Theo at Six: And a Cheetah Party

To usher in being six years old, Theodore decided to wake up at 5:00 with me and is currently working on his 249 piece Lego set he received yesterday for his birthday.  Neither of us could get back to sleep, so we may as well get some work done.  Being an early riser is a trait Theo and I share.  We have a lot of weekend mornings together while Eli and daddy sleep in.  Unfortunately, Theo also seems to be taking after me in the temper department (without the redhead excuse), in his running abilities (or lack of), and in his dedication to his "shows".  But, at least he's also taking after me in his quick math abilities, which should be helpful since he still professes the want to be a builder when he grows up (hence the two hundred and forty nine piece Lego set he needs almost no assistance with).  It made my heart sing a little when he got his first report card and his highest "grade" is in mathematics.

 And here are some fun numbers while we're talking math.  Theodore is twice as old as Eli, and twelve times as old as Thomas.  He is 1/3 of the way to college (!!).  He's now been with me more than 1/5 of my life.  Since he is in a mixed age class of 5 to 7 year olds, he isn't the largest always but is a sturdy 48 inches and 60+lbs.  He is still in size 1 shoes, so at least his feet took a break from growing.  He isn't the most athletic kid (like his parents), so he dreams of having the speed of a cheetah, (65 mph).

Theo is officially a big boy now.  All the softness to his chubby baby face is gone, as is the softness to his personality. I can describe it best by saying he has sharp edges now.  It's not so much that he is headstrong as much as it is that he is always in his own little world. And being told to alter his world (turn off a favorite show, asked to slow down, and being told he can't do things) causes immediate little fits of anger.  And add a little brother who has his own ideas and contributions while they are playing and there is a lot of bickering between the the two.  I say that it is easier to have the 6 month old and 3 year old both, than to have Theodore.  It's like the temperature of the house raises several degrees every time when he comes home from school and my blood pressure increases.  He is just a bit of a fireball to have around.

But when it's just him (and electronics aren't around), he's still a pretty great kid.  He seems to be navigating school well, and doesn't consider himself one of the "bad kids".  Most days he says are "pretty good".  Packing or buying lunch is a pretty important part of his day.  He gets very excited to pick out new library books, and likes art as well.  He would rather learn science and nature info all day, rather than learning to read and write (though he is excited for first grade, when they only have to use one finger space when writing instead of two), so most of his favorite shows and Kindle apps help with this.  He was recently assigned to study an animal and make a diorama for school, so he's been researching the cheetah.  We ended up designing his birthday party around cheetahs, giving him a cheetah cake and visiting the zoo for the day with both his grandmas, Aunt Nae Nae and grandpa.  Luckily, they were out, and he even got to watch a cheetah gnaw on a carcass as the zoo has began feeding the lions and cheetahs carcasses.  Watching the lionesses really go after theirs was pretty neat.  And Theodore was kind not to mention that that napkins and plates I found were actually leopard spots, and not cheetah.  The things I've had to learn since having all boys...

*Sorry so late... took a while to get the photos on here.*

Teeth Update:  2 gone (Feb. 17)

Three Year Old Train Birthday Cake

And because my hubby did such a good job with this cake, it is getting it's own post.

We vacillated between a rocket cake and a train cake for a while, but as Elijah was turning increasingly back to trains we decided that would be the birthday cake idea for the year.  And, it was a rough one.  But, eventually my husband turned out this awesome (and tasty) train cake for our three-year-old.

He was pretty excited, and didn't even critique it for missing some features of an engine!!

We planned to go on a train ride for Eli's birthday at a local park again, but had no luck.  It rained on his birthday, and the train broke down right after we got to the park when we tried the following day.  He actually didn't cry over this, but he did cry on his birthday when he had to leave the model train exhibit that was we found set up in the local library as a back-up activity due to the rain.  Granted, he were pretty tired, but it's amazing how much he loves trains.
 

Elijah Update: #Beingatwoyearold

As you turned three, I didn't even know where to begin with an update.  So much has changed since this time last year when I struggled to drop you off for even an hour or two to go to a meeting or workout at the gym.  You were so attached to me, and barely spoke any words.  So.  Much.  Has.  Changed!

But rather than try and organize this in some kind of cohesive manner, I'm just going to leave it in the snippets that I've jotted down over the last month to remind me of you at three.  Because that's all I can manage with a newborn. One who you are constantly kissing (and coughing on), snuggling (and waking), and taking care of ("Oh No, Thomas made a noise!  Brother is coming!").  

And I'm throwing in a series of silly Instagram photos and a few others from over the year that I tagged #BeingATwoYearOld that will show your progression through the year.  

Looking back the last year has been a busy one for you. It has been full of: enthusiasm, potty training, art projects, visits to museums, love, finding bits of nature, trains, lots of silly hats, enjoying each season as it comes, dinosaurs, lots of sprinkles, rockets, and story times.  I have enjoyed your two-year-old self so much and hope you stay this amazing as a three-year-old.

You snuggle every morning.  You were always the first to say good morning to the baby while he was in my tummy.

I now realize the words you children hear from me, as you've picked many of the phrases up and use them yourself.  You repeatedly ask:  "How many times do me have to tell you?"  Whine: "Me legs hurt, me can't go up the stairs!" (from my c-section recovery and last weeks of being pregnant).  And declare:  "Me not know." (when you really do).  And you delay activities with phrases like:  "Maybe tomorrow", "in a minute," and "just a second."

 

Outside of fighting with your brother, or copying some of his behaviors, you almost never get in trouble.  And if you do something and we accidentally yell at you, it takes you a very long time to stop crying because you are extremely sensitive to that.

 

Sometimes you are a train.  Once a grasshopper.  But normally, just ELI or a Big Boy.  When you are these things we must call you that, and only that.  I slipped and called you baby a lot before your brother was born and you did not like it.

Your favorite shape is a heart.  Every time you see one, or make one (like out of your toast triangles in the morning) you say, "This heart says, me love you!"  I can't get enough of it.

You observe and notice so much more than your older brother.  You are always listening even when we think you're not, and you always see what is going on around you (we can't sneak a treat without you expecting a bite).

I was worried about starting pre-school because potty training wasn't happening so much.  Then all the sudden when we went on our three week trip to Indiana you went from 50% there to almost perfect!  We're still working on putting underwear and shorts back on after using the restroom (half the time you come out half nude), but I'll take it.

You introduce yourself to everyone now.  No one quite understands, but you tell everyone you are "Eli Robert (last name)".  I think you speak pretty clearly, but not everyone understands you.  You have recently started stuttering some, which I read is common at your age and you should outgrow it, but I'm a tad bit concerned and get sad watching you struggle.

You are very repetitive.  You will ask the same questions or make the same observations every time we read a book or walk by certain things in the neighborhood.  Some of these include:  pointing out the same spider webs everyday, asking why we cross each bridge we cross, and noticing the ducks that have fallen over in a neighbors yard.

You like to reread "The Very Hungry Caterpillar" and "The Very Busy Spider" often.  You have carried a wasp to me, and let bees land on you.  I think you've got a future in entomology.

You say you want to be an astronaut when you grow up, and you spent a couple months obsessed with rockets.

You're getting obsessed with trains.  Making them out of all the dinner chairs, begging for the "big train book" nightly until we started letting you watch "Locomotive" on DVD daily (we are hogging the library edition, but may need to invest in our own), and pretending the Target cart is one and yelling "all aboard through out the entire store.  If we draw a train, it must have all of the correct features (cow catcher, smoke stack, engineer, etc). 

You like to kill bad guys.  Swords, guns, etc are still a favorite object of yours to draw, make out of legos or smartlinks or imagine.

I was afraid to cut your hair, for fear of it looking more brown than blonde, but the blonde is still holding out.  You shake your head furiously every time I brush your hair.

You want everything big.  Big lemonade!  Big toothpaste Big socks!  And I can't call you baby or little even, you are a BIG boy!

At drive-thrus, you make me put down your window so you can talk to the workers too.

You're still a shorty- 36 inches, 33 pounds.  You actually still fit in a lot of 24 month/2T clothes, but I'm hoping to get them all put away and move you into all 3T soon.

 And finally, a list of some of my favorite words/phrases you used as a two-year old:

"It turned on!"  Translation:  Something is alive.
"Autopilot"  Translation:  The child lock button on the windows in the car.
"Hit it Mama!"  Translation:  Say, "on your mark, get set, go!"
"Sleep Up!"  Translation:  Wake up.
"Unbuckle" or "Uncouple":  Translation:  Letting go when holdings hands with mama.
"These doors are magic!":  Translation:  These are automatics doors.

Minions Know How to Party!

My son has been into minions for quite a while now (I think he saw part of the movie at a friends house, and then started asking to rent it from Redbox) so after being given several options for a do-able birthday party in snowy February, he decided on having a movie party featuring Despicable Me.  Which was kind of great because that movie has been around for a while that there are a ton of ideas out there already and it was fairly easy to put together.  Frankly, themed birthday parties are one of those things I never wanted to do as a parent, but I had to admit it turned out really cute.  And sometimes those things I vowed against five years ago just end up happening.

Theo doesn't really have a lot of favorite friends at school, but will pretty much play with everyone so we went ahead and invited the whole class and were glad for the ones who could come.  He kept saying he wanted to take cupcakes to anyone who couldn't make it, but I convinced him that we would send rice krispie treats to school instead (since the cupcakes had a tiny piece of peanut butter for the iris).  We even got to invite a few last minute church friends when they ended up calling a too-cold-to-go-to-school day, which meant the kids in our town went to school for one day the entire week.  And it was a two-hour delay.  Don't get me started on that though.

Decorations:
My husband used some table cloths, construction paper, and foil to make a door minion.  Cutest thing ever, and I can't get myself to take it down.

Balloons, crate paper, and this simple minion centerpiece rounded out the decorations.

Games:
After watching the movie, and again after eating lunch, we played a few games.

I used a few pieces of felt to sew together Gru's scarf so we could play "Gru Says" (like Simon Says).  We told the rest of the kids to act like Minions, and whoever was wearing the scarf got to be Gru.  In my experience, kids at this age can't get enough of this game.

 The most popular game though was set up like a carnival game in the movie.  We placed a print-off of a spaceship (from here) that we put a stiff backing and a toilet paper roll weighted with quarters to hold it upright on top of a stack of cups.  The kids had three chances to knock over the space ship with a birdie.

I didn't get a full size minion put together, but impromptly had Brian draw a large minion on our chalkboard and used it to play pin the goggles on the Minion.  Always a fun game with little ones.

Photo Op:  The kids enjoyed posing in the "box of shame".

Food:  I kept it simple here, and just did pizza, carrots, and strawberries.  And juice boxes.  But there are some really great minion themed food out there.  We did make these bags to serve popcorn out of during the movie.

 Favor Bags:  I had a little too much fun putting these together, but I have always had a giving love language.  We paired a minion bracelet bead kit, some runts (minions love bananas, if you didn't know), a glow stick, Despicable Me fruit snacks, and slinky in a cute bag.  I used this site to print off the eyes and g's that I used in most of the crafts.

Cake:  I looked at so many designs on pinterest, but thought this one was the most do-able for us.  I made them all on my own, and thought they turned out pretty good (though half the kids just ate the frosting and marshmallows off the top).

For his full-size birthday cake, to have on his actual birthday, Brian didn't need any of my pinterest finds, as he made this on his own.  It was too precious, and Theo was very excited for his minion cake.

 And, there you have it.  Our simple version of a minion party, that was just what my five year old wanted (or so he stated, several times).

Other helpful links:
Invitations
Popcorn Boxes
Thank You Cards

Or check-out my pinterest board