2017 Life Logs, Day 80: Happy Birthday to Ollie
Date: Tuesday, March 21, 2017
Weather: Sunny; High 53, Low 35 degrees F
Location: At Home in the The Studio, Falmouth, MA

Happy Birthday to a very special little guy in my life. Ollie turned five today and all of a sudden he looks so grown up. Heather posted the following tribute to Ollie on her Facebook page. It captures the “essence of Ollie” perfectly.

Oliver is
Always aware of the love and beauty around the him;
Petrified of ‘being seen;’
Happy to share his birthday with a friend;
A master with Legos and puzzles;
Wise beyond his years;
FIVE.
Happy birthday to my Ollie Lama!

I woke up this morning feeling worse than yesterday. Heather was not able to go to work today, but Jonah felt good enough to return to school. Then at noon, Heather got a call from the school nurse to come pick up Sam. So whatever this cold/flu yuckiness is, it is spreading through the family. Thankfully, Ollie has been spared to date, so he felt fine on this birthday. And that was a great gift. But speaking of gifts, I got a text message from Amazon this morning telling me that one of Ollie’s gifts from me was not going to arrive today. A new bow arrived yesterday, but the chin rest for his violin was not going to arrive. So I immediately started searching online and found a place to buy one here on the Cape. Unfortunately, the place was an hour’s drive from here, but I decided to go for it. I got the chin rest, hurried home to gather up gifts and food, and went to pick Jonah up from school at 3:30. Once Ollie got home from school, the birthday party began. He opened his gift from Sam and Jonah which was a new soccer ball and all three boys opened a present from me which was a new Adidas soccer outfit for each. They immediately put on their soccer shirts and wanted to put on the shorts, but I reminded them that it is still too cold outside for shorts and they went along with that without too much of a fuss. When they came back inside from the soccer game, Ollie opened more presents, played his violin, built a Lego piece and then we had dinner. After dinner, he opened even more presents. I think he was a very happy five year-old on his birthday.