The Youngest Bain EVER!

Oliver's Facebook page

alexbain — Mon, 12 Mar 2012 09:39:11 -0700

We’re doing more and more of our posting about the boy to Oliver’s Facebook page, instead of this site. At some point, I’ll backfill his “timeline” with the posts that were here.

In the meantime, if you’re interested in premium O-Zone pics & videos, check out https://www.facebook.com/LittleBain

Oliver’s new morning setup. He used to wake up at 6, take...

alexbain — Thu, 16 Feb 2012 07:10:19 -0800

Oliver’s new morning setup. He used to wake up at 6, take a bottle and a diaper change, then conk back out for 45-75 minutes, which gave us a chance to get ready.

When he hit 18 months, his pediatrician told us “no more bottles.” [Bad for his teeth]

The first few days he wigged out at 6 when we changed him without a bottle, but the bigger problem was how we were gonna get ready for work, especially on a day when we weren’t both home for the morning routine?

Dora to the rescue: we now bring Oliver into our bedroom, and set him up with some Life cereal and a sippy cup in a Pack N’ Play, facing a TV playing Dora. Oliver took two days to adjust, and now he LOVES it.

The only drawback is we now get “I’m the map… I’m the map… I’m the map” stuck in our heads on the way to work.

Oliver loves this kid’s book about golf, because...

alexbain — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 09:36:19 -0800

Oliver loves this kid’s book about golf, because there’s a bird on every page.

Watch how quickly he can point out the bird on each page. In many cases, it’s faster than his dad can spot it. [You’re welcome to point out that that’s not a compliment]

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Oliver’s manners have come a long way. His grandma pointed...

alexbain — Fri, 06 Jan 2012 00:00:00 -0800

Oliver’s manners have come a long way. His grandma pointed out that he even makes good eye contact when he’s expressing gratitude ☺

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Izzy got a great video of Oliver freestyling over a pre-recorded...

alexbain — Mon, 02 Jan 2012 13:09:33 -0800

Izzy got a great video of Oliver freestyling over a pre-recorded track on the family’s old keyboard.

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Oliver’s cousin, Emily, has a blog she writes in the first...

alexbain — Wed, 21 Dec 2011 09:51:36 -0800

Oliver’s cousin, Emily, has a blog she writes in the first person, and she posted about her fantastic weekend with Griz and Marmie and the rest of the gang in Lafayette. The O-Zone makes an appearance in some of the pics, too.

WCCC!!!! We celebrated the West Coast Charo Christmas last weekend. It was tons of fun. I did a lot of reading and checked out “stun gun Santa” that Daddy made when he was little. It was great to spend time with my family. Soon I will be going to Arizona to celebrate second Christmas.

I also don’t remember if I ever posted the pics of the...

alexbain — Tue, 20 Dec 2011 09:55:00 -0800

I also don’t remember if I ever posted the pics of the O-Zone in his Halloween costume, but here’s a few we got of him running around the house that day

We took pics with the mall Santa, but I realized today that I...

alexbain — Tue, 20 Dec 2011 09:52:00 -0800

We took pics with the mall Santa, but I realized today that I never posted them.

This was a fav, but there’s a couple others if you’re curious.

Did a lot of goofing around at the Palo Alto Children’s...

alexbain — Sun, 11 Dec 2011 22:28:00 -0800

Did a lot of goofing around at the Palo Alto Children’s Museum & Zoo this weekend.

It’s funny because the place is packed with kids, but Oliver barely notices anyone there but the people he arrives with. He’s still not at an age yet where he plays with other kids, just near them.

He also did the most athletic thing I’ve ever seen from him while there: It won’t translate well to text, but he went up a shot bridge over the goose pond at the zoo pretty quickly, failed to slow down at the top, and then got completely out of control going down the bridge. I was a few feet away, but knew I wouldn’t be able to catch him, and that he was about to face plant when his feet couldn’t keep up… except he took two big bounds, put his hands in the air, and took a hard right turn at the bottom of the bridge, teetering, but never falling. It was impressive enough that two nearby parents congratulated him ☺ [I’m happy to act it out for you if that didn’t make sense]

We did a bunch more of our “shopping cart adventure”...

alexbain — Sun, 11 Dec 2011 22:07:52 -0800

We did a bunch more of our “shopping cart adventure” game this weekend. When I jokingly put my bike helmet on Oliver for a quick photo op, he actually loved it (weird, b/c he normally hates hats), and insisted on wearing it for a while.

Eventually (like, after an hour), he got bored, and actually wanted to play with other things, like a book, while riding, which is when I decided I might be burning calories in a thankless pursuit :-)

We’re at Color Me Mine. Oliver’s style could best be...

alexbain — Sat, 10 Dec 2011 15:50:13 -0800

We’re at Color Me Mine. Oliver’s style could best be described as “Maximalism”

Humble minstrels.

alexbain — Sat, 10 Dec 2011 10:10:49 -0800

Humble minstrels.

Oliver got a singing snowman as a gift, and showed his...

alexbain — Fri, 09 Dec 2011 11:43:02 -0800

Oliver got a singing snowman as a gift, and showed his appreciation through interpretive dance.

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Oliver’s teacher put on a Christmas celebration yesterday,...

alexbain — Fri, 09 Dec 2011 11:23:00 -0800

Oliver’s teacher put on a Christmas celebration yesterday, that Lisa and I dropped in on. Among the many highlights for Oliver was sitting in a “big boy chair”.

If you look closely at my right shoulder, you’ll see the place where Oliver’s mouth hit my shirt giving me a hug. I walked in, and he was in the middle of drinking hot chocolate for the first time in his life. When he saw me. He put it down and came running over, never stopping to wipe his mouth. Without all the info I needed to assess the situation, I embraced him, though I’m not sure what I would’ve done differently if I’d know. You can’t not hug this guy when he’s offering ☺

Smoothing

alexbain — Tue, 06 Dec 2011 14:30:00 -0800

Smoothing:

Oliver likes to have his stomach rubbed after he’s placed in his crib. It’s adorable. He’ll sometimes even beg for a tummy rub by lifting his shirt and making a pleading look (captured here).

Lisa calls this “smoothing”, and the name makes total sense, but I’d never heard it before. When she insisted this was common use, we turned to the internet to settle the debate. The use case didn’t appear in any standard dictionary (unless you’re being really generous with your interpretation), so we turned to the Ubran Dictionary. Reading their first definition led to the hardest I’ve laughed at a web page in a while (especially the example dialogue).

Oliver seemed to like the bobcat cage at the local zoo....

alexbain — Sun, 04 Dec 2011 15:38:21 -0800

Oliver seemed to like the bobcat cage at the local zoo. You’d think ferocious cats would be NBD to him.

We waited 1 day too long to clip Oliver’s nails, so now...

alexbain — Tue, 29 Nov 2011 08:11:30 -0800

We waited 1 day too long to clip Oliver’s nails, so now he’s rolling into the Sea Turtle room like Omar from the Wire.

Oliver had breakfast and a park play-date with his family, but...

alexbain — Sun, 27 Nov 2011 11:08:29 -0800

Oliver had breakfast and a park play-date with his family, but also with Uncle Adam’s 3 doggies.

An hour of play time with very baby-friendly dogs was more than Oliver could handle. He was pretty worn out by the end.

Oliver got really psyched about the national dog show. One of...

alexbain — Thu, 24 Nov 2011 13:18:06 -0800

Oliver got really psyched about the national dog show. One of the first TV shows he’s ever attentively watched. Thanks to Gramma Colleen for the idea!

On a rainy Sunday morning, I sent Lisa off to get some well...

alexbain — Sun, 20 Nov 2011 23:07:00 -0800

On a rainy Sunday morning, I sent Lisa off to get some well deserved pampering, and thought I’d get some QT with the boy.

We’d played with every toy we owned, but weren’t used to being stuck inside. We were running out of ideas.

I thought we’d explore the basement (parking garage), but when we got down there, Oliver became fascinated with the shopping carts we keep around to bring stuff up from our cars in the elevator.

I thought I’d give him a little ride, but every time I tried to stop, he begged for more (you can see him resort to sign language in the video’s final sequence).

We ended up goofing around down there for an hour. I filmed a fraction of what we did, and set it to some fun music.

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