Open Mic

Joe was working late a couple days last week so I picked up Oliver from Tara's on Friday.  I asked Oliver when I picked him up if he wanted to go to the latte shop for biscotti or go home.  He voted for the latte shop.  We got there and I realized that I forgot my wallet at work.  Fortunately, my wonderful secretary, Marianne, had just left and offered to go back into the office and get it for me (I seriously have the best secretary).  Her husband a recent law school grad and patent attorney at another firm downtown.  In addition, they live only a few miles from us and she offered to drop it off on their way home.

Oliver was very understanding about leaving the latte shop and having to go home without his biscotti because I forgot my wallet with all my money.  However, as soon as Marianne arrived he said "now mommy has her wallet, we can go to the latte shop and get some biscotti."  At this point, we were already late on having dinner.

I will digress here and mention that Joe is the one who keeps the schedule around here, e.g., dinner, bath and bed have a set time.  I am so grateful that he is so structured, and I know it is good for Oliver.  I, on the other hand...well, let's just say schedules tend to fall apart when I am running the show at home.  With Joe gone, we were on Mommy time, so we grabbed a little supper and then packed up and headed over to the latte shop around 7:30.

Our usual latte shop is Politics and Prose, which is about a mile away.  Politics and Prose is a independent bookstore and coffee shop with a lot of local history.  We love it.  We also discovered something new while we were there last week.  Every Friday night starting at 8:00 until whenever, they have an open mic.  It is a small room in a basement, so there is actually no mic.  But, there is a bar stool in the back of the room and the place fills up with local musicians and artists.  

So there we were with our latte and biscotti, and Oliver sees all these guitars, violins and banjos sitting on the tables.  He was very curious and so was I.  There were no other kids there, but we decided to stay.  We were chatting it up with some local college kids when the first performers went up.  Oliver was so happy and into it that it never occurred to me to make sure we had a quick exit in this very crammed room.  The two women playing the yukalaylees did a great job, but it was a very sad little song.  About a minute in, Oliver suddenly yelled out that it was sad and he wanted them to stop.  Oh no!  It was not a graceful exit.  We left our coats and I instinctively put my hand on his mouth, which only shocked and upset him more.  We bolted for the door.

Once outside, I explained (what I should have explained before they started) that we could not talk during the songs and that we would have to leave if he interrupted the songs.  He promised not to talk during the songs anymore and asked to go back inside.  I waited for the girls to finish, grabbed our coats and found a new spot to stand near the back door.

For the next hour, Oliver quietly listened, laughed and danced.  Most of the musicians were playing guitar and singing.  There were a couple violinists, one of which was playing at the Kennedy Center that weekend.  A banjo and the yukalaylees.  A couple of cappello singers and one poet.  He loved it.  We stayed until 9:30, when he was starting to snuggle into my arms.  We skipped bath that night.  But, I think we might have to make this an occasional Mommy-Oliver date night, especially when Daddy is working late on a Friday.

This is the only picture I have from that night (we sent this to Daddy to confess we were up past bedtime).

One of the things he said about the performances and talked about all week after was how, "it is not like the radio, we can actually see them singing live!"  Now when listening to the radio, he will sometimes announce, this song is a recording, it is not live like the songs at the latte shop where we could see them actually singing.  And when we are out, e.g., at a restaurant, he wants to find the speaker to confirm that it is a recording and not live.

Spring Fever!

Finally....  Last weekend, we had 35-40 degree weather (then 8 inches of snow) and today, a beautiful 60-65 degrees.  You would think we had all just been set free from a dark cave with all the squinting and overly enthusiastic talk about the weather. 

Last weekend, Oliver tried baseball for the first time.  The sport came up in conversation a couple weeks ago because our realtor invited us to a baseball game in April.  Oliver wanted to know all about baseball and really seemed interested in the rules.  I got him a toddler's baseball and glove.  To be honest, Oliver is a bit bookish, so other than driving his fire engine around, playing trucks at the park, and going for long walks to take in the sights, I would not call him a sporty kid.  His soccer class last summer/fall was hit and miss.  Same thing with gymnastics.  So I had very low expectations about baseball as far as him actual wanting to play the game.  To my surprise, he loved throwing the ball and running around the "bases."  I did not buy a bat, but he wanted to hit the ball with a stick so we did that as well.  We are hoping he will take more of an interest in soccer, but I am glad to know he has some marginal interest in at least one sport for now.

Today was our neighbor, Abby's, birthday party.  She turned four.  All of her friends from her all-girls pre-school class were there.  They had farm animals (chickens, bunnies, and a baby pig) for petting and a bounce castle.  It was quite the affair.  Oliver LOVED the animals and was not the least afraid of them.  He wanted to pet them all.  He was not interested in the bounce house, likely because there were about half a dozen screaming 4 year old girls in it at any one time. 

They also had a car ramp with a "roller-coaster car."  Toward the end of the party, we look over to see Oliver on the top of the ramp with the roller-coaster car and we think he is going to ride down it on his own.  Instead, he carefully climbs down, checks the ramp and wheels on the ramp-car, pushes the car down the ramp and backs it up again.  Next, he walks the ramp up and down.  Comes back to the top, surveys the whole situation and then decides, nope, too risky.  Walks away and goes to play with something else, a toy lawnmower and drives the regular toy car.  This kid is not a risk taker, but he is our sweet little engineer.

Will you be my Valentine?

Oliver and I enjoy doing crafts together.  So it was great to have Valentine's Day as an excuse to make cards for friends and family.  For his Friday daycare class and other friends, we did store-bought and decorated the envelopes with stamps and stickers.  For family, we made a few cards from scratch.  I asked Oliver to sign the cards when we were done decorating and said make an "O" for Oliver.  To my surprise he did, so then I said make an "L"..... I was shocked at his focus for several cards as he followed my instructions for each letter of his name. 

I was totally spoiled this Valentine's Day.  Not only did Joe send me flowers, jewelry, and treats at work, but I got the best gift when I arrived home on Valentine's Day.  Due to snow, Joe had the day off and stayed home with Oliver.  They made me a card (note the hand print--loved it!) and the three of us had a candle-light dinner.  But, the memory I will cherish forever, is Oliver running to me when I opened the door holding his card and bursting with excitement.  After a few prompts from Joe, "Oliver what do you want to ask Mommy?"  Oliver smiles, runs over to me and says, "Mommy, will you be my Valentine?" and then gives me a huge hug.  Best Valentine's Day ever.

"Mr. Gorbachev, cut a door!"

We have a bunch of place mats for the table: letters, numbers, periodic table, maps, presidents, etc.  This week we used the US presidents one a lot.  Oliver asks who everyone is and can identify the last four Presidents, Lincoln, and Washington.  So we were talking about Reagan this morning and I was trying to think of a story to help him remember him.  So I told him about the Berlin Wall and about how Reagan told Gorbachev to "tear down this wall."  He asked me to show him pictures of the wall and to re-tell him the story a couple times.  After looking at the pictures on my phone and asking a few questions, he looked at me and said, "Reagan should cut a door in that Berlin Wall."  Our discussion on symbolism aside, you can always count on this kid for a good idea.

The Barber

At breakfast this morning, I mentioned taking Oliver to the barber today. His immediate response, "I do not want to go to the barber. I want Mommy to cut my hair with a comb and scissors." I am guilty of trimming his hair around the ears and a few times trying to keep his mane under control. But, I have never tried the full on haircut. He will usually let me trim a little in the bath or I sneak a couple snips while he is sleeping. As you can imagine, these approaches have not always produced the best results. I really wanted to get him in for a professional haircut. However, he was pretty clear that he wanted me to do it.

In his defense, the last time I tried to take him to his usual barber they were closed, so I got a walk-in appointment at a salon I go to regularly. Unfortunately, the man who let us believe he was capable of cutting a toddler's hair was totally not up to the task. More alarming than the bad cut was that after we left I realized Oliver's ear was bleeding because he had cut him with his shears. Which would explain why mid-way through the cut, Oliver had lost it.

To my surprise, Oliver sat for at least 20 minutes while I cut his hair (with safety scissors and a comb). He played with his Lego trucks and occasionally brushed away the loose trimmings. Not a professional job, but it will work for now. Any when I told him I was done, he happily declared, "Now we do NOT have to go to the barber today."

Calm as could be.

The front.

The side.

Saturday morning animal train

Pandas, clouded leopards, tigers and bears.  Oh my!

Let it snow (again)!

So much snow they even closed MY office today!

Oliver really enjoyed playing outside in the snow with Daddy, and he did not want to come back in.  However, I made a batch of hot cocoa with my latte machine, which he agreed to try.  He was soaked, but quickly cuddled into my lap for a nice warm cup of cocoa.  You would have thought it was liquid heaven the way he sipped every drop.

It was a really fun snow day:-)