Turning Five, Part Two

(Part 1 is here. Part 1.5 is here.)  :)

At long last, I'm ready to finish the account of Tobin's fifth birthday.  If I sneak this in under the wire tonight, it will make it into Tobin's birth month at least!  :)

First, let me say that I always cringe a little when I take--and later, when I see--pictures from our birthday celebrations.  They always seem to occur at night, so rather than nature's beautiful light, we get man-made light which is not nearly as attractive...and usually the boys are so excited that they're hopping around (which is a good thing), but that makes for blurry pictures...and the table is messy and cluttered from the supper we've just eaten (or, for some of us who are slow eaters, are still in the process of eating).  But, even if these moments are not exactly picture-perfect, they are precious; and there's no way in the world I would be content without making an attempt to record these celebrations!  So, I cringe, but I take the pictures anyway.  :)

Second, for memory's sake, I'll list what we gave Tobin for his big day:
~ a pair of spinning toys that are supposed to fly up in the air when you pull the string (which, sadly, broke immediately),  :(
~ a Cars (the movie) set of pencils/little notebooks/eraser/pencil sharpener/folder, etc.
~ a big set of perler beads and some new pegboards (Tobin really enjoys making designs with these; he shows amazing patience for a new five-year-old as he does such intricate work!)
~ a Curious George sticker and coloring book
~ a Star Wars watch
~ an I Spy puzzle
~ a Spiderman musical card (the boys LOVE those musical cards!).

Grandma Fisher sent him some money, and my parents gave him the new VeggieTales movie, The League of Incredible Vegetables (suggested by me because I knew how much that gift would delight him).  ;-)

Third, some pictures...  :)

 David was so excited by all of this that he wanted to be right there in the thick of it, too.  Tobin didn't seem to mind; and honestly, I think it's so neat how the brothers love to share each other's joy.

 The brothers on the other side of the table had to stand up (Shav is standing on his booster seat) to see the gifts.  :)

 Josiah and David were so surprised that Grandma and Grandpa gave this movie to Tobin.  Here Josiah is turning to Grandpa to say something like, "How did you know about that movie??"  ;-)

 Josiah was reading Grandma & Grandpa's card to Tobin.

Then it was time for cake...

 ...the yummy chocolate cake that Tobin helped me make during the afternoon of his birthday.

 Not only did he help me make it, he also took charge of the decorating, putting on plastic trees and gummy dinosaurs until he was satisfied with how it looked.  :)

Then he blew out the candle, and we happily ate the cake.  Yum.  :)

**********

Birthdays always make me extra reflective, and I like to spend a little time trying to capture in words just who these little people are when their big days roll around.  I remember when David was around five years old, I would sometimes just look at him and think, "Who are you?  What goes on inside your head?  What makes you tick?  What is your place, your role in this family?  Who are you???"  :)  Recently I've done that with Tobin, and here are a few things I've noticed--some silly, some more significant.

Tobin has a habit of adding a syllable to words whenever he can.  Apparently his philosophy is, "If a one-syllable word is good, a two-syllable one must be better!"  So "hill" turns into "he-ill," "jumped" is pronounced as two distinct syllables "jump-ed," etc.  This happens A LOT when he says a plural word:
coughs = cough-es
puffs = puff-es
forks = fork-es
knives = knife-es
He sounds at times like he stepped straight out of the pages of the King James Bible or a play of Shakespeare's!!  :)

He has other words that he mispronounces, and so far I haven't made a big effort to correct him.  Maybe because I think it's cute?  :)  Maybe because I realize that most likely, he'll outgrow these words.  I wish I could remember more of them, but one that pops into my head right away is how he says potatoes.  It's "topatoes."  :)

Here's one that he used to say but doesn't anymore, but the memory of it makes me smile.  "What day is it outside?"  I quickly figured out that when he asked that, he was simply trying to figure out what day it was; but he didn't realize that inside or outside made no difference.  It was the same day either way!  :)

Another thing he used to say:  "Watch me the whole time!"  That one often convicted me because I realized that he could tell immediately when my attention drifted away from him when he was trying to show me something.  Ouch!

A phrase that he still says sometimes--and I've even noticed Shav saying it, too--is "or whatever."  He'll tack that onto the end of all kinds of sentences, and the thing is, I know where he got it from.  From me.  I wish he only imitated my good habits, but no, it doesn't work that way, does it?  :)

He still calls Shav "Shod" and tries to be Shav's leader almost all the time.  On the one hand, Tobin actually does a really good job of looking out for Shav, even helping him sometimes before I ask him to.  On the other hand, I do intervene sometimes so that Shav can make up his own mind about things and not feel like he always has to follow in Tobin's footsteps or do what Tobin tells him to do.  :)

Tobin is gifted with a naturally loud voice.  I'm not sure if that means he'll be a preacher or an opera singer or what.  :)  But he certainly knows how to make himself heard.  I remember that, when he was just a little guy and got excited, he would erupt with a loud "YAY!"  He still manages to surprise me from time to time with his loud exclamations.  :)

During the year he was four, I noticed that he had far fewer tantrums than he had during his toddler years.  Back in those days, he would actually rebel against a choice that I knew he really liked!  (i. e. "Tobin, do you want some peach juice?"  "NO, I don't!!")  That's how keen he was on asserting his independence. Nowadays, that independent streak has calmed slightly; but I tell ya, sometimes I still find myself expecting him to come back with an argument against whatever I happened to just say.  When I hear him calmly and happily say, "OK," instead of arguing, I rejoice and marvel at his maturity.  :)

One thing I definitely did with Tobin was to give him a choice when he was grumpy.  For example, "Tobin, do you want to brush your teeth or get your pajamas on first?"  Since it seemed like he really craved a feeling of control, I figured that giving him a choice of two options, knowing that I was happy with either, would help to keep the boat from rocking too much.  :)

Like most (all?) toddlers and preschoolers, Tobin went through a phase of being "Mr. Opposite."  For example, I remember Shav calling Tobin "Tobin" sometimes, and Tobin would say, "No!  Tobin Bear!"  So then Shav would call him "Tobin Bear," but Tobin would exclaim, "No! Tobin!"  *sigh*  Mr. Opposite is not exactly the most rational person one could ever hope to meet.  :)

It used to be that Tobin didn't like rice, but now he eats it fine.  He's still not too excited about raisins and nuts, but he'll eat one or two.  In general, he's a pretty adventurous eater and seems to be inheriting his daddy's tastebuds.  Tobin has been known to share Jeff's never-ending salsa bowl--and that thing is S-P-I-C-Y.  I think Tobin can eat hotter stuff than I can already.  :)  What Tobin REALLY loves to eat, however, is anything that is on somebody else's plate.  And he's not shy about asking you to share something with him if it looks good to him.  :)

Tobin still sucks his thumb.  At one point, quite a while ago, we made an effort to help him to break that habit, but honestly it was a half-hearted effort.  Tobin does have an overbite, and I'm sure that his thumb-sucking has contributed to that.  But then I wonder how much of that he might have had anyway.  Who knows?  When we sort of tried to help him stop, it became obvious pretty quickly that it was not going to be a really easy process, and we looked at each other and said, "The damage to his bite/teeth is most likely done already.  Why push this issue with him right now?  Let's wait a while."  We're still waiting...  :)

Tobin loves to play with his brothers, and he's not afraid to chase them or tackle them or wrestle with them or anything like that.  He doesn't let his smaller size keep him from going after Josiah and David.  Most often Shav joins in, too, and then...  What a commotion as the four of them act like a pack of little lion cubs!  :)

Tobin likes watching movies, he laughs at Scooby Doo, he totally enjoys doing Starfall.com, he asks me if we can please do his school book, he wants to pour the milk by himself, he puts away the plastic dishes from the dishwasher, he LOVES the job of feeding the animals, he wants to take a gymnastics class like David.  He is growing up.  :)  These days he says he wants to be a cowboy when he grows up.  I say he'd be a good one.  He certainly has a deep love for animals.

And not just for animals either.  Tobin is so affectionate with people and hardly lets anyone out of the house without giving them a goodbye hug.  In the evenings when my parents get ready to go down the hill to their house, it's not uncommon for Tobin to call out, "I want to give you a hug!"  And then he'll look around and see where Shav is and make sure that Shav gets to give them a hug, too.  Tonight as I was getting Moriah ready for bed, Tobin said, "Make sure you bring her to me so I can give her a hug before she goes to bed!" :)

Tobin, you are a treasure.  I am immensely grateful for the past five years with you, and I marvel at the person you're becoming.  I'm so glad God let me be your mommy!!!  :)