Happy Birthday, Micah!

Micah turned 4 today!  Hard to believe it has already been 4 years since I pushed out that huge 10 pound, 8 ounce boy!  And he's stayed big too.  He didn't have any of Verity's weight gain issues!  I think he's going to catch up to Faith soon, and after that it won't be long til he passes up our waif Grace as well.

We started the day with pancakes and eggs that we ate in honor of Micah, since he picked today to sleep really, really late.  Eventually he did get up!

Bob's sister Rose visited last night, and she swept in like Santa, bearing all sorts of wonderful gifts for everyone!  So not much school got done today, especially for the younger crowd, but they had an absolute ball playing with Model Magic, making scrapbook pages and bracelets, and (for the girls), playing with make-up.  Arts and crafts day!

Micah picked quite the birthday meal:  fish sticks and pierogies, with broccoli thrown in by me because well, vegetables.  Thursdays are busy, with Faith's co-op, rugby practice for the older 2 boys, and gymnastics for all 3 girls, so hey, I wasn't complaining about an easy meal!

After dinner, Micah opened his presents.  He got a Transformer and a game from Grandma and Grandpa, a penguin "Pillow Pet" , a foam sword and shield, a Lego Star Wars t-shirt (*cough* that I found on the top shelf of our closet recently--I had meant to give it to Jonathan many years ago but evidently forgot all about . . .) AND a box of Skittles and a small bag of Gummi Bears.  I think you can see what he was the most excited about . . .

He did have a really fun time playing his new game with Grace and Drew later on, so I guess the Skittles weren't the *only* thing he was excited about!

Don't tell Micah because he didn't notice, but I didn't actually bake him a cake today.  We actually celebrated both his and Anna's birthday last Friday, April 3, at Bible study.  Anna wanted angel food cake with strawberries and whipped cream again, and Micah picked funfetti cupcakes with orange, green, and blue frosting.  The girls and Micah did all the decorating, and the results actually reminded me of the cake in the classic children's book Spot Bakes a Cake.  You'll have to check it out!  We did have ice cream tonight to celebrate, as well as leftover chocolate banana "muffins" for anyone who wanted one.  (They are technically called muffins by the recipe, but really are cupcakes!)

A year ago, I felt like we had made strides with Micah--he wasn't having nearly as many huge temper tantrums as he had been, he decided he wanted to be potty-trained, and we had even made a huge trip to Hawaii, with very unpredictable travel arrangements!  But there were still issues.  Every Sunday, dropping him off to nursery was a huge melt-down, and a ginormous cause of stress to me.  He still did have temper tantrums over little things.  But I could definitely see progress.

I see even more progress looking back over this year.  His tantrums are much rarer, and often they are exacerbated by him needing to go potty, so that is one of the things I always do when he starts getting wound up--try to get him to pee.  But sometimes he still will take some minor thing in the day and choose to melt down over it for no good reason at all, usually at a highly inconvenient time for me, LOL, like right at the start of Latin class, for example.  I usually just hold him tight and even sing to him for awhile.  Eventually he stops struggling and screaming angrily, although it can take forever.  Then he settles down and goes back to being his normal sweet self, because really he IS quite sweet most of the time now (I have not been able to say that before!).  He and Drew get along well for the most part.  I can tell they are going to be very close, like Nathan and Luke, or Caleb and Jonathan.  God has been very gracious in giving our kids to us in "sets", except for Verity!  Micah absolutely adores Verity, and he's very sweet with her.  Next year Micah gets to start gong to our elementary co-op, so I am really praying he will do well with that, and not go into his "recalcitrant mule" mode, where he is totally and completely uncooperative.  He's doing better with his children's church class, but there are still some days he doesn't want to go there and pitches a loud fit.  We have saints working in children's ministry for sure!

So I'm looking forward to seeing what this next year holds with Micah!  Hopefully he will continue to make progress in controlling his impulses and his anger--and I pray he will come to know the Lord at an early age so he will have the help of the Holy Spirit in him!