Words, words, words

It used to be awesome when Ollie would learn a new word. We would dutifully note it in a book or something. Now he learns new words so quickly that it would be impossible to document them all. My favorite thing is that he's started saying "Love you." Or "ove oo" in return to us. Man does that make me happy. He's also very into group hugs and snuggles where he, dada, and I (and occasionally an animal) all snuggle together and his dada and I cover him with kisses at the same time. And we all make loud "mmmms" of contentment.

It has also been fun watching Ollie make friends. A lot of our friends have noted how their kids are suddenly interested in other people and in developing relationships as well. Ollie has made very good friends with his classmates at school. He spends a great deal of time talking about Coco, Finley, and Lola, who are all about his age and who play together. He talks some about Scout and Josie and the other smaller babes, but it is the ones his age he really likes (along with Dre and Toni his teachers. I think Crystal, who is there in the mornings sometimes is too difficult to say). The other day as we were leaving Lola was sitting by the door and he said "Lola" and waved goodbye to her and she smiled happily and waved back. 

What is interesting to me is that Ollie seems to be a lot like his parents in some respects. One of which is social. He is far more comfortable in familiar spaces where he knows the other people well. We went to a surprise baby shower for our friend Paige on Saturday. The hosts thoughtfully threw the party at Gymboree so all the kids could come and have a blast. While Ollie knew a lot of the kids, he doesn't routinely spend time with them lately. And though Ollie loves singing and dancing, he was unwilling to participate when the leader asked them to do hand motions or sing along (though he did them for Eric days later on his own). Instead he gets overstimulated and freaked out when a new kid tries to make friends with him (poor Sabrina) or stares thoughtfully when the teacher asks him to do a dance or sing. It takes him awhile to warm up to situations or people. If we went to Gymboree all the time, I'm sure he'd have no issue with it. He just wants to acclimate himself to places carefully. He hangs back, or sticks close to me when he's not sure what's going on.