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| Ah, he's nine! |
He wanted a Ninjago party. I'm not much on themes, but we had some candy sushi and ninja frosted cupcakes. The sushi was easy and for once my cake decorating skills were up to the task.
He loves LEGOs. He requested almost nothing else for his birthday or Christmas. Right now, the Ninjago ones are at the top of the list.
He's tall for his age and sometimes seems to tower over his friends.
He reads to the girls nearly every day, especially to First Daughter. I always set aside some books for him to read to her. I think it's adorable and, truthfully, I think he enjoys the books as much as she does.
He asked me last week how old you are when St. Nicholas stops filling your stocking. I told him I thought St. Nicholas fills stockings until you go to college.
He told me last week I could solve all my problems if he had a Nintendo DS. He said he'd just sit on the couch and play all day, not making any trouble at all. Only a boy could think that argument would be persuasive. (Or, rather, it was very persuasive, but in the opposite way it was intended.)
He does not like to go outside. (I understand him completely, preferring to read about going outside myself to actually venturing out of doors.) I often insist he go out for a certain amount of time or that he run around the house a prescribed number of times. Recently, he and First Daughter have been playing some sort of baseball learned mainly from Calvin and Hobbes. I'm just happy he's happily outside.
On his birthday proper, our parish priest came for dinner. It was not exactly part of the festivities; it just worked out to be a good day for him to come. First Son was thrilled and all the children had a wonderful time. We had a chocolate angel food cake with a few more candles. (He had to do some multiplication to get to nine!)
He loved listening to Caddie Woodlawn and Schoolhouse in the Woods. He's reading The Last Battle now. I think we'll move on to the Little House books next. He still doesn't pick up chapter books to read on his own, but he moves through them without problems when I ask so I'm not worried. He can be entirely engrossed in a book and on more than one occasion, I have caught him trying to read while he changes his clothes. He is his mother's son.
We offered him the choice of going to daily Mass and serving or having his pancake-as-big-as-your-head on his birthday. He chose to delay the pancake breakfast for one day so he could serve Mass. He loves to serve. When we sneak into his room to wake him early enough to eat breakfast, he practically leaps out of bed.
For the very first time, he ate the entire pancake in one setting. No one has ever done that before!
He also ate two eggs. (Fried, of course, only fried. He doesn't like his eggs scrambled or in omelets. He will condescend to eat them hard-boiled, but that's tricky with fresh eggs.)
For his birthday, Kansas Dad picked up a real bow and arrow set. Then he came home early from work to take him in the yard for some target practice.
He complains every single day when it's time to start lessons. I really thought by third grade we'd be past this behavior, but it continues.
Every so often, he'll complain at the beginning of a narration because he "remembers everything" and he does. Most of the time, narrations are still a struggle. It would be a lot easier to just give the boy some worksheets and tests.
He and First Daughter "go back and forth in their games." I think this means they take turns deciding what they're going to imagine. Yesterday, he and all three of his siblings created an elaborate story at odd times during the day involving the train set, the Noah's ark set, a bunch of dinosaurs, and at least one of the Nativity sets. I could never really figure out what was going on and I'm pretty sure Second Son was just pushing the trains around in a circle while the others imagined around him, but they were having fun and arguing was at a minimum (as long as no one touched any of the trains, which a certain two year old thinks belong to him and only to him).
First Son is great at playing with Second Son, by the way. He can always get a laugh and he's quite generous in letting Second Son look at and sometimes even touch his LEGOS and books.
Happy 9th birthday, First Son!
