FIVE!!!

Over the weekend, we hit a milestone here in the Anders home. My sweet baby boy turned five years old on Saturday. I am stunned. I am amazed. I am in denial. There is no possible way that it has been five years since this:

He was such a sweet baby! He was happy, healthy, a good sleeper, a good eater. I guess he was making up for the 4 days of labor and the eventual C-section.

On his actual birthday, he got to go to a movie with his Daddy and Uncle Kev, Aunt Ash, and Blake. They went out to lunch and to see "Night at the Museum 2." We got my mom and dad to keep Amy so Nate could have his own special time with them, and also because Amy doesn't give a crap about watching movies and would rather make everyone miserable once the popcorn runs out. After the show, they ran a few errands, and then the kids spent the rest of the evening playing with Grant and Reagan. Of course, I was working.

Yesterday, we had his party at the North Little Rock Athletic Club, which seemed like an odd place for a birthday party when I first heard about it, but turned out to be the best birthday party ever! They have an area where they watch kids while the parents work out, and it has a climbing gym, a ball pit, a slide, lots of tubes and climby thingys. The kids got to play on that for a little while while all the guests arrived, and then we moved on to one of the basketball courts where they had an inflatable bounce house set up, and numerous basketballs, balloons, and other balls for the kids to play with. Some of the dads got into the action as well, shooting hoops and trying to show off. Fortunately, there were no injuries (I'm looking at you, Kev). After the kids got good and sweaty and used up most of their energy, we headed back to the party room for cake and ice cream. He had a delicious cake with Transformer decorations. After cake we opened gifts, and I think he got every Transformer toy available, packed in Transformer bags or wrapped in Transformer wrapping paper. It looked like the Transformer section of Wal-Mart exploded all over the NLRAC. Amazingly, there were only two duplicates! His favorite gift was the Bumblebee Transformer helmet and action fist. The helmet has a voice changer that makes you sound like a robot and also says different phrases if you press a button, and the fist goes on your arm and you can pull a lever and it makes shooting noises. We got him a portable DVD player, mostly for using in the car on trips like the one to Minnesota in a few weeks. I have tried to explain to him that it is not going to be used for trips to the grocery store and stuff, but I bet I have to repeat that once or twice!Anyway, the party was great, for a few reasons. First, because we got to have a great celebration for Nate with all his friends and cousins. Second, because there was lots of activity and no one got bored. Third, because it was just the right length of time, about an hour and a half. And fourth (and most importantly to me), I didn't have to do a THING! I didn't have to clean my house before and after, we didn't have to get food or order a cake, we didn't have to provide entertainment, and I didn't even have to herd the kids from one place to another. We had a hostess who did EVERYTHING, from cutting the cake to writing a list of what gift was from whom. And we spent less money than we probably would have spent had we done the same thing here. It. Was. Awesome. And Nate had a wonderful time.

After the party, we went out to supper at TGIFridays and then went to mom and dad's to swim for a little bit. Nate was great all weekend. He had a really good time with everything. I don't know if he will remember this birthday when he gets older, I think my fifth is the first one I have memories of, but while he does remember it, he should be able to remember it with a smile. I, on the other hand, will smile on the outside but will still feel a little sad on the inside. My baby isn't a little guy any more. Happy Birthday, Big Boy. Mommy loves you.