Multi-tasker

As Oliver learns more skills, he likes to combine them. The multi-tasking gene probably comes from his mum...

Big man

 

 

Je prends mon pieds

Oliver is still not a big fan of the car but he finds ways to entertain himself...
PS: The title is a joke that only French people can get.

Oliver crawling for Lola

Oliver is totally fascinated with the cats, probably because they are not just like any toy: they escape every time he tries to grab them.

Here is a short snap view of the dynamics between him and Lola. 

(Sorry for the shaky video, Lola was cuddling against me.)

Slowly making my way up...

Monologue

The boys

Friends and neighbors' sons riding the canoe while Oliver plays the shark.

Bay house trip

Another great trip at the Bay. Oliver is doing much better in the car now...

 bath in the kitchen sink

 

Boys fishing on the peer at sunset

Oliver and mama goofing with the reversed camera on my iphone

 Oliver eating sticks and grass as always...

Weekend rituals

Walks on Town Lake, breakfast tacos at El Chilito down the street from our house, 

Little hike on the green belt

 And finally staying true to our Champagne tradition, we celebrated Oliver's 8 month birthday this weekend...

Aie!

Sensitive soul, watch out! We tend to show Oliver smiley and having fun but he also cries sometimes!

He does recover very quickly though, here are his debut as a musician.

Blablabla

Oliver is adding new words (and sounds) to his vocabulary weekly... 

Miscellaneous

Last week we went to the Wild Flower Center, the flowers in Texas have been amazing this year. Oliver looked goofy with his sunglasses but he really doesn't like the sun in his face...

 New awesome cafe in our neighborhood, only 15 min walk from our house. A new Sunday morning tradition.

 Textures, yeah!

 Hanging out on the front porch after Oliver fell asleep in the stroller on a walk in the park near our house.

PS: Some of those pictures can not be rotated in vertical position for some reason, sorry about that

Bath time

Here's a fun video that we'll all (except Oliver) look back on an laugh.

New friends

This Sunday we had a craw fish boil at some friends house. Oliver got to hang out with bunch of other boys until almost 9pm. He communicated with them by grabbing and nibbling on their nose, which they thought was very funny... 

Here's the goofy video again

Oh Tomatoes!

Goofy boys

This past week, we rented out our house for the SXSW festival. There are so many people coming from all over the world for this festival that all hotels are booked so we took ceased the opportunity to rent our house and make a little extra money to finance our Colorado vacation this summer.

We were lucky to have two nice guys from Holland renting our place. The were in advertising and one of them did a speech about advertising for Ikea... Anyways while they stayed at our house, we traveled around South Texas to visit family in Corpus and in Harlingen. We ended the trip west of San Antonio at Ben's mum's house. We had a nice relaxing time there taking walks surrounded by wild flowers and goofing around with Oliver.

Water-babies

Oliver had his first swimming lesson yesterday. Him and I went to the YMCA for water-babies. We got to hang out with a small group of 5 other babies and their mums. Oliver was pretty happy at first especially with his cute shark bathing suit that got him a lot of attention. Then in the water he rode the wave of mixed feelings from fun splashing to drinking too much water through the nose to relaxing on his back like a mermaid.

Hot winter

Today is probably the hottest day of the year so far with about over 90F (32C). Oliver who's grown up in pretty mild temperature so far, got pretty hot today when we went for lunch on the terrace of Central Market with Steve. Steve is visiting from Germany and we were happy to see him.
In the bouncy seat saga, here is a video I filmed right after we got back from lunch.

Other than that, at Oliver's 6 months visit, everything was well, the doctor said he's very healthy and still in the 90th percentile in weight and height.

Weekend in Galveston

Last weekend, Ben had a conference in Galveston. Oliver and I joined and spent the night at the Moody Gardens Resort. Lot of firsts for Oliver. First time in a hotel, at the beach and visiting an aquarium.

Sitting

Oliver is about to turn 6 months old tomorrow. During our last yoga class last week, I noticed other babies sitting. Most of these babies were older than Oliver but I wondered when Oliver would sit on his own. Two days later, I got a text from Ben saying our son was sitting. Yesterday, while Ben was trying to figure out where to plant the gazillion trees he just bought, Oliver sat in the grass for a good couple hours, just giggling, having a total blast.... and eating lots of grass. :)

Oliver's first steps (sorta)

Here's the video I promised...

Sunrise

We have the chance to see a beautiful sunrise every morning from our bed, especially in the winter when the trees lose their leaves.
Several mornings ago, Oliver got very interested in the orange light...

Blessing

The owner of a yoga studio I teach at, Steven Ross, does wedding ceremonies and blessing of all sorts. He is dear to me as he offered me my first 'real' yoga job. When Oliver was born, he offered to do a blessing for him.
So this weekend, we gathered with a few friends and had a little ritual with candles, fruit and flowers.

Ben and I held Oliver promising we will teach him how to live, trust, respect and dream so he may participate in the journey that life is. We promised that we will value his hopes and dreams and let him know that he will always be welcomed, accepted and loved for who he is. To encourage him to explore his world with a sense of wonder and endless possibility.




 It was very sweet and although Ben thought it was a little silly, he had a little tear in his eyes during the ceremony!

Laugher

here's a video of the little man cracking up.

The swing

Oliver is getting a little more skilled in the swing now and actually enjoys it. Video to come... in the meantime, here are some pictures with mama.