Indoor Fun

The View from our Kitchen Window...Oliver's Spa

We've had a little snow recently, a little over a foot just yesterday, so Oliver has had to play inside a good bit. And by playing inside, I mean doing the same things he always does just doing them more often...playing under the jungle gym, sitting in his booster seat and chewing and then throwing rattles, swinging while I eat, and of course bouncing in his Pugabop...repeat a thousand times. So, Oliver loves to be naked and he loves to take a bath. Voila, 2 new things to do. Naked time consists of him squirming around sans clothes on a blanket and sometimes staying on the wet pad. He loves it. And daytime bath is him taking a bath in the sink. He loves this as well.

Here are videos and pictures of him enjoying his 2 new indoor activities.

Getting a little closer to true mobility...maybe

This simply showcases Oliver's incredibly long attention span.

AND ON OUR RIGHT...

Here is a tour of our home, it's a pretty self-explanatory, but there is a lovely narrator to keep you informed just in case. (The tour is in 2 videos because it kept messing up as 1.)

Life is going along fine up here. We've a bit of a February thaw, the snow is all but disappeared from the sidewalks and is now dirty and depressing, it kind of looks like you feel when you've been sick and have laid around in the same old pajamas for 2 days. And on runs Oliver and I can barely make out the smell of the muddy earth reminding us it's under all the white stuff. I know from our vast experience of 1 other winter up here that there will be more snow for us to shovel and more ice to slip on, because didn't 'ol groundhog promise 6 more weeks of winter (x2 for VT). However, the sun is undeniably sunnier these days and more snow and ice means sparkling sun rays bouncing in all directions. (You can't help but be positive when just a quick jog down the road brings you to a red barn sitting in a field of snow and bordered by a river that is glistening with winter's cloth.) Vermont is cold and frustrating but is also beautiful if you remember to look up off the pavement.

And now pictures of Oliver...and our Valentine's gifts to one another

the scarf I knitted (1st thing I ever knitted), and a t-shirt covered in quotes by Dickens and Shakespeare.

Oliver in Valentine attire plus his gangster yellow knit tobaggen.

traditional Feltman Bros. and the new look of Feltman Bros.

And that is, finally, it.

Thanks...And My Own Personal Grammy's

I think it appropriate to showcase the sounds coming from our house these days, seeing as I'm sitting here watching the Grammy's. (I love Justin Timberlake by the way.) And I'm able to sit and type and fiddle with videos and watch TV because Oliver is asleep, and he's been sleeping more and more...a quiet yea! enters my thoughts and escapes!
Being a mama or a papa has not been easy these past weeks with 4 hours of sleep being considered a luxury...and yes, I know that being a parent will never be something anyone describes as being easy, but seriously.
I want to thank the friends that have listened to the "get Oliver to sleep" plans or "he must be a vampire" logic for why Oliver wasn't sleeping. And thank you to those friends who have young children for not making me feel like I or my child were irrevocably messed up. (is irrevocably the word i want there?) Anyway, thanks for the support, the advice (only when I asked for it), and the love ya'll have for Oliver and me and Eric. Also, thank you dear friends for understanding that I'm not hibernating from ya'lls friendship when I don't call, I just have to have that hour to gather not my thoughts so much, but my breaths for the hours ahead. I love ya'll, and with sleep coming my way I look forward to refinding my friends and not just by stalking you on facebook.
I'll stop thanking my friends so I don't overdo it and make it all sound false. What is definately not false is the squeeling and the laughter of a 4 1/2 month old. Moments like the ones captured on these videos have made the past 20 weeks some of the best weeks we have lived.