Anderson: A whole hand.

A whole hand. 

I CAN believe it. I am not the mom who thinks it has gone by fast; in fact I often wonder how on earth have we crammed SO much in ONLY 5 years?? 

(The answer is, of course, that he is awake for so many hours every day, he is basically a 9 year old.)

Truly, I am in no happier place than when I am a mom to these boys and I do love hanging out with them and celebrating them. 

A hand. A whole hand. 

Because I do not have a Pinterest account or any interest in anything like that, we keep the celebrations simple. I had to work late the night before his birthday and was thinking that I should do something fun for breakfast on his birthday, but I was sort of tired and did not feel like planning a lot, so this is what we came up with based on what was already in our fridge-cut into shape by Brandon, of course. 

He was very specific in that he wanted cupcakes with neon icing and sports (football and basketball) rings on them to bring to school. I love that I cannot bring homemade stuff to his school because I really don't want to anyway and it is a nice way out. 

I also LOVE when I get pics from his school during the day. 

We did his 5th birthday gift scavenger hunt a few days before his actual birthday. I love doing this because I like making terrible rhymes and hiding things, but am also a little concerned with the precedent I have started. How am I going to buy 13 gifts one day?

I will always use the patch drawer as long as we have it. Will we not have a patch drawer one day?? Is that even a possibility??

On a related note, getting one day off from patching each week is the GREATEST gift ever. We didn't patch on his birthday! That was the true gift. 

I put up a few decorations the night before-this is as crazy as we get around here. God loves me and knows I needed boys. 

Dinner was hotly debated, as he could not decide between Taco Bell & Salsarita's. You might remember our venture out to Sam's Club last year for pizza, so I think the final decision of Salsarita's was definitely a rung up in the restaurant world. (I fully realize the picnic tables at Sam's Club are not actually a restaurant, but we round up around here. Food & a place to sit rounds up to a restaurant.)

We never eat out (except at Chickfila) and this meal was a reminder why because Max was HORRIBLE. Screaming like a banshee horrible. We possibly scarred many, many people who might never have children now.

GG sent super fun gifts like real bugs in plastic. Clearly, something that boys would love.

Aunt Manda sent new DS games because we gave him one of those. 

As always, I love that my parents can drop by for cupcakes and gifts. I especially love it when they bring awesome gifts like a new telescope! Anderson planned to use it that night, but it was 7 degrees so we crushed his dreams. 

Also, speaking of my parents, they are Anderson's New Year's Resolution. He said, "For my resolution, I am going to go to Noni's more often." I told him we can probably make that happen.

Last comment on this pic-I told myself I was only going to order 5 pics of him this last year to hang up on the sign, but I just could not resist ordering about 11. 

So many fun and wonderful memories during his 4th year of life-sports, bug catching, swimming, broken arm and Harry Potter. I mean, that is an amazing year. 

Uncle Curtis stopped by with goodies, too! 

This is not from his birthday, but I like looking at the Original 3. And the little belly of the third. 

 Anderson at 5:

-Totally intense, focused and 110% all of the time. 

-Competitive, intense, INTENSE, high energy, INTENSE.

-Never eats. Every meal is a battle. 

-Terrible sleeper. I cannot remember the last time he did not wake up at least once during the middle of the night. And by once, I mean at least 5 times each night. 

-He is frequently up until 10pm at night because the kid does not stop. And, he is also awake by 6am without a doubt. 

-Still says, "Lellow" for yellow and "Aja" for Asia. I love, love this about him. How can he request to bring a picture of Mt. Vesuvius for his M Show & Tell and and still say "lellow"? It is so perfect. 

-Can add/subtract many, many numbers in his head. 

-Asks so many questions, all of the time:

(Where did God come from? Was Jesus the first person ever? How many people did Mt. Vesuvius kill? Is there at least one birthday party somewhere every day? How many clouds are there? How fast are meteors? Have you ever seen a volcano erupt? Why can't fish breathe out of water; there is just as much oxygen in air as water?* Does every bug have a larva stage?*)

*I only survive most of this parenting thing because of siri. And wikipedia. 

This is the artwork that he brings home from school. He makes various SEC fields during his free time. 

-He LOVES SPORTS. I wish there was an option besides just capitalizing that I could use for emphasis here. His favorite is without a doubt, football. ("I love tackling, running, catching and getting dirty." Yep. ) He & Brandon watched every football game during the season and Anderson truly watches, understands and even analyzes the games. Also, there was lots of smack talking. This is where his love for math is originating/being emphasized because there are so many number options to figure out during the games. And, he knows the rules much better than I do already, so I am 3rd in the ranking of the family, just hoping to outrank Max for at least another year or so. 

-I had to text Brandon one day because I did not believe Anderson that the team that scored from a safety got to keep the ball. It doesn't make sense to me and Anderson kept explaining it to me and I did not believe him because he was 4 and I am an adult. Clearly, I lost. 

-He also likes basketball and soccer, both of which we are encouraging. He has decided against playing baseball again because he just didn't love it. 

-Overall, sports are our friend and will be in our lives for as long as we can make that happen. 

The summary sheet from his parent conference in the fall. He only missed one on all of the assessments. I mention this because my blog is his baby book/my scrapbook and if I had known 4 years ago that he would be above the average in anything involving his vision during preschool, I would have kept at the patching with a little less worry. I am beyond proud of this kid.)

-He is very logical and has better spatial awareness skills that I could ever hope to have, so he clearly did not inherit those skills from me. (That intensity thing I mentioned earlier? The high energy? Those are all me. Using logic? Putting together legos? Not me at all.)

-He is such a good big brother to Max about 80% of the time. He loves/worships Max and gets SO excited about him when they have not been together for awhile. But, Max is starting to like his toys a lot and Max got a few things for Christmas that Anderson liked, so it was a little touch and go for a bit. I see a lot of sibling fights in my future.

-To keep it totally real, that intensity thing is not only exhausting, but makes him cranky a lot. Perhaps he does actually need more than 8 total hours of sleep a day?

-Speaking of grumpy, he is the worst in the mornings because he really, truly hates his eyepatch. Hear me correctly, two hours a day is not even really patching and we are in the magical stage. But, he hates it. And, because he doesn't wear it that often, he is much more aware of it. Sometimes we go through a few in those 2 hours and his ability to reason makes it so much worse because he has pretty good points as to why he should not have to wear it. As smart as he is, he just cannot understand the concept of "Developing your Optic Nerve so that you can see later in your life, even if it makes Sponge Bob blurry now."

(A few. In TWO hours. Am I even talking? I mean, what on earth. This is not a problem.)

In short, he is the kid who he has always been-intense, physical, big hearted, questioning and perfect. After 5 years, I have finally realized that everything has a trade off and he is truly the perfect kid for us. I feel so, so lucky to be his mom and am so thankful for the last 5 years with him.

From his birthday book.