Oliver

You will have to forgive me but I am being rather melancholy this morning. 10 years ago right now, I was in labor for my first child. I'm not sure If I have ever talked about this on my blog before, but believe it or not "we" had quite a difficult time conceiving the first time. Almost two years of trying before we were finally able to get pg. Needless to say after that whatever was broken...was now fixed and then we couldn't turn it off! We are very fortunate to live near to the Jones Institute in Norfolk VA which is a premier "baby-making" machine and thanks to their expertise within a few months we were expecting our first child when we had almost given up hope.

For 9 months I primped, planned and prepared! He was so loved even before he was born. Ole and I were crazy in love with this little boy and we hadn't even met him face to face yet. I created a beautiful nursery for him and I spent countless hours in there folding baby socks and onesies. Hanging little blue clothes in his closet and folding and re-folding his little cloth diapers. I sat in the rocking chair and read to him, sang to him and talked to him. I dreamed of finally becoming a mom and holding my son in my arms.

Because Oliver's conception was shall we say "un natural" I was a little nutty about wanting to have a very natural birth. Ole and I attended Bradley classes and I read everything I could get my hands on about birth. Silly me, I even insisted on doing all my prenatal care and planned to give birth at a birthing center 2 hours away from home in Charlottesville VA because that was the closet center to us. Nuts...I know! Well, 10 years ago today it all started. My water broke in the middle of the night and calmly Ole and I drove through the night to the birthing center with me in labor. For the next 2 days I labored and at the end of 2 days I was so exhausted I was transferred to the hospital. I will spare you the details of the hours I labored there and Oliver's actual birth story because I want this to be a happy post. Oliver finally arrived and it was love at first sight. Ole and I counted finger and toes and gazed at him with pure amazement. He was our son!

For the past 10 years he has brought us so much joy and made us laugh. He is such a character. Filled with optimism and a wonderful spirit. Oliver is and always has been a clown and loves to make us laugh...and he does! His wicked sense of humor and charasmatic charm enchants everyone and they instantly fall in love with him. He is my right-hand man in the kitchen and loves to cook! In fact if he doesn't persue a carreer in the culinary arts I will be very surprised. He LOVES food! Each and every week Olver and I plan our weekly menu together and go food shopping together and he loves it. Plus, I have to say he really knows his stuff. He knows how to pick a good cut of meat, and how to check for great produce. He's so funny, he's even starting to read labels for ingredients and avoiding certain things. In the kitchen he is my sous chef. Preparring and cutting up veggies and getting out all the ingredients when we are cooking together, which is basically all the time now. Honestly I have really come to rely on him and he is a huge help. Oliver's other love is Lego!!! OMG he and Elliott are both obsessed, and I do mean obsessed! That's all we hear about and all the play with anymore. But the things they create are truly amazing so we are happy to feed their lego habit and encourage them even more. I couldn't even guess how many millions of bricks we have and they know them all. It's amazing. I can pick out any random piece from the huge bins we have and ask them "which set does this one come from?" and they know! It really is amazing!

For the next several days we will be celebrating Oliver's 10th birthday with parties, presents and adventures. My parents are arriving tonight from NY and wouldn't miss all the festivities for anything. Oliver is a planner and has everything scheduled down to the last minutes. It's going to be a great couple of days!!!

I just can't believe he's almost 10! A "tween", soon to be a teen! Heaven help us! I just hope he stays sweet and continues to love life as much as he does. He really is a great kid and I love him to pieces. So, Thank you Oliver for 10 amazing years!!! It's been so much fun watching you grow up and we can't wait to see you grow into a young man...just not too quickly!

Mom