Our Combination of Words: February 2011

Sunday, February 27, 2011

Dinosaur Park

On President's Day, we took Olsen to the Dinosaur Park in nearby Ogden.

The Dinosaur Park is made up of a museum with replica dinosaur bones and a few automated robotic dinosaurs that move and roar. But the biggest part of the Park is their long outdoor trail marked by dinosaur sculptures.

Olsen liked this part the best, because he enjoys walking outside. Plus, there was a playground there as well.

Olsen called this dinosaur a "scary dragon."

walking under a giant dinosaur

posing with dad on one of the dinosaurs in the playground

looking out from the playground tower

Olsen had a good time, and we will be going back again. I had ended up buying a year long family membership through Groupon, so we can go as much as we want this next year.

Sunday, February 20, 2011

Olsen-isms

Olsen has been talking a lot lately, and I love it, because he's so open and honest with the things that he says and thinks. Some of my favorites:

Out of the blue, he'll say, "I like Mama. I like Dada, too. I like doggie. And I like Olsen."

When he's eating a snack, he'll try and share with us and say, "Mama, want some?" or "Doggie, want some?" (which of course she does!)

He also tries to get us to participate in his games. The other day he was playing with a fly swatter and pretending to swat flies and put their carcasses in a container. After awhile, he said, "Mama want to try it? Mama want to swat flies?" After I put my flies in the container, he said, "Good job, Mama!" "Thank you, Olsen." "You're welcome, Mama."

There are times when Olsen is disagreeable, and I start to get irritated. I think he can tell, because after while, he'll say, "Sorry, Mama" in his most contrite voice. It sounds more like "Thor-ry, Ma-ma," and it's hard to stay upset with him.

Sometimes, he gets upset since it can be hard being two. He'll say, "I'm sad," or "I'm mad," and cry at the injustices brought upon him. I'll hold him for awhile and he'll say, "I feel better now." May we all get over our anger as easily and happily as a toddler!

Wednesday, February 16, 2011

Potty Training Attempt #346

Ok, well not exactly 346 but there's been many many times in which we've tried to get Olsen to go potty on his potty seat or on the "big potty." But today, he finally pottied for the first time in his little potty seat! It was such a big deal and I hope it's the start of many more times of going potty on the potty seat (instead of his diaper). I just had to write this short blurb on here so we can remember when he first peed in the potty! :)

Tuesday, February 15, 2011

Tuesdays with Olsen

We recently switched Olsen to go to daycare Wednesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays (from Tues, Wed, Thurs). I am hoping to collect all my data for my dissertation this semester and will have to travel a lot. With this new schedule, I can have Saturday to travel back home if needed (since Adrian's schedule is not as flexible now with his new job).

It's kind of nice, because there are more activities for Olsen and me to participate in on Tuesdays. Today we went to story time at the North Logan Library. They have two story times, one for 0-2 years and another 30 minutes later for 3-5 year olds. We went to the first story time first. He loved the singing parts of the session. He really does love to sing. He danced to the chicken dance and sang "Itsy Bitsy Spider" and "Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes". But then he walked off during the actual stories, so we left the story room and he played in the children's section for awhile. We ran into a friend and her son and talked with them before Olsen decided that he wanted to go back to the story room and hear the story.

So we waited until the next story time, and he actually listened to the stories the second time around. He even got to participate in the felt board story and place his piece of 8 lions on the board when the librarian read about the lions. Although he was much more involved for the second story time, we didn't stay the whole time. His attention faded when they got to the third story about Inuit people. He still had a lot of fun, and I think we'll try and go back next week.