Rain rain go away!

This March has been filled with crazy weather - incredible summer like days, hurricane-force winds, and rain - lots of rain. Today we set the record for the rainy March on record - an amazing 16.22 inches of rain has falling, and it is continuing to fall.

The good news is that unlike many basements ours has remained dry. The bad news is that we are in desperate need of a new roof, but the rainy weather has prevented our roofer from making an appearance. Like the responsible adults that we are, neither Davis nor I have ventured up to the attic for over a week (after we placed a tarp and some buckets up there) because we are too afraid to see what might be happening.

On Monday Jess gave Oliver an umbrella and he has remained outside since. He's been running around the backyard, stomping in the puddles and yelling "raining, raining, raining!" I am glad someone is enjoying the weather, personally I would like those sunny warm days to return.

The Le Le

When Oliver was born my mom knew what she did not want Oliver to call her, but she was unsure of what she would like to be called. My dad, on the other hand, had sent us an email several months before Oliver's arrival stating that he would like to be called Papa.

It quickly became apparent to us (Davis, Oliver, Papa, me...) that a lack of a name was a bit of a problem. We soon started to say things like "Papa and the lady who lives with him are coming to visit." Or, "We are going to visit Lily and Maddy (my parent's dogs) and Papa and the lady who lives at the house." After a bit of time we took to calling my mom "The Lady." "The Lady" was not a big fan of her chosen name but was still at a loss as to what she wanted to be called, so we, despite her objections, declared her "The Lady." Not long after my sister sent along a several You Tube clips from "Little Britain." (I'd post them here, but I know "The Lady" would not be thrilled - I'll say this much, there is a man, dressed as a woman, who keeps declaring himself "A Lady!!") Soon after "The Lady" had viewed the clips we received a call stating that the chosen name was "Noni." Well, by this point we'd all gotten pretty used to "The Lady" and Oliver was even making an attempt at saying "The Lady" (he was almost a year old by this point). We did make a go at honoring my mom's wishes (there are even a few posts where she is referred to as "Noni"), but Noni never took off.

As we were all struggling with adopting "Noni," Oliver's vocabulary was growing and soon Oliver was calling his grandmother "Le Le." It stuck.

The Le Le is one of Oliver's favorite people. She cooks him five (or more) course meals even though he generally eats one bite, she happily plays with him in the wee hours of the morning (when Davis and I are usually cursing playtime), and she loves to get him dirty.

The Le Le has saved us on a number of occasions when Davis and I've had to work and Jess has been out of town (mind you she has to take off work so we can work). About a month ago Le Le came down and spent a couple days with us. Oliver LOVED having two days with Le Le. He especially loved their field trip to Boston. Le Le and Oliver met Elizabeth in Boston and the three of them went to lunch, walked around the city, visited the ducks and went to the mall.

Rumor has it he was a model child at lunch (how come children are always model children for people other than their parents? I too would love a nice lunch out with Oliver - however, when we go out to lunch it usually involves some form of speed eating interspersed with sprints, and phrases such as the one Davis uttered today "We don't use a hammer on our milk."); perhaps it was because they took him to his favorite - Japanese. The little monster ate a bowl of miso soup and several rolls of sushi (apparently he loved the spicy tuna). he's getting increasingly better with the chopsticks, and loves to use them.


And, as he did when we took him to visit the ducks - he had Le Le ride the ducks with him.



They had a wonderful time together in Boston, and I know they will have many more fabulous times together.

Snow Bowl

The weekend before last we took Oliver to the Camden Snow Bowl. Although I basically grew up there, I had not taken a run down the mountain since I graduated from high school. While not the snowiest or biggest mountain, it is fun - and I had forgotten how fun it is. We spent two days skiing - both days were sunny and in the 50s; perfect spring skiing weather.

Davis and I were both impressed with how much Oliver has improved since his first day of skiing. His marked improvement over his two days at the Snow Bowl could be attributed to practice, but it can more likely be attributed to a new instructor and a cheering squad.


Oliver's new instructor was his Uncle Jon. Oliver had such a fun time skiing with Jon, and is hoping Jon will teach him to snowboard next year.


Oliver's cheering squad including Papa and Le Le and his great grandmother, GG. Not only did they all cheer him on as he skied down the mountain, but they also helped him explore the snow cats and snowmobiles.

Trucks, machinery, and skiing - a perfect way to spend the weekend.

Sandbox

Last week's weather felt more like May or June than March. With the warmer weather Oliver went from a little boy who had to be forced outside to the little boy of last summer - one who cried when it was time to come back inside. With so much of our time spent outside it quickly became apparent that our outside toys from last year were no longer interesting to Oliver. Therefore I spent much of last week trying to stop Oliver from climbing trees, climbing the fence, eating sticks, eating rocks and digging holes in the yard. Knowing his antics were out of boredom I couldn't get too mad. That being said it was a long week and I knew I didn't want to spent my summer fishing rocks out of Oliver's mouth and saying "no" to a bored little guy.

So on Saturday morning (after Davis unseated the toilet and removed a key chain Oliver had flushed) I presented Davis with a plan for a sandbox. Oliver took one look at the plan and agreed that building a sandbox was the best way we could spend the sunny 70 degree day. We headed off to Home Depot for the supplies.

Oliver was a big help at Home Depot,


And an even bigger help once we got everything home. He helped Davis cut the wood, helped me dig a hole,
helped Davis assemble the sandbox,


and helped to sand it.

Oliver also helped with painting. While he enjoyed each and every stage, he was very excited when it came time to dump in the sand. Oliver jumped in the sandbox, with shovel in hand, as soon as the first bag of sand was dumped into the sandbox.


If the fabulous weather hadn't given way to rain I think Oliver would still be outside digging.

First Haircut

About a month ago we decided it was time for Oliver's first real haircut so we grabbed the camera, jumped in the car and headed to the barber. We talked up the haircut the whole way and by the time we got there Oliver was very excited for his first cut. Unfortunately, it turns out the barber is not open on Sundays. Luckily there is a playground directly in front of the barber so Oliver was easily distracted and not too disappointed.

One would think either Davis or I would have checked the hours, but we did not. So, after two more goes (always arriving after closing time) we finally made it a couple weeks ago (with three minutes to spare). By this time Oliver was beyond excited and he climbed right up onto the chair. Then he climbed back down. Davis decided he'd sit with Oliver, and once the decision was made to do that Oliver climbed right back up and sat perfectly still the whole time.

Oliver is still talking about his haircut. If you ask him he'll even show you how the woman cut his hair.

Another thing Oliver is more than happy to model are his new Anna shirts. Ever since Oliver grew out of his Anna onsie he has been wanting a new Anna shirt. I finally got around to ordering a couple - Oliver was ecstatic when the box arrived (I think Davis was too).

Pappa

I think it must be about 100 times a day (but maybe upwards of 200) that Oliver tells me about Pappa and all of the amazing toys he has and the super fantastic things Pappa can do. The funny thing is that about 100 times a day (but maybe upwards of 200) Pappa tells me about the amazing toys Oliver has and super fantastic things Oliver can do.

Some of Pappa's toys that Oliver covets are his ladder, his tractor, and his saw. Every time Oliver climbs up on something he tells me it is a ladder, like Pappa's. Hmmm. Nice try. Pappa does have a ladder, but that isn't going to get you a free pass to climb up onto the dining room table and dance. As for the tractor - we pass huge John Deere and Caterpillar tractors doing road work, construction, or working on a farm and Oliver tells me about Pappa's tractor (which is actually a riding lawn mower). And the saw - well, this weekend Le Le got Oliver a saw so he could work with Pappa. Oliver was so excited that he couldn't stop jumping up and down. The two of them got quite a bit of yard work done.



I must say, I have to agree with Oliver that Pappa is super fantastic. Not only has he been an extraordinary father, but he has also been a wonderful grandfather. He has spent countless early morning hours playing with Oliver (and mopping up dish after dish of dog water bowls that Oliver flips over) so Davis and I can sleep in, he has scooped a glass Christmas ball out of Oliver's mouth, taken Oliver on boat trips, ski trips, and hiking trips...he has shared numerous cups of coffee with the little man, made many day trip to our house just to say hi (6+ hours round trip)...

I am so glad Oliver recognizes how wonderful his Pappa is.

Spring Skiing

This weekend we had some wonderful spring-like weather. With temperatures in the 50's, snow still on the slopes, and no clouds to be seen we decided the best way to spend Sunday was at Bradford. After our experience last time, we all brought skis, and all got tickets (no more walking up the bunny slope!).

Arriving at the mountain, beyond excited to get on the snow.

Headed up the magic carpet (I must say that this was wonderful! Where was this when I was teaching skiing?!)
Skiing!

A couple videos of Oliver skiing-



End of the day-

Exhausted-

Fun with Jess

Just over a year ago Oliver and I spent two days in a local coffee shop interviewing potential nanny's. While we met some wonderful people there was no one that we loved. Oliver and I decided to take a walk and figure out our next steps - on our walk we ran into our neighbor Jessica and told her of our plight. To our surprise Jess offered to become Oliver's nanny. Davis and I had seen Maggie and Tommy (Jess' kids) "in action" - even before we had Oliver we had commented that we hoped our children would have as much joy, imagination and love of life that Maggie and Tommy have. It was also clear to us that Maggie and Tommy were who they were because of wonderful parenting - when Jess made the offer we jumped at it.

It has now been a year since Oliver and Jess began to spend their days together. While good-bye's are still tough, they have lots of fun together - they begin their days at Starbucks and then head to the playground or story hour, and then do whatever they feel like (often it includes play time with their dog Lucy or time with Jack the cat). Jess recently sent us a ton of pictures she has taken over the past year - here a few:

Destruction

On Thursday night a crazy storm blew through. Wind gusts in our town reached more than 70 miles an hour and wind gusts of over 90 miles an hour were recorded on the Isle of Shoals, islands located several miles off shore. The winds sounded like huge trucks were barreling down on our house and our house shook and shuttered as it was pounded by the winds and rain. Also included in the storm - thunder and lightening. Amazingly both Davis and Oliver slept through the storm.

When we awoke in the morning we saw several small tree limbs down in the street and yard, but overall things looked ok. As it turns out, we fared very well compared with others. The streets of Newburyport are littered with shingles, trees are down everywhere, roofs got blown off - and many people lost power for several days (we were lucky and only lost power for a couple hours).

I tried to go to grocery shopping on Friday only to discover that the place I shop had no power as a massive tree and six telephone poles were down on and around their building.

Yesterday Davis, Oliver and I went to Mausley State Park and found the destruction there to be unreal. The park is filled with huge old pine trees. We found that many trees had fallen and many others had been snapped as though they were twigs. The trails which are normally well maintained were covered with debris, leaving many of the trails nearly impassable. These pictures can't even begin to show the level of destruction - the park's 450 acres are literally changed forever due to the number of trees that were impacted by the storm.