FIVE!

It's still February. Just about. Which means that technically this post isn't too late. Perhaps.

When I asked Linus this year if he'd like a party he said no. He doesn't really like parties. He would, however, like to have some friends round to play pass the parcel and have birthday cake. It wouldn't be a party though. No.

So that's what we did. In fact, we had 2 um, gatherings on the Saturday before his birthday. The first, in the morning was his school friends, and the second was in the afternoon and was friends and family. We had to invite Grandma, because otherwise she just turns up anyway even if we don't ask her <rolls eyes>

So, invites went out, excitement reached fever pitch, Mummy wanted to run away... but it was great! The 3 boys we had over for the morning not-party were all lovely. They played together beautifully and I ended up wishing we'd made it longer. Linus had a really lovely time. It was really the first "proper" party he has had, where we've been able to invite children he has made friends with all by himself (with no parental intervention!) and I have to say that, on the whole, he has done a very good job of choosing friends.

Linus was very, very lucky and got everything he had written on his birthday list. A playmobil submarine (which can rise and sink, and go along underwater), a giant plastic robot contraption and a Ben10 omnitrix and some other little bits and bobs.

His cake was made to his exact specifications (and those who know him will know just how exact he likes to be!). A number 5, with blue 5's all over it and five blue candles. I think it was ok.

I also want to include some other pictures that weren't taken on his birthday but are very recent, just because they're lovely (and also because we were a bit too busy to take many of his party!)

Guarding his Gogos

The picture you thought you'd never see! This is the child who refuses to eat chocolate biscuits in case his hands get mucky. The one who wouldn't touch sand, or grass with his bare feet... and look at the smile on his face :-)

Christmas 2009

The build-up to Christmas this year has been quite lovely. Linus is well and truly at an age to be rather excitable and interested in the whole thing. He loved his advent calendar, he loved the decorations and lights (oh, it looks soooo beautiful Mummy) and he has spent much time telling me all about Father Christmas (woe betide anyone who refers to him as Santa!).

He very sweetly told me one day that he had decided what to get his brothers for Christmas, a dinosaur for Gabriel because he loves dinosaurs, and a cuddly toy for Asa- an owl, to be specific. So on an afternoon shopping trip we managed to sneak away from Daddy and the other boys and go and buy our gifts, then wrap them once we got home. So cute!!

Linus didn't have a specific Christmas with-list because he apparently likes "everything", so we got him his first proper big boy's bike. He was rather underwhelmed with it when he came down in the morning- or maybe so overwhelmed with the whole thing that it just didn't show? Either way he'd have been happy enough just with his stocking I think.

We toyed with the idea of not putting stabilisers on his bike, and letting him just learn how to ride it, but the general icy-ness outside and his natural catiousness meant that they're on for the moment, but watch this space for proper bike-riding announcements!!

Here he is eating his candy cane, which I ended up with because "I don't really know why it has to be so hard"

Looking a bit worried, but getting the hang of it!

School Nativity

Linus did rather well and didn't embarrass either us or himself today when he featured as 'generic angelic being #34' in the school nativity (for classes R, 1 and 2)

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Starting school

Well, over the last 4.5 years there have been times when i've wished today would come quicker. Over the last few weeks though I've been wishing it would never come. It seems like hardly any time has gone by since I was cradling a tiny little bundle in my arms, and now I can't help but think that I haven't had him to myself for nearly long enough. I have to admit that the thought of home educating the children has flickered through my mind more than once in the last few weeks. There is a strange panicky feeling as your first child starts school, that you just haven't made the most of your time and that there is so much more you want to do with them. Looks like we'll just have to do it in the school holidays now along with everyone else!

But fast-forward to today and Linus was so excited to be going to school. It's the first morning in a long time where I haven't struggled to get him dressed. There was nothing going to stop that boy getting to his school on time, in uniform. We did, of course, stop for the obligatory first day photo shoot before leaving the house. On getting outside Linus announced that he was so excited he was going to run all the way to school. And he did!

We arrived and he went straight in, we found his peg and he asked the teacher where to put his drink. And then he was off, without a backward glance. When hometime came it ws so lovely, at nursery LInus never used to tell us what he'd been up to, but he came out of school absolutely full of it. He dragged me back into the classroom to meet the stick insects, and then talked non-stop about school all the way home. The only bit he didn't like was when he wanted to sit by himself and someone came and talked to him. They apparently knew his name, but he doesn't want to be friends with them because he doesn't know theirs! So Linus!

Hair

This week some good things have happened. And some not so good things.

Good things were mainly pancakes. Vegan pancakes to be precise. Bearing in mind pancakes are usually made mainly from milk and egg this may seem a little bizarre. Trust me though, these are GOOD! It's the thing we have when we get up in the morning and remember that oh yeh, we ate the last of the bread yesterday and oops, that's the last of the milk gone into Bob's tea. Anyway it turns out that Linus can fit a rather amazing amount of pancake in him of a morning. More than Bob even. That's a lot of pancake. I think he may be having a growth spurt because all of a sudden he doesn't wake up until 8am, and he then proceeds to spend most of his day telling me how desperately hungry he is.

The bad thing that happened is that we somehow lost most of Linus's beautiful hair. I decided he might look quite cute with a shorter haircut so I sounded him out and he thought that yes, he might like that. So, off we go to the barber shop. I say "classic boys cut please, shortish round the back and sides and longer on top". Sadly the barber interpreted this as meaning "please make my child look like the average Crawley thug". Actually, I think Linus pulls it off rather well and he looks bizarrely grown up yet also exactly the same as he did when he was a bald baby!