Day at the Zoo

The Portland Zoo is really spectacular.  We bought an annual membership when we came to Portland and have gotten our money's worth as we've been here at least 4-5 times already.  Ollie, of course, loves it.  His favorite animals include the bears, the monkeys, the otters, and the elephants.  But his favorite exhibit of all, hands down, is...

The Digger

We sat at this construction site within the zoo grounds for about 30 minutes.  Like most little boys, O.T. loves trucks, and tractors, and diggers, and machines that I don't even know the names of.  In this photo, Ollie is riding in his favorite little blue car, a birthday gift from Auntie Becca and Mimi.  We go just about everywhere in his car (when he isn't insisting on using his walker).  Notice that he keeps at least one hand on the wheel at all times (:

After the zoo we went to the Children's Museum, which is right next to the zoo (the parking lot is shared.  Brilliant!).  The museum currently has two outdoor exhibits:  Outdoor Adventure on one side, and The Maze on the other.  I thought I came prepared when I brought his sun hat and his walker, but I'm learning that in order to be truly prepared for any outing with this kid, I should always have water shoes and a dry pair of clothes on hand as well.  I should know this by now.

He was a mess.  And those cute leather shoes will never be the same.  But he was happy (:

The maze was also fun.  We found the end.  Hooray!

Welcome to our new blog all about our sweet, curious, goofy, and lovable son, Oliver.  We have been settled in our new home in Portland for nearly one month, and decided that the beginning of this new adventure would be the perfect time to start an Ollie blog.

Here are a few photos of our home and neighborhood.  We are renting a furnished house located in a beautiful section of NE Portland that is just a few miles from Downtown.  We are surrounded by gorgeous old homes with perfectly manicured lawns, and are within walking distance to several parks, swimming pools, restaurants, shops, and, luckily for Ollie, splash pads.

Beautiful hydrangeas 

Our living room turned toddler play room!

Ollie at his favorite splash pad

Ollie's favorite thing to do these days is walk around with his walker.  Walking up and down our sidewalk is the first thing that he insists on doing when he first wakes up in the morning, and it's the last thing we do before we start his bedtime routine (with at least a dozen other times in between). He has become quite good at making turns and ramping up his speed fast enough to be practically running.  Every once in a while, I get lucky enough for him to stop and acknowledge me with a quick smile...

It has been a great month.  The weather has been gorgeous, and Chris is on a light rotation which means lots of family time and weekends together. Ollie and I have enrolled in daily swimming lessons at an outdoor pool in our neighborhood.  He's definitely a water baby.  We have explored a lot already, but there's definitely more exploring to be done. We are so grateful to have all of this time with our little guy.

More pictures and updates to come soon!