March 9th, 2012, I failed as a father or did I?

Ya... Oliver has stared getting his own taste in music. And, it's not identical to my own taste in music. (dum, dum, dummmm.)

As most of you know I am as laid back as they come. I can get along with almost anyone. Different religions, political views, whatever, it's cool. As long as you are cool with my opinion we have no problem.

Music is different and I have been trying to raise Oliver in my image. In the image of, what I listen to is good and we don't need to change the station unless I think we need to change the station.

I turned on the 'Black Keys' in the bathroom while I was getting Oliver ready today. He started clapping when I turned on the music and then stopped, looked at me with a sour look on his face and then started saying, 'no, no, no, no...' Oliver do you want to listen to something else? 'yes'. Then he goes to my ipod and starts pushing buttons trying to change the song. It felt like he was repeatedly hitting me below the belt.

This had happened with Alissa a few nights earlier but I thought nothing of it. Alissa doesn't have great of taste in music, unless I am around. Oliver's actions made sense and I was a little proud of him for standing up for himself. But now this new found independence had gone too far.

We finished getting ready in silence, both musically and verbally. I could barely look at him. Who was this little stranger I had been raising for the past 19 months? Depression started sinking in.

We got in the car and turned on Pandora to 'Black Joe Lewis and the Honeybears.' It's a blues band along the same lines of James Brown. It's got a lot of horns and a fast beat. As we drove down the road I could see Oliver start to smile, then his head started bobbing to the beat. (BTW, he keeps a perfect beat at 19 months, no joke) Then he puts his little hand in the air and starts pointing his finger at me and moving it to the beat. (It's called the 'Pee-Paw dance', You may have heard of it. I taught it to him at a young age.)

He jammed to the whole song. Then some awful song came on the radio and he immediately got mad and started yelling, 'NO, NO, NO, NO!' Then he stared giving me the 'more' sign. 'Oliver, do you want more Black Joe Lewis?' 'Yes!'

The kid likes what he likes. And hey, to jam out to the blues at 19 months? And to be able to tell a good blues song from an awful blues song about fives seconds into the song?

Maybe I'm not a failure? Maybe, I have done too good of a job raising him to be independent and confident with his own decisions. Maybe, I am a victim of my own success.  Or, maybe I didn't want to listen to the Black Keys at that point in time after all? Maybe Oliver is actually more in tuned to music than I am? Hmmm... let's not get too far ahead of ourselves.

But, I'll let him voice his opinion on the music we listen to for now on. But the first time he wants to listen to Barney or that annoying talking train, he's going to day care. (I have nothing wrong with day care or children going to day care, just a bad joke.)

The things they say...

The purpose of this post is to have a reference for Oliver's first words, when and and what he has said to this point. This is by no means meant to brag on how smart my little boy, partly because I think his verbal skills have been a little behind to this point, and I am a true believer that ALL little are genius in their own way. The things they discover and do all on their own amazes me. And, anyone who thinks their child is superior to others is doing so out of extreme bias. That being said, Oliver is a little genius, he has focused on skills other than verbal skills to this point but man the things he can and the things he comes up with... wow. I'm a little scared and very excited about what he will do next.

On to the list of words and communications:

At 6 months Oliver gives the milk sign for the first time. He never stops giving this sign. If it means food in his belly he is a quick learner. Followed soon after by the 'food' sign. Then 'water'.

At 7 or 8 months Oliver says, dog and ball on the same day while giving me the dog sign with his hands. This gesture is not repeated for months...


Daddie around 10 months, momma a couple of months later.

A lot of time passed and then he said... (12-18 months)

Nonnie, Poppa and recently Pops. Now just waiting on Gram.

'Doggie' is Norman and all other dogs. I asked him to say 'Norman' and he dismisses me with 'doggie' and a look saying, 'no, that's doggie.'

'Babeesh' is his pacie. (14 months) 'Baby', 'Ideas' (can't figure that one out.) 'Dandi' for dandilions.

'Dadoo' is water and he uses this for drinking water, rain, sewer water, bath water, etc. ('Ish' for fish, 'ookie' for cookie (15 months)

'Guck' is milk, duck, stuck and truck. He or something is 'stuck' when he can't get to it, on top of it or he/it is actually stuck. Today at Costco he wanted to hold something heavy, I think it was a fire extenguisher I was buying, so I let him hold it (closely supervised) and he smiles real big and quietly says, 'guck...guck...guck.' Super cute. (16 months)

'Shit' is both tent and shut as in to 'shit' the gate. It took me awhile to figure those two out. And, Alissa was not happy until she realized he wasn't mimicking my poor language. (17 months)

'No' he woke up from a long nap and all he said was 'no' the rest of the day. But it was the cutest 'no' you have ever heard. Real high to low tone and a drawn out 'o'. (17 months)

'Why' soon followed 'no'. He wakes up from a nap and I'm not there fast enough and he just cries, 'why... why... why?' (17 moths)

After much work he says 'more, please' via sign language. And occasionally follows it with 'touchdown' do to my celebrations after the first few times he correctly gave the signs. (17 months)

He can ask for 'help'. By saying 'help', generally followed by 'guck.' (17 months)

He has said, 'yes' clearly and correctly for months but has started saying 'ya' instead. Ya, I wonder where he got that. (18 months)

First sentence: 'I want babeesh!' around 18 months.

First attempt at a persuasive argument: (it failed, get used to that with your mom)
     Mom, 'What do you want to drink Oliver? Milk or water?'
     Oliver, 'coffee.'
     Mom, 'You can't have coffee, you can have water or milk.'
     Oliver, 'Daddy coffee.'
Around 19 months.

At 19 months he is copying a lot of what we are saying and doing.

I was doing push-ups in front of the mirror and then had to go to the bath room. I came back and Oliver was doing his best push-up effort while looking in the mirror.

Oliver was eating and Norman was trying to eat food off of Oliver's tray. I picked up Oliver's empty plate and lightly popped Norman on the nose with it. Oliver got a big grin and grabbed the plate and popped Norman on the head, not so lightly.

Oliver was playing around with his Poppa while we were in TX. I called him a little nut. He laughed and said, 'a nut'.

Finally said 'Gram' while we were in TX.

Also while in TX started saying, 'I don't know.' While cutely shrugging his shoulders and lifting his hands to his side.


Still working on this one but wanted to post it so there was something to read.

Fright, Fun, Fish and an odd run in with a homeless man.

Oliver and I  were meeting Alissa downtown the Friday before Halloween for 'Fright, Fun and Fish'. This is a Halloween event at the Boston aquarium. Every dresses up and looks at fish and the kids get candy and there are contests and food. It is a pretty fun event. Anyways, on our way to the aquarium Oliver was getting more than his usual share of 'ooos and ahhhhs' since he was dressed as a curly headed pumpkin.

As we passed a '7-11' there was a large black homeless man asking everyone for change. It's funny that when you have a baby homeless people hardly ever bother you. This guy was no different. He just smiled at Oliver and wished us a fun evening. Then he stopped us and commented on how much he loved children. I started to get a little nervous but then the man does the craziest thing. He told me he would like to make a donation to Oliver's piggy bank. I was very confused and had him repeat himself at least five times. The man finally took the dollar he had in his hand, that a man had just given to him, and he put it into the pocket of the stroller.

 'See, I just wanted to make a donation to this beautiful baby's piggy bank.'

 'Uh, thanks man', was all I could mutter.

I was almost speechless. Oliver just had a homeless person give him money! Wow. He's already ten times the salesman I am. Maybe I should smile more. :)

Learning new things...

We have been teaching Oliver about his 'poo-peck' (the czech word for belly button) Now every time we say 'poo-peck' or poop or potty or just about anything starting with a 'p' O picks his shirt up and bends over to look at his belly button. Due to his fat belly he almost falls on his face b/f he can find it. He also loves sticking his little hands up shirts to find others poo-pecks. It doesn't matter who is wearing the shirt at the time he wants to see everyone's. 

Also, we have been teaching him 'caliente'. We turned on a space heated last night and looked at us and shook his hands in the air, (our hand signal for hot.) I asked if it was caliente and he started laughing. 

Then at the grocery store he was about to bite into raw ginger when I told him it was caliente. He bit into anyways and laughed as he shook both hands in the air confirming it was indeed 'caliente'. 

I do things for a reason... (90% of the time)

This morning Alissa was in the restroom getting ready for work and I was changing Oliver out of his PJ's and wet diaper. I then started shutting all the doors and latching the gate so I could set Oliver down and he could hang with his mommy for a little bit.

Alissa starts telling me I'm over protective and then tells me to just set him down, he'll be fine. O.K. you got it. Thinking that Alissa was going to be watching him, while she was in the restroom I set him down and went into his room to put some laundry away.

In about 30 seconds from setting him down I start hearing, 'Oliver, don't do that... Oliver stop it... Oliver why are you doing that?' I walk in and Alissa in in the shower, watching our little boy put all of her clothes into the toilet. The toilet is filled to the rim with Alissa's clothes! It was hysterical and thankfully the toilet had been flushed.

Then I told Alissa that, I tried to shut the bathroom door but she was the one that wanted it left open.  'You didn't tell me he was going to put all my clothes in the toilet!'

'He has never done that before but I know he was going to do something.'

Moral of the story, I do things for a reason... until of course I do things that make no sense at all and I can't tell you why I did them. But that accounts for only about ten percent of the choices I make.

Recent Vacation

Let me start this off by giving a little advice, never... ever... ever... plan a vacation with your toddler and your 100lb dog if you plan on camping and rain is anywhere in the forecast. Two days stuck in a tent with you, your spouse, your toddler and your wet smelly, wet, bored dog will drive you and every thing else in the tent crazy.

On second thought it doesn't matter where you are going (unless you are staying with family or friends and they have a yard for your dog) don't plan a vacation with your 100lb dog and toddler. One of them has to stay home, period.

We were camping a beautiful spot in the White Mnts. of New Hampshire right on a mountain lake. The camping idea was great for the first afternoon and then the rains came, and stayed for the rest of our stay, until of course we were leaving. The weather was great while we were packing up.

While in the tent we played games, took naps, changed diapers, had arguments, yelled at the dog, etc. All the while we managed to keep the inside of the tent dry along with all of the stuff in the tent until  Oliver found Norman's full water bowl and thought it was funny to dump it out in the tent, while walking from one side of the tent to the other.

More of our vacation experience to come...

What Oliver has eaten since turning the Big One.

Oliver turned one recently. At his 12 month check the Dr encouraged us to expand his food including anything we wanted except for nuts. So, over the past month Oliver has enjoyed the following new foods:

Sockeye Salmon: loves it
Dill pickles: his favorite
Blue Cheese: loves it
Pancetta: loves it
Prosciutto: loves it
Lobster: loves it
Crab: loves it
Shrimp: loves it
Scallops: loves them
Hummus: loves it (Oliver has even eaten Jalapeno hummus with a spoon, he can already eat hotter food than his Nonnie and he is pushing his mommy out of her #2 spot in the household hierarchy of ability to handle spicy foods in the house.)
9/2/11
Pot roast and carrots: LOVED IT, his favorite so far.
9/3/11
Raw Tuna: loved it
Pickled Ginger: Loved it
Wasabi: Did not love it... at all.
Imitation Crab: not a fan
Super spicy chicken satay: loved it, ate it with out flinching. It made Alissa sweat.
Yes we ate sushi.

I'll list more as I think of them and as he continues to expand his pallet.