A Brief Check-In

Allow me to go nuts for a moment here. I recently bought a new cell phone with a camera function. I just took a look at the photos I have taken and I have got to share them with you. Here are some of my favorite photos.

Here we are in the park at the panhandle. I tried to explain to Oliver that no matter how much he loves sand, his new look is just in poor taste. With a reproachful look in his eye, he merely responded by saying "Heil Sand!"

This was a fun morning at our one of our favorite breakfast spots, The Pork Store. Well... Oliver was having fun until I decided to use the camera light. Yeouch!!

Ahhhhh. That's better. Now Oliver can look me straight in the eye and say, "Why mom? Why would you do that to me?"
Note: The hair. This is how Oliver looks after George very lovingly preens him.



And last, but certainly not least, this photo is from tonight. After a hard day at play and no naps, Oliver succumbs to exhaustion in mid chew. He woke up briefly 2 hours later with a confused look on his face wondering how he got into bed and why there was food in his mouth.

All in all, this has been a great month. Oliver is doing fantastically well. I am enjoying every moment with him. Every achievement is a huge victory and it brings tears of happiness to my eyes.

Mom is coming to visit next week for a little over 2 weeks. I am looking forward to her stay and I think she and Oliver will have a blast together. Hopefully, this will me a get a bit more time to fill in the gaps with what we have been doing this month.

I'll be back soon!

Just An (A)typical Day

I keep thinking, "surely, I can write a quick little something about what Oliver and I have been doing each day" until, like tonight, he has only just thrashed himself to sleep at 10:30 at night, having only had barely two hours of nap time since he woke up at 7:30 this morning. That's a long day people. I am pooped. So, I count it a miracle that I get the chance to write anything at all.

Now, before I collapse into bed myself here is what we did today: The morning was reasonable. Oliver woke in a great mood. We have both been sick with a head cold and now that it is beginning to pass he waking in better spirits. He was very hungry for the oatmeal cereal and egg I offered this morning which fueled his way over to the TV. Oliver has recently discovered that if you press the buttons on the box, strange and wonderful things will happen. People talk to you, noises get loud and soft, and colorful pictures move about. The weather turned for the better so we made our way outside while the gettin' was good. While walking to Golden Gate Park he fell asleep and I decided to walk him to Stow Lake. Turns out it takes an hour to get there from home. That's a lot of walking! O woke up in time to see the birds and ducks.

Ducks, if you'll remember, are one of his favorites. Second only to dogs. We didn't get a whole lot of duck action but just enough to keep us amused. And I am pretty sure, though I could be dreaming that he said "duck" today. Okay, so one of the times he said "guck" but, hey, he's not even 11 months yet. Given that I may, just may, be susceptible to wishful thinking, I have some doubts that I heard what I think I heard but it was fun none-the-less.

Now comes the walk back. An hour later, and a much less happy boy in tow, I drag us upstairs only to get ready to go out again for an appointment downtown. Really all I want to do at this point is nap. We get to Oliver's appointment with Lee (I'll talk about her some other time...she is great!) an hour or so later we are back on the bus to go home, meet George, eat some dinner, and then rush off again to go get my haircut.

Many of our days past have been consumed by medical emergencies, appointments and other assorted dramas. It is nice to have such a normal "typical" day (though atypical for us). All in all, a good day. Now off I go to collapse into bed.

Everywhere A Quack Quack

On a typical Friday, Oliver and I attend a Parent Infant Program at California Pacific Medical Center. Run by physical, occupational, and speech therapists this program is specifically for children with special needs. We play and sing and Oliver has a great time; it turns out that he really enjoys being around other kids. A couple of weeks ago he got to do one of his favorite activities...play in the big bin of balls. Now, anyone who knows Oliver knows that playing with balls is an endless source of delight. So, to be up to his elbows in balls is almost too much fun. I took a photo of him in the bin. I'll try to get it up on Flickr soon.

Well, this particular Friday, Shana, one of the moms in the group invited us to go to the zoo with her and her daughter, Gigi. It just so happened that we didn't have any other appointments that day so I accepted. Who knew the zoo could be so much fun! It's rare that O and I get a day like this... easy and breezy like we don't have a care in the world. So it was quite a treat indeed.

So, we got to do the same thing this Friday. Went to group and then went out for a stroll. This time we walked along the marina. Today is cloudy, windy, and around 60 deg., but the humidity is high so it feels fairly warm. We saw dogs, birds, bicycles, a pelican, and lots of choppy waves on the bay. Okay, so no ducks to drive the boy wild but, all in all a good day. Oliver finally succumbed to exhaustion around 2:30pm (he has been up since 6:30am) and will hopefully get in some good rest before we bring him over to friends of ours tonight.

Our friend Christine volunteered to babysit the boy this evening so George and I can have a night out on the town alone. A very generous gesture that I am excited about. It is my hope that Oliver is on his best behavior. He can be quite a handful when he is at his best and utterly exhausting when at his... let's just say "not quite himself". So, I hope you have fun Christine! I'd love for you to volunteer again:)

Uh, oh. Speaking of, looks like O is waking up. Will write more about his latest shenanigan's again soon!