Ollie's Outfit

Ollie likes to pick out his clothes. One day he came out of his room wearing ONLY underwear and a red vest. I took a picture (not posted for obvious reasons) and then sent him back into his room to try again. I explained that he needed to be modest and that it was cold outside. He came back a few minutes later looking like this. Soccer shorts, spider man shirt (unbuttoned), and red vest (unzipped). Somewhat better but still not good for a cold day... The third time Spencer went and gave him more direction and they found an outfit that he could wear the red vest with. 99% of the time he gets himself dressed in appropriate clothes but that other 1% I have to take a picture of.

Dressed Up

So, we've finally figured out a cute hairdo for Lily. She doesn't really like it and after about three times of redoing it I give up and she doesn't have her hair done. :) When I looked at the pictures in the flower dress it suddenly hit me that Lily is a toddler now and not a baby. She just looks so grown up. The pictures in the purple dress... don't you just want to come visit us and squeeze her.

Butterflies

Grandma Beck sent Ollie a butterfly kit. The kit came with a butterfly mesh cage and a coupon to send in for caterpillars. We sent in the coupon and then we got caterpillars in the mail! Ollie was so excited to get them. He ran all over the house and talked non-stop about his "first ever pet".



We read all the papers about how to take care of them and Ollie listened very carefully. He then got to pick a spot in his room for them to grow. He picked to put them on top of his bookshelf because they needed to be out of direct sunlight and in a spot where they would not be bumped. We moved his stepstool right by them so he could check on them. They came in a little clear plastic container with their food on the bottom so taking care of them was super easy. :)
Ollie was super good about checking on them. Sometimes he would yell "Ollie" and then he would run into his room and check on his caterpillars- he checked on them anytime they called and every few hours.



The caterpillars grew and grew and grew. They spent a little over a week growing and eating. They crawled all over their little cup. They had green poop which fascinated Ollie.



After about one week of eating and growing they crawled to the top of their cup and hung upside down. This was amazing to see them just hanging there.



After hanging upside down for about 1/2 day they turned into chrysalids. I always thought that they spun a cacoon but they really just sort of morphed into a chrysalid. Another interesting thing is that while in the cacoon they can shake. It's their defensive system against predators.



After all the caterpillars changed we moved them into their mesh cage. The cup that they grew in had a paper disk in the top of the lid. We took the paper disk out of the lid and pinned it onto the side of the mesh cage. We were worried that they would all just fall off but they hung on really well. One did fall off so we laid it on the bottom of the cage on a paper towel. Then we hung the cage up in Ollie's closet.



After around 10 days they broke out of their cacoons and were butterflies! As butterflies they eat nectar so we bought them some flowers and put sugar water on the flowers. We also put orange slices in the cage for them to eat. For the first few days they didn't fly much but after a few days they flew more. We kept them for a few days and then released them at the Botanical Gardens.



The finished product. A beautiful Painted Lady butterfly. (We had four out of the five caterpillars make it all the way to butterflies.)

Helicopter

Ollie loves to build things. He has three different sets of blocks and he plays with each set EVERY day. This is a "helicopter" that he built all by himself. It had a spinning top and I thought it was very cool. He thought it was even cooler that I took a picture of him with his helicopter. What a delightful kiddo!

New Game

Ollie and Lily have a new game. Ollie gets a cookie sheet out of the cupboard. He puts Lily on it. Then he pushes Lily all over the house. Lily's part in the game is to say "whee". This will entertain them for quite a while. For those that have small children you should let them try this. It's an indoor version of sledding. :)

New Joy

Lily has discovered the joy of pulling her clothes off her shelves. It never ceases to amaze me how kids can enjoy the same thing over and over and over again.

Breakfast

I decided that I would describe a typical breakfast at our house, because they are not typical. :) Lily wakes up at about 7:00. She tells me first thing that she wants food. She loves cold cereal and feeding herself. She also loves to splash milk all over. So I feed her first thing. Then I change her and put in her contact and start patch time. By this time Ollie has also gotten up (about 8:00). Ollie does not like food first thing. We read a few books and get Ollie changed and then Ollie wants breakfast. (about 9:00) Lily is then ready for her second breakfast. For her second breakfast I usually feed her yogurt and/or fruit. Ollie doesn't eat much breakfast. Around 10:30 they are both hungry AGAIN and want a snack. Lily spends all morning eating and then hardly eats any dinner. Ollie spends all morning grazing and then eats a huge dinner. Between the two I feel like I'm always fixing food!





Anyways... here are some cute pictures. Lily just got done eating her first breakfast and slashing her milk. Ollie is eating with a giant spoon. The story- One morning I gave Ollie a spoon to eat his cereal. He handed it back and asked for a bigger spoon (no idea why). I didn't want to spend a lot of time figuring out what he was thinking so I grabed the biggest spoon we have and gave it to him. He was very excited! After a few minutes he decided that he didn't like eating with the big spoon because it was too hard and asked for the normal spoon back. He's never asked for a bigger spoon since. :)

Sleeping Beauty- Part 2

Lily still sleeps in a brace at night for her hips. She likes it if we put her to bed on her back and then after we leave the room she will roll over and sleep on her tummy. Rolling over in this brace is much more difficult than a normal day time roll. Occasionally I will go into her room to cover her up (if we put blankets on her before she can't roll and that is BAD) and she will be half way through a roll before she falls asleep. There is no way that this can be comfortable so I gently rotate her to her tummy. I don't know how she can sleep in such uncomfortable looking positions!

Sleeping Beauty- Part 1

Ollie is a crazy sleeper so every night in the winter I go into his room to cover him up with some blankets after he is asleep. He usually sleeps with his monkey, his big dog (who isn't really big, just bigger than the other really little dog he had), and one or two other animals. One night I went into his room to cover him up and he had a whole bunch of his friends in bed with him. He also had his giant polar bear who he has named Jesus. He loves this polar bear that Aunt Melanie gave to him. Here's a few funny stories about Jesus: One night Ollie was in his room (after we tucked him in) yelling "Where's Jesus?" over and over and over again. Spencer and I had no idea what he was talking about. We went into his room to see what was wrong. He told us that he just needed Jesus and he hopped out of bed and grabbed his polar bear and said "Here he is." Up to that point we didn't know that Jesus lived with us. :) Another night, he had Jesus in bed with him. I went in to cover him up and Jesus was awfully close to his face so I took Jesus back out of his bed. The next morning we had a very distraught Ollie who was upset that Jesus had "made a mistake" and climbed out of his bed. He calmed down when I explained things to him. He is sure a stuffed animal lover.

Climbing the Mountain

Part of Lily's physical therapy is to practice climbing over things. One of the kiddos favorite games to play is called climbing the mountain. The game consists of Lily trying to climb over Ollie with Ollie giggling the whole time. Mommy's job is to say "Good Job" the whole time. It's great, simple fun. :)

Saturday is a special day

Growing up in the Beck household we all had "saturday jobs". We would rotate between the different jobs that needed to be done and we could not play until our assigned job for that week was done. It always reminded my of the primary song "Saturday is a special day, it's the day we get ready for Sunday". We have continued that tradition in our family. One saturday I took Ollie to a friends birthday party. When we came home Papa was busy cleaning the house with a tired Lily on his back.

Sleepy Lily

While Lily takes a nap each day, Ollie plays in his room quietly by himself (rest time), and I exercise. One day Lily woke up before I was done. She is not good about waking up and usually likes to have some snuggle time before she is ready to play. This day I was not wanting to snuggle because I was still exercising. I was running through the house for exercise so I put her on the bed and she watched me with this glazed expression. I thought it was funny so I took a picture. :)

Duck Park

These are some pictures of feeding the ducks with the Walkers. After feeding the ducks the kids decided to make a fort out of sticks and a park bench. Ollie and Sarah are good friends and have a lot of fun together. One day when Ollie was Sarah he said "I love you all the way to Heaven and back." That's his way of saying he loves her a whole lot. We've enjoyed getting to know the Walker family this past year.