Happy Birthday!

Your confidence is rocketing and you are brimming with adventure.  You’ve kept me on your toes for six whole years … Grandma still can’t watch you when you play in the garden, all that jumping and whizzing around makes her nervous.

After having your third set of grommets put in and your adenoids removed five months ago you can not only hear but you have also stopped snoring.

You like things ‘just so’ down to the sheets on your bed, which underpants you prefer to wear and where the sauce has to be on the plate.  You get that from your Dad. The clumsy bit? … that’s all my fault.

You and your sister seem to argue more often than not at the moment. Last week, though, I woke up to find you both snuggled up in your bed chatting and giggling. It more than made up for all the arguing.

You seem to be turning into an entertainer … mainly for the family.  Your confidence isn’t such that you’ll perform for just anyone yet.  You like to make people laugh while maintaining a dead pan expression. That is a good thing. A lover of slapstick comedy, you recreate amusing scenes for your sister.  It makes her laugh so hard that her tummy hurts.

School is a necessary evil, you get on and do what is expected of you, your reading has taken off and you have lots of friends.  You live for playtime, PE and the weekend. “PE is great” you said today “But getting dressed after PE is boring” and then shortly after “How many days until the weekend?”.

You enjoy your own company … taking yourself off to just be, playing a game, drawing a football match, doing stunts in the garden or playing with the dogs.

As you turn six your favourite things are: Football, the Xbox, running, jumping, being outside, pain au chocolat, planets, snooker, having your duvet tucked in a certain fashion before you go to sleep, your bike, biffing with your big cousin F.

Keep entertaining, my beautiful blue eyed boy, make people laugh until they can laugh no more. Be your own person and look after your sister. Six will be a breeze.

All my love

Mum x

The Husband : I don’t know

Me : You are rubbish, you never know. That’s why you always end up with a book token, a bag of Midget Gems and maybe some new socks.

The Husband : I’ll have a think.

Me : OK, by the way, I’m getting you that armchair, for the living room, that I LIKE from IKEA …

Happy Birthday Mr D.

May your bottom feel comfortable in your birthday chair that I lovingly bought for you … for me.

T’wife x

PS – I’m not sure that anything can ever be better than the birth of your surprise son, on your birthday after the pregnancy scans said he was a girl … (more on him in my next post)

Grandma watched most of the proceedings through her fingers.  She doesn’t cope too well with the 5 year old’s ambitious climbing skills.

The lovely people at Duplo sent us all the bits and bobs needed for the party; party bags, place mats, cups, plates, balloons and the most magnificent cake.  Check it out!

He had a great day, and all of his friends were wide-eyed at the cake.

My other news is that LEGO Duplo are also sponsoring me to go to Cybermummy 2011. Win, win, winnety win.

I wonder if they’ll make me wear LEGO hair?

Thank you LEGO Duplo …on all counts.

You too could win a Lego Duplo Birthday Pack and cake for your child’s birthday party. It’s easy to enter, all you have to do is send an email to duplocompetition@digital-outlook.com stating who you’d like to win the birthday pack for with your contact details.  I’d also appreciate you telling them you’ve read about the competition on AWNTYM. The competition is held across three blogs, each of them Duplo Experts whose children have birthdays between now and April.  The competition closes 31st March 2011 and a winner will be announced in early April. Good luck!

To my little big boy

The day you were born seems like so long ago.  Today you are 5.

This year you have;

Learned to swim without armbands, mainly under the water like a fish

Learned how to ride your bike without stabilisers and joined the big boys on the BMX track

Joined a football club which makes you smile like the Cheshire Cat

Learned some scooter skills on the half pipe at the skate park

Started school. You’ve made new friends and are learning to read, write and spell

Had a second operation on your ears so now you can hear like everyone else.  It’s given you bags of confidence.

What on earth will 6 bring?

Time doesn’t seem to move as fast as you’d like but I’d like to slow it down.  I think it’s going quite fast enough thank you!

Happy Birthday my special boy.

Love Mummy xx

PS – Happy birthday also, today, to The Husband and, last week, to My Sister xxx

All weekend we talked about how many sleeps till the 4 year old’s birthday.  So on Monday, when he came out of school with a massive grin on his face my heart skipped a beat.  My happy little boy full of the joys of school.  Then he said “It’s my birthday tomorrow isn’t it?”.  He sobbed all the way home when I told him he had a few more sleeps to go.

My Dad, Gramps, who is aware of The Husband’s birthday present, which is a lovely surprise, came for dinner last night.  He struggled through the meal because he kept almost blurting out things regarding the logistics of said birthday surprise.  It was stressful for us both. He kept starting conversations and then pretending he’d forgotten what he was going to say.  He said it was his best Alzheimer’s impression ever.

This morning I had the following conversation with the 4 year old on the way to school;

Me - Are you excited about your birthday?

Him - Yes, I can’t wait to get my ramp.

Me - What ramp?

Him - A scooter and skateboard ramp for the garden.

Me - What if you don’t get a ramp?

Him – But you know I want a ramp

Me - What if Daddy makes you a ramp?

Him - I want the ramp, the one on the computer. The one I am getting for my birthday.

Arrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrgh

If I ask him what he wants for his birthday I get a surly “I don’t know”. Of course he doesn’t know, he is the proud recent owner of a Hot Wheels track, remote control dinosaur, a rather irritating noisy ray gun (Thanks Auntie K) and several other new toys from Father Christmas.

My boy is so active. He gets the most pleasure from using our house as an assault course. Using the sofas to bounce on, bum skidding down the stairs, sliding on his knees in the bathroom, using bubble wrap as a swimming pool or using the dog as a hurdle just to name a few favourite activities.

I came across these picture a few weeks ago and thought that maybe I should just get him something else, non-toy related. He has enough toys. Maybe something to aid his expulsion of energy. Something to add to his assault course. I have no idea what that is yet.

What non toy related things/household objects do your children get the most pleasure from?

The clothes were in boxes from our first, we had all the equipment and were ready. All we had to do was agree on a name and wonder what our daughter (then 13 months) would make of having to share us with another.

We were delighted but I still took great pleasure in teasing my husband that he would be surrounded by women forever. He had always dreamt of having a son to share his obsessions with. Who would he play or watch golf/football/cricket with? I suggested his daughters, but this did not ease his frustration. His mother kept telling him she was one of five sisters. I reminded him that I wanted lots of children so surely somewhere along the way there would be a boy. I could see the newspaper headlines ‘Woman gives birth to son after 15 daughters’

… and his mother continued to tell him she was one of five sisters.

When my due date came and went I became tired and emotional. The midwife had told me four weeks earlier that she thought the birth was imminent … I believed her. I had an 18 month old rampaging through the house, a husband starting a new business from the confines of the attic and blocked drains; the house, not mine.

My husband and his friend had bought tickets for the White Stripes assuming that the baby would arrive on or before her due date. How I laughed … probably because weeping and rocking back and forth was the only other option at this point.

Seven days past my due date we arrived at the hospital for a check up and I was given a stretch and sweep (which is as uncomfortable as it sounds). The nurse talked about inducing on the night of the White Stripes gig. I laughed more heartily than before. My husband tried to talk the nurse into changing the day. With much eye rolling and tutting she agreed.

Needless to say my husband missed the White Stripes gig.

I won’t bore you with a full birth story; I’ll just let you in on the ending …

“Just one more push Mrs D”

There were many expletives, some shouting, screaming (all mine) then silence.

The shock was too much, my husband wept and I will NEVER forget seeing my sons willy for the first time.

My special, mischievous, surprise boy … and on my husband’s birthday.

Happy Birthday Boys, 3 and 40 today.