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.