The Olives

Here's a recent picture of the babe. He's so excited for spring training to start, he asks to wear his Twins hat all the time.
It's so unusual for Oliver to be looking up WITH HIS EYES OPEN in a picture, I just had to post this one. I do take photos of him, people..he just has his daddy's photogenic genetics, therefore is unable to keep his eyes open and have his picture taken at the same time. I just deleted upwards of 200 pics from my camera of Oliver's eyelids or the top of his head.

"Let me clarify this..."

The past two posts about Oliver have been somewhat negative, so I thought I would clear up anyone's thoughts of him being the naughtiest little boy. He's not the naughtiest. In fact, he's usually pretty well behaved and always hilarious...but when he misbehaves I just must tell someone, hoping they'll have pity on me. Deep down somewhere inside I'm cracking up over the things he pulls, while in the moment I don't think it's all that humorous. And so I decide to share with those who will get a kick out of my life.
*the quote is Don Knotts, taken from 'The Ghost and Mr. Chicken'

Spanks

If I were to tell everyone in the world to raise your hand if you don't believe in spankings, Oliver's hand would be among the first to shoot up. Not that he believes they don't exist (he has the experience to prove otherwise), but he doesn't believe in their power or effectiveness. I'm starting to agree...Help??

OLIVER ISAAAACCCC!!!!!!!!!

If you came to our house, that's something you would most likely hear after being here only a few minutes. I've grown so accustomed to the need for this stern warning, it pretty much just rolls off my tongue with little or no effort and certainly no surprise.
Action that warrants this response? Oliver's new trick of hiding his toys in the heat vents. I knew he was up to something when I heard a lot of banging coming from the other room. Upon arrival I see my boy fiercely whacking things (table, chairs, etc.) with the formerly harmless vent -a turning point in our baby-proofing saga. When we remember, we put a chair leg over the vent (his favorite location being the dining room), but we are only human as it turns out, and often forget the after-dinner drill. Yesterday (being one of the forgetful days) I heard a lot of clamoring coming from the dining room. Hurrying to stop the destruction, I noticed something poking out of the duct work...a drumstick!!!! His toy drumset was being commissioned into the land of lost toys, apparently. There it stood, at attention, one end in the floor. This drumstick should receive a medal for pointing me in the direction of so many other toys that were MIA. After using the drumstick for a fishing pole, I found: a cow, a pirate, a horse. Oliver Isaaacccccc!!!!!!!

paper or plastic?

Something that I dread: grocery shopping. I don't know why it's such a nightmare to me. I guess it could have something to do with spending a lot of money on something I'll have to bag, put away, take out and cook, consume, clean up after, and then have nothing more to show for it. Unlike shopping for the house, even if it's just essentials, food has a date with destiny and is then gone forever. Oh, I love food. I love eating. But the sorry fate of food being bought must be eating at me (pun intended) while I push the cart around the store in a mildly depressed state.
Okay, I may be dramatizing this a bit...no, I don't need counseling for a quick trip to the market. I just wish I could handle taking the list and getting it done instead of having an instant wave of disgust and fear wash over me.
Having little Oliver with adds to the insanity, which can either be a good distraction from reality, or make me want to pull my hair out before we get to the frozen foods aisle. He's a pretty good helper, but would rather eat the food while packaged instead of waiting until we're home and it's prepared. Plus he usually chooses something grotesque to grab hold of and gnaw at while I wheel him around the store. Pretty sure he loves the unknowns of the grocery store...which I dislike.
He's like his daddy who, defying all logic, loves to grocery shop and actually becomes inspired, ending up buying lots of things that weren't on the list--minus a few things that were.
Andrew's our designated shopper, so I rarely even have to go, but I was just sitting here looking at our current list thinking I should be brave. The sick feeling set in. Woe is me.

Glorious day!

Today I did 2 of my favorite things:
1) painting, and
2) spending a significant amount of time with my boy, Anj.
I started a painting project for some dear friends. They let me use my creativity to help choose colors for what ended up being basically their entire house. Could a more divine opportunity come my way? I love the design process...
I began all by myself, but after a day of intense and lonely wall coloring, my dear husband came to my rescue (yes, again). Andrew helped me for the duration, which ended up being 3 1/2 days of painting hard. The result? Magnificent. Ah, the satisfaction of finishing a task. A task that warms and cheers.
And now Andrew is also addicted to the transformation of a room by way of color (the transformation doesn't end with just paint, however..it snowballs into new furniture and art and arrangement, as our friends will soon discover. But that's another fantastic and never-ending story...). Anyway, this boy is so enamored by the sport that he went out today and bought so much painting gear and gizmos we could outfit a whole fleat of paint-crazed crazies. It is pretty exhilerating to see how much life, warmth and energy a new hugh can offer... especially knowing it was you who came up with the scheme. And it's so fun to have Anj join me in my element. We both just kept saying how much fun it was to paint. Together. Oh how wonderful. If only we were in charge of designing and decorating the world... It would be a better place, people.
What a blessing to have such a creative Creator who lets us think we're artistic. Can you imagine designing the universe? Talk about revolutionary.

Parking Space

Space available: Either park both of your cars, or parallel park just one. (Haha...get it?)