Corban is 5!

Corban had his 5th birthday on the second day of school.  He was so excited about turning 5.  I feel like he's been talking about his birthday since May and thinking of all of the things that he wanted us to buy him (some of the big, fancy Lego sets were not the most realistic suggestions, but I'm glad that he loves Legos so much).

He's normally not one to care much about clothes (unless it's his favorite green Ninjago shirt), but I bought him this shirt on clearance for $2.50 and he loved it.  He wore it to school on his birthday, to bed that night, and then to his party the next day (it may have had some food on it that I had to spot clean off before his party, but it's his birthday so he can wear the birthday shirt to all the things if that's what he wants to do).

I think that it's funny that if you were to ask me what Corban is specifically into over the past couple months I would have to say Lego Ninjago and Winnie the Pooh.  Two very unrelated things.  He spent most "rest times" in the summer listening to audio versions of the A.A. Milne books and if he could pick a show to watch it would certainly be Ninjago.  He also loves any Lego toy, Star Wars, Super Heros, swinging, swimming, being a cat, and snuggling and reading books too.

Pooh characters!  They certainly came to the pool with us to play

I went to his classroom and brought cupcakes at the end of the day on his birthday.  He had this little crown and had gotten to pick a prize from the birthday box (the little stuffed seal).  His class sang to him in English and then Chinese, but for some reason he plugged his ears for the second one.

When we got home we opened presents, ordered pizza, and just relaxed at home.  Those first two days of school were exhausting for everyone.

Always happy about new Legos, especially Black Panther ones

We got him a set of 4 Winnie the Pooh stuffed animals.  He immediately gave one to each of us and said that he wanted us to sleep with it and keep it.  Eeyore is on my nightstand.  Piglet is on Taylor's.  Gabriel has been sleeping with Tigger.  And Corban even put Pooh in his sack a couple times.  Stuffed animals don't usually get that honor

I asked him what treat he wanted on his birthday night and he said "brownies" (since we had cupcakes at school).  I got the ones that you stir up individually and cook in the microwave.  They then decorated with frosting and sprinkles.  They thought it was fun

The day after his birthday (Saturday) we had a party at the park.  We went to one of their favorite parks, Nellie's Cave.  I like that one too because the playing area is contained so you can see everyone, the pavilion is really big, and there are short hiking trails that run back behind. Three families came besides us, all of which were groups of boys around Gabriel and Corban's ages.  True to Corban's birthday tradition there was rain involved.  It rained in the morning before the party so we brought towels and dried of the equipment.  When we had been there for about 45 minutes there was a serious downpour while we were walking on a trail behind the park so we all ran back to the pavilion and ate snacks and had cupcakes.  Everyone there was very easygoing and didn't mind the wet and we had a nice time just hanging out, talking, and playing.  While is was raining Gabriel got some of the kids to play "waiter" with him and they were bringing people snacks and drinks.

Boys making their own fun while it rained

Daddy made the frosting and decorated the cupcakes.  Corban was insistent on carrot cake and it sure was good

It took him a really long time to blow out those candles (especially when the wind blew and re-lit a couple), but he was determined to do it himself

Putting together new Lego sets

Using his new umbrella on a Barnes and Noble date to get his free "birthday cookie"

It was kinda cold in there.  Mommy shared her sweatshirt

 So, even with a crazy week with starting school in the middle of a pandemic I think that Corban would say that he had a pretty great 5th birthday!

Winding Down Summer

At a friend's birthday party

The summer came and went.  Some days it seemed to be going by really quickly.  Other days not so much.  We managed to have a lot of fun doing "ordinary" things though if you ask me.  The boys went to parks, the library, we made reservations at the pool (and by doing that got half the pool to ourselves for an hour), went to the children's museum a couple times, played in our backyard Aldi pool a lot of afternoons, had some play dates with friends, went to Super Hero camp and Virginia Techniques, had Ninja class, Gabriel had violin and OT, they hung out with Sara most Wednesdays while I worked, had visits from grandparents, spent a week in Atlanta with cousins, and took a trip to the beach.

Gabriel wanted to plant some beans and flowers (marigolds).  He also planted a sunflower at the end of the school year which grew to be almost as tall as the house.  The top is now drying in the garage so that we can hopefully plant the seeds next summer.

See saw after playing in the backyard pool

Brother reading time.  Gabriel made it through a lot of books this summer.  The Alvin Ho series, several Rahl Dahl books, and a couple mystery books were favorites.  Last week he started reading a Hardy Boys book.  Taylor also read both boys all of the Narnia books over the summer, so that was Corban's first time hearing all of those.

I worked on the 4th of July, but when I got off the guys met me at work.  We walked downtown and got some ice cream and then watched fireworks on the car at the top of the parking deck by work.

The week after the 4th of July Taylor was supposed to be at a youth camp (which was cancelled).  I had already taken the week off of work and had planned to take the boys to Atlanta, so we went ahead and did that.  I wasn't sure how the drive would go and what would be open, so we packed food and stopped at rest stops for bathroom breaks.  We had a good week playing with cousins and seeing grandparents. 

Rest stop lunch.  It's the little things.  The boys were so excited that I packed Fanta, ginger ale, and root beer to drink along the drive.

Gabriel and his cousin, Lizzie.  He sure loves babies.

Roasting marshmallows with cousins

Knocked out tired at Gammer and Pop Pop's house the day before we came home

Vacation is exhausting

While we were gone Taylor's dad came up and helped Taylor start pulling up our old stretched and dingy carpet and put in new floors.  We love it.

Dinner date with Daddy

Looking at stars and planets

One great thing about being the youth pastor's kid is that a lot of younger people at church know you and love you.  A sad thing is when these lovely young people go off to college.  Some years there are more "goodbyes" than others.  This year we saw Sarah N (above) go off to college.  Sara Q, who watched the boys one day a week all summer also graduated from high school. She is going to school nearby so thankfully we will still see her some.

And then there was the beach.  We had gone to the beach twice since the boys were born, both times with RUF for their summer conference.  The first time Gabriel was 2 and the next time Gabriel was 3 and Corban was 9 months old.  Gabriel had said for a couple years that he wanted to go to the beach, but since we're not really "beach people" that hadn't happened.  When our spring break trip got cancelled and we were looking at an uncertain summer I really wanted a fun trip.

We rented a condo right on the water (on the 9th/top floor of a smaller condo building).  We brought all of our food and beach things and basically stayed in the condo or on the beach for the entire 5 days.  We were worried a couple days before we left as a hurricane was set to land right where we stayed, but thankfully the condo owner let us come a day later to miss the storm and we ended up having great weather.

We basically ate, played games, played at the beach, and watched movies.  Corban especially loved the water and wanted to put on the life jacket and "body surf."  The bigger the waves the better as far as he was concerned.  He only got mildly angry and upset the times that he totally got wiped out by a wave.

Gabriel loved the water too and liked trying the boogie board that the owner had in her closet of beach things.  More than that though he liked digging in the sand, looking for shells, and playing in the smaller pools of water.  We played catch and frisbee.  On the last morning there we took a walk on the beach and he watched crabs run and found a really big crab leg.

Trying to follow behind and literally walk in Daddy's footsteps

One day when he was tired he said "Mommy can we just sit down and hold hands for a while?"

One of their favorite things for sure was their bedroom.  They had a bunk bed in a room painted to look like they were under the water.  There were sea creatures and plants on the walls and what looked like the bottom of a boat on the ceiling. The absolute best thing was the fact that there was a TV in there and that we put the Roku in there and let them watch Disney+ and Ninjago.  The boys have both said at different times that when they grow up they hope that they can have a TV in their bedroom.  They got their wish for a few days.

Snow cones at a place that recently opened near our house

Awesome pillow case from Aunt Tracy

After we got back from the beach it was just a little less than 2 weeks before school started.  Gabriel could not wait to start 2nd grade.  When I took him to his orientation time he just jumped right back into playing with his friends.  As he was officially diagnosed with ADHD the week before, I met with his teacher the day before school started and discussed some things.  We are trying different strategies this year as far as helping him get ready for school on time, organizing his homework time, and giving him some options at school when he needs some time alone to get re-focused.  One week in and we're doing pretty well.  I have mixed feelings about a "diagnosis".  It's helpful in the sense that I've read some things lately that really give some good strategies and seem to really be describing things that he struggles with as well as things that he's really exceptional at doing.  I have a hard time knowing what to think in the sense that before I had kids I honestly didn't think that ADHD was a real thing.  I thought it was what we labeled kids with who ate to much sugar, never slept enough, and didn't have discipline at home.  I see now that his brain is working very hard a lot of the time and that he needs help filtering and managing his thoughts and emotions.  I understand better what he meant when he said in kindergarten that there were chickens trying to peck out of his brain and horses running loudly in his thoughts.  I am starting to understand how hard he has to try to focus and be still when he needs to do that.  He started with his new OT a couple weeks ago and I'm glad to know that we have a direction and some general things that we are trying to shift as we give him more control over making choices that will help him succeed.

And then there is this kindergartner.  How did he get so big.  He has had mixed feelings about starting school.  When I took him to his orientation time he originally said "you can wait in the hallway.  I want to pretend it's the first day of school."  When we got near his room he would not let go of me and said "I changed my mind.  Don't leave me."  On the first day he was crying in his bedroom asking not to go to school, but when we were walking down the hall to class he said "I forgot that we get new Play-Doh!  This is going to be the best day ever!" There have been a couple mornings in the past week when he has said that he wants to stay home.  That being said though, he likes his classroom, his teacher, and the class turtle.  When he got home the first day he said that "it was awesome!"  Corban likes his space and his periods of quiet through the day, so the constant interaction and socialization is really been tiring him out this past week.  He really likes seeing Gabriel at recess and he really liked it when both Taylor and I came to help with lunch on different days.  I think that he will really enjoy this school year, but I have to say that I miss my snugging, silly, kitty cat boy being home with me.  And now a post about his 5th birthday. . .

He told Mrs Myer "I'm not mad in this picture.  I'm just making a face."