Grandma Is Here!

Simpson Ollie

Ollie was totally excited to see his grandma Vickie. He spent most of Saturday with her and Aunt Annie. Grandma came over to his house on Sunday and he filled her with stories. This morning, he got up and started filing bags with toys that Grandma would like. He loves his Grandma! When he got to Annie's apartment, he flew out of the car and up the stairs. He settled in with Grandma and was happy as a clam.

A Scientist One day?

A few nights ago I watched a documentary on dwarfism. Ollie watched it with me and was fascinated with the skeletal comparisons between average-size adults and little people. He said, "Look, Mom, look. That's a skeleton." Next up was a cross-section of the brain. "Look, Mom, look, that's a brain, We all have brains, Mom, and they are in the skulls. Our skulls are part of our skeletons."

After a discussion in simple terms of brains and aneurysms, which primordial dwarves are susceptible to, Ollie decided our conversation was done. He went back to being age 4 and talking about Power Rangers and dinosaurs. The show ended, a new documentary started on the tallest people in the world and the Q&A session started over.

Smart boy!

Ollie's Fair

Ollie went to his first real fair this past weekend. The first ride was an easy carousel ride to get warmed up. He tried to get in a red helicopter, but he couldn't figure out how to open it, so he skipped it while he threw his fit. We later came back and he got to ride in the red one like he wanted, so that ended well. Then he went for the gusto and got on the ferris wheel with his Dad. This wasn't the typical ferris wheel, it had a more closed canopy boat type carrier. Ollie was still a little afraid and kept his head down through most of the ride. He did look up on occasion to see everything below.

Having conquered the ferris wheel Ollie next tried a dragon roller coaster...alone. This one wasn't fun for him as he almost cried during the ride, even though it was a kids coaster. After that he enjoyed every ride he went on. He spun around in the strawberry's, rode a motorcycle, rode in race cars and tackled a fun house a couple of times. Eventually he stopped for a drink. It was hot and humid that night so he was very red in the face.

After his drink break we made our way back to other rides in the fair. He tried to have me go on the swings with him, I was too big and he didn't want to go without me, a small fit ensued. Instead he rode in a few boats and then we headed off to the giant slide. Ollie did the slide 3 times before we hustled him off to a 2nd fun house. But not before almost getting run over by his Dad and sister. People were telling him to move, but he didn't budge. Luckily there was enough room that I could stop us before tumbling into him.

The 2nd fun house was a blast for Ollie he went in it twice. The first time he didn't go in the barrel roll, so he had to go back and do it again. His 2nd attempt didn't end so well. He tried walking in it, but couldn't keep himself upright and ended up falling down. Then he rolled on his hands and knees before he figured out that he better crawl out.

After that it was on to the vomit inducing Tilt-a-Whirl. Not for Ollie, but darn close for his Dad. That right seemed to last forever and about half-way through, the kids weren't enjoying themselves anymore. We finished up with a hair-raising scrambler ride to help cool the kids off. After that we headed home to cool off and get the kids dinner. They ate a lot since it was almost 7 pm and slept like rocks from all the fun.

Growing Up

Ollie: "Daddy, am I going to be a baby again?"
Me: "No you are going to be a big boy."
Momma: "You are going to be big like Daddy."

Sound from the back: "Phbbt".

Ollie: "That sucks!"

Bad Parents

This past weekend we promised to take the kids to orchard to play. We ran into a small glitch, the orchard didn't open until Monday. Ollie wasn't happy about that. We tried the 2nd orchard, but the play area wasn't open yet. He was even more distraught and cried about not being able to go to the orchard. We ended up taking him to the park instead. He played in the "castle" with his sister, running around and trying almost everything. He tried the balance beam for the first time and did it successfully with a little help from Mom and Dad.



He didn't seem to mind not going to the orchard after a couple minutes and he and his sister played for almost 2 hours. His sister was so worn out, she almost fell asleep as soon as she hit her car seat. Her brother stayed up, but rested for awhile while watching cartoons. He's close to the stage where he doesn't need naps anymore, but he was really tired come bed time Sunday. He's not quite there yet.

Burp!

Ollie is gassy, incredibly gassy. He burps constantly and farts, and tells us every time he does it. He thinks he is funny, and he is also into other gross things. This past weekend when Tori got a mosquito bite on her foot, Ollie told his great-grandma that it looked like a nipple. That was embarrassing. He also told everyone at the dinner table that Mom had to push and push and push to get him out of her tummy when he was born. Lovely.

Aunt Annie's Departure

After five years of living in Peoria, Aunt Annie has decided it's time to make her departure. She is moving back to Cape Girardeau at the beginning of August. We relayed the information to Ollie and he seems ok with it. He knows that Aunt Annie will be living with Dale and Grandma Vickie and that's fine with him. Of course, when Uncle Dale left and our cat Zoey left, he asked about them constantly. No doubt he will do that with Annie, too, once she leaves. He will miss her playing with him and buying him presents. Oh well. Maybe Aunt Annie will take him for a week next summer.

Zoo

We stopped at the St. Louis Zoo on our way home from Pittsburg, KS. It was hot out, and after water and ice cream, Huts and Tori took off. I left later with Ollie, and somehow, we missed each other. We spent half an hour trying to find each other and wound up outside of the Big Cat territory. Ollie liked the giraffes, who were eating out of everyone's hands but was ready to go home afterwards. He was just too hot. The kids slept most of the way home and stayed up until almost midnight on Tuesday night. They relaxed on the Fourth of July and seemed ready to go to Sharon's this morning.

Grandpa-pa-pa Paul

That is what Ollie calls his great-grandpa Paul. Last year it was just Grandpa Paul. I guess this year a few more syllables were necessary.

Ollie spent the most of the weekend with his great-grandparents at there house. It was rained most of Saturday and Sunday so a lot of planned things got rained out like the rides at kiddie land. While his sister played in the water, Ollie refused to play in the rain. Ollie did find 2 new things he liked, the arcade and puzzles. We went to the arcade after he had a meltdown during lunch. He was tired and we had just gotten into town. After a brief lunch, the arcade cheered him up a bit. He got to whack some sharks and ride in a coin-operated helicopter (something he hasn't done in Peoria). Once home he found the toys and started playing with the puzzles. They were small 20 piece puzzles with Clifford the dog and Blues Clues on them. He was frustrated with them at first, but he eventually figured them out and had no problem putting them together. We ended up buying him a couple puzzles to take home.

Ollie also ended up with another Power Rangers Megazord from Wal-Mart. If you need to know where all the Power Rangers toys are, just come to our house! Ollie also got a waving flag that plays music from his Grandma Tip. He didn't want it at first, but he was playing with it by the end of the day.




His Grandpa Steve and Grandma Marie came for a visit on Sunday and brought Ollie dinosaurs a TV (which he refused to have in his room) and a bubble sword. Ollie made a few bubbles but he mostly preferred to destroy them with his sword. Everyone went out to a chicken lunch and Ollie ate almost everything on his plate. All through lunch Ollie was asking about the robbers who stole his Aunt Lucy's stuff and what happened to them, who shot them etc. He was very concerned about the robbers. After lunch, while Grandpa Steve was trying to take a quick nap, Ollie woke him up with his sword/gun that makes noise.




Monday Ollie went to the park while his sister was sleeping and then got an icee. He was tired out from running around at the park. But he kept right on going. He played around the house and yard before heading inside for pizza.

Tuesday came and we headed home. We stopped to eat at an Applebee's and Ollie ate quite a bit of his mac and cheese. We also stopped at the St. Louis zoo so the kids could run around for an awhile and tire themselves out for the trip home. Ollie had to see the hippos again. No piggy back rides for the hippos this time. Once we were back in the car Ollie slept until we got home about 7 that night. He was well rested and ready to play that night.

He didn't want to see the fireworks this year. They didn't start until after 9 pm anyway, so we skipped them. He wasn't the least bit interested in smoke bombs or snakes either. Maybe next year.

Fun Time at the Park

Friday night was a busy night for the Ericksons. We ate at Sonic in Pekin and went to the park for Relay for Life, a cancer fundraiser. While I helped with the dunk tank, Huts took the kids to the playground. They played for a long time and then watched the dunk tank. Ollie thought that was funny. Huts took over my duties and I took the kids to play around her team tent. They finally got tied and I walked everyone back to the car. Ollie was crushed that he was going home and I was staying all night for the fundraiser. Little did we know that I would be coming home in a few hours due to stormy weather. The kids left, my sister arrived and we walked around for a while until the weather got nasty and we were told to go home. There was supposed to be a kids' walk the next morning, but it got rained out too, so we spent the rest of the day at the toy store and running errands.