Newest member of the Oli entourage

Since the loss of Melbourne Bear, there has been considerable shuffling of the toys at bedtime. Caterpillar was popular around the time Melbourne Bear disappeared, so I think he has been discarded due to association. We tried a couple of bears (along with long-time companion, Turtle) to see if they'd stick, and, although he is fond of Pooh Bear and Girl Bear, neither seem to be...right.
This week, I've started to see a new face in the entourage; Pippy. Pippy is a toy made lovingly by hand, especially for Oli, for his second birthday (by someone he calls 'Sona'). I've managed to snap a few pictures of Oli enjoying Pippy's company...

Getting animated while reading with his new friend

Chuckling together about the antics of 'The Cat in the Hat'

Oli, Pippy and Girl Bear at Bedtime

<3

Just a quick one...

I had to share these pics of the Olimonster walking in Daddy's shoes simply because they are cute covered in cute with cute filling:

Off to a bit of a rocky start...

Doing better, the shoes are facing the right way, at least...

That's our little man :)

<3

Painting

With all this lovely weather lately (we wont count Melbourne's worst storm in years with golf-ball sized hail), we've been looking for new activities. We recently managed to get our hands on a great deal of non-toxic poster paint (thanks freecycle!), and we decided it was time to get out the oversized paper (thanks to an engineer friend of ours for that too) and get a bit creative and, inevitably, messy.
(As a bonus, I thought I would throw in a few pictures at the bottom of the post which I think show just how much he's grown.) Have a happy Easter :)

Getting right into the action in the middle of the paper

Rainbow feet...

Adding some spots

Getting paint all over Slim Dog's tennis ball

Aerial view

Paintmonster!

Post-bath, looking over the final product

The artist with his work :)

Giggly little man...

Serious little boy...(definitely not a baby any more)

Cheese! - the classic Oli pose

<3