Oliver is 6 Months Old!

My Dear Sweet Ollie Bug is 6 months old.  Half a year has flown by!  He is such a good sweet boy and I love him to pieces.  We went to the doctor for his 6 month check up and shots.  Here are his stats:
Weight: 20 lbs 6 oz (90%)    Length: 29 1/2" (>97%)     Head: 47 1/2 cm (>97%)
Although I have a large boy, he is still consistent.  Although his weight dropped off a little bit.  I have a feeling as he becomes more active he will slim down.

Some fun facts about Oliver:
-He is such an outdoor boy (just like his cousin Trent).  I take him on daily walks mostly because he loves them so much.  He can be super cranky sometimes, but as soon as we walk out that door he just stops and looks around.  I have never had him cry during a walk, he is always content.
-He loves feeling things with his little hands.  He scratches at most anything to feel different textures.  This includes my face and hair.  I have had some nice scratches on my face and a lot of hair loss by his account.
-Oliver loves giving open mouth kisses. He has a STRONG grip and grabs my face or hair and pulls me in.  He also likes munching on my jaw line (which is quite a new experience, never had someone do that before).  I give him a LOT of kisses throughout the day because he is just so cute, and I think he is mimicking my behavior when he grabs our faces and pulls it in.  Unfortunately his way of doing it hurts!
-Oliver has begun sitting up pretty much by himself.  Sometimes when he has had enough he will thrust his head backward full force to lay down, so I still have to help him sit, or prop pillows around so he doesn't hurt himself.  He also has fallen face forward flat into the ground.  So he is still learning how to steady himself.
-He is the funniest sleeper.  I haven't seen him roll over from back to tummy yet, but he did in his crib once!  I went in there and he was sleeping on his belly!  He cracks me up!  He also really likes sleeping on his side with his legs stretched out to the left (touching the side of the crib with his little feet).  We have weaned him off of swaddling and so I gave him a little silky handkerchief that my mom gave me to calm him down.  I think it reminds of me and the undergarments I wear. He always sleeps with it right up on his face!  We have been working on sleep training Oliver so he doesn't get up as much during the night and so he will go down for naps easier.  It has been ROUGH having to listen to him cry, but he has usually been able to calm himself down within 15 minutes.  If he wakes up in the middle of the night, I usually let him calm himself down and go back to sleep.  But if it is after 3 AM I will feed him because I think he still needs one feeding to get him through the night (it is 10-12 hours after all).

Here is Oliver snuggling up tight with that hankie.  He always leaves just enough of a gap to breath.  

Oliver sleeping on his side

Oliver sleeping on belly

-Oliver still loves looking at himself in the mirror.  He can just sit there for like 10 min and stair and swat at himself.  When he is around other children he goes for their hair and face and so we can't get too close.  During labor day at Dave's cousin's house, Oliver kept grabbing their 1 year old daughters hair.  She was brave for daring to come near.
-Oliver has become quite stubborn about eating.  I usually will take like 2 bites semi-willingly (with a gentle shove in the mouth from me).  Then when he doesn't want it he just turns his head and looks at something in the other direction like it is the most fascinating thing he has ever seen.  He uses this tactic to act like he doesn't know that I am sitting there with a spoon.  He thinks if he doesn't look it will go away.  But he is sloooowly making progress.  2 bites is better than 0.  So we will continue to try to work our way up.  I do have to say that green beans is the first food that he willingly opened for a few times.  So he better not tell me in the future that he doesn't like green beans!

The new high chair that grandma got Ollie so he could sit at the table with us.

Oliver and I went for our weekly baby time at the library and it was CANCELLED! :(  So we decided to go browse around and read a few books.  I found a book called Oliver. haha.  So we read it, and I decided it will probably not be one we buy for our collection because it is about an antisocial kid and his only friends are his puppets and he doesn't everything with them.  After taking this picture I noticed that Dave's cousin girl was in the background (pink shirt).  They had just showed up!  So we got to spend some time with them.

These photos are for Aunt Liz (Mini Cooper is her favorite car)!  We went to a mini cooper dealership because they sent us something in the mail that said if we came in and test drove a car that they would give us a $25 gift card to Starbucks.  Free hot cocoa or coffee free frappucinos! Yes Please.  So we went into the kids room while Dave drove a car and there was this cute little mini.  Oliver had fun in it!


We had some LOVELY weather and decided to go to a nice park and walk around.  Oliver had his first experience in a swing and going down a slide.  I don't know if he new what was going on exactly. But in the swing he kept kicking his legs and grunting.

Another nice day and we walked to the park nearby and decided to chill on the grass for awhile.  Dave and I had a little toy soccer ball that we were playing with and Oliver really enjoyed sitting there watching us.  It was so fun! I can't wait until Oliver can join in on the fun!

We love play dates! I have made some friendships with a few ladies in past wards we have been in here in Tucson and they have babies a little older than Oliver.  It is so nice to get together with other moms and exchange advice and stories.  Here is a picture of us on our way to our play date.

Oliver has began to hate to be strapped down.  In the stroller he prefers to sit up so he can look around. I propped his toy cube behind him to give him some support.  He just changed into a big boy car seat because he is so big, and he hates being slightly reclined and not being able to sit up.

 We went to Oliver's first big boy swim class, and it was harsh.  They gave him a T-shirt which he looks adorable in.  But in this class, they have the kids go under water a LOT.  Oliver is not used to that and it freaked him out a bit how much I was putting him under.  I think in the future I am going to tell the teacher I will put him under 2 times and that is it for now until he gets used to it.  Plus I think he swallowed WAY too much water because that night he woke up crying and was super uncomfortable and gave a big "water" burp.  Plus got sick right after that.  Now him and I both have congestion and sore throats.  :(

Oliver holding my hand.  I sure love my little Ollie Bolly!

 Anyway, I think that is enough of Ollie.  I could just talk about him all day.  Love him!

One more little bit of good news for our family... Dave got an interview invite to the University of Colorado Dental School.  One step closer hopefully to an acceptance!  We are praying he does well at his interview!  It's so scary!  He goes Oct 12.  But the first thing we did was say a thank you prayer that Heavenly Father gave Dave this interview.  We are so grateful.