OK, so when I was a youngster, back in the late 1970s, I had “Grover-fever” something fierce. I just loved Grover from “Sesame Street.” Everywhere I went, I would drag my Grover doll around with me.
So it excited me to no end when I went to Babies R Us with my mom last weekend, and we perused the toy aisle and saw a really nice Grover on the shelf. What a rarity that was. Usually, it’s all Elmo, all the time. In fact, I think they had about two dozen Elmo toys and just the one Grover doll. Oliver had a field day looking at all the toys. And with very little prompting (I swear), we let him pick out a new toy. And guess what? He picked the Grover!
Pretty cool, at least to me. And now it’s one of the three stuffed “animals” (or monsters – whatever!) that he drags around with him. (The other two are Elmo – of course – and what I call his Jesus Lamb.) We’ve already taken Grover around the neighborhood on walks, taken him to the store, etc.
We’ve recently started letting Oliver watch TV, though he’s probably only viewed about 10 hours total in his life to date. But one of the shows we, as his parents, can stand watching is “Sesame Street.” It really brings us back, and we like the fact that the show actually does research to prove that it helps children learn. I will say, however, that the show has changed quite a bit and it’s not all good from what I’ve seen so far. We’ll still give it a chance.
Anyway, I’m rambling and it’s late, so let me end with a really cute picture of Oliver clutching his new Grover doll. Enjoy:
Category Archives: oliver
Another life chapter in the books
I’ve been thinking a lot lately about my life in terms of chapters. The next big one, of course, will be the arrival of our second child early next year. Well, another major chapter just ended as well. Yesterday was Sarah’s last day at her job. As some of you know, her company was bought out earlier this year. Since that time, she’s been a contract/transitional employee for the new company. The contracts all ended yesterday.
Now, Sarah is pregnant and jobless. We’re a one-income family. It’s not as if we haven’t prepared or are worried at all. We should be fine, but it will definitely mean big changes for the family. There will be job searches/interviews, after-work meals (a man can hope, can’t he!), more personal attention for our son, etc.
This new chapter officially will start on Monday, when I head off to work around 7 a.m. Wish us luck.
Oliver’s new shirt: A fashion statement or a sign of things to come?
Of course I’ll post more later, but the picture below is a quick tease. What do you think of Oliver’s shirt: Fashion statement? Perhaps. Sign of things to come? Stay tuned for my next post to find out …
Something ‘Sssssss-tinks’ at the Lopinot household
My wife and I generally split up “diaper duty” 50-50. However, this weekend it was more like 100-100. Confused? What I’m trying to say is that it’s taken both of us for each diaper change. You see, Oliver came down with something that has caused some MAJOR diaper damage. And that, in turn, has caused some MAJOR blistering on his, ahem, private areas. And those blisters, when in contact with a wipe, cause some MAJOR PAIN, as evidenced by the boy screaming, crying and flailing his arms and legs.
Yesterday alone, we changed eight straight diapers that must have weighed a pound apiece. Nasty, nasty stuff, too. This morning, we found Oliver in his crib with some MAJOR diaper leakage. The stuff was all over his arms and legs. Very gross. Let’s just say we had to give the crib a full and thorough scrubbing today. We will leave it at that.
The diaper changes have become a tiring routine. One of us handles the diaper and one of us holds the boy’s arms and legs and tries to get him to laugh. Per our call with one of those doctor help lines, we have been rinsing the wipes before using them, putting neosporin on the tender spots and petroleum jelly all over the rest of his bum, giving him several baths a day in a mixture of water and baking soda, and making sure he gets lots of water.
Things were a little better today. Several diapers featured only our favorite potty number (No. 1 – urine!). And at least Oliver has a good sense of humor about the diaper damage. When I question him with, “Did you poop?,” he says, “Ssssss-tink,” and flashes a huge smile. And when I repeat back to him, “You stink,” he giggles like crazy.
Oh, the joys of parenting. What wouldn’t we do for this kid?
Our son’s lasagna face – yum!
Sarah made a really delicious lasagna for dinner this week, helping us feed my sister and her boyfriend. But the adults weren’t the only ones who had a heaping serving. Oliver proved to have a taste for the baked Italian treat as well.
He’s usually a pretty picky eater, and he’s also kind of weird about getting food on his hands and face, but not today. He chowed down, spreading it all over his face in the process. Afterward, he was mugging for the camera, so Sarah took some pictures. Below are two of my favorites. Enjoy:
Oliver lights up over visit from Aunt Carrie
My little sister, Carrie, and her boyfriend travel all over the country for their jobs, working in different cities for several months at a time. This week, between their last gig, in Boston, and their next, in some city in Florida that escapes my mind right now, we got the chance to see them. Such visits are pretty infrequent — we get maybe four a year.
Oliver loves his Aunt Carrie. He has a little photo book and he likes to point at the picture of Carrie and Eli in there. So when the couple showed up in person this week, his face just lit up.
Carrie and Eli watched the boy on Wednesday while we were at work. They even took him to the local school and played on the playground — that is, until the principal kindly asked them to leave (they didn’t realize St. Charles has year-round school, and they didn’t question why there were dozens of kids running around the playground I guess).
Anyway, Carrie and Eli loaded their car back up and left today for their next destination. We’ll see each other on Skype several times over the next few months, for sure, but it’s not the same as being together in person. Next time we see her could be this fall, or maybe even around Christmas. We all look forward to it. In the meantime, below are a couple pictures we shot last night. I wish I had taken more, especially because Oliver’s eyes are closed in the second one. Oh well. Enjoy:
Just sharing one of my favorite recent photos of Oliver
Since I haven’t posted much lately, I thought I’d hit the blog with a flurry. This will be a short one, but I wanted to share one of my favorite recent photos of Oliver. I took this along the driveway at my Grandma Lopinot’s house. I followed him around for about 10 minutes, waiting for the lighting — and his attention — to be just right. I must have fired off a few dozen photos over a 10-second period when he paused here to look up at me, capturing this image among my many clicks:
What do you think of the picture?
Taking the little rascals to the Rascals game
Last night, we went to the River City Rascals baseball game with our friends the Hattons. Jen, Mike and little Drew met us outside the ballpark in O’Fallon, Mo. (you may know Jen from her blog, Life with Drew). It was a blast, though everything was “tiny,” at least in comparison to a St. Louis Cardinals game. By that, I mean the car show outside the stadium featured just five cars, there were only a handful of seating sections, only two concession stands were open, etc.
However, it was a really intimate affair. We were close to the field. Our son loved seeing all the mascots, and he also loved running along the open concourse and using the slide at the playground area. It’s well worth checking out if you have young kids. Highly recommend.
We had fun catching up with Mike and Jen, who we hadn’t seen in ages. And the two boys, Oliver and Drew, seemed to enjoy touching each other and making loud grunt noises. Pretty cute stuff. Anyway, we took just a handful of pictures but they didn’t turn out great. Below are a few, featuring the boys, everybody but me in our seats and the Hattons. Enjoy.
Our trip to the Springfield, Mo., Zoo in pictures
Been behind in my blogging, so this post should catch us up. I’ve been meaning to share some photos from our recent trip to Springfield, Mo., to visit with my parents and grandma Carol. We had just a wonderful time. Below is a slideshow from our day at the Springfield Zoo. Oliver just loves looking at animals. The weather was borderline hot, but at least tolerable. Enjoy:
Happy Fourth (OK, Sixth – I’m a little late) of July
We spent the Fourth of July weekend in Springfield, Mo., with my parents and my Grandma Carol (who was visiting for a few weeks). What a fun time. I’ll post some more about the visit later, but for now, I’ll share some details about our holiday outing. My parents’ house is just south of town, so we headed out a couple miles to nearby Battlefield, Mo., to watch fireworks.
My mom insisted we get there early, and early it was. I think we had just over two hours to kill before the show started. Oliver spent most of it running, with his head down, back and forth across the sidewalk, through the playground area and in/out of the crowd. It was really tiring chasing him everywhere, and he was extremely stubborn about being redirected back to our spot on the lawn. However, just before the fireworks he was pretty tired, as seen here in this photo taken shortly after we gave him a bottle as he watched the band play:
The fireworks were actually pretty impressive, though the show was a bit short. Honestly, it was one of the better firework displays I’ve seen in my 33 years. While watching, I had my camera and tripod set up to try and capture a few images. Here’s one of the few firework pictures that worked:
After a while, I turned the camera over toward Sarah and Oliver to capture the picture below. It was actually almost pitch black by that point, so I had the camera set to capture as much light as possible. This shot also was aided by the light of the fireworks. Here’s the pic:
Overall, Oliver really seemed to enjoy the fireworks. He sat and stared at them calmly, though it was about two hours past his bedtime. By the end, he had turned around and put his head down on Sarah’s shoulder, but he kept twisting his head around and opening one tired eye to catch a glimpse. It was pretty cute. Next year should be even more exciting, since he’ll be talking and all that fun stuff.
Anyway, to wrap up this post, below is a YouTube video I shot and cleaned up (mostly reducing the darkness). You can tell my mom was enjoying herself, from her enthusiastic, booming voice! Oliver was just calm as could be. Enjoy:
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