The 27-month Update: Oliver

I haven't done one in a while and the little man is growing and changing daily. I felt I had to post an update on his progress.

As of September 16th, Oliver is 27-months old (I have been meaning to post this update for some time but someone was a little uncooperative when it came to measuring his height, so I just skipped that in this update. If I am able to get his measurements I will add them in the post). The director at the nursery school where Oliver and I take Mommy & Me described him best when she said, "He has a BIG personality!". Oliver doesn't do small. It's go big or go home. Having a temper-tantrum? It's full on, no holds barred. Happy? He's really happy.

The screaming/shrieking has subsided (knock on wood) and is only pulled out in cases of extreme emergency (i.e. he didn't get his way). We rarely get blind-sided with a shriek that will make you jump out of your skin.

Oliver is independent. He can entertain himself, playing with his cars, but he likes to have Mom race the Matchbox cars with him on the carpet race track. He's started to color...pictures of cars of course. He likes to tell you that he is two, as he holds up one finger. He likes to give big, bear hugs, especially to Daddy.

Current Stage: He loves Daddy. He tolerates Mommy but she comes in useful when there is a boo-boo. Chloe is his idol.

Language: He's a parrot, so be very careful what you say around him. He's picking up words, phrases and making sentences every minute. He's a regular chatterbox. Right now, his favorite things to ask/say are:

• "Where'd Shakey go?", which is Deanna & John's dog. Oliver asks this question at least 10 times a day.
• "PaPaw went home." Another favorite. This is told to me at least twice a day.
• "I don't like it" or "I don't want it." I hear this A LOT, even when he really does want it and even if he really does like it.
• "Money honey." This is randomly said and oftentimes sang throughout the day. He learned this from PaPaw. It's a Willie Nelson song, If You've Got the Money, I've Got the Time. Apparently Oliver wants to go honkey-tonking.
• "Bye, see ya!" and followed by blowing a kiss. This is his farewell to the ice cream man, the postman or any other person, known or unknown, that we encounter each day.
• "Daddy go race car." Oliver believes Matt leaves each morning to go race cars. I once corrected him and told him that Daddy takes the bus into the big city and works in a big office tower. Oliver's reply was, "Yuck!" He prefers to believe Daddy races cars.
• "Uh-oh, Bwoke it!" (Broke It) I hear this one A LOT too. Oliver's good at breaking things. Real good.
• "Oooh, cool, like it!" This often is said as we run errands and a car that Oliver thinks is nice drives by. The louder and shinier the better, though we are noticing that he has taken a fancy to BMWs. And is it any surprise that at 27 months old he can spot a Porsche?

Pre-School: Oliver is doing well at pre-school two days a week. Lately at drop-off he wails and grabs hold of me and will sometimes chunk his sippy cup at me in protest but as soon as I walk out and close the door its all over. I know,  I stayed and watched after I was upset that he got so upset. It took him all of 2 seconds to regain composure after I left the room and to begin playing. He likes to put on a show for Mom.

Favorites: Oliver still loves cars. We have an entire Matchbox collection. His favorite is a Morris Minor. He has two of those. He also likes planes and trains. His favorite tv show is Bubble Guppies which he gets to watch before nap time. He also likes to play with the Talking Tom app on my iPhone. In an attempt to regain my phone, I purchased him a hamster that will repeat what you say when you press his hand. He calls him "Puppy" and its his favorite. He goes everywhere with us. I did catch him trying to give Puppy a bath in the sink the other day and now Puppy sputters a bit when he repeats. He loves it so much I had to purchase a back up.

His favorite food is yogurt, chicken nuggets, fries, strawberries and grapes. He also requests "cookies" and "bagels" frequently. Neither of which is actually a cookie or a bagel. It took several hours and a giant temper tantrum from Oliver to finally decipher that when he requests a "cookie" or a "bagel" he is actually requesting donut holes (Hey, we live in the land of Dun*kin D*onuts. Every kid event has DD. People even bring it to potlucks as dessert.  There is NO escape).

Oliver's F1 car he uses to scoot all over the house.

Oliver "feeding" Puppy.

Bubble Guppies--an Oliver favorite, along with Chuck, the dumptruck.

Yogurt. Ollie loves yogurt from the tube. I have to put these things on lock-down otherwise a certain big sister and little brother will eat an entire carton when Mom is busy folding clothes.