Oliver turned 8 Months, Plus a recap of Halloween, and Family Visit :)

Disclaimer--I wrote this blog when Ollie just turned 8 mths, so most of what is mentioned in this blog occurred when Ollie was 7 months old.

WHEW.  October has been a crazy busy, yet fun month.  But I'm tired.  :) Our little guy is 8 months now.  He is learning all SORTS of new tricks!  So fun!

The following is a review of his 7th month:

Oliver is still not crawling, but is now walking around taking steps if we hold his fingers.  He loves that because it is his first step to going where he wants when he wants.  He also walks in his walker now, which has gotten him into a little trouble :).  Pulling over the trashcan and such.  

I found a great new way to bathe him because I found he was just WAY to slippery if I tried to sit him in the tub and hold him up.  I have this little seat ring that he sits in and I can have both my hands free to help wash him.  It is AWESOME!  Great investment! He now loves bath time and enjoys splashing and playing with toys.

 Oliver STILL cracks me up with his sleeping habits.  One great progression we have achieved is he hardly ever cries when I lay him down to sleep at night.  I attribute this to our 'bed time routine'.  Reading a story helps us wind down.  And once I get to the song he is completely relaxed in my lap and not fighting me to sit up.  It is as if he knows the next step is bed.  We say a prayer and Dave turns off the light.  I rock him for 1 minute and then lay him down.  As soon as I lay him down he starts reaching around the crib until he finds his silky and as soon as it makes contact with his hands he pushes it up to his face and rolls over on his side like the following picture shows.  Not legs bent, but STRAIGHT out. haha.

Oliver is eating more and more, loves eating what I eat.  Still hates bland baby food. haha.  I think I should just give it away. He really likes meat (carnivore) and beans.  You know he likes what I give him when he makes little 'Mmmmnummnummmm' noises while he eats. Speaking of food, I had something funny happen.  Oliver was sitting on the ground and I was eating something and bent over to pick him up.  He was looking up at me and while I was talking to him some of my food fell out of my mouth (gross I know) and into Oliver's mouth (even grosser). hahahaha.  It was funny, and he looked surprised and just started chopping on my food.  My little baby bird. :) Oliver ALSO loves drinking out of my cup.  He doesn't get how to drink from a sippie cup, but loves mine.  He gets so excited when he sees it and grabs both sides of it and shoves it in his mouth.  He is actually quite good and it.  But when the water hits his lips he looks a little startled and then gets excited all over again and tries to get more.  When I was at a jewelry party this month, I was TRYING to pour water from a pitcher while holding him, and he was bouncing up and down in my arms because he was so excited.  I felt like an old person with my arms shaking back and forth.

Well Dave left us for a weekend to go interview at the dental school at University of Colorado.  Ollie and I had a busy schedule while he was gone.  Saturday morning Dave's cousin's kids were having a birthday party at the park, so we went and enjoyed the company.
This is our selfie before the party:

Sarae had these awesome animal hats and sunglasses (which I didn't get a pic of :( ).  Oliver loved eating the taco meat they had for nachos with me and staring at the kids.

 Then later that day we went to another friend's jewelry party she was hosting.  We saw our good friend Kami and her son Eli at the party.  The host brought out this cool toy for the 2 of them and they kept entertained for some time.  Usually playing separately in their own worlds but occasionally checking out who was sitting next to them.

Needless to say, Oliver was EXHAUSTED and crashed out on the way home.  The poor kids has no head support in that carseat and I could hear him as we drove he would fall asleep, his head would bob down, it would wake him up and he would whimper.  Then repeat that sequence several times before me, being the nice caring mom that I am, put my arm back and held his head up for the rest of the drive so he could get some sleep.  It was the whimper that got me.  IT was too cute and pathetic sounding all at the same time.  And yes, my arm went through phases of tingliness and then just went completely numb having it in that position.

Well Dave called to say he was almost home and was going to gas up at the nearby gas station.  So I plopped oliver in a stroller and we started walking toward the gas station to see Daddy.  Dave drove past as a did a double take at us and looked very confused. haha  Then he pulled over and gave us a hug then we met him back at the house. :).  There was this sign by Oliver waiting for him.  We were happy to have him home.  Dave did very well in his interview, the only bad part was the first question hounding him about why his DAT score was so low and it caught Dave off guard the way the guy was hounding him and he stammered thru that one. But I think he did fine and we are hoping for an acceptance!  PLEEEAASSSEE!  But... the good news is is that Dave got another interview to West Virginia and has another opportunity to rock at the interview.  So who knows...

Ollie all fancied up in his winter wear that we wore for a day and then it got hot again. :)

Sometimes if I am cooking dinner and Oliver is being needy, I prop him in front of the door OR put his walker on the front porch in my line of vision and let him sit and watch the cars. haha.  He loves it.  It gives a good 20 minutes of distraction, which is more than anything else I can think of!

Dave and I got this 'Disney Club' thing in the mail that we couldn't pass up.  We need some good family movies now that we have Ollie that he can watch when he is a little older.  So we got all of these movies for like 20 bucks with the promos that we will buy 3 more movies in the next 3 years at full price.  Pretty good deal.  These movies about doubled our movie collection haha.  

 So we put together a random last minute family reunion.  Dallin and Daniela have been living the good life in Ireland and told us not to long ago that they have to come to Phoenix for an immigration interview for Daniela.  I immediately called the whole family and told them they have to come down so we can all be together (except for sweet Liz on a mission).  My mom got 3 hotel rooms down here in Tucson and so Dave and I got to have a little stay-cation.  :)  Lance showed up first Thursday night so rushed from mutual to go get him and got lost in the process (Thanks IPHONE maps), and was very late.  But he was a good sport.  Oliver has begun the stranger danger thing.  He wouldn't let Lance hold him for the whole morning.  Dave was busy volunteering at a dental clinic that day so we went out for a hike that was recommended by a friend.  It was a big paved hill/small mountain that went STRAIGHT up.  I let Lance do the honors of pushing Oliver's stroller.  haha.  He is in good shape and he was sweating, putting his back into pushing.  It got a little warm toward the end and Oliver got a little cranky, so we only made it halfway up.

 Then Lance and I went and got lunch at a local Mexican restaurant that came recommended.  Lance was looking for the health code grade on the window, but I told him they don't do that here in Arizona like they do in California. haha.  Yea it was a little sketchy looking, but what good Mexican restaurant isn't?  Lance started gaining Oliver's good side by 1) rescuing him from his stroller and carrying him some of the hike and 2) feeding him beans from his Mexican dish.  After that Oliver would let him hold him. He even attacked Lances arm at the restaurant with his mouth.

We ate out a LOT that weekend.  Dallin and Daniela had a list of 'American' restaurants they had to have!  They ate at In-N-Out and Cafe Rio in PHX and then Olive Garden, Rubios, and Texas Roadhouse in 2 days.  It was fun catching up with them.  I miss having my family nearby!

Oliver was in shock by all the attention and EXHAUSTED because there were times that we went out to eat and he didn't make it back for his bed time or nap times.  Poor Kid.  And of course got sick after everyone left.  We took the next week to relax and recoup.

Another fun thing we did was go to Biosphere 2.  This is the only picture I got, it was the rainforest part of it.  Pretty cool.  This was a science experiment to make an enclosed biosphere to study ecology and other sciences.  Also they had people live in there for i think 2 years?  Crazy.  They even have a room with a little ocean that we can look at over a cliff edge.  Oliver did good for the first half and was a loud nuisance the second half to everyone that was trying to hear what the guide was saying.  Dave and I had to hang back at every stop because he was fussy so we didn't get to hear a lot of it.  Oliver does love Brooke a LOT.  He didn't even have to warm up to her!  I think it is because she is my mini me.  She probably seems very familiar to him.

We tried to get some family pictures because we were all together but SOME (not naming names) people in our family don't cooperate!  Unfortunately Dave was SUPER busy that weekend and the few times he had available for the picture, someone was not going to be in town at that time (Lance had to fly out early for work).  So we decided the only time to do it was 7 AM Saturday morning.  I'll tell you a fact about our family... we all looovvveee sleep.... too much.  I have Oliver now so I am up anyway, but there were a few stinkers that wouldn't get out of bed.  The last one out was Lance and we had to bug him mercilessly before he got up.  And by then it was 8 AM (an hour later than we wanted).  So we didn't have time to go to our super awesome spot we had picked out.  Which means we got to take 2 pictures outside our Comfort Inn (Classy right?) and that's all we had time for before Dave's class.  haha.  And later Dave realized that we had a big lens flair on the screen, it was so slight he didn't notice it then.  Lovely.  So here we are....our family photo in all its glory.  Every year it is like pulling teeth to get my family to pose for pictures. haha

Another little fun adventure we had was at one point we were riding around in my parent's car and I left Dave's set of keys to his car, the office he works at, AND our mail key.  I called my mom after she left and she said she would send it off and it would be here in 2 days.  Well I realized a day later that she sent it thru the post office, which means our mail key will be sitting in our MAIL BOX.  That doesn't work well.  I spent a good chunk of the day calling the post office (which were no help), making a bright pink  sign by the mail box for the carrier to deliver that package to our door, and sitting outside with Oliver to try to be there when the mail man came.  Well none of that worked that day.  But the next day the mail guy came to the door and I wasn't dressed all the way, but I didn't want to miss him, so I yelled thru the window HOLD ONNN!!! Ran to the room with Ollie and got dressed and ran back.  I guess the package was already in the mailbox and the carrier didn't realize it.  Phew.  It was rough having only one car, Oliver had to miss his swim class.

My family has been so generous to Oliver.  Lance sends us random packages of clothes for him.  Here is the latest and greatest thing that he fits into. Those adorable red sweatpants. haha.  I love them. So trendy.

Ollie loves chomping on his feet. 

I forgot I had lipstick on and gave Ollie a kiss.  We love giving him kisses!

Oliver is becoming such a daddy's boy.  He still loves mommy a lot, but misses daddy all day when he is gone.  When Dave gets home Oliver gives him a BIG smile and starts bouncing up and down and reaching for him.  If Dave walks past him then Oliver begins to cry.  He wants to say hello to daddy.  Then when Dad picks him up Ollie pats him on the back and looks at me with this satisfied smile.  Dave is a sweet daddy.  Dave works long days on Wednesdays sometimes. He left really early and got back after Oliver was asleep.  Well Ollie woke up at 11 wanting to eat, I was getting ready to go in and Dave said "NO, let me go in first and say hi to him. I haven't seen him all day!" So Dave runs in and says hi and gives him a big hug and kiss.  I thought that was so sweet.

Ollie and Daddy sitting on the couch together eating a cracker. Little buddies. 

Ok I love holidays and birthdays and anything else that gives an excuse to party.  :)  I think holidays give me something to look forward and do something out of the ordinary.  When I have a house and no I won't move again, I will definitely get into buying awesome holiday decorations and decking out the house!  For now.... not worth it :(.  Our Halloween festivities started the weekend before Halloween. It has been a BUSY week! An awesome couple in our ward invited us and 2 other couples (8 people total) to their house for a murder mystery.  It was a blast!  We brought homemade apple cinnamon rolls which were a hit and they had a few snacks as well.  We all dressed up and got into character.  It was based in the Victorian era so it was fun to get into it.  The storyline was hilarious because it was about all these shady characters with a lot of bad baggage and we are a bunch of mormon people.  I decided I am going to make this a tradition hosting a murder mystery every year because it was so fun and such a great halloween party idea!  I might do it over a meal though in the future.  In the end.... I was the murderer.  So watch out!

This was the only picture I got of us for the murder mystery! Sad! I wish I would have taken a picture. :(  It was late and we were tired.... Dave looks a little buzzed. haha 

I thought it would be fun to do like a Anne of Green Gables hair style, but Nooooo.  Not for me and my thin hair. haha.  Here was my attempt the day before. Yikes!

This Halloween week has been busy! We were excited because it is Oliver's FIRST Halloweeeen!  YAY. Gives us a much better excuse to get into dressing up when we have a child.  So we decided he is going to be the Pillsbury Doughboy and we will be Bakers..... We chose this for 2 reasons: 1) When Oliver was a little fetus not even 12 weeks yet I got to see him on an ultrasound (which after 2 miscarriages was the best day ever to see a live baby in there!) and he was SO CUTE. He was this little blob with a fat belly and little midget appendages kicking all around and I said "LOOK, it is the Pillsbury Doughboy!" 2) Dave and I created this cute little guy so we are the bakers and he is the boy.  The next festivity we attended was a party that some of the moms in Oliver's swim class put on (we all have babies around the same age). That day was busy.  We went to the party which was like a 35 minute drive away.  These moms are all my age, but are all married to men with great careers and are well off.  So they all live in gorgeous, brand new homes and have all the latest and greatest.  I grew up in a family that was well off, but my parents NEVER flaunted their money. My Dad built the house they lived in all my life for like $40,000 or something like that. He learned how to do it by going to the library and finding books on how to build a house.  They pay cash for everything. They are very simple people and live very simple lives and honestly save most of their money.  They are great examples to me. They have always given us what we need and a lot of what we want. They have provided so many amazing opportunities for us. Plus the stage of life I am in right now is very different, the poor college student family.  Which is totally fine. But I just can't relate to these women very well. haha.  I told Dave I am actually grateful and feel like I had to go thru this stage of life because I needed to learn the value of money and how to save and budget and coupon and all that great stuff. I also needed to learn faith that Heavenly Father will take care of us and faith in paying our tithing first, even when we don't feel like we can afford it.  I feel like I have learned and grown so much and if we are ever blessed with money, I will better no how to serve and help others.  Anyway, that was a little tangent.  But the party was still very fun. The moms are all SO sweet and great mothers.  Oliver and his stranger danger, he would hardly let me put him down.  And when I did for the picture, he threw a fit.

At the end of the party, all the kids did a fun little craft.  We made halloween papers with their footprints.  I made Oliver's into little frankensteins.  So cute.  I think I am going to make a tradition of this every holiday!

After the part we went home and then around 5:30 went walking with a few girls in my ward that have babies.  Ollie was tired and quite the grumpy pants that day.  He cried most of the walk.  At one point I finally picked him up and the other moms helped me push the stroller. haha  We all had one hand on each stroller.  But Ollie is so heavy I had to take breaks and put him down and he would scream again, but would be totally fine when I held him.  He has just had a rough week.  His mood got better the next day thankfully.

We have eaten SO much junk this week.  I was telling Dave last night that I was craving a veggie tray. It being Halloween, I had to make caramel apples. So after the walk I made these apples and then some other friends from the ward came over and we watched Monster's University (very cute) and they brought us Fat Dogs (very delicious) and ate caramel apples.  They didn't turn out as good as I wanted them to.  I cannot for the life of me find a recipe where the caramel sticks well to the apple.  I guess I will just have to keep experimenting every year until I find the perfect recipe!  We had a fun night though!  I was SO ready for bed after that!

On our walks I have been noticing it has been nippy, so I decided to go buy Ollie and beanie and gloves.  They are toddler size and fit quite well. The gloves are big, but they work.  He will hopefully fit into these all winter and maybe the next!

Ollie warm and cozy on our walk.

Ollie passed out after our walk.

Now to Halloween Day.  We had swim class and Oliver LOVED it.  He gets more and more excited the more we go.  As soon as his feet touched the water he got so happy and started splashing like crazy.  I'm so glad my parent's are helping out so Oliver can go to swim.  Our church Trunk or Treat was the next day, so I decided we needed to celebrate the actual Halloween day somehow.  I looked online and Chipotle was giving $3 burritos to anyone that came dressed up.  Dave got home from work at 6:30, I made Oliver take a late nap so he wouldn't be to crabby staying up after his bedtime. We went to Chipotle in our costumes and had to wait in a long line.  We were around a LOT of college students who could not stop adoring Oliver and his costume.  As we walked down the street we felt like celebrities because everyone stopped and commented on how great we were and how cute Oliver was, and how they love the costumes.  At one point in the line, I turned around and there was a guy with his camera right in Oliver's face taking a picture of him. haha  It was an awkward exchange I looked at him and kind of laughed and the guy looked at me smirked and then looked away.  Oh well, can't blame him for wanting a pic, Ollie was cute.

The next night was trunk or treat and we made a huge pot of chili for the chili cook off. Dave loves watching Alton Brown (a chef on Food Network channel) because he delves into the chemistry of food and cooking.  And Alton Brown has inspired Dave to make some pretty tasty creations.  One of the things he was determined to make was the homemade candy corn.  His first batch failed, but after that every batch was perfect.  We were bakers for halloween so decided to hand out our homemade candy corn to the parents as their kids trunk or treated.  I had the candy bars on my cookies sheet and let the kids pick what they wanted.  The parents loved the candy corn and word spread and we had parents coming over to us asking if we were the ones with the candy corn.  Unfortunately we ran out quickly.

Chef Dave assembling the candy corn baggies.

Little Ollie was POOPED!  But I think he had a fun night :)