Five

Oliver is five.  I am blown away by how quickly this has happened.  It really does seem like yesterday that I went to bed on July 1st with no idea that a few hours later Oliver would arrive - a week early.  

Oliver continues to surprise, to try and be as speedy as possible, and is quick to tackle just about anything.  He is a fish, he is a ski racer, a bike rider, a digger, and a boogie boarder.  He loves boats, science, exploring, and family.  His sister is his best friend, Nemo and a rather large snake are his bed fellows, and he has a ridiculous shoe fetish.  He is interested in retiring soon, he wants to buy a jet, and is disappointed that one can no longer fly a Concorde.  He loves doing work and has helped me mulch, landscape, and seed the yard.  He is also a committed night-time migrator - still making the trek from his room to ours at some point in the night.

He is also five and so he adores potty talk, making up stories (blatantly lying), and not listening - at all.

Oliver is one of the sweetest people I know and one of the smartest people I know.  He asks questions and refuses simple answers.  He wants to know what is going on, how things work, why they work - and a million other thinks.  He makes me smarter.

I love Oliver to pieces and am so happy to be his mother.

I was also happy that Oliver settled on an Eastern Diamondback Rattle Snake cake.  In the weeks leading up to his birthday other ideas included a combine harvester (made from mint ice cream), an aircraft carrier complete with Blue Angels, and a Blue Angel.  I embraced the snake.

Oliver was very clear about his birthday party.  He gave me a list of people, primarily neighbors, and refused to let me alter it.  He was also clear that he wanted a BBQ and to play in the yard - nothing else.  While I love the simplicity, I have to admit I was a bit panicked because the age range of people invited was 5 months to 40 - with only two kids his age.  Oliver was so happy at his party that he could rarely be found - he was racing around in circles, or hiding in the house - opening presents he was not supposed to.  It was a really fun time.

And an event could not be complete without new shoes.  Oliver spent more than an hour looking at Pumas on Zappos.  He looked at every angle, every tread, every bit  of every Puma - and he decided on Ferrari Pumas - because of the tread, the color, and because Ferrari's are fast.

Amazing  Le Le did come through with mint cupcakes (albeit not ice cream).  She actually steeped mint leaves in cream for the birthday boy's creation.

And - for the books.  Oliver is 42.25 inches and 42.5 pounds.  In the past year he has grown 2.5 inches - no wonder he needed new pants!