Rock Legend

Yes, his shirt says, "Rock Legend." It was a birthday present from gramma and grampa. OP asked for it by description this morning: "I want to wear the black shirt--you know, with the pink writing. It's really cool."

Bang the Drum! It's Oliver's birthday!

Oliver turned four today. If you haven't seen him in awhile, you may be surprised to find a big boy looking out at you from a drumset, talking with you about Van Morrison, Cat Stevens, Robbie Williams, or Big Bad Voodoo Daddy. We gave in to his heart's desire for a drumset (with a lot of help; thanks, family!), and he is quite happy. Here he is directing mama and grampa while he tries out every conceivable combination of sounds. Sorry Paul and Michelle (our neighbors).

"I'm little grampa!"

We planned it for weeks--a much needed haircut for our dear son. Though crazy hair, especially crazy hat hair, is really fun, short hair is actually much more convenient for the parents. And short hair makes shampooing sooooo much easier. So we made a deal: haircut on Sunday right before bath. And, as long as we were cutting it short, we decided to cut it really short--"like grampa's." After the bath OP looked in the mirror and proclaimed, "I'm little grampa."

And the little grampa, when he's not pushing our energy to the limit and beyond, is quite sweet. Whilst cooking dinner last night I overheard an interaction between OP and his papa. They were working together on a writing activity. Papa looked at his work and announced that it was "excellent!" OP answered, "Excellent?! Thanks!" It was great to hear him understand, accept, and appreciate praise. Excellent!

"Quiet!"

Look at the photo and take a wild guess. Yes, sometimes we parents shout the aforementioned interjection amidst much noise, concentration, and frivolity, but more often it is our son, the budding drummer (or drummist, he tells us) who calls out, "quiet!" to settle things down before a performance. Since he did not receive the drumset he so dearly wanted for Christmas, we have fashioned a makeshift drumset for him in his corner. One must have cymbals to crash, after all.

Mom, I have to go!

Oliver stopped eating his dinner suddenly last night. "All of a sudden I'm eating dinner, all of a sudden I'm sick." We were eating outside, so we'd bundled him in all of our spare outer garments, but he was still cold. Now his tummy hurt, and he no longer wanted to eat. He cuddled me in my lap for the rest of the meal, eyes streaming with mucus. Yuck!
This morning we talked about being sick. He said, "When I'm cold, I'm sick. I'm not cold, I'm not sick." "Well," I said, "I was going to keep you home from school today. Do you think you can go?" That's when he said it, using the 'Mom, you're ruining my life!' kind of tone: "Mom, I have to go!" "Of course you have to go," I responded. "They're expecting you." Duh, mom.

'ativity scene

Oliver was quite excited about setting up the 'ativity scene this year. We bought it last year after Christmas, so this is really its first year with us. As with last year, Oliver bemoaned the lack of a sheep. One simply cannot have shepherds without sheep, now, come on! So this year we added a couple of sheep and a chicken. Notice the prominence of animals in this scene "behind the bushes." Note, also, the lion in the background--"Lions live in caves, you know." It's wonderful and a bit disarming to anticipate Christmas with an almost-four year old. Here's hoping anticipation and advent are lively among you!

Succumbing to Electronic Sharing

Over the last approximately 3 and 3/4 years, we have heard occasionally that more photos of our beloved family are desired. Never quite able to judge the right frequency of OP updates and not a little worried about filling your inboxes, we've been thrifty on the photo front. In recent months we have been very grateful for the blogs set up by our friends. Whether we hear from you often or rarely, your photos and commentaries are helpful and inspiring to us. We're glad to hear from you--and to prevent the feeling that we are voyeurs, we're joining the fun of electronic sharing. We don't plan to type anything brilliant, but we will try to upload some photos from time to time. Here's one of Oliver giving Ellie a ride in his orange backpack (what fun to find new uses for familiar items!).