My Little Unhappy Snot Monkey...

Oliver has started teething on the big front teeth. I have heard from others that their little ones were unaffected when their teeth came in. Oliver is not so lucky and neither are we. Alissa didn't get much sleep last night due to her inability to sleep thru a baby's cries, lucky for Oliver. He'd have to attach a police siren to his crib to wake me up.

Oliver has a cold to go along with his teething woes, thank you Children's museum. I wonder if it was him drinking from the kiddie pool or licking the play mats in the 'crawlers only' section? But, I hear he needs the exposure, yahee.

His cold doesn't stop him from wanting to pound on the computer from my lap... stop it... I have had to correct five of Oliver's spelling errors so far. Ahh, my shoulder looks like it has been molested by a tree slug, snot everywhere.

So far today the only thing that makes him happy is dancing with me to 'The Talking Heads'. I know this brings up two immediate questions; "Brek, you know how to dance?" and "How do you dance to 'The Talking Heads?".

No, I don't know how to dance, but Oliver seems to think I am really good at it. And, since I don't know how to dance, dancing to the Talking Heads is actually really easy. And, again, Oliver thinks I am awesome at it and it makes him happy. As long as no one else sees me doing it then everything is fine.

I think Oliver is trying to get my attention. He is on all fours and repeatedly banging the top of his head against my leg but he's not crying... maybe this is a new game for him, now of course I have snot on my pants leg, my cute little snot monkey.

Sign Language

Alissa and I have been trying to teach Oliver sign language. A lot of parents do this early on to help with communication between them and their baby before the baby has developed their verbal language. So, we have been working on four signs: milk, food, more and all done. Oh, and 'dog'.

Oliver started picking up and doing the 'milk' sign when he was about 5 months old. We'd notice his hand opening and closing then look at the clock and sure enough it was right at feeding time. This is only sign he has picked up so far but he has created a couple of his own signs lately.

In addition the the 'milk' sign Oliver has created a second way to tell us he's hungry (before he starts crying.) When he is ready to eat he looks right at you and opens and closes his mouth nice a big just like a guppy fish. You can do the sign back to him and he smiles real big and does it more pronounced. And he only does this at meal time.

Today, I was feeding him solids and was asking him, in sign language if he wanted 'more food' or 'more milk.' He didn't do his milk sign or his guppy mouth. So, I asked him again if he wanted 'more' or if he was 'all done.' He looked straight at me with his serious look, picked up his bib, keeping eye contact with me, and started licking the food off his bib with purpose.

I think he has a new sign for telling me he wants 'more food.'

Oliver vs. college room-mate on St' Patty's day

Yesterday Oliver and I enjoyed our first St. Patrick's Day together. I was a little bummed to have the day off for a change, but I had to stay at home and watch Oliver all day. But, as the day wore on I realized that hanging out with Oliver on St. Patty's Day was pretty similar to hanging out with my old college room-mate on St. Patty's day. The major difference is when Oliver drinks he's drinking MILK, vs BEER for my old room-mate. Let's see how similar the two really are:

- Both get up early ready for a drink.

- After drinking just the right amount both get really excited, loose their 'inside voices' and then feel like dancing.

- Both throw up on themselves when they have drank and danced too much, but then they'll both get a second wind.

- Both babble on and on about something that I can't understand.

- Both get VERY cranky if not given enough to drink.

- Both think crawling after the dog is HILARIOUS actually they both think anything the dog does is HILARIOUS.

- If constant supervision is not there then both will get themselves into trouble.

- Both will eat solid food, if they have to, but what they both really want is another drink.

- At some point during the day both will have to take a couple of naps, cry about something and eventually pee on themselves, and possibly other people, requiring a change of clothes.

- And eventually, both will crash at about 730pm.

So, as you can see, my St. Patrick's Day celebrations really haven't changed since college. But, hanging with Oliver is much easier to handle and I feel much better the day after.

Just to see what would happen.

Like most little ones Oliver is drawn to our computer. We have a Macbook, laptop. While I was playing with him on the floor, I pulled the computer out to do some March Madness research for my bracket (Tourney starts tomorrow).

Oliver, can't crawl but he's really good at pulling himself across the floor. So, with in seconds he was between me and our computer trying to hit all the buttons. This behavior is pretty typical of every other time the computer is with in arm's reach of Oliver. So, I decided to let him go to town on the keyboard.

I let him do whatever he wanted to our computer for one minute. In that minute he managed to:
- close safari (macs web browser)
- open Iphoto (to our Christmas album)
- change screen setting to a split-screen then four screen and then six screen setting
- open the dash-board to the calculator and then multiply 7 times 2
- lick the screen (I'm looking at a big tongue mark in the middle of the screen)
- shut the laptop on his head (he's fine, he has a big head)
- and as I'm pulling the lap top away from the crying baby a CD is ejected out of the disk drive.

Oh, and being a baby, he didn't use the mouse for any of this. It was all done by commands that I don't have a clue about. Even my seven month old is smarter with computers than I am. And, a lot more productive, this was all accomplished in a minute.

Maybe he will invent Facebook 2.0. You are all witnesses, Facebook 2.0 was my idea, if Oliver creates it I will expect the customary 65 million for having an idea with no ability to create it. (Watch 'Social Network' for an explanation of the last paragraph.)

My little Bullfrog (taken from my FB post)

Yesterday Oliver saw Alissa's water cup sitting on the floor about two feet away from where he and Alissa were sitting. So, he launches himself out of Alissa's lap to tackle the water cup. He looked just like a bullfrog leaping into a pond.

He gave himself a big strawberry on his chin. But, he tackled the cup.

The best part was when Alissa was comforting him, he stops crying after about five seconds and looks at me and cackles as if to say, 'Did you see what I just tried to do? Wow, that was awesome!'

I'm worried about that boy.

First trip to Stone zoo

Yesterday was a great day. It was in the 50's all day and most of the snow around our house melted. Maybe the groundhog was right?

Tired of being stuck in the house Alissa and I took Oliver to Stone Zoo where, you get the great deal of $2 off an adult ticket due to the fact that over half of the zoo is closed for seasonal repairs. Oh, well, we were outside for a change and the few animals that were tough enough to brave a 50 degree New England day, seemed excited to see us.



Did you know that there are only 500,000 million coyotes left in the wild? We were truly lucky to catch a rare glimpse of one so close. This one was way closer to us than the one I saw running down the street this summer.

But, now on to the cool animals at the zoo. This Jaguar was about 12 inches and a sheet of 1 inch plexy-glass away from Oliver's face and it looked pissed. It's head looked like the cat version of a pit bull's head. It was a beautiful cat. Hard to believe they are hunted in south America and Mexico because they kill a few stupid goats. Or, maybe they don't I actually didn't read the sign about them, too busy being impressed by it's massive head and spots.



The best part of the whole trip was seeing the snow leopard, For those familiar with Kung Fu Panda the snow leopard looked just like Tai Lung (the bad guy). It's tail and paws were huge it was a truly amazing animal. The zoo placed Tibetan mountain goats directly beside the leopard cage separated by a chain link fence. It would lock eyes on a goat and the goat would poop himself. Or, it just needed to poop. It's hard to tell when you don't wear pants if a poop was fear driven or a natural occurrence. Either way the goat looked uneasy and I don't blame it especially after watching Kung Fu Panda.



Alissa and I enjoyed our trip to the zoo. Oliver was a little indifferent. But he apparently paid more attention to the animals than we thought. While eating Mexican food later that day Oliver waited in my arms until the chip bowl was within arm reach. Then, with lightning quickness he snatched the chip bowl and would not let go. It was like watching a baby boa constrictor attack. He then let out a triumphant yell over his conquest and beat the bowl on the table until it was dead. He sounded like a hyena or a baboon. Either impression was impressive and a little confusing since the zoo didn't have either animal.

All in all it was a great family outing and apparently educational for Oliver.

R.I.P. Harley girl, you were a good dog.

My dog, Harley, died last week. She was a beautiful Black lab who lived a good long life. I got her back in college but she lived with my parents for the past few years, in Texas.

She was a peaceful dog that never hurt anyone or anything. She would let our dachshunds hang from her lips without so much as a growl. One time my sister was walking with a frog in her hand through the back yard. Harley was walking beside her when the frog jumped from her hand. To my sister's horror Harley snatched the frog out of mid-air. But, then she leaned over opened her mouth and let the frog go free.

She never wanted to be anywhere but by your side. While in college she would lay at my feet while I studied at the kitchen table. When it got to be her bed time she would look at me a start whimpering. I would tell her to go to bed and she would slowly head down the hall to my room. Then every thirty minutes or so she would come back to see when I was coming to bed eventually giving up her soft bed to curl up by my feet.

Her only fault was her addiction to the tennis ball. She would chase them all day and night if given the chance. If there was a group of people outside she would eventually find the person with the strongest arm and then only bring it back to them. She loved chasing tennis balls. My sister put a tennis ball by her head when they buried her.

I hope they have tennis balls in heaven Harley girl. I'll miss you.

Diapering a cat...

When did this happen? Oliver was the easiest going little guy. When I would change his diaper he would just lay there and smile at me or coo as he looked out the window. I changed his diaper today and it was like trying to change the diaper on a cat.

At the end of the event his diaper was changed but not before everything on the changing table (new diaper, wipes, pants and socks) had been in his mouth and then thrown on the floor and the curtains had been pulled off the wall. I was almost sweating by the time I was finished.

A few minutes ago I tried to clean out his nose with the bugger sucker. I attempted to do it while leaving him on the floor, which was my fault. So, I had to straddle him to keep his arms from poking the device into an eye. Then I had to hold his head still with one hand while sucking out the boogies with the other. And though he was pinned to the ground he kept snorting like a mad bull until I was finished. He smiled at me when I was done, at least I thought it was a smile, it turned out to be his 'poop' face.

My last note on these events, aside from the fact that he poops too much, he isn't even mobile yet. I think it's time I join a gym.