First, the new photo albums:
1. Pics of Oliver's First Birthday Party! Thanks to Karen Cunningham for taking most of these.
2. Pics from the rest of the summer, including our last days enjoying Park Slope's playgrounds, a trip to visit the family in West Virginia, and some of our favorite new places in Savannah.
And then, the blog...
Oliver is now 13 months old!! It's so hard for us to believe that a year, more than a year, has gone by so quickly. And with so little sleep. We're not sure if Oliver's new handle is Toddler Oliver (Todliver? T.O.?) since he's not actually toddling - just cruising and crawling and climbing. But "Baby Oliver" is starting to seem maybe just a little bit infantile.
We remain convinced that we have birthed the most adorable child to ever call Earth his home planet, and all the gracious Southerners who gush at his thick curly hair and his sparkling blue eyes are doing nothing to disabuse us of this notion. You can look at the pics and decide for yourselves, but we're pretty sure even the parents among you will have to admit that he's The Cutest. Yup, we're just that deluded.
Seeing as Oliver has now entered a developmental stage marked by separation anxiety and a newfound sense of will and desire, it's a good thing he's got us so tightly wrapped around his pudgy little fingers. The separation anxiety is expressed by waking up in the middle of night, shrieking, terrified by our absence. Those same ear-splitting shrieks also come in handy when we refuse to let Oliver exercise his will to, say, smash a glass into brick pavers. The screams are especially endearing when used in public places - coffee-drinking SCAD students and museum-visiting tourists *love* them.
Other than the shrieks, and a nasty stomach virus that Oliver and I both suffered, the move to Savannah seems to have made him really happy. He thinks the whole house is a giant playground, and each room has a special game - the boxes left in the library make a great cruising course, the shower in the guest bathroom is ideal for proto-hide and seek, the backyard has a fish pond and a water activity table (thanks Mel and Beth!), the kitchen has low-lying drawers filled with tupperware and pot lids, and that's not even counting his bedroom, the dedicated playroom, and the table-less dining room that's now covered in a carpet of toys and acting as Playroom Part Two.
Greg and I are pretty happy too, though we miss our New York community very very much. If I start to think too much about what we've left I'll get sad, so it's best to focus on the great stuff here . We've been meeting lots of people, most related to SCAD in some way, and are excited to get a real SCAD parents' group going. So far we've been hanging out with photographers, art history professors, interior designers, stained glass artists, etc - it really is nice to be part of an arts community. We haven't stumbled upon a single lawyer. No urban planners either, alas, but I'm sure I can track them down once I can start taking Urban Design classes in a few months.
Our neighbor says this August has been the hottest in her 26 years here, and that's pretty much what everyone is saying. And the mosquitoes seem to be achieving records too. So it wasn't really the best time to move here, and the heat is isolating the way February is in NYC. But it's finally cooling down - it was cool enough to go to the beach last weekend! - and school is starting in a few days, so we feel like our transitional month is over and our lives here are about to really start. We'll keep you posted.
All our love,
Michelle, Greg and Oliver
