A Four-Year-Old and his Construction Cake

 What can I say about this small boy child?  He delighteth in heavy machinery.

So when he turned 4 in late June, planning his birthday cake was a cinch. 

I'm not sure I've ever had more fun decorating a cake!  Everything came together in the perfect creative storm.  I think I stopped to ooh and ahh more than I actually decorated. 

My sister in law found a multi-pack of brand-spankin-new John Deere toys at Tractor Supply.  I cleaned up Jack's sheep's foot packer, and we borrowed Grandma's excavator.

 

First, I outlined the number four using a straight edge.  Then I laid the crushed Oreo road.  The powdery sand is nothing more than smashed pretzels.  Cocoa Puffs made small boulders.  We couldn't find plastic traffic cones, so I whipped out a paring knife and a carrot.  So much fun!

My real challenge involved my *ahem* pride.  I wanted the cake to look perfect for our party guests, but sonny boy couldn't keep his hands off of it.  Oreo crumbs were spilling onto the table and floor, the road grader was not remaining in its neat and tidy place, and my nerves were fraying.  After a long moment, during which I realized that his little boy days are going fast, I decided it was OK to let the birthday kid play with his cake.  After all, he probably won't still be fascinated by silly things like cake by the time he is 12.  Better grab his heart while the grabbing is still easy!

Happy Birthday long past, Jack!

Visualize Yourself Clean

Jack is on a roll lately, at his ripe age of 3.  I made fresh pasta yesterday, and he wanted to help me pull it off the drying rack.  He had been playing with his tractors outside in the dirt.

"Jack, are your hands clean?"
"Yes."
"Did you wash them?"
"No."
"Then how do you know they are clean?"
"Because I want them to be!"

 

Jack and the Monster Combine

Life is flying along, and all the kids are growing.  It's great to see them gradually, although reluctantly on their parts, becoming more responsible.  They are reaching new privileges.  But it's bittersweet to see them sprouting up and outgrowing their clothes.  I just sold a bunch of Helen's old outfits on a yard sale, and the memories!  I'm a sentimental sap for sure.

I even had to part with some of Henry's tiny baby things!  The little guy is out of the newborn stage, and at his 2-month well-baby check up today weighed 11 pounds, 11 ounces.  He's still not totally excited about the Bumbo seat.  It's a good thing he's oblivious to the fact that it's purple, or he would really hate it.  It's also a good thing his daddy is color blind. 

Jack hit a first lately--his first purchase!  He was with Jason at Hendrix Tractor Supply, and his eyes caught a...MONSTER COMBINE!!!!!  (Written in my most awe-inspired tone.)  Since Jack couldn't forget about the toy, Jason called the dealership and got a price on it.  They mistakenly gave a price that was out of the range of Jack's piggy bank, but Jack was determined to do some work to earn the difference.  He was even asking me for chores!

Jason double-checked the toy the next time he was in the store for farm business, and saw the mistake which was grossly in Jack's favor.  At the next opportunity, he took Jack and his money into Hendrix, and returned with one little pleased customer.

Jack is still convinced that everyone on the face of the earth is extremely interested in his monster combine.  He will boldly inform anyone who will listen of his fine purchase.  He also has a realistic fear that it might get broken by rough play, and so, without much tact, will warn some people that he doesn't want them to have it because he doesn't want the auger to break.

His baby brother is still a safe admirer, and so he took some time to demonstrate its capabilities to him.

Mending: Boy's T-Shirt Edition

I love my sonny boy Jack.  But that child is sneaky and independent, and he currently has a li'l listening problem, manifested by the inability to hear and follow specific commands.  Whisper, "Daddy wants to take you for a tractor ride," and I'm quite sure he would come running from the farthest corner of the house.  He has been sleeping with Jason's Fastline magazine for the past few nights, and can name almost all the farm equipment in it.  He is such a boy, and I love him head to squeezy buns to toes. 

A few things we commonly hear from him (3 1/2):
(wailing) "I missed some parts!!!" when he is stuck in his crib and the others are watching TV.
"I meeda go potty."
"Fank-you Jesus for dirt."
"Owen/Heh-wyn, you're MEAN!" (translated--"You're not letting me have my way.")

And one trademark morning call he is outgrowing:
"Mommy/Daddy, I'n ah-WAY-yake!!!!!  I'n ready for BREAKdust!!!"

I stenciled another shirt for him, because I want to do all I can to capture his heart while he is still my baby.  He wasn't completely happy with the shirt, which puzzled me until I realized all his heavy equipment toys are made by John Deere.  He was especially foul when another kid called him "Cat." We told him the other boy was just reading his shirt, but he took it as an offense, and probably has filed a grudge anyway. Oh well. 

 

He is enrolled in Atmore's HIPPY program for 3 year olds, and when our instructor came at the beginning of the school year to give me his supplies and his first week of lessons, he immediately opened his school box and grabbed his! very! own! scissors!  My mom alarm clanged to red alert, and I warned him a few times to be very careful and not cut anything, as did the instructor, but I was too polite to get up and remove them from his wiggly fingers.  Two seconds later, he had a hole in his brand new Target clearance rack t-shirt.  Growl.

This irritated woman put the shirt on her mending pile and went about her business as usual for four months before thinking of and completing a five-minute solution. 

Our prayers for this kid, aside from physical protection and all, is that he would set his heart on God, and put his independence to good use, refusing to blindly submit to influential peers, authorities and ideas that don't reflect truth.  In the meantime, we're working with his "hearing issues," and keeping our sense of humor about him.

Start the Bathwater

There are few things that grab me more than Jack-Jack and his dirt-lovin' heart.  He has a good habit of quietly playing on his own for long periods of time.  He also has a bad habit of silently wandering.  When we're not sure where he is, we have a standard first place to look:  beside the outside air conditioning unit where the mulch put down many years ago has finally disintegrated.

This fine substitute for a sand box isn't so nice for Mama after a rain, though.

One thing is certain--this little man earns his naps.

Jack and the Birthday

Whoa Nelly! We've been so busy this summer I forgot all about posting pictures from Jack's third birthday--way back in June. That little man has been such a joy for us, and he has also offered his share of challenges. He brings a lot of humor to our family, both the wacky physical feat kind and the complete sentence variety. He had a great year of being 2, and it was hard to let him grow older.

Jack loves cows, second only to roosters. I don't know why. He had been insisting on a brown cow cake for months in advance, and since I had never baked him our family's traditional lamb cake, I thought the two were close enough for a go.Although maybe not. But at least it was eaten quickly. And at least there were plenty of hay bales to distract the naked eye. Poor anatomically incorrect Jersey cow.Daddy gave him a boost for the candle blow-out,and continued to hold him for the obligatory first bite of lamb-cow cake.But cousins are really what make birthday parties fun! As are empty Elmo backpacks borrowed from brothers.

A few recent and/or odd Jack-quotes:

"Good morning, noodles!!!" (running into the kitchen and seeing fresh pasta hanging from a drying rack)

"Old MacDonald's taking a shower." (declarative on the Atmore McDonald's indoor waterwall)

"Mama is a lady...'cause she gives us treats."

(praying) "And Jesus, this is my pedometer I wear when I'm picking up toys. It tells me what to do. That's what it do's. Yeah."

Lately

Abandon yourself to the nap!

Naps are located in the top drawer of my coping toolkit. They are especially useful as we're shooing away the flu virus. (Yes, one faint positive flu swab at the doctor's yesterday.)

Tales from the Fritz Files

Little Fritz-man has finally discovered how to use a chair to his advantage. Chair events have included one in his room to select his preferred shoes of the day, and one by my key cupboard to obtain my truck keys for his own pocket. This means my two-year-old clomps around the house with huge blue crocs on the wrong feet and real keys in his waistband.

This was one day before lunch. He was hungry, and took matters into his own hands. I only know that there had been less than half a bag of chocolate chips left. He had the number down to two when I found him.
It's fun to observe his imagination. One Friday, Owen came home from school with the most obnoxious prize ever--a noisemaker. Jack seized the toy upon its owner's abandonment, and it became Mr. Eddie's airplane, complete with loud sound effects.
Mr. Fritz gets quite silly at bedtime, when sleepiness starts to set in. This particular evening, he found the stickers and the Mr. Potato Head glasses. I confess I put the sticker on his schnoz, but he loved it, and left it until the next morning.

He cried when I removed it. The extraction didn't hurt him; he was just sad to say goodbye.Here he is, back in his culinary perch. Jack is extremely comfortable up on the counter when I am baking. This was a batch of mocha whoopie pies, inspired by my sister-in-law's amazing creation of yester-month. Licking beaters is an amazing event. I usually attempt a sneak-slip into the sink before the kids know what is going on, but this time I folded to his cuteness. It took him a while to glean every morsel, and even then I had to...err...coax him to relax his grip. Jack's other hobbies include unsolicited ketchup and mustard retrieval, starting the VCR and kitty dunking in the bathtub.

Party Party!

One of the things that is so nice about a two year old, or any young child for that matter, is that they don't really understand that a birthday is supposed to be celebrated on a particular day. Since we already had plans for Jack's actual birthday on June 26, we delayed the big celebration until we could throw some more party in the pot. Jason celebrated the big 3-5 on July 1, and since the Fourth fell nicely on a Sunday this year, we invited the family over for a bit of hoopla.

It took Saturday to make the cake, which was again lifted from the pages of Family Fun. Here is the empty barnyard that Helen helped make. I can't resist the nod to my pun-prone inlaws to say it was desserted. You can all throw pie at me now.
Then the animals gathered. Owen helped with the livestock, mostly in the hopes of candy rejects.
Here's my tell: a can of black olives shoring up the rickety structure. You'd think that being a builder's daughter I would know the importance of a good foundation, but I was just following the magazine instructions.
Here are the birthday boys! Jack had already gotten into the chips, and had to be torn away from the bag. Poor deprived child whose mama hardly ever buys chips!

He extinguished the candles on the first puff.He and cousin Allison had the best seats in the garage. Look at their plates. What in the world?! After supper, there was plenty of hang out time before the Poarch Indians' fireworks, which we watched from our house. The kids roamed the soybean field and raided the blueberry bush.David and Jace brought their new potato gun. The younger ones played with their hands over their ears, never knowing when the next potato would be launched. OK, so it was mostly Helen being fearful. In all of my pictures from that evening, she has her hands clenched over those ears. It reminds me of her response to automatic flushing toilets.
Jack opened his loot, and by the end of the day, was quite spoiled. The favorite was the John Deere truck, trailer and tractor. We had a great evening, and I felt quite spoiled when my mother in law and great aunt Lois washed all the dishes. We love our family!

Jack Jack turns 2

2 years! Unbelievable! 2 candles on that pancake! What? The days go slowly around here, but the years travel fast. On his big day, Little Man went out for the traditional birthday breakfast with his daddy. We had a special breakfast-for-lunch in his honor, since we had plans with our Life Group that evening. He nailed the candles on the first and second blows.

He loved his new dump truck that we found at Ross for $8. We loved that too. I made rainbow cupcakes for our Life Group's meal. I snatched the idea right out of the Family Fun magazine. Those cute little cupcakes got clouds of whipped cream just before being served.
We are so thankful for Jack! He makes us laugh. Doesn't that pose make your neck hurt?
More pictures of the actual birthday cake to come. Silly Blogger is acting up.

Jack in Motion

A few months ago, the Flintstones car got parked helter-skelter off the back porch, and several gully-washers later, it toyed with a meterological career change. Its stint as a rain gauge gave Jack an idea.


Hmmm...that was great. Now what else?
...and CUT before you fall out backward and crack your skull open! Bathtime!

*Sigh*

Truly, there is a hum of pregnant silence, randomly punctuated with the occasional tink and crackle of an object hitting the floor and soft baby grunts of concentrated effort. I now know the sound of a new bottle of canola oil thudding onto hardwood and the whisper-soft flutter of toilet paper being unfettered into the toilet.
This dude is a climber, too. Scary thought, that. Besides joining his toys in the drawer, he climbs onto the back of the couch and crawls back and forth. He climbs into the window seat. He even climbs in and out of his walker. He tried out a trip down the stairs while in his walker. Yes, really scary!
And he recharges soundly.

Some of the words he is saying:

STUCK!!!! I'm stuck!! I'm still stuck!!!!!
Dishstuck!! (This is stuck.)
bath
Dada
Mama
Bompaw (Grandpa)
WHOA!!! Yook DIS!!
tractor (can't remember the pronunciation)
Mawball (Meatball, the cat)
Ah, ah, ah, ah, chaw (fake sneeze)
eat
I did it!