buzzed

We have had a lot of fun company lately. Our niece Mary was here for a week and than her sister Erin came this weekend. Oliver loved it. He would stand at the bottom of the stairs and call " Air-in; Mare-ee". When they drove away on Sunday he turned to Anthony and I and said "I"m sad. I want them to come back NOW."

He had already been sad over the weekend. Part of me was glad that it was no longer our fault.

Oliver is usually a very laid back kid. He has never had a problem going to the doctor or having his hair cut. For some reason the last time I took him to get his hair cut he freaked out. Two minutes into it he stopped cooperating. He buried his head into me. His hair was only cut because I held his head up. He was a mess and I felt terrible about it.

Saturday morning we were both saying Oliver needed his hair cut. Anthony said that he could do it. In college he shaved the hair of everyone on the floor. I should have remembered the awful incident where poor Kevin got a cut and the only hair that remained were his initials, KOD.

I figured Oliver would perfer to have his hair cut by Anthony. It started out ok. Anthony cut it into a cute Mohawk ala Maddix. Shortly after that Oliver was not happy. He started crying, but it was done before we knew it.

He was still screaming as I brought him into the bathroom. Anthony and I immediately told him how good he looked. At this point Oliver wouldn't even look at Anthony. He was so mad. Mary tried to talk to him about it. Eventually he went up to Mary and said "Daddy cut my hair off. I look different." She was so good with him. She reminded him of a Yo gabba gabba episode we watched about kids being different. He didn't buy into it. Erin tried too.

Eventually I asked him what was wrong. He said "I'm mad at Daddy for cutting my hair off.". I told him it will grow back, but he said "No. It's on the deck." The poor thing. He hates his hair. Through the weekend he kept talking about how different he looked. That night when we were putting him into bed he told us he wanted his hair back. I told him it would grow back and he asked me if we could get him new hair tomorrow.

Oliver really was so funny and sad at the same time. By Sunday he was kind of getting use to it. When he saw Andrea for the first time he told her he was happy now about his hair because I told him it would grow back. But on Monday again he told me he wanted his old hair back. He wanted to know when it would be back and if it would be really really long.

It is a big change. It might have been a little too short on Saturday, but now it looks nice. If anyone sees him you have to tell him his hair looks good. Anything less and he turns to me with this intense "what did you do to me" look.

It's funny because he is still so young, but at the same time not. He always has opinions. I was surprised by how much this meant to him. I really shouldn't have been. In the winter I moved a painting that was right in front of his play table and he told me he wanted the picture back where he could see it. I guess I just still assume that he'll go along with what we want.

Obviously I'll attach pictures. I don't have any good ones because he was so uncooperative about taking a picture. He really looks so handsome and older with his new hair cut. We love it.

summer

Today has been one of those perfect summer days. The sky is bright blue and there is a warm breeze. I wish every summer day could be like this. It has been so hot here. This weekend it will be back up to 90. My sister in law JoEllen says that she tries not to complain about the weather in the summer because she complains so much about the cold in the winter. I'm usually the same way. I hardly ever put the a/c on. But this summer seems hotter.

Luckily, our town pool opened full time this week. Oliver loves going there. I forgot how easy our days our in the summer. Everything is more relaxed.

I can't believe that it was a year ago that we were at the pool. This year flew by. There were some babies at the pool today. Seeing them next to Oliver was funny. He looked big. He can go into the big pool this year since he is potty trained. They won't let him wear any swimmies in the big pool which means I have to go in with him the whole time. Right now he is happier at the baby pool. I hope it lasts.

Last night Oliver and I were outside as the sun was starting to set. Oliver came running over to me and he looked very upset. When I asked him what was wrong he said he couldn't find his shadow anywhere. I took him to a spot with some sun and he was very happy. He asked me if I could take a picture of his shadow so that he could always see it. So I did.

I hope everyone has a fun Fourth of July.