The One Where My Baby Turns 4

He did it.  My tiny little baby went and turned 4 on me.  

4 years ago.  I miss that sweet little baby but love, even more, the little boy he has turned into.  And luckily, he kept his trademark eyebrows.

 I decided this year to have a "friend" party for Carter. Not because he asked, or even knew what they were, but because I figured it was a rite of passage.  For him, and me.  I quickly learned that "friend" parties are not really my thing.  Luckily birthdays only come once a year.

Carter was very excited for his birthday and his party.  He kept asking if he could have his birthday on the 15th, instead of the 16th.  He was very eager to help me frost the cupcakes for the party.  

 Although I learned his ulterior motive.....to lick the knife.  I'm not sure he even frosted one cupcake.  He did consume his body weight in chocolate, vanilla and strawberry frosting.  And since it was his birthday, I let him.

The party was scheduled for 2 hours.  And let me tell you, they were some of the longest 2 hours of my life.  "THe Party where time stood still...." The kids had fun but they were typical kids and only lasted on an activity for about 8 minutes.  I felt like I was constantly entertaining them...probably because I was!  Thankfully we had Grandma over to help and one of my friends.  Bless their hearts.

 Carter got so many fun things from his friends.  He loved every single present he received.  And each person seemed to pick something out for him that screamed his name.

Birthday Boy blowing out his candle.  

Side Note:  He is wearing his Aggie Jersey which was an early birthday present from Grandma Susan.  He has been wanting one for quite a while and was thrilled to receive one.

 We took up some time by whacking a pinata.  And wow.  8 kids can crack through a cheap pinata a lot faster than I had bargained for.

It was a mad dash for the candy once the pinata broke open.  We also played games outside and even had races on Carter's wiggle cars.  Those were the highlight of the party.


Birthday Morning:

Carter lives for pancakes.  He asks for them for every meal.  And he always requests different shapes.  For birthday morning he got balloon pancakes with frosting for the strings.  He loved them.

Then he had to wait the long long 3 hours until his family party started.

We started of course with presents.  Once again he got so many fun things.  This is a car holder, turned play mat for all his cars made by my friend Kristen.  He loved it.

Jackson even remembered to get him a present.

 This was the present I was most excited about giving to him.  A gas pump.  He can now fill up all his toys that need gas, and even some that don't typically take gas.  He fills up his Cozy Coupe car, lawn mower, bike tires, etc.

 He requested the exact same cake from last year.  No amount of persuading would change his mind.  And I really didn't mind because it was an easy cake to make.

 I was so glad to have our whole little family together on his birthday.  Last year Jackson was still in the hospital and I felt the void of not having him home.

Birthday boy gets the first bite of cake and declares it "yummy."  I make a mean, delicious Vegan cake.

Carter's favorite present was the one he saved up his "monies" for and bought himself.  He gets a dollar occasionally for doing his chores and he saved that and his birthday money from Great Grandmas and bought himself a GRILL!  He saw this grill at Wal-mart weeks ago and begged us for it daily.  I thought for sure he would forget about it but he did not.

He quickly set it up outside next to Daddy's grill and went to town.  He grills in the afternoon, evening,

and at 8 am in the morning.  In his pajamas.  I'm so glad we let him buy this grill because he has loved having it.

Birthday Boy all worn out after his big day.  Could barely make it to bed before he fell asleep!

4 yr stats:

46 pounds.  45 1/2 inches tall.  The average size of a 6 year old.  We grow em big!  The Dr. said his BMI is a bit under average for his size so he is a tall, skinny boy.

His egg allergy is almost gone.  We go back in August and hope to get good news.

Loves to eat.  He really isn't a picky eater.  He would prefer to eat candy all day long but actually loves a wide variety of food.  To list a few: loves asparagus, green beans, watermelon, canteloupe, pancakes, bread, 

The night before his birthday we asked him what he wanted for his birthday dinner and without even thinking he replied "Steak."  That boy loves steak.  He has expensive tastes.

Still has many "jobs" he goes to daily.  We had someone over last week installing tile and he wanted to talk his ear off and told him all about his many jobs and how he "makes big monies."

Is constantly asking questions, specifically WHY, a million times a day.  The pediatrician assured us this was very normal and to always answer his questions.  But seriously, there are only so many times we can answer the same question in a span of 10 minutes.  There are times in the car especially that no one is allowed to talk for 5 minutes!

Carter is very dramatic.  He has started in with the whole "Then I guess I won't be your friend anymore."  He says this to me after he doesn't get something he wants.

This kid can ride a bike like nobody's business.  He wants to take bike rides 10 times a day.  He is so good on his 2 wheel bike and even likes to go off curbs.  He does make me really nervous though as he will often forget to look in front of him as he rides.  It always reminds me of "Dumb and Dumber" where he turns around while driving and tells the lady "statistically, you're more likely to die on the way to the airport..."

He is already planning his 5th birthday.  He starts pre-school in the fall.  He refuses to sit down and practice writing his name.  He knows how, and he can, but refuses.  He's not really into writing or coloring.  Oh well, that's what the preschool teacher is for right?

Happy Birthday Carter.  You are our favorite 4 year old and you melt our hearts each day.  We are so glad you are in our family.

Pictures

With both boys' birthdays coming up I decided professional pictures were in order.  I prepped very carefully for this day.  Plenty of naps that day, plenty of food, and plenty of bribes.  And wouldn't you know that both boys starting crying/whining the minute the camera came out?  Carter was his typical "I hate pictures self" but Jackson was a whole new person.  He cried the second I put him down and wanted to be held constantly.  He had big fat tears running down his cheeks almost the entire hour.  How Melissa managed to capture some half smiles I will never know.  Even though Jax isn't giving his biggest smiles, he is still cute.  And Carter managed to throw some smiles in as well.  In between the sobbing of each and every balloon popping in a span of about 7 minutes.  

 She told him to stand with his hands in his pockets.....

There we go.  Found the right pockets.

Finally a genuine smile.

He is so addicted to this monkey/binkie that it's not even funny.

Happy Birthday

We had quite the celebrations for Jackson for his first birthday.  We had 3 separate parties for him with different people and on different days.

We started out the weekend before his birthday with my parents.  Jackson wasn't too in to opening presents but he did love what was inside them.  

 Carter was thrilled to be the designated present opener.  He took his job VERY seriously and didn't waste any time.

He got a talking birthday cake and birthday book from my parents.  He loves them.  And so does Carter.  Carter reminds me daily that "It's good to share huh Mom?"  Meaning, I will play with these toys whenever I want because I am the older brother.

 He's only torn one of the pop-up flaps off so far.  Pretty good for a one year old

 We started our his official birthday, Thursday with a rousing round of Happy Birthday and his Home Health Nurse Missy brought him a darling bouquet of balloons.  Which Carter promptly took over as well!

We celebrated at lunch time as well with some hot dogs and beans.  Jackson ate an entire hot dog all by himself.

Since Jackson cannot have birthday cake, or anything sweet even, I decided to not focus his Birthday celebration that night around cake.  Our little family decided to hit up our favorite restaurant, Wendy's to celebrate.  And by "our" favorite I mean Carter and Jax's favorite!  They have a great allergy friendly menu for my 2 boys so we went there for a birthday dinner.

Jackson put away an entire hamburger patty and several of Carter's fries, much to his chagrin.  But remember, it's good to share!

 Me and my 2 boys worn out from all our celebrating!

Saturday morning brought Jax's big birthday party.

Carter was so excited to help me in the kitchen.  He insisted on wearing his apron like me.  His "helping" consisted of swiping his finger in the frosting so I had to redo the frosting.  

Neil and I didn't plan to wear matching shirts on this day but it kind of happened.  

 I didn't get a shot of everyone attending but we had so many family members come to support and show their love to Jackson during the 2 parties.  Above is Aunt Linsey and Grandpa E.

And our HH Nurse Missy again who is a part of our family.  We love her and so does Jackson.

My favorite part of the party was the game Neil and I LOVINGLY invented.  Maybe we'll play it each and every year.  It was "Pin the ostomy bag on the baby."  In case you forgot, Jackson had an ostomy for the first 3.5 months of his life.  I became quite the pro at changing those things(not to toot my own horn, but I was DANG good.)  Those ostomy bags were a source of many, many tears and frustration in our house.  I HATED THEM with a passion.  The basic idea of an ostomy bag is to take off the sticker and it just sticks and you go on your merry way.  False.  You can change them up to 14 times in a day.  And yes I counted.  

A couple months ago I was clearing out supplies that we no longer needed and I came across several boxes of bags.  My first reaction was "Oh these bags are soo cute and little."  Obviously I had forgotten about the torture they brought to our house.  Now I just view them as a great thing.

 Each person got a bag and had to pin it on the baby.  And apparently ostomy bags stick a lot better to cardboard babies than real babies.  Go figure.  Here is Tyler giving it a shot.

 And Grandpa got a turn

And in true Carter character he threw a fit about doing it and had to be bribed.  And refused to wear the bandana over his eyes.  So he just did it with his eyes closed(kind of!)

And big shocker........I won with the bag closest to the ostomy(red dot).  I didn't even have a prize for the winner.  If I had known I would win, I would have made sure it was a fantastic gift!

Then on to presents where once again Carter helped.  Jackson didn't care about the wrapping paper like I thought he would but loved the little things inside.

 Thanks to everyone who came and brought gifts and helped us celebrate our wonderful little boy.  We couldn't have made it through this year without the support and help from our wonderful families and friends.

Then on to the best part of the party.  The food.  The theme was "The Very Hungry Caterpillar" because Jax really is a hungry little guy and like the caterpillar, his life revolves somewhat about food.

 I got all my ideas from the internet but none of them turned out as perfect and cute as the internet pictures.  Craftiness and cuteness is not my forte!

Our rainbow fruit dish.  The color green is missing because grapes were like 4$ a pound and I didn't want to pay that much!

Caterpillar cupcakes

Caterpillar sandwiches.

Our Happy Little Family.

I was a little bummed that Jax didn't get to experience cake that normal babies but I tried not to dwell on that.  And luckily he didn't mind.

Even when Catherine ate her cupcake in front of him.  Kidding

 Brothers sharing a new gift.  Who knew gifts aimed towards a one year old would entertain Carter so much as well.  This stand came with a phone and Carter is addicted to phones lately so he quickly took that over and started in on his long distance calling.

Happy Birthday to my sweet baby.  We are so proud of everything you have accomplished in your 1 year of life.  You are so strong, so brave, and so amazing in every way.  I am in awe of your patience and resilience.  

I think Elder Rasband quoted it perfectly in April's conference:

“A perfect body is not required to achieve a divine destiny. In fact, some of the sweetest spirits are housed in frail frames. …"

Here's to many, many more birthday parties!