A Little Bit of Awesome

My five-year-old just asked me to sing "Praise To the Man" for a bedtime song.

At last! Some Sharks!

Matthew and Malia are off-track and due to the fact that we never saw any sharks while we were on vacation in July, I felt that a trip to the aquarium was in order. Today was a perfect day to go. Not only are all the kids in school except for the year-round B-trackers, but it is early in the school year and a Monday so there were no field trips happening. The whole place felt nearly deserted which was great because we didn’t have to navigate any crowds to see the exhibits.

We saw the penguins and otters (all of whom were super active), the new Asian clouded leopard, macaws, frogs, and many, many fish. But the highlight of the trip was, of course, the sharks! Malia was thrilled and insisted we sit and watch the “shark show” for a good 20 minutes which is a long time for an energetic five-year-old.

This afternoon she watched “The Little Mermaid” and the beginning of “Finding Nemo.” Then she promptly renamed her stuffed shark (previously known as Sharky) Bruce.

Olympic Enthusiasm

We’re still watching the Olympics. I watched most of the things that interest me as they happened, but Matthew was already in school and really, really wanted to watch (he is my sports enthusiast after all) so we recorded everything and he started making his way through them when he went off-track. It is actually a great way to watch. We skip all the commentary and commercials and just watch the actual events. We can make it through a 4-hour block of coverage in about 45 minutes. We recorded everything, so we’ve been zipping through a lot of the less popular events that air during the day (The boys have discovered that synchronized swimming is strangely mesmerizing.) as well as the prime time stuff. This evening we were watching/mocking rhythmic gymnastics. While we were busy comparing the hoops and clubs portion to a circus act, Malia was creating her own gymnastics routine:

When I asked her if she wants to be a rhythmic gymnast when she grows up, she told me she just wants to be a mom. In spite of that, she was certainly enjoying herself.

Status Quo

Today was Matthew's yearly visit to the allergist and due to his amazing improvement last year, I was actually really anxious about today's visit. I didn't expect another year of vast improvement, but I was sincerely hoping that he wouldn't get worse again. Staying where he was would be ok, but I really didn't want him to backslide. The four foods that we've been able to add to his diet over he past two years (almonds, coconut, milk and egg in baked goods) has been a great boon and has given Matthew more options than he's ever had before. Taking things back out would be hard for him.

In spite of the fact that his total IgE jumped back up to its previous level, his individual allergen numbers stayed at last year's level. That is actually unusual since a rise in total IgE is usually reflected in the individual IgE numbers, but I'll take it. The only individual number that went back up was egg but since Matthew is still tolerating it well in select baked items, it won't change any of his food options at this point.

So it turned out ok. Maintaining is better than slipping backwards anytime.

Tippity Tappitty

I believe there is a special place in heaven for people who teach tap dancing to 5-year-olds.

Malia has been so excited that she's pretty much lived in her tap shoes since we bought them two weeks ago. And there was an unholy din as all the girls got their shoes on today. So yes, kudos to those who teach tap to tiny toed girls.

The Ugly Truth

I still feel stupid. And my typing accuracy is way down.

This is what your hand looks like...

...after you very nearly slice off the pad of your finger while cutting watermelon which is especially stupid considering you spent 3 1/2 years working in the fruit and veg prep area of BYU's food services department while you were in college in which position one of the very first lessons they taught you was how to safely peel and cut melons without hurting yourself and thereby avoiding spilling copious amounts of blood, getting five stitches and traumatizing your 5-year-old.

I feel very stupid...and ow.

Four for Five

Malia had a birthday this week and it was a big one. Five years old! When did that happen?! Although we didn’t plan it to be this way, Malia ended up having four parties to celebrate her big 5. She has been so excited that she can hardly stand it and having her birthday celebrations span an entire week has stoked the enthusiasm.

Last Saturday Kevin’s parents joined us for lunch and since I ended up with way more birthday cake than we needed, we lit some candles and had some cake. Kevin’s mom gave Malia a cute stuffed bunny. It kind of looks like a cross between a bunny and a sheep, so I’ve taken to calling it a beep.

On Sunday we celebrated at my parents’ house. Malia had a mermaid cake, of which I’m pretty proud, and she got to blow out some more candles.

Monday was her actual birthday. She shared a treat with her class at school and Nathan and I picked out some great big balloons. After school, we went to the library so she could get her very own library card. This is a tradition in our family and Malia was super excited to be able to check out her books on her very own card.

We gave Malia her presents after dinner on Monday. She got Hot Wheels, pretend tools and a princess game from her brothers. She liked them all equally which is one of the things I love about Malia. She is definitely girly and loves princesses, sparkles, and such, but she also loves cars and tools. She is very well rounded in her interests (a side effect of having three older brothers) and I think it will serve her well as she grows up. Kev and I gave her two ponies from My Little Pony (one of her favorite shows right now). The ponies were from Build-a-Bear so we piled into the car to take her over to get them stuffed.

She was so worn out by the end of the day that she went right to sleep. When Kev checked on her before we went to bed, this is what he found:

I guess she really loves those ponies!

Yesterday was Malia’s friend party. This is her first friend party and again, she was so excited she could hardly stand it. She wanted a water princess party, but as we planned, it became apparent that what she really wanted was to play in the water with her friends. So we had sprinklers, water balloons, water squirters and water balloon piñatas, which were a huge hit.

She chose mermaid cupcakes and helped me decorate them. I think they turned out lovely.

Most of the gifts she received were mermaid related and I made towel mermaid tails for the kids (and forgot to take a picture, of course). We had to do some date juggling, but both Kate (Malia's favorite cousin) and Raylee (her best friend who moved away in June) were able to be here for the party. Malia has missed Raylee and was absolutely thrilled to have her here.

After a week of partying, I’m worn out. But Malia had a very memorable birthday! And she’s already talking about her 6 party…