And Then There Were 5: Brendan's birthday

My little Bren-Bren turned 4 on Saturday and I had to post some pictures of my little man from his birthday. I usually make more complicated cakes that he never eats but this year he was very specific. He wanted a strawberries and cream on his cake with butter cake and it was supposed to have some superheros on it. Here's what we came up with:

This is a closer look (it's the Thing -breaking through a rice krispy wall and Human Torch from the Fab 4)

Craig was teasing that Superheros look weird on a cake with all those strawberries so I told him the superheros were out picking strawberries when all of a sudden they were attacked by bad guys...had to make sure Brendan didn't feel his cake wasn't up to superhero standards

And you know what it was so easy, not stressful, and he LOVED it! He ate cake the first day and then the rest of the week he just ate all the strawberries and took the cream off the cake and ate it. Sounds like me! I love whip cream and strawberries and it was always my favorite cake. It's ironic because when I was pregnant I craved fruit and must have eaten a truckload of every fruit I could get my hands on. I also craved gummy bears which is weird because I'm not a big candy person (unless it's chocolate). These are all things that he loves to eat. He is such a sweet little boy. He struggles with things Trinity never did, like crying when he's hurt. He hates to admit he's hurt. So strange. He's gotten better over the year of controlling fits and although he still struggles with Annaliese crying and me having to give her so much attention he still really looks out for his little sister. If he sees anything she might get hurt with he immediately steps in to make sure she can't get to it. He loves it when I step back a little so he can play with her by himself (under watchful eye). But I really see a lot of my struggles I had being the middle kid. I remember having a hard time and feeling a little jealous when my big sister, Lori, would hold or play with (or even talk to) my little sister Tanya. I felt jealous if they were connecting in anyway-because I wanted to be the favorite sister. I also wanted to be friends with Lori but I always felt awkward and not very cool with my big sister and also felt bad if I left my little sister out of the mix. I see some (emphasis on this word) with Brendan. I also see that he is extremely competitive like me. I'm not sure if that's from being the middle child or not. I think it is...you're almost put in the position of competing for attention from Mom and Dad with an older child who is perfect at everything accomplished and a sweet baby sibling who is just adorable and cute and you're not at that stage anymore. So you're kind of caught in the middle. That's my Brendan. He's working through where he stands now in our family. We just continue to love on him and make a big deal over his accomplishments and praise him when he does the stuff he's supposed to without asking him. And of course, we are more disciplined with him so he sees his boundaries clearly and knows what's not acceptable attention getting behavior (like getting the water bottle and spraying the Princy in her crate until she looks like a drowned rat and I have to change her bedding because it's soaked). And we praise those times he bursts out in song about Jesus or like this morning when I told him we were going to Walmart to pick out a toy for him to donate to MUST ministries for a little boy like him for Christmas. I also told him I wanted to take him through the toy aisle and see if there was anything he liked which he responded, "No Mama, that's not right to look for toys for me. That's called thinkin' about your self. And God wants us to think about others not ourselfs." Wow! That was awesome! I gave him a huge hug and Craig and I beamed over him and how right he was. He's growing up and is such a sweet, sensitive, loving little boy. He knows just how to push my buttons (I guess because we are so much alike-Dad, I know how you felt with Tanya now!) and how to wrap me around his grimy little finger. He cracks me up on a daily basis...I don't know where he gets half of the stuff he comes up with but he never fails to make us laugh.

Here are a few pictures from his 2nd and 3rd years and his cakes. I'll scan in a few of his adorable baby pictures (and me with red hair- hideous) later this week.

Look at these jowls! He looks like a little bulldog!

Here he's 6 months old-he's got such a cute round head

Here sissy was trying to get him to smile..he was also scooting on his tushy toward her toys (she didn't like that too much and that's when polly pockets had to stay in her room out of his reach for awhile)

Look at his thighs! This was my birthday and he's 8 months

Here he's running away from the camera (hey he still does that!) with his famous popasikle! He's 1 1/2

He's two here and showing his still favorite past time...spraying water on everything and anything! Maybe we have a firefighter in the making?

And his other favorite past time and food group- duce box

Here he's three and already a little hambone making every one laugh. He's so adorable!

This is last year

I'm so glad God blessed me with a sweet little boy! Happy birthday Bren-Bren!

Oh and these are the cakes of his former birthdays (this is a hobby of mine but I didn't miss the work that went into it this year-at all!!):

This is his three year old b-day cake