Birthdays!

We've had two birthdays this month, so before the month is over I thought I'd better give the birthday report. We'll start with Alexander who turned six (6!) on Feb. 9th.

Let me take a moment to marvel at the fact that I have a six-year-old. Wow!

I remember being six. I remember getting on the bus to go to kindergarten. I remember being scared to be with so many other kids and not knowing what to do. I remember getting those little half pint cartons of milk at snack time and not knowing how to open mine until a boy next to me showed me how. I remember lying down on mats for nap time, sitting in a circle and passing letter-characters around, singing songs, clamoring for praise from my teacher Mrs. Gex. (I don't even know how to spell her name since I couldn't read at the time.) And I remember having a bright and vibrant internal world. It's amazing to me that my son has entered a period of life that I remember so vividly from my own childhood.

But enough about me. More about the birthday boy.

For his party, Alexander invited five friends (Sage, Sebastian, Leo, Nate, and Noah). Michiel took the boys to Northwest Kids Club for a morning of rambunctious play, while I stayed home and got the cupcakes ready. They returned for opening presents and a decorate-your-own-cupcake party. Lots of fun and not too difficult to manage.

The next day we had a second party with the Gerlits clan. I got to exercise a little creative energy on the cupcakes. (With Mieke as young as she is my artistic ventures are rather limited, but I had fun trying marzipan for the first time.) Alexander wanted an orange octopus, so here's what I came up with:

More presents for Alexander and a whole slew of Legos. He's been busy with them ever since.

I'll save Annabel's birthday for another post.

First Smile

Mieke gave us her first real smile today at five weeks old. This isn't it. But I wanted to include a picture since we didn't capture the actual smile.

I was holding her this morning, after a night of lots of crying. She looked into my eyes and her mouth widened to a big smile. All my exhaustion of the night before melted away. Mieke smiled at me! She's smiled lots of times before but always in her sleep or while looking at the wall, and those don't seem to count.

When I said, "Oooh, she's smiling," Alexander came over and she gave him a big smile too. Another for Annabel when she ran over. That's the moment I want to remember from today: three heads bent over a baby, inviting her to smile again.