Friday Favorites - Ollie edition

I haven't talked as much about Ollie on the blog lately - no good reason other than just not enough time with other posts I wanted to get up this week.  He is actually changing by the day right now, this age is so much fun.  I miss the monthly updates in a way because I'm seeing changes even from his birthday to now.  Anyway, I figured a good way to share a little bit about him right now is to do a Five on Friday with his current favorite things!  So here we go!

The first item is this Elephant by Fiesta Toys that we received back in our July Bluum box.  When I saw this guy in that box I had high hopes that Ollie might choose this as a lovey, because from the time he was pretty little he's gravitated towards elephants and this seemed like a great size for him to cuddle.  I had no idea if I started giving it to him if he would actually like it - and at first he really didn't seem to care for it at all, but then suddenly this became the one thing he decided he needed to have naps and bedtime.  He loves this elephant. He cuddles it, smiles when he sees it. When he was sick we had to wash it and substituted a stuffed cat instead and yeah...not the same.  His other favorite stuffed toy is a Curious George doll, but I'll talk more about that shortly.  We've already had to make some repairs to this elephant too.  This is his number one lovey and I kind of love that.
The next item on the list is the Baby Banana teething/training toothbrush.  We ordered ours off of Amazon but I believe you can get them at Babies R Us too.  We got this early on when he first started showing teething symptoms, but at that time he preferred Sophie the Giraffe and the Infantino teething monkey instead.  Within the last couple of weeks though, this banana has become his favorite teether, I think it's because he can get it further into his mouth where his molars are coming in and it helps massage the gums.  Not to mention, it's gotten him pretty used to the idea of brushing his teeth, so he doesn't fight us when it's time to brush his teeth for real.  The only problem we're noticing is that the bristles are starting to break off a bit from all the gumming and chewing he's been doing, so we have a new one on order.  He also asks for this one by name - either "babana or nanana".  
The third thing on the list is Curious George.  We don't let him just sit and watch TV all day, but one day he was up from a nap and acting a bit restless and my mom turned on PBS and the Curious George cartoon was on and he seemed very taken with it.  He won't necessarily sit for the entire episode, but he loves the music and he seems to really love George.  We read some of the George books for him too and he likes most of them.  For his birthday he received a stuffed Curious George and that is definitely his second favorite lovey, sometimes he cuddles both George AND his elephant (which resulted in poor George also getting a bath after Ollie was sick.)  I loved the Curious George books when I was young too, so I love that Ollie loves him!
Fourth up we have Puffs.  Oh my God, Puffs.  Whoever invented this toddler snack is either a genius or should be drug out into the street and shot.  They're a great filler when we're out and about and Ollie gets hungry or the food isn't coming fast enough at a restaurant.  But boy, he gets them as a snack in the morning and the afternoon and if you don't offer them - he will ask for them or look for them and if he doesn't get them, he gets pretty upset.  Sometimes we even have to hide them when we cut him off! His favorites are Gerber Graduates Strawberry Banana and Apple Cinnamon, Ella's Kitchen Puffits in Raspberry Vanilla and Happy Kitchen's Sweet Potato O's.  He also likes Snapea Crisps, which are not necessarily geared toward toddlers, but we've found almost every toddler we know really likes them as well!  We knew he was feeling better after he was sick when he started eating his puffs again!
Finally, we have a pair of Carters shoes.  After Christmas I took him over to Stride Rite to get fitted and get some good shoes to help him with learning to walk.  I love the shoes we bought there, but after learning his size I also picked up a pair of shoes at Carters and right now he seems to actually prefer the ones from Carters.  These are the Carters Every Step Stage 3 Walker shoes.  They're super easy to take on and off and I think because they're a little softer all around he can better feel what he's doing and they work well for him to still be crawling too.  He still wears the Stride Rite shoes too, especially when we're out and about because they are sturdier, but he wears these Carters ones a lot around the house and they're working pretty well.  He's getting good at walking with only holding one hand and he has taken a few small unassisted steps here and there, so I think we'll have a full fledged walker on our hands soon!
So there you go!  Such simple things, but such is the life of a 13 month old!  I'm sure while these things are his favorite today, that might not be the case even a week from today!  He's ever changing at this age! Have a great weekend everyone!