Matixs Birthday/ Update on the Boys

Matix had a birthday shout hooray! He was especially happy about his 5th birthday because 5 year olds go to kindergarten. I told him I an especially excited to have a 5 year old because they dont pee thier pants...we'll see if that does anything. It was a crazy fun weekend of celebrating our favorite dare devil. We went back in time it flt like, and visited the Arizona mills mall. We wanted to take him to the Rainforest cafe. As kids, Chad and I both remember it being magical, with the over head aquarium with tropical fish and animatronic safari animals deocrating the moss and jungle vine covered walls, the misters and flashing lights that would simulate at rainstorm and the night sky above your head with actual shooting stars. i think maybe chad and I were a little more excited about it than the kids. But once we arrived we found that time had been a cruel mistress to the rainforest cafe. Peta had come in about 5 years prior and shut down the aquarium, because adoring children and nature like atmospheres are cruel and unusual...*eyeroll. and the state-of-the-art animatronics seems carnival like and similar to a 8th grate robotics conference submission more than a miracle of entertainment like they had all those years ago. Chad and I were a little deflated but the kids were THRILLED. The misters have been taken down since we last went but when the "rainstorms" were simulated, i dipped my hands in an extra water cup at the table and secretly splashed the boys when thier backs were turned, they thought that was pretty magical too. at the end of the meal, we splurged and bought the volcano cake for our volcano loving boy, he was shocked and amazing, to the point that he couldnt even wait til the end of the Happy birthday chorus to blow out his candles. On his actual birthday (Sunday) we did a small family party to celebrate our boy who give us the most stories to share. We blasted off to outerspace and did a number of fun astronaut themed games. We hunted for moon rocks in grandmas backyard, we made a solar sytem out of styrofoam balls and ate a plethera of space themed foods. almost all the gifts he recieved were space related and he couldnt have been happier. Here's a little update on all the boys, startig with our big 5 year old. Matix got some roller blades for Christmas this last year and we had no idea how well he would do with them. Within two days he was crusing all around the back yard a begging to go to a skate park to practice jumps. I made him practice for a few weeks but he's such a natural, it was clear that he was ready to level up after just a few days. Against my better judgement, i look him to a skate park and shortly after arriving and seeing the 1/2 pipes and rail all over the park that was heavily poppolated with tennage boys, i alost turned around and forced all the excited boys back into the van. Matix begged and i caved and i watched through my fingers as he bravely entered the busy skate area, he went tstraight over to the ramp and backed up so he could gain momentum. He raced up and down the ramp with ease and never looked back. We werent even there, he went from one area to the next trying out everything he thought he could do, he fell a few times but each fall was more of a nuesence, slowing him down from having more fun. I sat back in awe at his bravery and strange ability to fit in with all these teenage boys. He even guesture to the teens around him and said "no, you can go first, you're bigger". I laughed and relaxed a little bit, realizing, he had quickly built a comradery with the teens aruond him who smiled at his efforts. Matixs prayers, I wish they would stay this way forever. Each prayer is a little, daily evolving testimony. Most of them start as you might expect, inviting heavenly father to listen and then things can really go anywhere. He saud things like, "I know that we are Gods and god is our and we need to be kind so we can be like him" and then things go a little morepersonal as he starts listing the daily schedule, like, "we go to the bathroom and we wash our hands so we dont get germs and i try so hard to not pee my pants but i like to rollerblade with my pants on but mom wont let me rollerblade in the house." somehow he always brings it home with something gospel related of a prayer for soemthing sincere, but its always my favorite thing to listen to. I hope to record one before he starts praying more practically...which i still have hope will never happen. We've noticed over the past few weeks that Matix has taken an interest in lyrics. Some of his favorite songs include "Sunrise Sunburn Sunset repeat." "Cold at the Alter" "Story Bots: We Are the Planets" and "You are the Reason". Each time the songs come on, his gears start turning and he asked a hundered questons before the song is over, asking what words mean, what phrases mean and then as he listens to them, he starts loveing the meaning. Now he sings them with so much passion you can see it on his face, he uses his hands, he's so expressive...he might walk, look, talk and act like Chad but he sings like his mama and i love it! I've started playing Christian rock because for obvious reasons, his love for lyrics should not be wasted on Metallica and ACDC...no disrespect to the kings of Rock but maybe not 4 year old content. One quick story to better illustarte Matix. His rollerblades have been attached to him ever since he opened them. The first day i let him try them in the house (a mistake i wont make again with my other children) but he quickly picked it up and is all speed now. I've made a new, pretty strick rule call."nothing with wheels". if it has wheels it isnt allowed in the house, front or back yard only. Matix has not grasped this rule in the slightest. One day he was rollerblading through the house while i was juggling my daily tasks and i shouted from behind the kitchen island, "Matix, no roller blding in the house, you know the rules!" He shouted back, "mom! I'm not rollerblading in the house!". Now, i am used to deiance from him ....but this wasnt even a good argument! "Matix, i can see you, and its clear to both you and I that you are infact rollerblading as we speak!" He roller his eyes, didnt slow his pace in the slightest and said "well, i'm not having fun!" as if that somehow made it less of a crime. I had a good hard laugh, stoped him by force and explained that the rules are to protect our baseboards, our toes and our home, NOT to elliminate his fun! Liam Sweet as sugar. Liam is always caught doing good. At singig time last week (we got too the park to have "distance" singing time on Sunday afternoons) Liam was playing with some friends, running up a grassy hill and rollling down while me and some other moms talked breifly after the lesson. A new mom in the ward approached me and said " is that your son?" pointing to liam. "Yes, thats Liam!". "I just have to tell you, my litte girl had ran to the top of the hill and was too scared to come down, before I could come up to help her, Liam saw that she was upset and took her hand, gentle walking her back to the bottom and talking to her the whole way." I smiled and looked to Liam, who had overheard the last bit of the convesation, he gave me a thumbs up and a wink. Thats Liam. He's still my kid that will tease his little brothers without even being aware of how naturally it comes to him, but just as naturally, he brings peace and comfort to those around hime. We're working on making sure the teasing to peace making ratio is where we want it. ecently there was a book fair at liams school. Normally the weeks leading up to the bookfair I'll allow the kids to do chores and work to earn a max of $10 for the fair, however, as the year has progressed, Liam as become more comfortable in the classroom and with his friends that he has been coming home with poor reports on his daily behavior charts. Mainly talking out of turn, talking with friends during lessons and ...yeah he just talks a lot. So i decided that he would have to kick it up a notch if he wanted book fair money this time around. He would need to complete his normal chores, choose 1-2 extra jobs a day AND come home with reports of not just the good behavior zone, but GREAT behavior (meaning the teacher observed him being extra helpful, good at listening, etc.) It was a tall order but I needed to make sure he was respecting his teacher and i know what motivated that kid. Money. Like his dad. After and entire week of excellent behavior, scrubbing baseboards, toilets and picking weeds Liam earned his money. He bought a journal that locks and an invisible ink pen. I was so proud of the changes he made and told him how grateful i was that he was prioritizing respect and obedience. The following Monday after the bookfair liam got in the car beaming ( as usual, he is always my happiest boy...for no reason at all, just happy) I said "How was your day?!Are we keeping our good behavior streak going?" "ehhh not today mom, i got on orange." he said matter of factly. (orange means he was warned not once but twice for misbehavior. The kid got his journal and invisible ink pen...incentive:gone. Back to the drawing board. That being said, Liam is trying to do good. He and i have had many discussions on baptism lately and i can tell its on his mind a lot. He'll say things in context of before and after his baptism, because he feels that its a life changing ordinance. I have so much to teach him and sometimes I get overwhelmed with feelings of inadequacy, thinking that I havent prepared him to make this decision for him, or that he wont fully undestand what he's getting into or want what i want for him. For know , we pray together that he'll understand and make this year about developing a likeness in Christ. I know that as he does, the desire to be baptized will be him own and will be personal to his relationship with his heavenly brother. I've loved the conversations we have had recently iand i just dont want to forget the way I've been able to watch the cogs in his mind move so uniquely to his own mechanical and beautiful undestanding. He talks about our existance as human beings a lot. He'll often say, "in my first life, i knew you but i dont know how well i knew you or if i still liked the cilor blue or if i looked the same." (speaking of the premortal existance) and in my second life (current) I'm here with you and our family found eachother here on earth. And in my third life, will i have a new body? Will make another world and we'll have a fourth life. How will we find eachother and can my family be next to our family?" I love all his questions and sometimes I'm sad when I dont have the answers because the questions seem so simple, but I think he'll find the answers. Easton is changing. He has preferences now and has started to grow impatent with our language barrier. However, he tries! He tries so hard to communicate and as long as we are willing to keep trying to understand his needs, we keep trying. He says Baba for anything water related..bath tub, swimming, rain, carwash, and of course, drinks. The kid drinks water all . day . long. Its the first thing he asks for in the morning and he shakes with excitement when we give him his cup. Chad has always been the favorite. No hate over here from mom, Easton still snuggles me and gives me all the love I could ask for...but its clear who he prefers...for now. However, recently Chad had to get a new truck for work and its noticably nicer than his 20 year old Ford. We all love it, but Easton is obsessed, it's not enough to ride in the truck, he has to sit in the front seat or he is furious. Chad used to get all the loves and snuggles as soon as he walked in the door from work but now he hears Easton say "Daddy!, Daddy buhbye!" and he drags Chad by the hand to the front door until he takes him to the truck and lets him sit in the front seat and push all the buttons. He just loves it. He also loves being outside. the backyard has been our oasis ever since we got the grass in last summer. I turn off the A/C and we just leave the backdoor open all day, Easton is in and out all morning long, running under the trampoline, finding a snack and sitting in the woodchips along the wall to watch the dog run around the yard, drawing with chalk, picnicing under the trampoline with mom, helping me pick weeds or trim the grass, climbing up and over the firepit wall to play in the sand...he just loves it and so do I. He is starting to talk a lot more with first favorite words being, down, thank you, water, yeah, no, cheese, hello and Amen. It doesn't seem like a lot of words but when each word can be used in 7-10 different situations, sometimes we communicate better with him than the other two boys. He has recently started to enjoy giving sweet kisses and as always, his hugs last long than any other baby I've had. He loves closeness and trusts his brotehrs so much. He wants to communicate with us all the time, I think its his favorite thing to do. When he accidently hurts someone or more often, accidently breakS one of the boys lego structures, we ask him to say sorry and he goes over to his brother and softly touches them with a gentle sweep of the hand. We've come to know that at "sorry" and it is so sweet and sincere, even brothers are quick to forgive when he tries his best to say sorry in his own way. We laugh at his excited conversaation because he stares us in the eyes and just lets out a long unfluxuating moan of sorts. Its like he's understands that sentences sound like a continuation of sound that eventually ends the thought and is followed by a returned response by the person listening. So he lets our a long sound with no consonans or vowel and then waits for use to acknoweldge his thoughts, which we always do, even though he has said nothing. Its so cute and confusing. Boys are growing and time keeps slipping through our fingers. I'm grateful to get to capture some of the smaller details of our ever changing homelife.