More Legos!

The other day, Grammy babysat Buttercup all morning and afternoon, so I got to hang out at home with my two boys! While Theodore took one of his numerous naps, Oliver and I sat at the table and built with Legos. I made an ice cream truck, and Oliver made this neat police boat/fire truck combination.

He was really proud (rightfully so!) of the boat trailer:


And he even added an umbrella to give the boat driver some shade, how nice is that? :-)

Smiles!

Ahh, baby smiles!! Theodore gave us his first real smiles last week, and it's just the cutest thing. Just melts my heart! I guess he likes us after all. :-)

I tried to take a picture of him smiling at me, but he was too distracted by the camera, ha ha. For now, here are some new pictures of him and his big, smooshy cheeks! :-)

A visit from Granddaddy

He's a stingray!

This week, Oliver had his last swim lesson in the level 3 class. The different levels all have the names of sea creatures (Pike, Eel, Starfish, etc), and ever since Oliver has started swimming, he's been looking forward to being in the Stingray class (level 4). Almost every day since he started level 3, he would ask me, "Am I still an Eel? Am I a Stingray yet?"

Since this was the last week of lessons, his swim teacher was supposed to evaluate his swimming ability to determine if he moved up to the level 4 class or stayed in the level 3 class. But his class had substitute teachers for the last few lessons, so there was some confusion about whether or not he was moving up to level 4. I ended up calling to see if he had passed the class, and was told that his class had somehow slipped through the cracks and none of the students were evaluated! Instead, I would have to bring him to the YMCA pool to have one of the lifeguards evaluate him.

We went yesterday afternoon and, not surprisingly, he passed with flying colors! The instructor who evaluated him said that she was not only impressed with how well he swam, but that she rarely sees a 4 year old who swims as well as he does on his own! He's been doing so well, and we are so proud of him!

I meant to take some pictures of him at the pool yesterday, but his evaluation didn't last long, and I was preoccupied with bouncing the baby so he would stay asleep in the baby sling. :-) Instead, here are some pictures from earlier in the week when Oliver, Buttercup and I were playing outside. Enjoy!

for Aunt Anna

Look what I found!

(The shirt, not the baby.) :-)

Baby love

Theodore is 5 weeks old now (!!!) and he is so much more alert now than he used to be. He's also thisclose to smiling in response to us. It's the cutest thing -- we'll smile at him, and he'll gaze at the top of our heads, crinkle up his eyes at us, and he'll open his little mouth like he's trying SO hard to smile! Sometimes he'll get one corner of his lip up like a mini Elvis impersonator, ha ha. Just so precious. :-)

Oliver and Buttercup are still his #1 fans, of course! Buttercup is constantly stalking him (ha ha!) but what's really sweet is how much Oliver loves him and wants to be around him. It's so nice to see, especially after how things were after Buttercup was born. What a difference 2 years makes!

P.S. Many thanks to Grandma for the blankets!!!

Even more Lego creations

Oliver has been hard at work again, building all sorts of things with his Legos.

Like this fabulous "bad police" station:


I asked him -- "Is it a police station where bad police work, or is it a regular police station where the police bring the bad guys?" He said, "Yeah." Ha ha!! So I'm not sure what exactly it's for, but it does include this "fire guy" with a "fire torch" (and he's not a firefighter, in case you were wondering):


There's also this guy, who stopped at the cafe on his way to work:


And these guys, hanging out in the "Droid Department":


And let's not forget this guy, who is in charge of keeping the bad guys out:


Oliver asked me to take pictures of all of this to share with Granddaddy, Grammy, Grandma, and Grandpa. I said, "They'll probably want to see a picture of you, too!" and he said, "Not now, Mama, let me finish this up first."

So here he is, working on the next project. :-)