5!

I think 5 might be the most exciting birthday ever.  Nate has been looking forward to turning 5 and has been counting down the days for as long as I can remember.  I don't think he was disappointed and is happy to tell anyone who will listen that he is 5 now.  I love my sweet Nate boy and I am so happy that he is mine.  He and I are good pals.

 He chose Lucky Charms for his birthday cereal and didn't let me forget that he needed to drink from the birthday cup.

 He got to pick out his own balloons and requested lots of mustache balloons.  I am a bit sad that he isn't an exclusive green lover anymore.  He still loves it, but he also loves all the colors of the rainbow and especially blue.

 He requested a worm cake again and wanted to be able to see the worms that were in the dirt.  So, I borrowed a trifle bowl and even though you can't really see them, there are lots of worms floating in the mud layer.  He also requested green grass at the top.
Just in case you were wondering, congealed worms are really gross in a cake that has a layer of pudding.  As soon as I put on the second layer, I remembered that the worms seem to melt and then taint the flavor of the rest of the cake (experience from the last worm cake).  I just didn't remember it when it was early enough to do anything about it.  I guess you live and you learn...and then you have a lot of gross left over cake.

 Nate wanted to go bowling for his birthday.  Grandma came up and brought our cousin with her.  She also took Nate shopping and he picked out a Star Wars Lego set with her.  He is really excited to put it together with Jake.

 We really do love each other...

 He's actually a really good bowler for a 5 year old.

 Jake got some bowling lessons from Grandma...

After bowling, it was time for cake and gifts.  He ended up with some fun ones.  It was hard to narrow things down because he wanted so many things.  He ended up with a scooter, a race car track ,(my sister in law told us to get this blue track and it is a total hit!), some cars, Lego's, a Chewy for his xbox game with Jake, and a little hovering green thing that Mike picked out.  He was so happy with everything.  It's fun to give him things because he is so happy and so grateful for everything.  Like I said, I love this boy.

I am a bit bummed that he just keeps getting older, but I know it's bound to happen, so I am embracing it.  He still says cute things like "I love you for 19, 40, 60, 78 months."  He is the king of negotiation and he doesn't take no for an answer, so he wears me down after a while.  It's easier to agree to his demands than to argue with him for 3 hours.  I really do think he's a pretty smart kid and he listens intently and remembers things.  He will think about something I have said a long time ago and then ask me about it after he has formed his conclusions.  He really likes reading the books that we have about the Book of Mormon and he has a fascination with the Lamanites.  It's interesting to hear the questions he asks me days after we have read one of the stories.
He really looks forward to having a family of his own and being a dad to his kids.  He talks about his future wife and says it's going to be a girl in our ward named Sophie because she is nice to him and she wears pretty dresses to church.
Nate loves to ride his strider bike around the neighborhood and he loves to get a treat from the next door neighbors.  He tells me he hasn't had his "second" treat if he still has a sweet tooth after he has already had one treat.
He likes when it's nap time for Jason, and he reminds us all about it after lunch because he wants to play the wii.  He is really into Jake's Transformers game right now.
He likes to sit in the same spot at the table and gets really upset if Jason tries to sit at his spot.  He likes tomato soup and grilled cheese and would eat it every day if I let him.  He makes excuses about eating nearly everything else.  The cereal is too crunchy...then too soggy...then not enough milk...then too much milk...it goes on and on, until his treat is threatened, then he'll gag it down.  He eats several apples a day and thinks he's pretty hot stuff because he can get one out of the fruit basket, or down in the cold storage room, all by himself.
He loves going to preschool and loves his little friends.  We spend the whole way there arguing about whether or not he can have gum (he thinks he can chew gum at school, and I don't think he can), and the whole way back arguing about going over to his friend's house.  I really wish he had a little friend to play with around here...besides Jason.  He lives for friends.
We registered for kindergarten the day before his birthday and he rattled off his alphabet and numbers  like it was nothing.  He does need to work on writing a bit.  If there were tests on his gaming abilities, he'd pass with flying colors...bad mom here.
Anyway, I could go on and on about the boy, but I'll just end with saying that I love him.  I remember how hard he was as a baby, and how he tried his hardest to stress me out as he tasted every "pozen" (poison) he could lay hands on and escape every place we went.  He has a mind of his own and he knows what he wants.  Things are so much easier now though.  He wants to make me happy and he loves doing what is right.  He has a soft heart and really doesn't like getting into trouble, so he doesn't do it all that often.
I am just so grateful for the boy and for all he is to me.
Love you Nathan Joe!