Dinner at Papa Mick's

Oliver with his oldest cousin, Mickey.

Aunt Ginny's Funeral

Aunt Ginny was Papa Mick's sister; she lived in Fairfield, Iowa.  She wasn't very old, but she had been sick for a long time.  

After she died, Oliver went to her funeral in Fairfield.  He cried a little bit (his mommy cried, Molly cried -- there was plenty of crying).  Oliver wasn't crying because he missed Aunt Ginny -- he had only met her a few times -- but because it was just a little scary to see a body without a person in it anymore.  His mommy took good care of him, though, and he was okay.

Fairfield is a beautiful little town.  After the funeral, we took a walk to the park downtown.

Here's Oliver's mommy with Mai:

Molly with Papa Mick:

And Mai, Papa, and Jen:

Oliver very often declares that whoever is handy is a bad guy and he, of course, is a good guy.  Nearby (or imaginary) objects become guns or swords or whatever the weapon of the moment is, a brief battle ensues, and then he announces, "I killed you.  You're dead."  It occurred to me that having an actual experience with death might have an effect on this, but it didn't seem to.  A few days after the funeral, having been defeated and pronounced dead once again, I asked him, "I'm dead?"  

"Yeah," he said (very cheerfully).

"Should we put me in a box?"

He seemed very slightly alarmed at that idea.  "No, it's just for pretend."

P.S. I'm sorry if the picture of Aunt Ginny seems creepy or disturbing.  I thought she looked beautiful and I really liked the fact that she was in a cardboard box.  

Red Icee and Blue Juice

Oliver and I had lunch at Sam's Club today.

Oliver the Lion King

Oliver took a dance class after school and they learned a dance to a song from The Lion King.  At the end of the school year,  there was a recital.  He is quite a performer -- he added facial expressions and little extra wiggles that made the whole audience laugh (and there were a few hundred people there).

After the recital, Oliver's mommy asked him, "Did you know that all of those people were clapping for you?"

Oliver said, "Yes."

Then she asked, "How did that feel?" and Oliver said, "Awesome!"

Oliver the Tiger

At the zoo today, Oliver's mommy let him get his face painted like a tiger.

As we walked around, people would say, "Oh look -- it's a tiger!"  Oliver would say (with varying degrees of patience), "I'm not a REAL tiger."

Lelo bird

Oliver's Papa Kevin got a special license plate so that we will always remember the way that Oliver pronounced the word 'yellow' when he was four years old.

Birthday Pool Party

Happy 4th Birthday, Oliver!  I am really sorry that I did not bring extra batteries for the camera.  Your mommy threw you a great party at the JCC swimming pool and a lot of your friends from school came.  Here's a picture of Mook; right after I took it, the camera died.

California cousins

We are really excited because Oliver's cousins from California -- Emmet and Ellie -- are visiting.  While they are in town, family gatherings are way more fun for everyone, especially Oliver.

Here, Oliver and Emmet were watching "Tron: Legacy" in 3D.  They were totally not impressed with the 3D thing and I was lucky to get a picture of them with the glasses on...

There were actually other people at our house for dinner -- Grandma, Papa Kevin, Uncle Peter, and Oliver's Mommy -- but I'm not so good at getting pictures of adults...

Like old times

We don't get a lot of Saturdays with Oliver anymore because his mom doesn't work on Saturdays and they are very happy to spend time together, but every once in a while, we get lucky... On this Saturday, Oliver and Tim both had really crummy colds, so we hung out watching Tangled and eating strawbellies.

Oliver was prepared to dive under a beanbag chair if things got too dangerous for Rapunzel...

Sometimes you don't look as cool as you feel

Oliver and I both felt pretty cool when we were wearing the helmet from his Halloween costume... we were a little disappointed when we saw the pictures.

Bats are nocturnal

Oliver spent the night, which was great fun.  He slept in one of the beanbag chairs and I slept on the couch while Tim very sensibly slept upstairs in a bed.  At about 3:00 in the morning, Oliver woke me up quite gently and whispered, "Bats are nocturnal and owls are nocturnal and I want to be nocturnal, too."

I am sympathetic to nocturnal tendencies, so I got up and made pancakes.  Tim came down when he smelled the pancakes and we all watched "How to Train Your Dragon."