around the monkey and continued my singing and cooing—only with the monkey instead of Oli. This infuriated The Kid.

Oliver took one look at me and the monkey and he turned as red as a beet and screamed even louder than before. He raised his hands in the air in signaling for me to pick him back up onto my lap. Immediately I stopped singing to the monkey, and picked him up and wrapped him again in his blanket. He smiled, kissed and hugged his monkey, and was as cute as can be once again.

Then I started sing to him again, and he started to cry and wriggle out of my arms just as before. Once again I let him squirm and wriggle to the floor. I snuggled the monkey in the blanket and restarted my song. Oliver reacted with his primal scream again until I picked him up and snuggled him. This little cycle went on for three or four times. It was really quite funny. The entire time I thought, if this is how he reacts to me and the monkey, what’s he going to do when he has siblings?

Finally, I picked up The Kid and the monkey; turned off the lights; and sang him peacefully to sleep. With the lights off, he took much better to my song. He also held tight to his monkey.

Today was a very tough day for the boys. We continued our New Year’s resolution in a big way. If you remember one of our resolutions was to downsize and the other was to clean out the garage. Today the biggest item in the garage was downsized. The photos show Oliver saying good-bye in a way that upstages even Brittany. It was going to be his eventually so we thought it only fair that we let him take it for a spin before it left our lives forever.

Good-bye Z8. You’ll be missed.

Oliver's back on a normal sleep schedule. The last couple of nights I've taken a little extra time earlier in the evening to get Oli ready for bed. Last night, we started "quiet-time" around 7. Tonight we had our bath at 7. Both nights, Oliver has been sound asleep before 8.

I think he needs the sleep...it looks like he is growing, and may be breaking a few new teeth. I swear the kid looks 3, but he's only in the middle of his 13th month. He's really not a baby, but he will always be our baby boy.

He's starting to say more and more words. The last couple of days he's been working on "car"...he's got the hard "c" sound, and then follows it with "vroom, vroom", so I know it's what he is trying to say. He understands me (in both English and Spanish). I can have a conversation with him and even though I don't always understand his responses, I keep right on as if I do.

He's also now in mimic-mode. I have to pay so much attention to everything I do and say around him, because he's so quick to copy whatever I am doing.

Today Supernanny hung out with us all afternoon so that we could do some much needed chores around the house. Later in the afternoon we went where every parent and child in Los Angeles hangs out on a Saturday afternoon--The Grove.

At The Grove we went to Janie & Jack to look at the cute baby clothes—so many cute things in pink! Then it was off to Potterybarn Kids where Oliver made some friends. Seriously, the place is like Gymboree on Saturday nights. The kids were playing with everything from jamming on the musical instruments, to jumping into toddler beds. One curly haired 2.5 year old Lolita even propositioned Oliver--she him to get under the covers in the toddler bed with her. Who knew Potterybarn Kids was such a meat market?! Oliver politely declined, he was more interested in the cute blond with the red maracas. (See the pictures.)

Next it was Nordstrom’s, Baby Gap, The Easter Bunny, and then Barnes & Noble where Oliver found some cute books: “That’s Not My Dragon…” & “Este no es Mi Monstruo...” (aka That’s Not My Monster…) written by Fiona Watts and Illustrated by Rachel Wells. Oliver loves these books when you read them dramatically with lots of attitude. He especially tactile and enjoys the various textures and colors in these books.

After shopping we hit The Cheesecake Factory where we Oliver ate most of our bread, his own cheese pizza, all the chicken from our lettuce wraps and a quarter of the rice from our Orange Chicken. Seriously, I don’t know where he packs it away. Needless to say he was the hit of the night with the table next to us.

Okay, enough from Saturday. Turn your clocks ahead tonight.

This week's playgroup was just the boys as young Olivia was sick with a virus. The picture is dark, but you can see that they are playing well together. Oliver still has the tendency to hog the camera, even if that means he has to grab it himself. Thanks to Remy’s mom for the pics!

Sunday morning began with a trip to the Farmer’s Market, and then Ammo for breakfast. After breakfast we popped by another new (to us) park: Woodbridge Park—a “pocket park” in the valley. Woodbridge is open from dawn to dusk and has a large kid’s play area with sand and rubberized matting and a big grassy yard. It falls somewhere in between Beeman and Shane’s Inspiration. Not as good as Shane’s, but better than Beeman. There are pictures of Young Oliver running around Woodbridge with a ball in the Photoblog.

Later that afternoon we went for Chinese food with Cousin Shawn and Melissa. We played some Euchre when Oliver would allow us. Melissa and Shawn kicked The Dads’ butts in cards. Ok, we let them win.

The Wednesday play date was a lot of fun today. Oliver and his neighborhood buddies, Olivia and Faber (and their nannies), tore up the playroom for about an hour and a half. Eventually Oliver got hungry and a little grumpy but he was pretty good about sharing his toys—provided nobody wanted what was in his hands at the moment. Olivia (9 Months) is crawling, and she spent most of her time watching the boys. Sometimes she would use them to pull herself up to standing. Other times she made for a good speed bump and tripped Faber a few times. Faber is a week older than Oliver and he’s a super cool little guy. He is just getting the hang of walking and he does so with Frankenstein-like grace. Oliver played his harmonica for us all. The balls and the tunnel were a big hit; however everyone was pretty fixated on the ceiling fan.

Afterwards it was back to work for me and later that night we had a mediocre rib dinner at Zeke’s in Weho. Seriously, it was mediocre at best. Once we got home The Kid was pretty tired and hit the sack at 8:15. Tonight he fell asleep in my arms, woke up when I put him down, and only cried for three minutes before falling back asleep—I left the room.

So the Ferber-ization of Young Oliver seems to be working. Last night Papi put The Kid down and hung out for a few minutes before ultimately leaving the room for our alloted 15 minutes of crying. 10 minutes in, all was quiet. It's working!

Now we just hope that the whole Daylight Savings Time thing doesn't screw it up again.

Oliver has not been going down easy at night. For the past week he has been fighting sleep. We start by making the house quiet and dimly lit between 7-7:30 pm. We read stories and have a nice warm bath. 8 pm rolls around and we are put in PJ’s, usually read our last stories and rock in our chair. In the past he’d be fast asleep after a couple of songs in the dark room by 8:15-8:30. This past week however has been very different. At 8:30, he sits up and cries when you try to rock him to sleep. He also tries to wriggle out of your hands onto the floor. We’ll struggle with him for a half hour or 45 minutes before he finally falls asleep in our arms. That puts us after 9 pm, usually 9:15 to half past.

Once he’s asleep in our arms, and we go to set him down in the crib he lifts his head up shortly after being placed down and starts to cry again. We rub his back and or head so that he will fall back asleep, but he usually stands up bouncing on the side of his crib in full scream mode. We'll put him back down and say “bed time Oli” and then he gets back up and screams again. This dance goes on until we say ok, the Super Nanny trick isn’t working on a 1 year old, so let’s Ferberize the Kid.

We try and do something distracting for 15 minutes (watching the hot topics portion of The View, Elimidate, or something equally vapid that Tivo has suggested) while ignoring the screaming kid in the other room. After 15 minutes, The Dads' switch and one or the other will go in and lay him down again. To which, Oliver usually gets up and screams again while I sit on the floor next to the crib and try to meditate or otherwise ignore him. After about 15 more minutes of that hell, here’s where I screw up the Ferber, I pick him up and wrap him in his blanket. He puts his head down on my chest and lets out an exhale that melts my heart, and then breathing heavily he falls back asleep in my arms. Usually he’s out so I lay him back down for the night. Lately however, once he’s put back down and I start to walk out the room, I hear his little head pop back up and he starts to cry all over again. Eventually this routine exhausts him for good, say around 10 or 10:20 pm; 2 – 3 hours after we began the process. The Dads' too are exhausted by this time as you can probably imagine.

In an effort to get The Kid used to other children, we have been setting him up on playdates in his playroom. In this picture it is apparent that he is very good at sharing his balls. His friend Remy is one of the three neighborhood blond boys who were all born within a week of each other.

The time they had went well, and nobody got hurt so it looks as if this will be the first of many weekly playdates.

Today Oliver is 13 months old!!

Oliver is well again, but his Dad is still coughing, hacking and blowing his nose.