The Birthday Boy!

On the day of Oliver's birth I was excited and terrified like every new mom - excited to see him yet terrified if he would make it and then of the pain of birth then recovery. I remember when his C-section was happening, I was trying so hard not to hold my breath (in case that would give him less oxygen...it's weird the things you focus on under stress) as I waited to hear he was alive. He waited 15-20 seconds or so to cry, an eternity to me on the other side of the surgical curtain. Hearing his cry instantly made ME cry and I couldn't wait to see my precious baby! He was perfect with his pink skin, dark grey eyes, head of brown fuzz...except for some wet lungs that gave him a four-day visit in the NICU (at 7 pounds, 3 ounces, he was by far the biggest baby there!) Such a beautiful, handsome, perfect baby boy!

And he is now a serious chunk of silly, smart, sweet, witty, happy, goofy, playful, imaginative, spunky, unafraid of anything little boy. I mean BIG boy :) He has made it clear he is my big boy, and Ian is my big baby (no longer a little baby). Our lives changed from wonderful to magnificent the moment we found out I was pregnant with him, and we can't even, nor want to, imagine life without this amazing spirit in it. 

Oliver decided at first he wanted a medical-themed birthday party because he was SERIOUSLY into the immune system and the constant war being fought between the good guys (T-cells, antibodies, white blood cells, phagocytes, macrophages, etc) and the bad guys (bacteria, viruses, parasites). He loves educational YouTube videos on these, knows the names of all the cells that participate, and constantly talked about not getting sick or an infection, but if he or Ian did, he would talk to his "good guys" about fighting the bad guys. He was excited and a little grossed out that snot was the good guys winning and dragging the dead bad-guy-parts out, and a fever is your brain trying to kill the bad guys with HEAT...I think it may help that Oliver's father is a medical doctor, and his mother is the daughter of a PhD Biologist...

So then came the month of his birthday. A new passion quickly overtook the drama of immunology and was focused on more tangible good vs bad. TRANSFORMERS. This was much to my dismay since I had cool medical ideas and hate doing the "commercialized" stuff. But alas, he is the birthday boy so his wish was my command :)

For our family celebration on the day of his birth, we did a homemade lemon sponge pudding cake, went to Chipotle for lunch, strawberry ice cream for dessert, bowling/arcade for our activity, and homemade daddy-pizza for dinner. This was all on his request and made for a fun and crazy 15-hour day!

Here are photos from the family birthday:

He looks so pleased doesn't he? He was upset because he didn't "feel" four, he still felt three and hoped blowing out candles would change that. No pressure, candles.

It didn't work!

But the presents did!

And here is his birthday party a few days later with his friends:

The invitation:

The spread:

The cake:

The eating:

The playing:

And the game was racing Autobot cars (2 people) while the Decepticons (everyone else) shot water guns on this super hot day! These are the winners from each car from all the racing - a Bumblebee winner and a Cliffjumper winner! Yes, these cars have that homemade look for a reason...

The gifts:

And the take-home goodie bag

And Ian had a great time too!

A fabulous birthday indeed!! And Oliver has told me he definitely feels four now. YES! Mission accomplished!

"Autobots, ROLL OUT!"

Butterflies

After writing that title, I realized some people may think this is an insightful post about how the life cycle of a butterfly is a metaphor for life. This is not. It's just about the project we did today. Paint butterflies! Or maybe creating our own Rorschach Tests, however you want to see it. (I saw butterflies, Nich saw kidneys...I saw a heart, Nich saw a fat woman ready for a pelvic exam...)

When I got out the Tempera paint, Ian immediately began stacking the bottles - his favorite thing to do right now! And if I have a chance, the next post is going to be pictures of all the things Ian has been stacking lately.

Step 1: Pick colors

Step 2: Dribble dots of paint all over one half of a folded piece of construction paper. (Yes, my 20 month old was doing this by himself...he's getting much better at following simple commands!)

Step 3: No no, don't spread it with your fingers...

Oliver doing his dots

Step 4: Fold paper back in half and pat or smooth it with your hands. This was the boys second favorite part...I wish I'd taken pictures of Ian going to town on his paper. He was beating his papers with a huge grin and lots of sound effects! I was too busy watching them and laughing along with him to get pictures.

Step 5: Open the paper and see what you created! The favorite part for both the boys. No matter what part of the process the boys were in, when there was a paper ready to be opened, the other would stop, hold their breath, and watch in complete awe! Oliver was always very careful in opening his paper. Ian would almost rip his apart with his excitement! 

Step 6: Repeat above steps!

We made quite a few of these butterflies! Aren't they something?? I love this project because it offers immediate results, always looks cool, always looks different, super easy for kids, and cheap cheap cheap!

Pardon the messy kitchen counters...

It's a great chance to teach words like, "half," "symmetry," "cool colors," "warm colors," "complimentary colors," etc. We didn't do that this time, just enjoyed the process. Maybe next time I'll make it more of an academic experience.