Ollie's Fun Month

Ollie has been having a friggin' BLAST this month.  We've got so many blessings to sing!  Read fast, because we have a LOT to cover!

Ollie spent two nights with his grandparents in the past month.  It's been glorious for him because he gets to have fun with Bapa and Nana (they probably feed him shit-tons of sugar), and it's been glorious for them because they get to have time with him alone.  I can't say Doug and I haven't enjoyed it too!  

One night we went to dinner and a Twins-Yankees baseball game with Rudi and Errin...  

And the other night we went to the Basilica Block Party!

Then we woke up the next day to a basement full of water...

It appears that we need to fix our gutter system, landscaping and possibly holes in the basement sooner rather than later.  C'est la vie.

On the Fourth of July, Ollie got to play in the pool and  eat lots of yummy bbq and bomb pops with everyone!

Returning from the pool with Gusser

Smiling with Cuz

Getting interrupted by adults

Sour!

Da-lishus

So happy!

They were loving the fireworks, and then one of them got spooked, which started them both off.  I don't mean to be laughing, but it was hilarious.  

I don't know why anyone wouldn't laugh at it.

There we go - safe from those fireworks in the car.

Relaxin' post-festivities and a good long bath

Despite blood blisters and bloody noses, we are slowly but surely setting up home sweet home.  We finally finished Oliver's room!

"Stand back, hold on tight, here comes my boy!"

Go Blue!

His year, month, day and time of birth in Chinese Astrology (animals).

Thank you, Chris Dickhut!

Reading nook!

Thank you for the thoughtful initials, Chris!

And no one could have even described the sense of heavenly goodness that comes from:

• The sweet smell of your own clean dishes straight from the dishwasher
• Doing one load of laundry at a time
• Sitting outside on your (to be rebuilt) deck with a cold bottle of beer
• Wiping the dirt off your hands and knees after planting two sedums in your kitchen garden
• Putting your clean son down for bedtime, collapsing onto the couch and catching up on Dexter with your husband and a glass of wine
• The way the brats you've grilled taste so much better than any brats you've ever had
• Whispering and stifling laughs while playing intellectual domino games with good, good friends after O's gone to sleep (so what, we're 85, it's fun!)
• Pulling into your own garage after a productive day at work
• Watching your husband do home ownership stuff, while you get ready for dinner
• Waving to neighbors that you've met or haven't met yet
• Walking over to the neighbors with an extra bottle of beer to hear how their day was, while O plays in their grandson's sand box
• Hearing the neighbor's praise your husband's yard work

One more straight-from-heaven blessing: Ollie can now eat wheat!

Yup!  We went to the food challenge on Wednesday at 8am.  I knew we were being given good luck because of two signs: there were God Skies on the way there and the woman who checked us in was named Tamika (same name as the nurse who helped deliver Oliver).  Maybe I'm reaching, but I felt a feeling of peace.  There is no description for the feeling you get when you see your son sitting on a hospital bed in clinical pjs - none, whatsoever, so I took whatever I could.  They took the Triscuits we had (Rosemary and Olive Oil - YUM) and measured out 7 doses.  Every 15 minutes, they came in and took O's blood pressure, looked all over him for any signs of reaction, then gave him another dose.  Because it was a long appointment, we had tons of things to do and our friend, Nick, even brought a very concerned Gus and Cassie over to visit!  Between doses, the boys rode on a small truck, colored and watched Elmo and Little Einsteins.  We napped after the last dose and waited for two hours for any sign of a reaction.  There were none and they declared Ollie had passed!  They made us promise to not feed him any wheat and to watch him carefully for 24 hours.  Because he had been such a good sport, we made sure to buy him a bouncy ball at the gift shop when we left.  

The next day, our allergist called to confirm the test results and to thank us for pushing the food challenge (he had been very cautious).  Now what we have to do is keep feeding him wheat every day so that the allergy doesn't come back (apparently 10% do).  Doug gave him the same amount of Triscuits yesterday for a snack and I'm feeding him REAL pizza tonight!

Gosh, the list goes on and on.  I'm really happy.

Icing on the cake:

• Oliver, leaving his classroom (unsoliticed): "Bye friends!"
• Oliver: "Thank you, Daddy."  Daddy: (nothing).  Oliver: "Daddy!  'Welcome!'"
• Oliver, when he doesn't want my help: "Wok away, Mama!  Wok away!"
• Every time he puts something on his head (a plate, cup, napkin, etc.), he sings: "Hap - ber-day, [plate/cup/napkin]."
• Oliver, when accidentally touching something on the iPad: "Whoops!...Whoops!"
• 101 Dalmations = Dog-a-mations

The flower on the icing on the cake:

Bathing O the other night, he told me that Jesus was in the sky.  After a very brief conversation, I started singing "Jesus Loves Me," and he sang with me.

I mean, if those aren't blessings, I don't know what is.  Thank you to our wonderful army of family, friends, co-workers, facebook and bloggers for the prayers, good thoughts and love and light that was sent up this week.  Thank you, Lord, for all our beautiful blessings.  It's been a very fun month!