Is you didn't know

Oliver is constantly asking us: "Is you didn't know...". I worked for awhile on a literacy project and know that I should point out that the correct phrase is: "Did you know that...", but I am having trouble doing that as I am endeared to his Oliverism. So endeared am I that I am going to steal his phrase - is you didn't know that there has been a lot going on as of late?

I am officially a stay at home mommy. Thus far my fears of being a stay at home mom have been unfounded, but it is largely because Oliver has been spending his mornings at camp. Oliver started camp, offered by the Montessori school which he will be attending in the fall, on July 5th. The first few days of camp were rocky. The first day I left with Oliver in tears and picked up a still somewhat sniffly little boy. The next day he still had tears at drop off and also had tears at pick up - but the pick up tears were because he didn't want to leave. Over the past couple weeks we have seen a transformation - Oliver now wakes up and is eager to head to school and is not at all eager to come home at the end of the morning. I am not sure exactly what Oliver does at camp as he is not very willing to divulge information, but he has come home with some beautiful art work and a very special rock given to him by a "pretty blond" girl "with pink velcro shoes" who sat next to him at circle time.

Little Henni is now 8 months old and is full of personality and go. Our stairs have seemed to have acquired a magnetic field - one can put Henni down anywhere and immediately she heads for the stairs. I wish I had pulled out the camera last night to capture her crawling up the stairs with Jordan, the snake. Jordan is just about as big as she is so it took quite a bit of work, but she made it to the top and was very pleased with herself.

Generally, when she gets herself up and going she is very pleased (as well she should be).

Henni is generally pleased with herself when she can get her hands (and mouth) on anything and everything. A favorite "meal" is that of shoes. Keen sandals, Oliver's or Davis', are her favorite, but she will munch on any shoes she can grab. And grab she does - she pulls every shoe off the shoe rack so as to get her shoe of choice, or, depending on the mood, to enjoy the shoe buffet.

For some crazy reason I brought both kids to Oliver's three year doctor's appointment. I had thought (why, I have no idea) that Henni would sit happily in the stroller and watch the appointment. Rather, Henni wanted to be fully involved and Oliver did not want to be involved in the appointment at all. If there had been a recruiter for an alligator wrestling position at the office I believe I would have been offered a job. That being said, Henni did manage to chuck an odescope across the exam room (those things are tougher than they look - she bounced it off both the wall and the floor, and it didn't break) and she successfully pulled off the electrode things the nurse had put on Oliver's head for the eye test.

What else? The little bundle of chub is just starting to get her very first tooth. With her rolls, one tooth, and smile she makes an excellent biker chick. And let me tell you, this little girls loves being park of the afternoon bike extravaganza that takes place on our street (the extravaganza which is supervised by those yellow man, the Peter Donalds) - she rings the bell and jumps up and down and often gives a very loud squawk (she still makes dinosaur noises).

And Oliver. Well, he is still a man of fashion. Note the toga look he gave himself the other day.

So, is you didn't know - that's what has been happening around here.

Summer fun

I've not been as good as I would like about posting pictures and tales of our escapades. That being said, here are a few pictures taken over the last couple weeks; we have been creatively keeping cool.

Bed hopping

While our crew retires early, our nights include a good amount of bed hopping.

Oliver and Henni share a room, which works out perfectly, except when it doesn't. Henni likes to fall asleep seconds before it is time for story time and snuggles for Oliver. Some nights we can convince Oliver that story time by flashlight is fun, but many nights he likes to be difficult - yelling for the lights to be on and, well, just plain yelling. On these nights Henni either gets awakened or gets quietly scooped up and brought into our room and put in the co-sleeper.

Fast forward a few hours. Around 11 Henni wakes up and wants to eat. If she's in her room so as not to wake Oliver she comes into our room. Depending on the night she either falls back to sleep snuggled up against me or in the co-sleeper.

Somewhere between midnight and 4:00 Henni wakes up to eat again. Also somewhere between midnight and 4:00 Oliver makes his way to our room. He slams the bedroom door open, then quietly closes it, climbs into bed and snuggles up as close as he can. Four in the bed is tight. Davis is usually hanging off the piping on one side, I am on the other, my pillow propped off the bed on the edge of the co-sleeper, my body half in the bed and half suspended in the air, precariously balanced on the co-sleeper (the bassinet is no longer in use, so the co-sleeper is really just an abyss within which I could tumble at any moment). And the little ones are snuggled up taking up an obscene amount of space (how they can snuggle while taking up so much space is just plain mind-boggling). Many nights I get a bit frustrated with the lack of comfort and scoop up Henni and we move back into Oliver and Henni's room and we finish up the night snuggled together in Oliver's bed or with me in Oliver's bed and Henni in her crib.

If it is my morning to go the gym and I am in the kid's room and Henni is in Oliver's bed and not the crib, I go into our room, wake up Davis and then he goes to the kid's room and snuggles with Henni - falling back asleep until one of the wee ones decides it is time to begin the day.

Each morning I curse our queen-sized bed. One could argue that I should actually be cursing the sheer number of people in the bed, not the size of the bed, but then I wouldn't get to snuggle with my little ones. Both Oliver and Henni are on the go all day and it is difficult to find a time where I can get them to stop and cuddle. So while I would probably benefit from a full night of sleep, I figure - why start now? I have managed three years without one and am still standing - so I am opting for the snuggling and am pushing for the king-sized bed...

Look how much fun one can have even after a night of bed hopping -

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?"

Almost three

It is just about 11 on July 2nd. Three years ago I was challenging Davis to about the 4 billionth backgammon game - I wanted to win just one game before we called it a night. We had spent the day at the beach - me in a way too small bikini (wanting to get a little sun on my large belly) reading a book and Davis surfing. Following the beach we had Indian and then our game night. After finally winning a game (being given a win is likely more like it) we went up to bed. After being asleep just a half hour I was awakened by my water breaking. Oliver was born just about 11 hours later - a week early.

That night seems like just yesterday. I really have no idea how it is possible that tomorrow I will have a three year old. I have, of course, fallen totally in love with Oliver. He is busy, often, as he says, too busy. He loves to work, loves to give hugs, loves trucks and dinos and reading, loves snuggling, and loves to test the limits (okay, he often likes to forget there are limits). He also cracks me up. Just thinking about today there are two things that stand out - he wanted to make a rainbow and so he began: "Step one: Get gold. Step two: Get water. Step Three: Get flashlight." Of course - how could one even begin to make a rainbow without gold?! The other - he opened his birthday present from his Aunt Connie and Uncle Bob. As he was opening it he says: "Connie and Bob live in new Hampshire and they have a dog named Sasha." My mom asks me how he knows that. Not giving me a chance to respond Oliver says, "Oh, I remember everything." I truly believe this to be the case. Every day I am astounded by how much Oliver knows and what he remembers.

Oliver has been plotting his birthday cake for some time. For a period of time he was asking for an ice cream cake in the shape of a rocket ship with doors that opened and closed so that his dino (one foot tall) Mark could climb in and out. Thankfully he attended his friend Henry's party and Henry had a sheet cake. Oliver revised his request to a flat ice cream cake with picture of a rocket ship on it. It is because of this that I am up. While I could buy a cake for Oliver, I want to make it. My mom made the most wonderful and memorable cakes every year and I want to do the same for Oliver. So I just placed in the freezer a sagging squishy ice cream cake topped with a rocket ship and a dino. I may need to send Davis for some dry ice in the morning as the cake is to head to the playground tomorrow for Oliver's birthday celebration.

Well, more tomorrow. My usual bedtime is 9, maybe 10, so this mommy is tired and babbling. But I had a moment to myself - Henni is asleep in her bed and Oliver and Davis are curled up together in Oliver's bed - and had noticed the time and got to thinking...