More July photos

We had a nice visit from Oliver's uncle Ian, Aunt Wei, and their kids Eamonn and Molly. It was great to see them. Wei spent some one-on-one time getting to know Oliver, which was wonderful. Ollie loved having Aunt Wei read to him!

While they were in town, Shami engineered a fantastic Indian banquet and we had the whole family over. As usual it was crazy, chaotic, and exhausting, but well worth the effort!

We haven't seen very much of Oliver's cousins this summer. But with Eamonn and Molly visiting from Canada they decided to all stop over one day to put on a spur-of-the-moment concert for Oliver. It was quite a scene! Ollie especially liked Kieran playing his Saxophone.

We've tried to get out of the house each weekend with Oliver's Thamma and Dadu. Here are a few photos from some of our July excursions:

At the Ithaca Farmer's Market, and walking through the Cornell herb and flower gardens.

At the once-a-year Ithaca Artists' Market, and at a quilt show at the Johnson Art museum.

Here is a photo of Ollie with all four of his grandparents on the museum's deck, and one with his dad from an upper floor with Cayuga Lake in the background.

And a few more pictures just for the fun of it:
Here's Ollie swinging with his grandmas and cousin Kieran, and getting a math lesson from his grandfather.

Finally, here's Ollie getting cuddles from his Thamma.

Thamma and Dadu

July 19th was a very big day. It was the day Oliver's grandparents arrived from India for an extended visit. Oliver's grandfather (his Dadu) hadn't seen Oliver since they visited us in Sydney when Oliver was a baby, less than a week out of the NICU. Oliver's grandmother (his Thamma) came to Sydney by herself in September of 2008 to mark Oliver's 1st birthday with us. For both of them it had been a very, very long time since they'd seen Oliver - or us for that matter!

Through the magic of video chat, Oliver has been able to see his Thamma and Dadu from time to time over this past year. It is hard to know exactly what he comprehends, and what he remembers, but it was clear that the moment he saw them arrive at our door he knew they were special. He felt comfortable with them right away and was all smiles. Their friendship has grown more and more each day. Ollie, with his love of words and silliness, loves it when they talk to him in Bengali. He laughs hysterically, especially when his Dadu throws in some arm movements! It has been wonderful to have them here, and it just breaks our hearts that they don't live closer. They will stay until mid September, through Ollie's 3rd birthday, and the start of school for Ollie. The time will fly by.

July Jots

Summer arrived in July, with hot humid weather in all its glory. It felt good to me, although I was thankful for the luxury of indoor air conditioning. AC is crucial for Oliver as he runs hot, and develops quite a sweat even when it is only mildly warm.

The Fourth
July started off with a bang. The 4th of July may be our country's birthday, but it is also Oliver's cousin Mariah's birthday - a much bigger deal! This year she turned six. My sister Caitlin had a big birthday gathering for her, and Ollie seemed to enjoy the ruckus. And as you can tell from the photos, Ollie's pumpkin chair has been extremely useful. He sat it in for books with his grandfather, he sat in it for the gift opening, he even sat in it in the sandbox out back!

It was great to be able to plop the chair in the sandbox and let Oliver experience the sand on his feet (and down his pants!) It was his first time experiencing sand like this, and it was interesting to see how serious he was about it, taking in the feeling and sensations of the sand quite intently.

Sapsucker Woods
Shami and I have always liked to go for walks together. While we were dating we would hike the many trails around Ithaca. We still try to get out every once in a while with Oliver, to the more tame wheel-friendly trails nearby. One evening we decided to walk some of the wooded trails in Sapsucker Woods. The bugs made it a bit difficult, but it was a lovely walk nonetheless. It has been years since Shami and I had been on this trail, and we were excited to stumble upon an Andy Goldsworthy sculpture. He is one of my all-time favorite artists, and it was a thrill to quite unexpectedly find this treasure!

Swimming
This summer we have had a handful of Oliver's PT session in a pool. Ollie is still not particularly happy to go in the water. He gets quite tense and nervous about it. But I think each time he loosened up a little bit, and the last time we went he actually relaxed for some portions of his session. I hope that one day he will enjoy the water, and be able to relax and splash and have fun in a pool, aside from the PT aspect of it. Ollie's favorite part of his pool sessions was reading how deep the water was!