Pool party and a haircut (and way too many thoughts)

Ollie got to have a bunch of his buddies over for a little pool party in our backyard. It was a lot of fun and the water balloons were maybe the strongest I've ever seen, we could not pop those things. Life is just better with a tan and a bathing suit. Then Ollie's hair got cut today and after the dramatic, near death experience (in Oliver's opinion) he actually survived and smiled proudly with his new do. I was so tempted to let it grow out cause last time it was long was when he was 1 and I'm just curious to see what it would look like. But as usual, convenience always wins. It is just so much easier, plus he has a lot of hair and it is stick straight, so the growing out phase could be a bad one. And it's summer man! Oliver is increasingly hilarious by the way.

Sometimes I feel like I should carry around a little Ollie notebook so I can document the everyday occurences that are just hilarious. Maybe the most funny thing right now is his facial expressions. Oh if I could just document each and every one of those. I walked while Ryan longboarded with Ollie in arms to the gas station, and the look on his face was just priceless. He is SURE that his dad IS the coolest guy around. Totally true. Everytime they'd skate past me, Ollie would high five me, and made sure to always do it, like he didn't want me being left out of the fun. He is so unbelievably loving. If I could ask one thing of my kids, it would be that.

Lately everytime we go to the park, there is always that one kid who is a total punk, just pushing and picking on everyone. Ollie cannot fathom how anyone wouldn't want to hang out with him, he just wants to be friends with everyone. So he goes up to this kid and this kid calls him a "baby" and pushes him. I thought Ollie was going to cry but then he offered this kid the chip he had in his hand, to which the kid still pushed away and left. Another time Ollie saw these two boys at the top of the highest slide so he just had to follow them to go down. On his way up the stairs to play, he was totally laughing and trying to join in their fun. The kid closest to Oliver, saw him and told he he couldn't go up there and started trying to push him down the stairs. I usually like to see how things pan out, but considering how steep the stairs wer, Ollie was about to get pushed off a two-story platform. So I yelled, probably a little too loudly, "Do not touch him again!". I was totally in mom defense. Didn't help that I had just watched an Oprah on bullies. So once Ollie saw that I was worried and mad, he started crying and realized there was no reason for this little boy to be so mean to him. Oh it just makes me want to spank some kids, and I don't even believe in spanking!

I have to admit that it's pretty often that I will totally call out a kid at the park who is being rude and picking on other kids. And I know kids will be kids and sometimes they just have their moments, but they still should recognize that it's approproiate to be upset but not ok to take it out on others. I know, mom police, here I go. Ryan loves it, he's like at least your taking care of business baby. If I see a mom close by though I'm definetely more cautious cause I would hate to step on toes. I had a funny experience the other day though. Ollie brought a couple toys to the park and so I knew he would just have to share the whole time, cause it's just an unwritten rule that if toys are brought to the park, you cannot expect kids not to be interested. So anyways he was sharing his toys really nicely and all the kids were playing really well. After a while though, you could tell the tension was building with all the kids because they were sick of having to take turns with so many others. Ollie got interested in picking up wood chips off the ground and make-believing them into airplanes and trains, etc. So a little girl who was getting especially frusterated kept following Ollie around and everytime he'd pick something up, she'd take it out of his hand. Everytime I said to her, "If you want something from him, you need to ask him. You never take something from someone without asking". She just looked at me like, are you serious you're telling me what to do. Then I helped her learn how to do what Ollie was doing and find her own wood chips. It's funny cause it's not like she was this mean kid, she just wanted to play but didn't know how without taking something from someone. Some kids are just like that. They have a hard time creating their own fun cause when they see someone else's fun, they want THAT and they don't understand a way to get it on their own. Later her mom came up to me and I actually got a little nervous that she would be annoyed with me. But she basically said that she really appreciated the direction I gave her little girl and since she had 3 other kids there, it was nice to have someone watching her. As much as I would hope that Oliver will never be the aggressor in a fight, I'm sure he will and if I'm not there to direct him, I'd hope someone else would, especially if he is picking on their child. Wow my posts get so long. I should just start a whole new blog for online journaling cause I'm sure not everyone wants to hear my every opinion. Unless you're still reading this, then I guess you do, or you're just bored:)

By the way, is anybody else scared of being the crazy mom when kids pick on your kid? Like seriously, I have thought, if I find out some kid from school is taunting one of mine, I will march right over to the school and make them very sorry. Is that bad? I have to remind myself that all kids have a reason for acting the way they do, and that is the problem to deal with. But I did find out from Oprah that telling your kids to ignore bullying is probably the worst thing you can do. It's like telling them it doesn't matter or it's not important, when it really really is to them. I mean 3 of the kids featured on the show actually comitted suicide because they felt like there was no way out. Can you imagine? I have always thought that teaching my kids confidence is one of the most important things, cause bullies pick out those kids that just deal with what's coming. I hope my kids will put others in their place and protect those who are being picked on. I loved this little boy on the show who was taught how to use his voice to tell a bully NO! It was so funny cause this therapist was like, I want you to use the harshest voice you ever have with your dog with me right now. The moment this strong voice came out of his little body, you could tell he just finally believed in himself enough to stand up. Made me well up a little. You gotta love Oprah. Ok I promise this is the end, if anyone is still reading.