December 8, 2008

Oliver's latest

For the first 2 yrs of his life, Oliver was one of the easiest and happiest kids in New Mexico's history. He's still relatively easy and happy, but capriciousness and contrariness have finally emerged in the lad. When you give him a meal that isn't anything resembling hot he protests he can't eat it because it's too hot. But in the morning when he makes a panicked face after the first bite of his scalding daily oatmeal--which he won't grant me any time to cool off in the freezer--and I tell him it's hot, he insists, "no daddy, iss not hot, iss nummy." Sometimes he LOVES to sing songs, then the next minute he'll say (whether your singing for his pleasure or not) "No, don't seen dat, don't seen dat sawn." He won't eat his food when it's in front of him, but the second it's taken away it's "I waan bite!" Sometimes you'll refer to some thing by it's proper name "oh look, Oliver, there's a bus," to which he violently shakes his head and corrects "No, Daddy, das not a bus, das a haa-da-do (helicopter)" or vice versa, even though he knows perfectly well which is which. He just doesn't want you getting to uppity about things, or thinking he's your lackey.

Some other stuff he's doing and saying lately:

He's still obsessed with cars, trucks, motorcycles, helicopters, planes and buses. One can track some of his other interests back to his environment (like the big shark encyclopedia I introduced him to), but the car thing is 100% le natural Olivier. He can't get enough of them. He still is carrying one or two of his cars with him everywhere he goes, begs to watch the movie Cars everyday, and is never happier than when I show him pictures of exotic cars online. He could do this all day long.

I'm one of those obnoxious parents who's always peeking in the window on him in nursery. Not to stalk the nursery leaders, but because watching Otto in foreign environments without his folks around is fascinating to me. I want a picture of how the individual Oliver Bell interacts with the world. Anyway, a couple times I noticed him cruising around while most the other kids were sitting still during lesson or singing time, so one day I asked on the of the nursery leaders for honest feedback on his behavior and attention span. She said he's really sweet and usually well-behaved but does sometimes have a tough time sitting still and when she tries to hold him on her lap, he starts yelling "Owe, Owe, you're hurting me!" Then tonight, Reba was telling him (from a distance, with no physical coercion involved) to go from the couch to the kitchen to eat, which for some reason didn't suit his schedule. So I hear him yell "Be Sofff! Your hitting me!"

He also cheers "YAAYYYY" and claps at the end of each nursery song, which sets off all the others to do the same. Not standard practice.

You'll tell him something lately and he'll say "I know, that's awesome."

He'll spontaneously tell you "I'm happy."

My favorite part of the day is when I get back from Seminary at 7 and he's awake playing in his crib. He usually wakes up somewhere between 6 and 6:30 but he contents himself until the caretakers are ready. He'll pull a book from a shelf by his crib and peruse it, or he'll play with his cars or Sammy Shark. Before I get him up for breakfast and our morning snuggle, i'll listen for interesting monologue. The other morning I heard and saw this:

He pulls his Sammy Shark close to his face and says. "wass a mattow Thammy? Are you dye-een (crying)? Don't Dye Thammy. You dopped yo dada (car)?" Then he stands up and looks over the edge for the car. "I doen know, Thammy, I doen see it."

My favorite quirk is his failure to reverse the way adults use "you," "me," "my" when he's speaking about himself. So long ago, when he needed something we couldn't understand, we would say "show me." So now he'll run up to us and say "show me, show me." instead of "show you." Or he'll pull at my hand and say "I help you, I help you," or "I hold you, I hold you daddy." The best one is when he wants to sit in your lap, it comes out "I waan (pronounced 'jaun') sii my lap."

The other thing he does that kills me is he adds the longest fffff you've ever heard to every word ending with a p. Cupffff, upffff. So the lap-sitting request is actually "I waan sii my lapffff" It's so cute. He's actually starting to grow out of the ffff ending and it makes me sad.

He's very serious about completing some tasks, like cleaning up. Reebs and I are now nursery leaders in his nursery so we get to watch him clean up. Most kids lose interest after a few toys in the bucket, but not this guy. He's scouring the four corners of the place for any unseen toy with the single-mindedness matched only by his mom's business-mode cleaning.

When something is really special he'll put a "dobby" (rhymes with Robby) in front of it. Have no idea what it means, but I think it means awesome. It usually shows up when he wants one of us to draw a "dobby shwutch" (truck) or a "dobby dada."

He's still super cuddly, which keeps Reba and I happy.

Christian

13 comments:

davis@dontdodumbthings.com said...

I love these types of post. Can't wait to hang out with the little guy over Christmas.

Annica said...

He sounds so cute!!!

Andrea W. said...

I can't tell you how much I loved reading this. He is one hilarious little guy. Brennan and I were cracking up at the allegations of people hurting him. I loved reading the way he says things, I could totally hear him saying them. I'm so excited to see him again and witness these Oliverisms first hand. Great guy!

Macy said...

So cute! What a personality. And I am so not surprised that you are one of those stalking parents looking in the window of the nursery. That is probably why you got called. lol.

I have a theory that says that each little boy either likes cars, trucks, helicopters, etc. or they don't so much, and they are all about balls. I have noticed this about so many little kids. It is either one or the other I swear.

What a cute guy he is. There is going to be alot of action over Christmas with all of these little personalities.

Andrea W. said...

oh my word, I loved this post!! What a funny little guy, I cannot wait to see all of this in action over christmas. that thammy the shark thing was killing me, so dang funny and cute. plus all his speaking is amazing to me, I am kind of starting to think abe might be a little retarded. When comparing him with benny, I justified it that benny was older (7 weeks) but I have no excuse with ollie, shoot. ; ) Anyway, so dang adorable and funny. I love that he is finally giving you a run for your money.

Andrea W. said...

That was Eliza, btw.

Jo said...

Chris, I agree with all the others-- I enjoyed reading this post so much! His capriciousness and contrairiness sound like he's already determind to assert himself as a separarte and independent entity from his parents.

The "oww-- you're hurting me!" is hilarious! He must have a healthy portion of drama in him.

His conversation with Sammy Shark killed me! So glad I'll get to see him soon!

Rachel said...

This was so fun to read...I love it when kids start to get their own personalities. He's so dang cute...I love his personalized vocabulary- one day he'll stop doing that and you'll really miss it and often you'll find yourself even talking like he does...the joys of parenthood!

Taylor and Stephanie Haught said...

This post was so cute!
I just absolutely adore Oliver! I love his enthusiasm at singing time, makes me feel like I am actually connecting with the kids.

Amanda said...

That is awesome that you record things like that about Ollie! One day he will love to hear (read) all the funny and cute things he did when he was little.

Jake and Emily Hutchings Family said...

wow! i can't believe how many things he's saying. cooper's still working on developing an incoherent sentence. coop's into the trains. he begs to watch train movies/videos/anything all day. it makes buying for xmas easy!

Ryan@dontdodumbthings.com said...

Awesome post, Kook. Ollie is a slick dude. I love him. Especially how obstinate he is. You can tell there's lots more great things to come.

Rebecca said...

Eliza, for the split second between Ange calling Abe retarded and realizing that it must be you, not Ange, I thought, "HOLY SHIZ, ANGE!"

Funny.

First, Oliver doesn't speak in complete sentences usually. He speaks the way Southern people do, taking the shortest route on all words and phrases.

Second, Don't worry about Abe. That guy has obvious mechanical and mob raising skills that will always provide him an income even if he turns out to be a mute.

Third, Einstein's folks worried about him too because he didn't speak until a relatively late age. True story.