Alexander's 5th Birthday

I'm so behind on blogging!

Alexander had his 5th birthday in November. He's such a big boy now, I can hardly believe it.


Alexander had very specific instructions about decorating his brownie-cake on his birthday at Grandma & Grandpa Henage's house.


The next week we had a party at Grandma Karen's house. He's telling us how old he is.


Here's the birthday sign we made together. This is one of our favorite birthday traditions. Alexander wrote the "HAPPY" and "BIRT" as well as some stars, fireworks, and a birthday cake.




We started this countdown chart way back in October. Alexander was excited to take another link off the chain each morning.

Here are some things about Alexander at five years old:

• Alexander is loving big brother. He helps out with Lincoln by getting him out of his crib every morning and helping him stay happy. They fight over toys a little bit, but generally they play well together. He sets the example for his little brother.
  
• He loves to draw with crayons and markers. He's probably used a full ream of paper in the last 4-6 months.
  
• He enjoys writing. He labels his drawings, sends letters to family members, and types on the computer to Dadda and other relatives in Google Chat. He's gotten to the point where we, his parents, can usually understand everything he's trying to write. He's had his own name memorized for a few years and last month he learned to spell Lincoln's name as well.
  
• He likes to ride his bike and play outside.
  
• He likes to listen to music and sing along. He also enjoys "singing" the piano.
  
• He always wants to help out with any project I'm doing, whether it's sewing, painting, mopping the floor or baking muffins and pizza.
  
• He loves having books read to him. He doesn't read very much on his own yet, but when he tries he does very well.
  
• He loves to play. He especially loves having a playmate that will do anything he says. His favorite toys right now are the mouse and cars he got for Christmas. He wants a real pet mouse of his own someday.
  

Quote of the Day #30: Jokes Gone Wrong

Daniel: Knock-knock
Alexander: Who's there?
Daniel: Yah...
Alexander: Who yah?

Alexander: Dadda, what were you eating for breakfast today? Were you eating underwear?

Daniel: Knock-knock
Alexander: Who's there?
Daniel: ...la hoop
Alexander: Who la hoop?
Daniel: You said hula hoop!
Alexander: ...

Alexander: You want to hear my funniest joke ever? An ant eating an ant. It's a real joke. I saw it in real life. There was an ant that had alother ant in his mouth! That's the funniest joke in the whole world.

Henage Halloween

I know you're all anxious to see Buzz Lightyear and the Little Green Alien. Your wait is over. (Unless you've got a slow Internet connection. Then your wait has only begun.)

The boys on our festive front porch


Alexander as Buzz Lightyear. My sisters and I each got this costume from a Disney Store clearance rack after Halloween a couple years ago. It's been a well-used addition to our dress-up box. This is the first time it's made a Halloween appearance. Daniel drew the curly Q on Alexander's face. He also attached glow sticks to the ends of the wings, since the wings' original light-up function went out ages ago.


THE CLAW!! I made this costume, with Alexander's oversight, of course. The little antenna-thing doesn't stand up as much as I would have liked, but oh well. I'm really surprised Lincoln let me draw an eye on the bridge of his nose!


Just to prove I was there.


Just to prove Daniel was there. In this picture we are hanging out at our neighbor-ish's fire pit. They had an awesome bonfire and hot apple cider. We'll be stopping there next year again for sure.


These are our neighbors and Alexander's good friends: Brooke (AKA "Blooke") and Ashlynn. Both our boys love them. They played together almost every day this summer. Their brother is looming in the background. This is appropriate, since he's usually the one who comes to bring them home. This time we're at their house, Trick-or-Treating.

Speaking of Trick-or-Treating, Lincoln did it for the first time this year, since last year doesn't count since he was so little. He quickly caught on. By the end of the night when someone would open their door Alexander would say "Trick or Treat!" while Lincoln just crawled over their door jamb, went right up to the bowl with his hand outstretched and said "Meeeese!" (please). So cute. He had three-fingered mittens on, though, so he had a hard time getting a good hold on the candy.


Alexander's decorations to scare the trick-or-treaters. Check out that (almost) anatomically correct skeleton! He looked at a book for that one. The top "decoration" is a witch holding a Jack O Lantern. He also drew a ghost and more pumpkins for the other window.


Earlier in the week we had a Halloween-themed play date with some friends. Lincoln's costume wasn't finished yet, so he wore Alexander's old Woody costume. I keep asking myself why he didn't just wear this on Halloween night. There's no simple answer, except that I always do things the complicated way. Besides, Green Alien was really warm.

Alexander Plays Soccer!

Alexander had his first real soccer game today. He told us he wanted to play on a soccer team this year (last year he did the non-competitive, child-parent Smart Start program). You should have seen him jumping up and down before his first practice. It was adorable. He sure has come out of his shell in the last year.

The game was indoors. Afterwards I took these pictures of Alexander kicking the ball around on the grass. Grandma Karen and Grandpa Steve came and watched his first game.

(I didn't realize my camera lens was dirty until after I uploaded these pictures)

Denver!

In September we went to Denver (my first time!) for my friend's wedding. We took the both kids and made it a fun weekend. Well, all except that Alexander got a stomach bug and spent all day Saturday... well... I'll not go into too many details. We got a babysitter for the wedding by calling a local bishop to get numbers for ward members who might be willing to help us out. In the end it was the bishop's wife who offered to watch the kids at her house. We met them at church beforehand. They we so nice! In fact, the whole ward was really welcoming. It sounds crazy to leave my kids with strangers, but it actually felt really comfortable when it came down to it. Besides, we needed the date.


Don't Hannah and Greg look so happy? They were adorable.


Hannah was so gorgeous in her wedding dress! I'm glad I got a picture with her, even though we look ridiculous dancing.


The wedding was near downtown Denver. So afterwards we took a quick drive through town and set up the self-timer on the camera for some fun shots at the state capitol.


Sittin' pretty a mile above sea level.


Ooh, rrrrromantic!

On our way home the next day we stopped for some sight-seeing. We drove through a snow storm, but then emerged on the other side of the summit in crisp but beautiful weather. Daniel really wanted to stop at the hot springs so we splurged and took a few hour break from our road trip. The pools were amazing. The water was warm and salty, which felt great against the cool outdoor air. Look at the green mountains in the picture! My cousin went on her honeymoon here and I can see why. Maybe Daniel and I will have to come back alone someday. We alternated between the warm and hot pool. The kiddie pool was closed, but the kids were well-behaved among the adults (and thankfully not the only kids there). Whenever we went in the hotter pool Lincoln would say "Hot!" which sounds more like "Ah!" It was probably the only word he said the entire time. Don't worry, I didn't keep him in there long.


More fun with the self timer


My wonderful men

Pumpkins, Tomatoes, Cornstalks and Beets

10/7/09
Here are the boys picking out pumpkins from our neighbor's backyard pumpkin patch.


Lincoln wouldn't hold still for the camera.


Alexander posed, but wouldn't look at the camera.


Next we packed the pumpkins into the bike trailer around Lincoln and rode to the neighborhood garden to search for any straggling tomatoes having survived our recent weather change. Lincoln kept picking up all the green ones and throwing them around like balls. I wasn't expecting much, but I dug around and found quite a few edible red ones. They weren't as big or as dark red as a few months ago, but still good. We found enough to make some sauce for dinner with leftovers to freeze for some future dinners. In the end we had such a big boxful that there wasn't enough room in the trailer for Lincoln. So I carried him on one hip while walking the bike and trailer home. (Alexander was on his own bike.) To make matters funnier, I had stowed some cool (but messy) corn stalks from the garden into the back of the trailer. They were sticking out all over the place, getting caught on low-hanging branches and shrubs on the way home. We must have been a ridiculous site. I also had a bunch of beets in there. I never used to touch the things, but this year I've discovered that steamed fresh beets are really good. Not only are they so much fun to pull out of the ground, but they have such an unbelievable, awesome color.


Speaking of color, here are some tomatoes we picked early last month. Big and red and oh-so-good. We made sauce from these, and I also put some in a Caprese salad to take to our church harvest dinner. They are so good sliced and paired with fresh mozzarella and drizzled with olive oil and balsamic vinegar, with fresh basil sprinkled on top. I wish I had taken a picture of that. My mouth is watering just thinking about it.


How good is pasta sauce made from these homegrown tomatoes? This good.

Quote of the Day #29: Bedtime Prayer

Alexander's personal bedtime prayer went something like this tonight:

"Dear Heavenly Father,
Thank ee for this day.
Help me not to have time out any more --- REALLY.
Help me not have any more time out ever again...
(Mom, today when I was in time out I said a prayer. I asked Heavenly father to make my time out shorter. I ask him a lot. But he only did it once)
...And please, please, please, please, PLEASE let me play with Lincoln more.
And bless me to be happy and for all the people in the world to be nice to me.
And for me to be nice to all the people in the world.
In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen."

This was all while Lincoln was alternately giving Alexander and me kisses right on our cheeks (something new for him) back and forth during the entire prayer.

The line about Lincoln in tonight's prayer is especially funny since there were at least two occasions today when he told me he wanted to play all by himself without Lincoln. I think he just didn't want to share the toys. And I think tonight he just didn't want to have to go to bed.

Mmmmmm... Markers

These were taken Tuesday 9/1/09. Both boys were coloring at the kitchen table. After Lincoln bit off the first marker tip I put the markers out of his reach. When I turned my back Alexander gave him the orange marker. I had to pull the tip out of his mouth. Little monkeys.

The next day (or maybe two days later) Lincoln walked into the hallway from playing quietly in his room with Alexander for a few minutes (ALERT!) with permanent marker all over his skin. And there was a lot of skin exposed, as he was only wearing a diaper. I'm not sure who did more of the drawing, but Alexander got time out for that one for instigating. Wish I had taken pictures.

P.S. I have a lot of bicycle posts lately. The most recent one is not the same as the first one. Just thought I'd mention that, since no one left me any awesome comments about Alexander's new bike. But maybe there was not much to say about it.

Quote of the Day #28

"Mom, do you know why it's so loud in the car? I made it. You know how? I yawned."
-Alexander, while on a drive through a canyon

I Want to Ride My *New* Bicycle

There's no doubting it. Alexander was just getting too big for his old 12" wheel bicycle. Daniel had been looking for an excuse to get Alexander a bigger bike (it'll be too cold to ride after his birthday in November). The perfect opportunity presented itself in a dentist bribe. Alexander and I were about to leave the dentist office after an unsuccessful appointment (the only successful one he's had is the one where he was asleep). We talked to Dadda on the phone, who told Alexander that if he let them take X-rays and clean his teeth then he could earn a new bicycle. It was great motivation. After a lot of pep talk we went back into the dentist office and asked for a second chance, which they very graciously gave us. Alexander had a really tough time, but he did it. He did everything that was required of him without fighting it (too much).

So that night we went shopping and picked out Alexander's new bike with 16" wheels. He rode it through the store. The next day Daniel took off the training wheels and helped Alexander get accustomed to his new big bicycle. It was actually trickier for him to go from the smaller bike to the bigger bike than it was to take the training wheels off the smaller one.


I love watching Daniel help Alexander with his bike. Alexander went from this on his first day...
(Do you hear Lincoln saying "Dadda!" in the video? He can't stop saying it whenever Daniel is around. It's so cute)


...To riding around on his second day like nothing had changed (accept the new bike fits him much better than the old). I just love his singing. He's "la-dee-da"-ing to Allouette. I used to sing that to him when he was a baby, substituting his own name for the real words.

If the bicycle looks familiar it's because it's the same style as his old one (Huffy Rockit), only a little bigger. Alexander calls it a space ship bicycle because it has a picture of a rocket on it.