transformation

oli is no longer a baby but has now entered toddlerhood. this didn't happen overnight but has been a long time coming. little o has always been independent, curious and alert of his surroundings. he always has this inquisitive look on his face when he is trying to figure something out. he loves exploring his world and i am so thankful to be able to help him understand it. i love being home with him, he brings so much joy to our lives. i find myself getting really excited at bed time to see what fun we will have the next day. granted i am not a morning person, but regardless of how tired i may be there is nothing better to wake up to than my beloved holding my oh so HAPPY oli, and our gus' body tensing up and shaking in excitement to see me! BLISS!
curtis and i really have our hands full with this busy body and get a full work out, hopefully someday it will show!

what has this 9 month marker brought in milestones for our little O... hmmmm
weighing in at 18+ lbs (20th %) and 29.2 inches tall (80th%) our little man is tall and skinny, just how we like em in the brinkerhoff home.

oli has really started eating quite the variety of foods and we love the ease of the snacks, ok i admit i also think the puff snacks are pretty tasty!

oli is so close to walking, he cruises around on everything and will use anything to help with support. oliver wants fair reign of the house and when he realized he doesn't he will throw a little tantrum!

his favorite part of the house is his bathtub, this is the place he is always trying to escape to. he will cruise right up the stairs, to the tub and then just start shaking and shrieking in excitement hoping he can have a bubble bath, and yes he will throw another tantrum when it is time to get out of the tub.

i love that he really knows who curtis and i are, when he is with me all he will say is mommmamamamommma and around curtis its dadddadadaaaadd. when i am leading the music in church, he and curtis sit on the side in the front row and oli is such a distraction cause he will just laugh at me and clap oh and try to copy me leading music, it is SO hard not to laugh at him!

Oli is an independent eater, he really enjoys feeding himself. if we are feeding him baby food with lots of chunks in it, he will scrape it off of his tongue and refeed it to himself. on occasion he will throw a fit during food time so one day curtis and i decided to try to just let him do it himself... this is what we got!

despite the mess.... i think it has been a good solution to his tantrums so we have done it a couple of times

these are the men in my life, they are my everything. i cant wait to spend eternity with them

9 months

coming soon!

project monday

technically i did this last monday and haven't had an opportunity to upload my pictures from what i made today, they are still drying. i am pretty pleased with this little one though. i got the simple idea off of another blog (don't ask, i have mom brain) i do know she got the idea from a magazine though. take 1 free wreath (thank you zims close out and freaky tiki for braving those treacherous aisles with me) + a bag full of moss (i got mine from hobby lobby) + vacuum to clean up all the moss...

+ tiny/mini glue gun (thanks mama, you probably didn't know about your contribution) + a TON of glue sticks

+ cute fake little birdie+a little nest (both from hobby lobby)

+ a little ribbon+ a big B in honor of our brinkerhoff home and you get...
VIOULLA: welcome spring! oh and did i mention this cost about $3?

I also made one of these ditty's, i think i like it... total time to make this about 2 hours if you have alittle one to chase all day probably 45 minutes if not and cost about $2

it couldnt possibly be time for a gate!

im a big kid now

busy little bee

Since quiting my job a couple of months ago I feel like I have been over excited when it comes to projects. I was really used to high stress and being uber busy at work and was a little worried about getting a bit of cabin fever when I didnt have that any more. So I took my extra energy and have been throwing it into exercising my right brain. I have been building up craft after craft. My 'to do list' just keeps growing and growing. So far I think it has been a great outlet for me. There are so many things that I have wanted to learn and make but haven't had a lot of time or energy to do them and now during my precious time while Oli sleeps, this is my time!

• Learning how to frost/decorate sugar cookies using flood icing technique, they may not have been the most fantastic to eat but it was fun to try to be artsy.


• jewelry making: a recent obsession from pearls to chunky rock bracelets to metal beads to cabochons (check out one of my new favorite websites http://www.mkbeads.com/.) Now that I have found that Heartland paper now sells pendant making stuff for like $1-$2 I have been going to town. I also have been filling up frequent shopper cards at Heart beads, BeadFairy (not a big fan), and Roberts (I could spend all the money of the world here)

• Our family journal: I have never been much of a journaler but computers have really helped me in that department. We maintain a family journal in the lovely microsoft word and have been doing this for the past 2 1/2 years. Every 6+ months I will print all of our entries out on card stock and will scrapbook/glue it into our book with corresponding pictures. This has really been a great way for us to keep a record for our family


• Cooking, not so fantastic in this department yet


• Fabric flowers: I found this great blog that is just up my alley and she does a little tutorial on how to make those adorable fabric flower rosettes http://pretty-ditty.blogspot.com/2009/10/beaded-fabric-flower-necklace-tutorial.html



• Fabric buttons: magnets, hair accessories, jewelry, tack pins ANYTHING!


• Canvas art: (I was inspired by a booth at Sweet Sadie, they remind me of funky stuff you see in pendants but blown up and modge podged onto canvas)


• Vinyl wall art: this one will be tough and will probably take me FOREVER, its not just something i can cut out on my cricut.


• All of the half finished projects I have started
• And many many many more things.

I get a little too ambitious sometimes we will see how long it takes me to get through this list!

Time to baby proof

8 months, are you kidding me? Oli just keeps growing and growing. It makes me so sad how fast our time has gone. He has been such a blessing to our whole family and really bring so much light and joy to our home.

Stats: all we know is you are about 17.5 pounds-ish

Nicknames: Gus, Gus Gus, Gusopotomus, Grumpy Gus, Cry baby titty mouse (I dont really like this one but your dad always says it), Oliwallipallifrog and many more

Words: You have been saying MMMMooommmma and ddadddda since you were about 4ish months old but now it seems like you say it on purpose for us. You will also mimic us and say ‘hi dad’ and when you see people you will say ‘hai’ very breathy. One of you favorites is ‘sssssthhat’ almost like whats that.

Adventures: Road trip to Idaho with Aunt Rachael and baby Charlotte. Road trip to Idaho Falls with daddy for his work, mommy and you played in the pool while daddy was in meetings. Went to a dedication of a Mountain America building in honor of your late great-great grandfather Tanner.

Idaho Falls

Oli you are such a vibrant kid. Here is a list of what your month was full of.....

Accomplishments: Forget about crawling, you are all about the walking. Since you have mastered your runaround toy you are trying to climb up onto anything you can to get into standing position. You don’t seem too excited about crawling, you will lift you belly off the floor and rock back and forth and get in a couple of crawls and then stop. One day daddy and I saw you go from sitting in your crib to pulling yourself into standing and then bouncing we knew it was time to lower your bed down to the lowest notch. This also means that you can now see through the crib bars between the bedding pads and the top of your crib. So you have ruined the pad facing the door because when you don’t want to take your naps you pull it down and try to climb out of your prison!

He was pulling himself up off of the floor here.

WHAT THE!

Helping Daddy

Looking out from his prison

When you are determined to get somewhere you don’t let anyone or anything stop you. If you get too frustrated by trying to scoot or crawl there you will just toss the weight of you head over to roll there. You can roll from one end of the room to the other in a matter of seconds.

You love electronics. You will always try to steal people’s phones and suck on the remote. You ripped the tab key off of our laptop when you were 5 months.

You had RSV at the beginning of this month and you were just getting over it. The only symptom you really had was a nasty cough and you handled your sickness like a champ.

You are still trying to figure out how to use a sippy. You really can’t get the hang of that thing

You would rather eat food than take a bottle. During mommies breakfast the other day you were playing on the floor and noticed she was eating food. You turned around and crawled to her and started saying mmmommma, momma momoomomoommmmmaaaaaaa and chomping your mouth like you were hungry, and got mad and her because she wouldn’t feed you her food!

You are having a more difficult time falling asleep in places beside your crib and your car seat (while driving of course) this is why church is difficult.

You are so curious about other people and the environment around you this is why you have a difficulty falling asleep. You aren’t much of a cuddler you will push away so you can look out at the world around you and just prefer to be laid down in your crib.

When you and your daddy are playing, he will throw you in the air and say “Zupa, zzzzuuppa” I don’t know why but I think it is the cutest thing.

You get so excited and belly laugh right before bed, its like you are trying to exert all of your energy before bedtime. You love when we swoop your clothes over your face, its kinda weird but you never laugh harder.

You throw such a tantrum when you want something and you get so much anxiety when you can’t see us or think you were abandoned.

Still no teeth, you keep faking us out!

You are kind of vain. You love looking at yourself in the mirror.

Yup, you found the door stop and played with that for more than 10 minutes
I love the bond that you and Jack have, I still find him sneaking in your room to sleep in the corner.

This is snapshots of him rolling in circles around his room, I think he did 5 laps of this

Here is some snapshots of him climbing up onto his activity center, going from sitting to standing. He was being very inventive and was so determined to stand up!

I have a very slow camera so it is hard to catch all of his faces he pulls, I cant tell you how many pictures I have of him blinking! this is how I was able to get a good shot of his eyelashes!