oliver the map: oliver’s travels

You are moving pretty much where you want, pulling up on things, teetering from one hand-hold to another, opening cabinets and crawling at breakneck speed. So we had to install a gate to keep you out of the construction zone of a hallway. You pulled up on it and then crouched down all the way to your belly and peered under as if you’d processed in your head that you couldn’t go through or over it and were calculating the possibilities of going under it. It was priceless. Must not have been able to imagine fitting under, because you have not shown much interest in the gate or that cordoned off section of the house since.

You are unstoppable, and you seem to have no regard for me telling you no or popping your little hand with the warning. You turn, look at me, sometimes grin and keep right on doing what you want. Your mammy, my momma, says I was the exact same way, and she says it as if it were inevitable and some sort of historical justice that I should experience the same behavior in my child.

You have met another milestone, lil man. You can now hold and drink from your bottle without any assistance. The ability to hold it and get it into your mouth has been there for some time, but until now, you were not able to tilt the bottle up and your head back to where the milk makes its way to your mouth. I have always found your eating to be adorable, but this takes it up a notch—chubby, dimpled hands holding the bottle, lips cupped to receive the nipple, quiet grunting noises as you suckle. It is precious, but it must also be a little taxing. Yesterday you one-handed the bottle to me, tilted your head back and opened your mouth expectantly as if to say, “Yeah, I can do this, but it is exhausting. Can you feed me for old times’ sake, Momma?”

When we need bits and pieces of our grocery list, you and I often walk the half mile or so to Kroger. Your daddy and I make fun of the verb the store has invented—Krogering—especially since it is a rarely a pleasant or successful experience, such as their marketers would have you believe it can be. They even have stickers for kids boasting that you’ve been Krogering. (Note the sticker in the first picture.) Wear it with pride, O-ster! Before our Krogering expedition, we met some friends at a neighborhood playground. They had Cheetos naturals for an afternoon snack, and I could see a love affair begin. You get the snacking tendency honestly though; Momma and Daddy both love the snacks.

Lacking a kiddie pool for you (a birthday surprise is on backorder) and yet wanting to get outside with you yesterday in the intense heat, I filled the rubber ducky that is meant to be a travel bathtub and plopped you in with running hose. Of course, you didn’t want to sit down and kept trying to climb out. I gave you the hose as a distraction, and you quickly took what was intended to be a sip but ended up being a gush of the running water. You coughed, looked up at me with watery eyes and went right back for another gulp. Sure, I have a remote fear of you dry drowning. Sure, the water flowing from that hose is Metro-nasty. But I have such fond memories as a little girl of drinking from the hose on a hot summer day; how could I possibly deny you? I couldn’t.