Beaver Boy

We had a birthday party with Beaver's friends on Saturday.  Almost all of his friends in the neighborhood right now are girls, and some of them are actually a year or two younger than him, so the party was kind of crazy.  We started with a treasure hunt, but only Beaver and two of his friends actually had the attention span to stick with it.  Once they found the treasure, which was the goody bags they were meant to take home, they all wanted to open them right away and eat the treat inside, so I let them.  Then they wanted to blow the bubbles, which were also meant to go home.  It was a nice day, at least, so we went in the backyard and blew bubbles.  By now I had given up on my party plan, so we tried a game of red light/green light, with Bear as the light, but some of the littler ones didn't get it and got upset when they were sent back.  Then we tried Simon Says.  Beaver was being Simon and he cracked us up by announcing at one point: "Now, next I'm not going to say 'Simon says', and then when you do the thing, I'll say (shaking his finger at them), 'Simon didn't saaaaaayyy!"

So, the party didn't really turn out like I planned, but Beaver still had fun, and some of the parents stayed to hang out with us, so we had fun, too.  Somehow I didn't take any pictures.  At the end of the party, Bear made balloon dogs for all the kids, and I really wish I would have taken a picture of that, at least.  We had gotten some of the long, skinny balloons that you can twist into shapes and he had been making dozens of balloon dogs all week, practicing.  I did take a picture of the cake.  The party didn't have a theme, but Beaver likes monster trucks, so I made him a monster truck cake, just for fun.  He had requested a chocolate and vanilla cake, so I made a zebra striped chocolate/vanilla cake that I found on pinterest, but it turned out what he actually wanted was two cakes - one chocolate and one vanilla.  He actually ate it, though.  I had been busy getting ready for the party and sort of forgot to feed him lunch, so he was hungry!

Oh, my baby boy, how can you be five years old?  Beaver is sweet, stubborn, and sensitive.  He can melt my heart and make we want to pull out my hair.  He still loves TV, kind of to the point of obsession.  This morning I went in his room to wake him and the first sleepy, mumbled words out of his mouth were, "Is it Friday?" because Friday is the only day I allow any screen time after school.  If he can get TV out of his head, he has a wonderful imagination and I love to listen to the stories and conversations going on when he gets involved in a game with his playmobil figures, legos, or cars.  He loves to play with friends or his brother, and to wrestle with daddy.  He still can't wrestle me, he always ends up sucking his thumb and snuggling instead.  Remember when I decided to end the thumb sucking habit a few months back?  Yeah, that didn't work.  Lately he uses the word "really" a lot.  As in, "And really, Mommy, when can I watch some TV?"  Or, at 3:00am this morning, "Really, Mommy, I just want you to snuggle with me for a few minutes."  People usually think he is shy and quiet, but we know better!  So do the missionaries and young men in our branch that he manages to engage in combat every Sunday after church.  He likes to put on "shows" - magic shows or funny shows - and bow and say "Thank you very much!  We hope you enjoyed the show!" when it is over.  

Here's an example of his bow:

We feel so happy and blessed to have this boy in our family!