his many colored days

It's son-day again and Oliver has provided me with plenty of material this week. Two of his buddies visited yesterday and it was great to watch them running laps around the kitchen and playing with trains. These are kids we have known almost since their birth and I have loved watching them grow up along with Oliver. I am also discovering just how much I enjoy having a house full of people, kids and adults. The kids gravitate to CD, and he to them. I'm afraid if we ever started a babysitting co-op CD would be the one the kids would always want to play with.

We are now plotting a possible New Year's eve gathering. Step one is finding a sitter and seeing if he/she will wrangle the children (three 2 year olds -- we'll keep the two wee babies with their), having them sleep at one house. And do it for a fee we can afford. Should that all come together, we'll start to think about what we actually want to do to celebrate the holiday. For me, going to bed early sounds good! I'm kidding, of course, but only a little. Champagne, then going to bed early....

The bruise on his head turned green yesterday. It's more yellow today. There's hope for getting a photo done in the next week or so, assuming I get him in for a haircut. It is still very short by nearly everyone else's standards but it takes little for it to become unruly. The kid is cursed with his mother's hair and shorter is definitely better.

School is going well for Oliver. At least he appears to enjoy himself. I remain less than enthused about his teachers but I have to admit he is learning. He has learned his colors since going there, as well as the many rules and routines of the classroom. I rarely had something that tangible before now. CD is spring boarding off the colors with his planet placemat and now Oliver is rattling off the names of planets by matching the names with the colors. I used to be impressed that he could name so many Red Sox players and what they do ("Manny hit da bat", "Papelbon pitch", etc.) but the planets? At two and a half? Such is life in a family of geeks.