All About Oliver

Age: 6 months 3 weeks

Oliver has been army crawling for three weeks now and can get around easily this way. He sees something he wants and goes for it. I have to keep an eye on him like I would Max because he is as mobile. He will get up on his hands and knees and kinda rock forward and back getting used to being in that position. It won't be long...

He can sit up unassisted for long periods of time, until something startles him and makes him jolt back and out of balance or until he decides he's done...

His favorite song is You Are My Sunshine. He lights up without fail every time I sing it. Other songs don't illicit the same response. 

He likes to play "Horsey Horsey On My Way" with Nate.

He LOVES baths and will kick and splash excitedly the whole time.

He loves chewing on his thumbs and will twist his wrist over and over while he does it. And he often will chew on his other fingers all at once. 

When he sees Max's binky, he makes a bee-line towards it and will chew and chew on it. It's his favorite chew toy.

He likes paper and will crinkle it, move it back and forth across the floor, chew on it, and fist it. I sometimes find a tiny piece in his hand when I uncurl his fist... It's like opening a clam and not knowing if you will find a pearl, only it's a slimy, half-disintegrated, masticated pulp wad.

His hands and feet are always moving in little circles.

He likes to pat/swat at things just to hear his hand hit the object... floor, toy, wall, etc. 

He loves chewing on cords, and so I have to make sure they are all out of sight. He even tries to reach them underneath the TV stand and will sit and stare at them as if willing them towards himself. 

He isn't interested in rice cereal yet, only his milk. He drinks 6 ounces at a time.

He whines a lot when he wants attention... a little half-cry. He'll whine for a long time before it develops into a cry, and the cry is only because it's been long enough that he's either tired or hungry.

Oliver's favorite person used to be me, but I'm old news now. He gets most excited about Max. 

He likes when Max plays with him, and his favorite thing to do with Max is either being pulled around the hard floors in his high chair or wrestling. 

He gets a stuffy nose really easily at night, so he is always propped up a bit and right beneath the fall of mist from a humidifier. This doesn't always work, and so Oliver still wakes up several times a night. Nate is awesome enough to take Oliver on the weekends so I can get more than a 3 hours stretch of sleep, and more then 6 hours a night. That's a backwards way of saying that I don't get more than 3 hours of sleep at a time, and rarely more than 6 hours a night. So I'm tired. But enough about me...

He has a long torso and shorter legs, which is a Dunford body ala Kevin. His little ears stick out like mine and Liz's. We think he looks more like a Martin than a Dunford. My mom thinks he resembles Glenn and Robin. 

He smiles as much as Max ever did, but his laugh comes more easily. He doesn't stifle it as much.

He's ticklish on his back and sides.

He likes to scratch his crib walls when he's half awake. 

We put him to sleep on his back, tilted slightly to his side, but he sometimes rolls onto his stomach. I don't recall Max doing that so early. He pretty much stayed on his sides.

He wears clothing pretty true to size. If he has sleeves that are a bit long, they inevitably end up stretched out and wet because he'll pull and chew on them.

He had a bad diaper rash for two months before his 6 month check-up where he was given a prescription for a yeast infection and thrush. I had been alternating between bum paste, lavender oil, and an over-the-counter yeast infection cream to no avail. It's pretty much cleared up now, but he still gets a little rash every time we bathe him... despite using a very mild, all-natural soap. I just ordered some wash cloths that are made to be used with water only, so we'll see if that cures it.

He won't sit still for a nail trimming unless momentarily distracted by Max. Max is the only solution. Or sleep.

Nothing scares him, really... He's fascinated by the vacuum. He'll watch it as I do my rounds.

He's a cute son-of-a-gun. We're happy that he's ours, and excited for he and Max to be best buddies.