Day 150, Year 9: Getting Ready for Ollie’s Birthday
Date: Wednesday, March 19, 2014
Weather: Mostly Sunny, High in the Low 40’s
Location: Brewer Fiddler’s Cove Marina, North Falmouth, Massachusetts
Tomorrow is the first official day of spring and the following day is Oliver Preston Goldstone’s second birthday. So ‘tis the season for celebration. I’m not sure the official entry of spring on the calendar is going to influence our weather in any positive way, but one can always hope. But I am sure that Ollie’s birthday will officially signal to the world that he is now two and that he can therefore say ‘NO’ louder and clearer than before. But that is a bit of an exaggeration as Ollie really doesn’t say “no”. His way of asserting himself is to say “mine”—meaning “I’ll do it without your help, thank you very much.” The onset of the terrible two’s became evident a few weeks ago, but Ollie is such a happy-go-lucky personality type that it is my hope that his birthday will simply usher out the negative and lead on us to the next stage. In preparation for this grand event, we have all been scurrying about with the preparations. Mark made a dollhouse for Ollie in record time over the past two weekends and today I did some finishing work on it. Heather spent time making little comforters and pillows for the doll beds and then she and Jonah worked on making the beds and a table and chairs for the dolls. The dolls are the part of this that Ollie loves. When he goes to the library each week, he loves to play with the 4-inch high dolls and put them to bed or wash their hands in the little bathroom sink. He’ll be getting two sets of dolls, one from Mark and I and one from his Grammy Marti. He’s also getting some ready-made furniture to complement the homemade variety. Jonah was excited to help with the furniture making using tools he and Sam got from Papa and Grammy for Christmas. It is so special that the older boys are making furniture for their little brother’s dollhouse. And I suspect they will enjoy playing with it with Ollie.
Mark is doing well. He started feeling a bit tired this weekend and that is continuing this week, but it is nothing major. He just enjoys taking a nap in the afternoon. I know lots of people our age who take naps every day and that aren’t going through radiation and chemotherapy. So I think he is doing great. His blood work results are still perfect. He has had 18 treatments with 10 to go. When he comes home on Friday of this week, he will just have another week and a half. So go Mark, go!
