Michael's Birthday

My sweet, smart, handsome firstborn turned five in January--can you believe it? Facebook keeps prompting me to view my memories for each day and showing me pictures of little baby Michael the adorable never-sleeper. His baby pictures all look like Colette and his toddler pictures all look like John Paul, and now he and Liam look so much alike sometimes. It's crazy.

Michael loves reading. That may be the understatement of the year, but I don't quite know how to put into words his passion for books. He was wildly delighted to receive some more of his beloved Magic Tree House books for his birthday. And spent all of his Christmas and birthday money to buy more. Thanks to another birthday present he has also branched out in the Hardy Boys. (Any recommendations for chapter books appropriate for a 5 year old but still pleasantly challenging for this crazy precocious reader are most appreciated!)

Michael told me he wanted an ice cream cake for his birthday again this year. I said that was fine, but did he want to consider any other options? He asked for all his options and I listed off as many fun desserts and I could think of. He kept asking for more options, and when I finally ran out of ideas he told me that the only thing that sounded good was an ice cream cake--so ice cream cake we had.

This boy. He loves reading his books. He loves writing to-do lists and recipes and stories in notebooks. He loves trains just as much as ever. He adores his baby sister (and for a 5 year old he's pretty dang patient and gentle with his brothers too).

Liam Turns 3

So way back in the last days BC (before Colette), this handsome guy turned 3. I spent the weeks leading up to his birthday wondering when Colette would come and how that would affect him... would we have to delay his birthday party? What if they ended up sharing a birthday--would either of them feel cheated? And so on... It seems more than a little ridiculous to admit it now, but I guess it went hand-in-hand with my unhealthy birth story obsession this time around.

And sure enough I woke up the morning of Liam's birthday party (Sunday, November 1st) with clear signs that we would be meeting Colette in the next 24-48 hours. Or so I thought. Little did I know that I had nearly two full weeks of prodromal labor ahead of me--but that's a story for another day.

Labor signs, fears, and contingency plans aside, Colette did not in any way disrupt Liam's birthday party. Or his actual birthday. Our celebrations were pretty laid back, but the birthday boy seemed to thoroughly enjoy himself.

the birthday boy in his "engimeer" hat

Liam absolutely loves hats, and although this was not going to be an all-out themed birthday I thought it would be fun to get something that would be a fun dress-up accessory for him and could serve as party favors for the cousins (although I don't know how excited they were about them). Amazon to the rescue with a cheap pack of one dozen train engineer hats. Liam was delighted and still wears the hats around the house most days.

my Aunt Lisa's chocolate cherry bars in cupcake form for dessert--a hit, as usual :)

a boy can never have too many trains

Oh my Liam--in that precious/infuriating stage between toddler and little boy. I love how he phrases things. Every request begins with "Should I..." Should I have another cookie? Should I go play trains? He loves telling knock knock jokes and reading stories. He has the sweetest little singing voice. And he has a bit more than his fair share of temper when things don't go his way... a tendency which is in no way improved upon by his determination to never nap again. sigh The joys of three... But they truly are (mostly) joys with this sweet little boy who suddenly looks so big and tall and sounds so old when he says "I love you Mom!"

Happy birthday Liam Roderick!

Happy (crazy belated) birthday John Paul!

So, way back in March our little John Paul turned 1.

Clearly, I am right on time in posting pictures of his birthday and waxing nostalgic about the last 12 18 months of his life, because we haven’t had another family birthday yet.

Oh wait, I turned 30 in June. Whoops!

we celebrated my birthday with ribs and otter pops... everyone liked the ribs, everyone except John Paul liked the otter pops

Regardless, John Paul did turn 1 and no matter how late I am I can’t fail to blog faithfully about the about-to-be-middle-child, and better late than never and all that jazz. We had a lovely little family celebration, with meat pie (treasured Rappana family recipe) for dinner and Pope cakes topped with strawberries and chocolate for dessert. Dessert was most definitely a hit, especially with the birthday boy.

Although it was only the middle of March the weather was perfect for dinner outside--which was a really good thing, because cleanup was much easier. And even though we have a great dining room and lots of leaves to put in the table, it is getting really hard to fit everyone when we are all together.

and cleanup was... not insignificant

So that was John Paul’s birthday… and it feels like it was forever ago. He was sprint-crawling everywhere in an attempt to keep up with his brothers. He was napping really well, but was still waking up multiple times a night and generally wanting to nurse. He was full of smiles and laughter, had a few consistent signs (“more” and “all done”), and no words yet.

And only five months later (only… almost a third of his life) he is running AND climbing all over the place. He definitely thinks he is one of the big boys, and he’s close to being able to hold his own. He has finally started saying “mama” consistently and it absolutely melts my heart every time. He is sweet and affectionate and cuddly, but also overflowing with mischief and 110% wild little boy. He excels at giving bazoomers (rasperries) and loves to wrestle with his daddy and brothers.

Other words in his ever-expanding vocabulary:
pees--please
datoo--thank you
wa-wa--water (or sometimes milk)
no
yeah
ahge tuck--garbage truck
ash--crash (I remember M saying it exactly the same way at the same age)
soos--shoes (he gets very excited about shoes)
ou-sy--out side (ditto on the excitement)
dou-says--down stairs
ha--hot
dai--bye

And lots and lots of gibberish that perfectly mimics speech patterns and inflections, but has few recognizable syllables. He definitely thinks he’s talking, and half the time I think I understand him.

playing at Roubaix Lake during our vacation to the Black Hills in June

He loves books and his brothers and being outside. He also really loves his crib and I am so thankful for my (currently, knock on wood) wonderful little sleeper. He started sleeping through the night pretty consistently at the beginning of summer, just in time for my pregnancy insomnia and million nightly trips to the bathroom to take over. Naturally.

he sucks his thumb and twirls his hair and we all think it's the cutest thing ever

I can’t get over how big John Paul is getting, but at the same time I’m cherishing (or at least trying to cherish) these last few months of him being my baby. I’ll never forget how huge Michael looked the first time I saw him after Liam was born, and again with Liam suddenly looking so much older and bigger after John Paul came; and I’m already looking forward to/mourning that instantaneous transformation from baby to big brother that is coming in November.

And in case you're like me and absolutely completely obsessed with thoroughly enjoy a good birth story, here's Part 1 and Part 2 of our little Pi Day Baby Story.

A Boy and His Tiger

Our handsome Michael Alexander turned the big 0-4 last month.

How convenient--I found a box full of my childhood books on his birthday. He spent at least 45 minutes going through the entire pile. Happy birthday, my little bookworm!

His birthday requests were ice cream, ice cream cake, and corn on the cob. We convinced him to add hamburgers to the menu and spread out the ice cream treats over multiple nights.

A family trip to Coldstone the day after his birthday

My parents visited us for a week in late January, so we postponed Michael's birthday party a week so they could be there for it. I've never felt like entertaining was really my thing, but the party was a huge success, if I do say so myself.

The cousins went on a short treasure hunt. The prize? Glow sticks!

I had so much fun making Michael's ice cream cakes. I used this recipe as a starting point and improvised from there (with my go-to chocolate wafer cookies, of course).

If any treasure is better than glow sticks, it's ice cream cake!

Michael agreed!

For the kiddos: chocolate and vanilla ice cream, with chocolate wafer crumb crust, a crushed Kit Kat layer in the middle, and whipped cream. The Kit Kats were a delicious choice, but ruined any chance of picture-perfect slicing. I don't think the kids minded.

For the grown-ups: chocolate and coffee ice cream, with chocolate wafer crumb layers, whipped cream, and chocolate drizzle.

For the record, we did not actually need two cakes, even with 17 people (I have a deathly fear of running out of dessert at birthday parties... no idea why). But we thoroughly enjoyed the leftovers!

We are thoroughly enjoying our big boy. Michael loves reading as much as ever, and I have high hopes of him reading to the rest of us in the very near future. He's very interested in spelling--he is constantly stringing together letters and asking what they spell. Unfortunately his spelling words rarely contain vowels... "What does x-f-l spell? How about t-s-d-r-l-m?" And whenever Alex and I spell out words to avoid a riot, Michael always tries to join in: Alex: "I think the boys could have an s-h-o-w after dinner, what do you think? M: "How about a h-o-a-w?"

Calvin and Hobbes is still one of his favorite things, which prompted Cici to get him a stuffed tiger for Christmas. Michael promptly christened his new friend Hobbes, of course, and he takes him everywhere around the house.

I'm not always sure Hobbes is such a good influence on Michael...

We love you our handsome, clever, hilarious Michael Alexander. I think 4 is going to be a great year :)

Happy Birthday, Liam the Agreeable!

Guess who turned two? This guy!

Two months ago... whoops!

At least we celebrated his birthday on time! We had an All Saints Day/Construction themed party mash-up.

From left to right: Bl. Pier Giorgio Frassati, St. Joseph, and David.

Later St. Joseph went from 1st century carpenter to a modern construction worker who was too busy to stand very still for a picture.

Once everyone had a hard hat we moved outside to crack open geodes. Notice the impressive mix of costumes combined with the party hats. So random. So us.

Daddy's birthday helper.

I made this icebox cake (with the homemade wafers) and I was thrilled with how it turned out... despite the achy muscles from hand-whisking that much whipped cream.

And it must have been a hit, because the rest of the family has requested it for Michael's birthday party in a couple weeks. We shall see; so far Michael's requests for birthday food have been ice cream, ice cream cake, and corn on the cob (?!). Come back in March when I finally get around to blogging about Michael's birthday, just before it's time to celebrate John Paul's birthday. Hmm... I'm sensing a pattern here.

Back to this guy!

Two is both my favorite and not-my-favorite age. There is a generally delightful abundance of communication and an often frustrating lack of reason. Liam is talking up a storm, and I absolutely love it. Right now everything is "dat's siwwy!" He and Michael got a talking Spencer ("Sodor's sleek silver bullet," for those of you not up on your Thomas and Friends) from Cici for Christmas, and one of the things it says is, "I'm Spencer the Grand!" When Liam is playing with it he always repeats, "Pencer da Gwand, dat's siwwy!" Spencer also says, "Out of my way, slowcoach!" and now Liam can often be found running laps around the house yelling "Ow da way, so-hoach!"

Partially inspired by Spencer the Grand, we've started calling Liam "Liam the Agreeable" because his answer to almost any question is "Yeah," regardless of his actual opinion or intent. Alex and I joke that he is the second son from the parable in Matthew 21:28-32. Liam is the one to immediately and docilely answer "yeah" or "o-hay," and then run off and do the opposite of whatever we asked (or forbade).

He is constantly following and mimicking Michael. I hope Michael loves it as much as I do. Liam repeats whatever Michael says, mimics whatever he does, follows wherever he leads. If Michael is sent to timeout, Liam will go along and sit down next to him. But he is also totally his own little person, with his own sense of humor and mischief. He is also a wonderful big brother, incredibly sweet and affectionate to John Paul... except when he is (not infrequently) stealing his toys.

My favorite is when Liam prays. He make the Sign of the Cross (more or less... most days a little less than more) and prays with us before meals. He sings and prays along in Mass. When he hears the bells at the consecration he always whips his head around and whisper-yells, "Jesus!" and it always melts my heart. He has established his own little litany of patron saints when we pray together as a family after Mass, and it goes something like this: "St. Thomas... St. James... St. Henry... St. Percy..." Okay, so maybe he's a little confused about differentiating between saints and trains, but in his defense Thomas, James, and Henry are all saint names, and  there is a Bl. Thomas Percy. I love how proud of himself he is as he announces each name and waits for the rest of us to ask their intercession.

Oh Liam Roderick, you are a joy and a handful. We love you so dearly and we are so thankful for you!

Happy birthday, Superhero Drummer Boy!

Guess who turned 3 a few weeks ago?

And for the past 6 weeks or so he has insisted on being called "Michael Alexander Crane, Superhero Drummer Boy."  He is quick to correct me when I occasionally slip up and refer to him as "Superhero Drummer Boy, Michael Alexander Crane."  If you ask him if he is _______ (cute, silly, crazy, smart, anything), he will answer "No, I just a superhero drummer boy."

Michael has been excited for his birthday ever since his cousin Abby's birthday back in October.  At that point he was informed that it would be Liam's birthday next, then Daddy's, then Jesus' birthday, and THEN his birthday.  He was a good helper at Liam's birthday party, helping to blow out candles and open presents (although in a slightly more restrained fashion than his mama--there is, unfortunately, video footage of me at my sister's 2nd birthday party where I am being so helpful you can hear my mom from behind the camera asking my dad to get me out of Dene's face).  Then we had a long Advent talking about how we were getting ready for Jesus' birthday, with Michael nearly always adding "And then my birthday!"  And finally, finally it was Michael's birthday.

Three years old.  My goodness.  When did that happen?

This boy loves his puzzles, and he was thrilled to get several new ones for his birthday.  Mostly though I think he was just excited that it was finally his turn to actually have a birthday.  Cake and lots of attention didn't hurt either, naturally.

cousin friends :)

Playing off M's love of puzzles, I decided to do a puzzle-themed party.  And by "themed" I mean I drew a couple puzzle pieces on the cake.  And when I mentioned the theme to my mom she generously donated several small puzzles to be shared as party favors with the cousin friends.  So yeah, a themed party...

Maybe some day we'll dabble in the world of organized games at birthday parties.  Like, when he's 10 and asks for games at his party.  And Mama isn't 7 months pregnant.  Baking the cake and getting the house clean-ish was enough party effort for this year!

not quite Pinterest-worthy, but recognizably puzzle-themed, right? just say yes...

So, the cake... I decided right away to do my Aunt Lisa's chocolate cherry bars from our family cookbook.  That one is always a huge hit at any Rappana family gathering, and I figured it was pretty much a guaranteed success. My baking skills tend much more toward bread and occasionally scones and cookies, but regardless I've improved my baking (and learned a little bit about baking at altitude!) since the last cake I made when M was about 3 months old (never mind that we all got the stomach flu the next day... it really wasn't the cake, but neither Alex nor I ever intend to eat caramel cake ever again).

Well, the recipe is simple and foolproof.  That is, unless one is foolish enough to decide to not bother actually following it.  It calls for a box of devil's food cake mix, but I prefer to make things from scratch (to the point of pride--and not the good kind).  No big deal, right?  A little bit of extra work, but it would be even better if it were completely homemade.  Obviously.

Until the night before M's party, when it suddenly occurred to me that the recipe in the cookbook wasn't just adding a can of cherry pie filling to an intact chocolate cake recipe.  The box provides the dry ingredients, but the wet ingredients are modified to include the cherries.  And this didn't occur to me before because...?

There was still time to get a box, but of course I didn't.  I patched together a couple chocolate cake recipes, tried to modify the liquids they called for to more or less match what was in the cookbook, and added my cherries.  And then prayed and prayed as the cake (which ended up being a whole lot bigger than anything I'd seen from Lisa or Grandma) took almost twice as long to bake as it was supposed to.  At least it didn't fall (my first Mile High cake-baking attempt ended up bearing a closer resemblance to pie crusts than to cake).

All in all I was just glad that no one (other than Alex) had tasted Lisa's cake.  Or Grandma's (especially last summer's version made from a brownie mix instead of cake).  The texture was a little off, the edges were definitely dry, and the cherries were totally lost in the somehow massive cake.  But the frosting turned out just right!  Most importantly, Michael still liked it (in fact, I got way more compliments on the cake than I felt like I deserved).  In fact, my sister-in-law liked it so much that she recruited me to make it again for my niece's birthday party next weekend, in cupcake form.  I will most assuredly be purchasing a cake mix!

Where was I?  Oh right, birthday boy!

I love you, my Michael-Alexander-Crane-Superhero-Drummer-Boy!  You truly are my little superhero, with your sweet, cheerful disposition and your affectionate nature.  You are such an awesome big brother to Liam (even when it's hard to share), and you are a constant joy to Daddy and me (even in the challenges of potty training ubiquitous "why?"s).  Your love for reading and learning--and puzzles and trains and Legos--brings a smile to my face.  I am so excited for the future with you, and I truly enjoy so many things about the present, even when the days are long.  Daddy and I are so proud of you, Michael!  Happy birthday!

Happy birthday, Liam!

Linking up with Cari at Clan Donaldson for Theme Thursday: Shaming because I'm waaaay ashamed that it took me almost three weeks to post about Liam's birthday.  I don't even have a good excuse...

I think Liam is ashamed that he has a mother who insisted on stuffing his poor one-year-old head into the same hat
he was forced to wear for Christmas pictures at 7 weeks old

It was a day of profile shots--all the pictures of Liam actually looking at the camera came out blurry

The last in the series.  At this point he finally decided that the playground mulch
looked too delicious to be ignored any longer.  Also, those are "I need a nap" eyes.

Dearest Liam, I can't believe you're already one year (and 2.5 weeks) old.  This time last year your daddy and I were marveling over how you would fall asleep and then stay asleep when we put you down.  Now we're rejoicing that you are (finally) sleeping through the night (somewhat) consistently.  But sleeping or not, you are such a joy.

From the very first months of your life you were the most ticklish baby I had ever seen, and I still can't resist tickling your ribs every time I pull a shirt over your head (mean, I know--I'll be sorry when you're big enough to tickle back).  You have always been such a happy little person, and it is so exciting to see you express your personality more and more every day (even your temper--I know it's hard to wait for food and deal with a brother who is still learning how to share).

Speaking of brothers, Michael absolutely adores you, and I love to see your friendship developing even now.  Including the mini-fights over toys.  I hope you keep that special smile just for Michael forever; and I know you'll have another one for John Paul when you meet him (and thanks for not caring that mama's belly keeps getting bigger and bigger).

I love how you clap and try to say "all done" when you're done eating, and how you raise your arms and say "Dah!" for tada (and how all done and tada sound just about the same).  Your occasional "mama"s and "dada"s melt my heart.  I know I'm not supposed to wish the time away, but I can't wait for you to start talking more!

You are so precious to us, Liam Roderick!  I can't wait for all that God has in store for you.

Birthday cookies turtle

Not quite sure...

Oh, that was pretty good after all!