Happy 5th Birthday Christopher!

Five things I love about this kid-

1- He's my buddy.  Loves to be by my side.  Except when we are walking in parking lots, then he likes to run away from me, but mostly he needs to be near me.  When I'm sitting at the computer, he will pull up a chair and lean his head on my arm while playing on the kids' laptop.   He's even been known to try and kick John out of "his spot" on the couch because John is sitting next to me.  (John does not like this one bit.)

2- He loves to cuddle with me.  Despite the fact that I am not a cuddler, I love that most mornings, Christopher will wake up and come and crawl in bed with me until I get up.  Then, at night, Christopher and I will put the older kids to bed and he will come downstairs with me and we will cuddle "in the brown blankie" and he will let me watch what I want to watch and he falls asleep cuddled up next to me.  I love those moments of quiet closeness. 

3- He's got a great mind for puzzles and building with blocks.  His teachers have mentioned several times about his "intricate structures"  he will create at school.   We're always amazed at the things he comes up with.  His communication skills might not be up to par, but I think there's a little genius hiding in there.  I'm excited to see what the years will bring. 

4- He doesn't like TV.  After years and years of watching Thomas, and Blues Clues and various other mindless Disney or Nick jr shows, it is so nice to have the TV off for most of the day, without any power struggles whatsoever.  I love his love of wanting to do something besides sit and stare at a braincell killing box.  Sometimes it's a challenge, but a challenge I welcome.  Besides, nobody EVER said- I wish I spent more time watching TV. 

5- He loves the outdoors.  He'd be outside every minute if I let him.  Playing, riding, running, as long as it's outside.  He's happy.  And the mountains are even better.  "I go see mountains.  I go play sticks.  I go find fire.  I go find a tent."   Fresh air, exercise.  We all need more of that, and sometimes we need a little five year old to hound us to go out and play with him, or take him to the mountains so he can run around and find all the sticks his little heart desires.

Happy Birthday Christopher!  You are such a joy.  I am grateful every single minute of every single day that you are a part of our family. 

Oh man!  I can't believe I forgot my favoritest thing of all!   I was going for 5 cause he's five and all, so we'll have to make this "Five and One To Grow On"

- He's my clean freak.  He cleans up after himself.  Garbage in the trash can, dishes in the sink, puts things back where he found them.  Some days, the only evidence he's left that tells me he made himself a peanut butter and jelly sandwich is the dirty knife in the sink and a few crumbs on the counter.  And he likes to make beds.  He thinks it's great fun to make the other kids beds after they run off to school leaving their beds unmade.  (and I admit, he's beaten me to my bed as well)

awesomeness

 

Since school just got out, Nick was showing me his yearbook the other day.  Showing me his favorite teachers, friends, the girl he likes, etc.

Feeling a little nostalgic, I rummaged around in the garage for the box containing my old jr high year books just for fun. 

I thought the kids might get a kick out of it.  Proof their mom was indeed a teenager once.  Plus some of the hairstyles are pretty amusing. 

I found a few other treasures buried in that old cardboard box as well.  I pulled out a couple to show the kids.

They liked this one the best. 

It's a fill in the blank type of book. 

The kids got a good laugh at some of the stuff.  Like the fact that I admit to kicking, pushing, hitting, and yanking people's hair, but I am apparently only sorry some of the time.

I think I worked on it in the second and third grades, however the date in the back is a little misleading, so I'm not 100% certain.

And then there's this.

My diary I wrote in occasionally in 1986 and 1987 - or 5th and 6th grades.  It's pretty trashed, pages torn and falling out, full of all the stupid drama in an eleven year old's life. 

And as I flipped to the back, I found an old address book in the back, full of all my friends info (and the guys I liked too) and then I found the cherry on the top of all this awesomeness. 

aww yeah baby.

Off to college

Nick "graduated" from jr high two days ago, so what do we do next?  Send him off to college of course. 

As I type this, his plane is preparing for take-off to send him up to BYU. 

I've given up trying not to think about it, (and not just because my blood runs a little more red than blue. -I went to the U of U for a whole day before finding out we were moving to AZ) in case you haven't noticed- I'm a worrier, especially when it concerns my kids and we are exploring new and uncharted territory, and so I decided to blog about it.

We're sending Nick to EFY for the week. (Especially For Youth- a week long LDS resident camp of sorts held at colleges across the country- Nick is attending the one in Provo)

He's been gone for nearly that long before, but usually I am passing him off to the care of trusted scout leaders for the duration of the trip. 

My mom will be picking him up at the airport, and making sure he gets to BYU safe and sound, but after that... he'll be on his own. (not counting the trained and experienced staff of course)

Oh, I'm sure he'll survive, and be okay, but I need to know he'll be great.  Fantastic.  That he'll remember to take his meds or put in his contact.  That he'll remember to charge his phone so he can call home if he needs/wants to. That he won't lose anything important.  That he'll have a good roommate, and that he'll make lots of good friends and lots of good memories.

I hope he takes lots of pictures.  I forgot to tell him that. 

pre-school graduation

Christopher graduated from pre-school.

Next stop- Kindergarten.

I'm having a hard time wrapping my head around that.

Around the fact that my baby is going off to kindergarten next year.  All- day kindergarten.  That seems so long.

And then there's the fact that somehow he's the same age as Nick was when he graduated from pre-school.  How can that be?!?!  Nick was so grown up. So precocious.  So ready to move on to bigger and better things.

Maddie was the same.  Even Zach.  After two years of pre-school, he'd made so many strides, was such a different kid, I felt confident in sending him off (of course it wasn't a full-blown standard kindergarten, but neither is Christopher's either).   

Somehow it's different with Christopher.  With me.

He just seems so young.

Maybe it's an autism thing?  A baby of the family thing?  Maybe it's a I've met two year olds who were better conversationalists thing? 

I don't know.   yes.   no.   D- all of the above.   whatever.

They had a cute little ceremony in the class where the kids filed in wearing their little paper graduation caps with little yarn tassles.

John was out of town, but I pulled Zach and Maddie out of their classes to support their brother.  Plus, they served cake, and other treats, so it was a win-win for them.

Christopher got his diploma,

hugged his teachers, (love them all by the way, they are amazing)

 licked the frosting off a cupcake, then said, "I go home play wii now."  And just like that pre-school was officially over.

water day

The pre-schoolers had a "water day"  last week at school.

I arrived at the school barely in time to change into a swim diaper and his swimsuit, so naturally he only got his hands and feet wet.  Of course, if I didn't change him, he probably would have gotten soaked.

(when we come prepared for the splash pad at the mall, he won't go near it, but when we don't, we end up buying him a change of clothes from the nearest children's clothing store, because he can't handle being wet once he's done playing)

I think his favorite part was the popcicle.  He'd eat those all day if he could.  (somedays I think he does.  He's pretty quiet and sneaky about it, and is really good at throwing away the evidence.)

I was glad I went, and I think he was glad too.

It's funny cause it's true

They passed out these t-shirts at one of John's computer geek conferences awhile ago for the guys to take home to their wives. 

For those not in the know, the "V" stands Virtual.

Everyday is something

May is hard. 

Okay, maybe not hard, just busy.

School is almost out, so everybody is wrapping things up.

Some of the things we've been working on lately-

School projects- reports and posters.  Zach did his explorer report on Juan Ponce de Leon, and Madison had to do a famous American report and a whole presentation on Shawn Johnson.

Maddie is running for school council Vice President.  More posters, and a couple campaign speeches.  Wish her luck.  Voting is over, but we still don't know the results.  She was running against three of her friends, so she feels a little conflicted, but I think she will be fine with whatever the results are.  She didn't even vote for herself.  She voted for one of her friends.  " I think she will make a great Vice President.  And it just feels sorta wrong to vote for yourself." 

Orchestra concerts- I think I've been to four so far, and we have two music lesson recitals this Friday,  (viola and piano) thankfully at different times.

Nick's eagle scout project- trying to remain optimistic, but I think at this point we might need a miracle.  Nick is trying to fix some specialized equipment for disabled kids.  Between getting started so late, the one guy who knows what he's doing is in Asia for 6 weeks, the company who built the equipment in the first place has discontinued the product and won't return our phone calls and emails, etc... let's just say we're getting worried.  (what happens if you FAIL at an eagle scout project?  What do you do if you just CAN'T do what you promised?!?!?)

Baking cookies to try and entice/reward any scouts and their leaders who spend their time helping Nick.

End of school parties. Today is Christopher's water day which I will most likely be going to because I'll kick myself if I don't.  My list of chores can wait.

I need to start making caramels for teacher gifts.  The kids love to give them, and most of the teachers seem to love getting them.  Having a special needs kid means a lot of caramels though.  I want to thank all those souls who take care of my baby - teachers, aides, therapists, bus drivers...

Dental issues.  I had a cavity that got worse and needed a crown, and that was a nightmare experience as it was, and then because the pain wouldn't go away, they decided I should just get a root canal on top of it.  Once again, that experience was so   awful   fun, the endodontist gave me free movie tickets to make up for it.  (nothing like hanging upside down in a chair with your mouth full of   crap  necessary dental instruments, and thinking you are totally going to lose your lunch.)  - Believe it or not, I'd still recommend him to anyone getting a root canal, he's super nice and competent, it was just one of those days.


Luckily though, I got a bunch of percocet out of the deal, and I love me some percocet (and vicodin, and lortab...) except it makes me itchy.  Not itchy enough to throw them out of course.  (and for those of you worried about my safety and well-being, don't worry about me, I can quit any time I want to. Ü - Just kidding I already have.  My mouth doesn't hurt enough to warrant wasting them on it any more.  And yes, I was very careful to not operate heavy machinery or make important decisions while hopped up on my favorite drugs)

And then there's figuring out the schedules for the family for the next couple months- traveling, summer pre-school, EFY, camps, etc, etc, etc.  I still haven't got a grasp on that.  One thing at a time I guess.