12/26/09 Julian is SIX!

My boy -- six years old!! I can't believe it.

I can't say the day was all fun & games though. I went running in the morning, and threatening weather ruled out my usual default pasttime (hiking). Kids needed to get out though, and I needed to do some "research" for my project to reorganize the boys room. So, I trucked the bunch up to Ikea. On the day after Christmas. What WAS I thinking.

Katrina was supposed to be taking a nap, but she heard us leaving and came running after us in a Pull-Up. So, she came with us. Thank goodness, Gabriel insisted on all the stroller-pushing, that actually made things a lot easier.

I'm thinking of replacing the boys' two dressers with one huge one. And this fits the bill: it's huge all right. The rest of their clothes would go in their closet, which right now only has a useless hanging pole. I don't know, this is pretty massive, but it fits the space perfectly.

I also bought a rug for their room, though it's in our family room temporarily in an effort to absorb some of the awful racket. I hate buying furniture on impulse, with no plan, just to get something in there, but, that's exactly what we did.

This set me behind to make what I'd planned for dinner, and I hadn't even started Julian's cake! I went to the grocery store with the intention of buying him one, but decided against it because there weren't any small enough. Besides, Gabriel said something the other day that was along the lines of shock that I'd buy a cake. "Of COURSE you make a cake!" This from the same kid who also asked with complaint why we were the only kids who don't get storebought cakes (which is SO not true). I guess he meant "only kids who don't get storebought cakes whose mothers can actually decorate cakes."

Anyway, Dave pointed out that if I use a mix and canned frosting, to them, it's still "making" the cake. So I set aside my new baking snobbery and quickly whipped up a cake. Me and Duncan Hines, that is.


After cake time, it was gift-opening time. A major affair, because most of Julian's birthday presents from his party hadn't been opened yet either.

(I'd used the birthday presents as a very serious consequence for obnoxious behavior, which he continued -- even after he saw me storming off with an armload of unopened birthday presents. My kids are immune to consequences that don't involve fingerprints on their rear ends! I should qualify that to: my boys. Katrina, for all her "spirited" behavior, has never earned herself more than a light tap on her hand once or twice.)

Quite the bounty, and this doesn't include some things he did get to open!


Yay six!


12/26/09