Three years old

Oliver celebrated his birthday with gusto - with the unbridled energy, love and craziness which which he embraces life each and every day. He awoke ready to go and he kept on going all day. Not wanting his birthday to end he fought sleep, falling asleep only after Davis, Henni and I fell asleep - sleep got to Henni first, then Davis, then me - I fell asleep listening to Oliver singing himself one (or perhaps a few more than one) more round of Happy Birthday.

To celebrate Oliver's big day we spent the early morning hours opening presents and playing at Papa and Le Le's.
One of Oliver's presents was a scooter. Within seconds of ripping the scooter from the box Oliver was out scooting around. This kid has got serious balance (which we believe he inherited from his Uncle Jon) - Oliver spent the majority of his time scooting with one leg up. At one point Oliver also stopped and put both feet on the scooter and balanced there for a good 15-30 seconds while talking with Davis.

Since neither Davis nor I had scooters so we dug out the skateboards. Oliver (no so) gently reminded us that we needed to ride with our helmets on.

Then we headed to Walker Park where we celebrated with friends and family.



After pizza, cupcakes and treats we took to the water - spending the early afternoon on Lime Island.

We then returned to Papa and Le Le's where we played and then marked the big 3 with the ice cream cake - I made many calls in the morning to try and locate dry ice so that we could bring the cake to the park, but was unable so find any, so we saved the cake for the evening. The cake was pretty yummy, a brownie bottom topped with three quarts of ice cream...

So three...

About three weeks ago Oliver became a little more energetic (which I didn't know was a possibility), a little bit (ok a lot bit) more challenging ("Mommy my listening ears are on, I just muted you"), more loving, more crazy...he began his transition from the (not so) terrible twos to what I have termed the torturous threes. This kid is going to give me a run for my money. I love him with all of my heart and every bone in my body, but if I survive this year with a head of hair I will be surprised - I am guessing I will have torn it out by the time we celebrate Oliver's fourth birthday. On the other hand, Oliver is begging for me to grow a pony(tail) and he does love to brush and dry my hair - so perhaps over the next year the torturous threes will become the tremendous threes.

I am staying positive and focusing on the tremendous - because really, when it all comes down to it Oliver is so fantastically amazing I am in awe of him. He loves to do projects. If he could he would do projects all day everyday. He would love for the projects to all include duct tape, a hammer, a hose, and a tape measure - these are all of his favorite tools. He loves Henni and will often pause during the day and make a comment like, "I just love Henni" or "Mommy, do you see that Henni is standing. Can you believe that? She is just getting so big." I love how thoughtful and inquisitive his conversations have become. Although am already feeling the pressure of some - "Where do we come from? I mean really come from." "Why don't we know why dinos died?"