23

Sep

Olan’s Five-Year Football Party!

We had a ball celebrating on “Sunday Funday!” Olan was in heaven the whole afternoon as we celebrated his 5th birthday. He kept asking, “How many more minutes until my party starts, mom?” He picked out his theme this year, very fitting since it’s football season and his latest kick is that he wants to be a football player when he grows up. What a lovely day to enjoy together with family!

Thank you so much to Angie Gebhardt and Nicole Deatherage for letting us snag some SES gear for our decorations and making our home into a fantastic Trojan football party!

  • Olan’s in his Trojan get up!
  • Olan with Aunt Tara, Uncle Ryan, and cousin Silas
  • Olan and Grandpa Baldwin (and his beloved Ironman Lego set from Cole and Lauryn)
  • Grandma Henry and Olie
  • Olan and Grandpa Henry
  • Great Grandma Peterson with the birthday boy!
  • Great Grandpa Henry with OO
  • Uncle Cole and Lauryn with Olio
  • Grandma Baldwin with Olie
  • Our family! Evie’s got some chocolate teeth, but ah well!
  • Blow, boy! We got to enjoy a family recipe for our cupcakes – Great Grandma Kohman’s surprise cupcakes. Always a delight!
  • Olan loves this lamp that Grandma and Grandpa Henry have had. Well, he just got his wish… complete with a revving motorcycle sound when turned on and a nightlight. The complete package.
  • We were so lucky to have the Trojan seniors all sign a football for Olan! He LOVES it! Thank you to the Gebhardts for arranging for this to happen! ❤
  • Evie and Daddy 3D printed Olan some “creature power discs” from the TV Show, Wild Kratts. Shark and alligator creature power is hard to top!
  • The highlight and FIRST gift of the evening was Olan’s Nike shoes. The gasp of surprise and delight was priceless! He’s been waiting so long and hoping that he would get them! Thank you Grandma and Grandpa Henry!!
  • Cousins! Wish we had a few more cousins present… 🙂 We miss our Maryland family!
  • The gifts!
  • Decorating was a cinch with the Gebhardts letting us raid their football gear and JH Cheerleading loaning us their pom poms for the weekend! We are so lucky! It was a beautiful party!
  • The fooooood! Logan had the idea to have Superbowl snacks for our dinner… it was a hit!
  • One happy dude! He was “Luke Gebhardt” for the afternoon! 🙂

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20

Sep

O: Year 5

Whoa Nelly! We love our little Olan so much. This kid has got the youngest child aura about him. He is adorable. He is sweet beyond all measure. He is quiet and gentle. He continues to have the most squeezable cheeks (they even jiggle when he runs still!). I could snuggle with him alllllll daaaaay looonnng. Heart eyes times a million.

Our little Olie is all the way boy. He’s into everything that boys at this age are into: dinosaurs, trucks (bonus if it’s dinosaur trucks), trains, airplanes and jets, robots, space, wild animals (preferably with sharp claws and teeth), bad guys, “shooters”, building, wrestling, chasing, Goliath, baseball, running around. He’s on it.

Aside from all that stuff though, Olan has been enraptured by the art of drawing this year. I can’t tell you how much paper we’ve gone through this year. It’s probably a good tree or two’s worth. Markers and pencils and erasers are his best buddy. He can spend an entire morning just drawing picture after picture of all sorts of creatures and vehicles. We do a lot of looking for specific printable coloring pages for this dude. Drawing is his happy place, and he’s pretty darn good at it if I don’t say so myself.

Olan is a perfectionist. He’s got me written all over the way he manages anger and problems. If he doesn’t get something right the first time, it’s kinda game over, at least for a bit. He tends to get real mad and say extreme statements like, “I’ll never do that EVER AGAIN!” Poor guy inherited my mentality. We’re a work in progress, what can I say?

I’ve been impressed by Olan’s ability to write all the capital letters and even recognize almost all the letters by their sounds only. He can also say the sound of the letter when prompted. He’s on his way to reading! He loves books. I will often find Olan carefully flipping through picture books during quiet time, or behind the couch… you can always tell what Olan has been up to because there are picture books open and scattered throughout his space almost always. Anything with dinosaurs, machines, and transportation is a hit, but he’s pretty open to all sorts of stories. I love to just watch him concentrate while looking at his books.

He’s an inviter. He wants you to come along on any adventure, whether that be a pirate dual, the latest dinotrux book, or to snuggle with him as he falls asleep. He never tires of asking me to be there, to watch, to join in. How can one say no?

Some breakthroughs this year: riding a bike (with training wheels, but hey, he could barely peddle a trike this time last year), putting his head under the water and jumping into the shallow end of the pool on his own, buckling and unbuckling his carseat (hallelujah), going to the bathroom independently, making his bed, doing chores like emptying silverware from the dishwasher and putting away his laundry, and saying the “TH” sound in more words without correction. We are so proud of our boy!

Favorites this year:

  • Color: Green
  • Animal: Cheetah
  • Food: Applesauce
  • Drink: Peach Slush with Nerds
  • Song: Wild Kratts Theme Song
  • TV Show: PJ Masks
  • Movie: The Iron Giant
  • Game: Super Smash Brothers (because we win!)
  • Bible Story: Jericho
  • Season: Winter (because all the snow and snowballs!)
  • Toy: Ironman
  • Outfit: Nike anything
  • Book: Dylan the Villain
  • Friend: Silas
  • Thing to do outside: Shoot rockets
  • Future Career: Football Player

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20

Sep

To Olan on Your Birthday

Hey honey-boo!

It’s time to celebrate you again… you are now five years old! It’s been five years since we welcomed you into our world, and I am so thankful for these five years with you. I just love to watch you as you learn new things, try new things, grow into new things. To watch my baby boy become a little boy and now slowly progress into a big boy is one of your momma’s delights. I love you and I’m so proud of you, Olie!

You have done so many great things this year! I am inspired by your enthusiasm for drawing. You go through a boatload of paper every day, but your skill and talent have gotten to flourish because of it. I love that you are a book dude too. Keep reading. It’s good for you.

Something I have seen grow in you this year is your willingness to obey. You are quick to listen and to follow through with what we’ve set before you. I am praying that you keep hold of this trait as you grow older. It will only make your relationship with the Lord sweeter if you can listen and obey when he sets something before you. We are anxious to see him work through you in so many mighty ways, and also in still, small ways too.

You are a man of few words when in larger groups, but I absolutely love talking with you when it’s just you and me. I love the squeaky gentle voice you have. I love the big words you use. I love seeing what’s spinning around in your brain come out through your mouth. You have so many insightful things to say. Keep speaking those things. I know sometimes you get frustrated when someone is talking over you (mostly Evie… ha!); but you let us know when you’ve got something to say. I’m glad you do that, even though it should probably be done with more patience. Keep fighting for your voice to be heard. It is important in a world with so many skewed and distorted voices to keep speaking the truth in love.

This year, I’ve seen you get real serious about your love for superheroes. Even though you’ve yet to see any of the Avenger movies, you are all about those guys. Did you know that you are a hero in training? Heroes all have four things in common: they do what’s right, they deal with wrongs, they are honest, and they care about others. I am praying that as your super-heroic pursuit of strength and awesomeness continues through this year, that God would be growing these four super-heroic seeds into strong and awesome traits in your life. Do what’s right. Deal with wrongs. Be honest. Care about others. God, let that be true of our family.

Taking time to reflect on the gift that God has given us in you makes me want to soak up every drop of your time as a boy. Before you know it, you’ll be six, then seven, then ten, then twenty. Right now, I just adore your squeezy cheeks, your squeaky voice, your heavy steps, your surprised gasp, your happy stance, your excited eyes, your sticky-outty tongue, your flexible frog legs, your unbelievably skewed sense of time, your stick straight bleach blonde hair, your scrawny body, your floppy little toes, your zeal for life. Let these things be enjoyed to the fullest this year, and here’s to many more wondrous traits you’ll gain as the years tick by.

You’re my favorite little boy in the whole wide world! I love you like the wind loves the rain.

Love for always,

Mama

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