Happy Birthday Alex......and a hard-headed decision...

This post is waaay overdue as Alex celebrated his 4th birthday on November 20th......However the floods saga took precedence over his special day and hence we are only managing to make reference to it now.... that is not to say that we did not celebrate it that day.... In fact every cloud has a silver lining and due to the fact that I had an unexpected day off on the 20th, no car, roads closed we decided to have an impromptu party that evening, invited two families that live close by and who have two little boys around Alex's age over for lasagne, cake and wine..... it was lovely.... especially as next year Alex will be in school so the days of having parties and having the adults there are probably gone now ...:(

What more could a little guy want but to be so loved by his two big sisters!!!!!  He is loving being the centre of attention...Interestingly enough Darrelle and Elena appear to have exactly the same hair colour...and our 'blond' boy is going dark also......

In fact Alex is always quick to remind you of his place in the family if anyone is ever treating less than he feels he deserves.... he regularly tells Elena in a very aggrieved tone when she has gone too far and hurt his feelings or worse..... 'Elena, I'm your bru-ther'.. In other words 'Be nice to me'...  In fact he is really enjoying them 'being nice' to him below.....

Alex  continues to idolise his 'Daddy' over anyone else... tho' he is getting 'quite fond' of me now!!! Ha!  Declan is the champion 'landscape gardener' where we live!!!!!!! People joke our lawn is like a putting green!! He shows the leaves no mercy and they have hardly touched the ground than he is out with  the blower sending them off to wherever fallen leaves go......It's a good thing I balance this obsessive compulsive side of his nature.. Ha! Ha!  This place would be like the Savannah Grasslands if it was left up to me!!! Anyway he does a fantastic job of keeping the grounds of our house looking great and has even been known to cut neighbours' lawns if needs be....Alex LOVES to be out with him following him around and 'helping'... this week Declan has been cutting back all the plants and shrubs and when it was getting dark Alex followed him to put some of the cuttings in the bin... Declan jokingly asked him 'Will I put you in the bin Alex?' To which Alex replied in a hurt voice... 'but I love you Daddy' and then indignantly said ' I'm not rubbish'!!!!!

It is hard to believe our little 'baby' is 4...he is loving 'naíonra' (preschool) four days a week and loves each of his two childminders....We continually hear 'Alex is soo good... he's a great kid.....'  We have now found his volume switch for when we are at Mass... and I feel a bit better about bringing him as he is happy to 'write and do jigsaws, stay in the one spot and whispers so softly that I have no idea what he is saying!!!!  Funnily I have not started the practice of bringing Alex to light a candle for his birthmother on his birthday.. It's not that I don't plan to but just something that I have yet to do... We are equally grateful to Alex's birthmother for the gift of her son to us and we feel he is the perfect fit for our family..... Alex happily talks about 'the babyhouse' in Kazakhstan and we were interested to hear from his aunt, Declan's sister recently how when he said he was from the 'babyhouse in Kazakhstan' and when she asked him  about what he did there he said ' I was sad.. I was crying....'  Declan said she felt so sorry for him she said to him... 'don't ever give out to that child!!!'  I laughingly asked him the same question after I had heard this story and to my question 'what did you do in the babyhouse?' he replied 'I was playing football ... with my cousin Faolán'  so there you go... the logic and understanding of a three year old.....!!!

This time three years ago we were in the looong process of bringing Alex home from Ust-Kamenogorsk and he rolled with every punch (figuratively speaking of course!!!), was  content with every new experience and apart from eyeing us up warily upon meeting us at the start of our second trip, and taking his time warming up to us when we met him first he was the easiest little guy to be 'stranded' in Kazakhstan with.... while waiting... and waiting.. interminably  for those passports that took forever n a day..... 

While he is placid by nature, easily persuaded to do something he should or dissuaded from doing something he shouldn't he is well able to hold his own, is very active and loves all the things that 3 and 4 year old boys love....

You would not believe how many photos we had to take of Alex before we got a decent one....

Maybe it was his placid nature, or because he loves his sleep but up to last week Alex was content to still be in his cot... Unlike his sisters who were out of their cots at very reasonable ages, Darrelle , the textbook baby was following the textbook and had reached that chapter!!! and Elena, who, while so cautious I thought she will never brave it but did, at 2 and a half because her desire to get into her parents bed was stronger than her fear of falling.... Alex , I think was going to wait there until I decided that he should be out...

We spoke about it on occassion... and went over and back with ' he really should.. he will be the only boy in school in a cot(!) to 'He loves his cot... and so on..

Anyway events overtook us and quickly made our minds up on this one... No, he did not try to get out but last week just after I had put him in and read him his story, gone out and closed the door he called me back because he wanted to show me his 'glow-in-the-dark- pyjamas which had lit up as soon as I had closed the door.... I opened the door again... He put his hands on the rail to show me how the arms had lit up, obviously lifted his feet and before I could even react came right out over onto his head on the wooden floor.....

The poor little guy got such a fright and such a bang that he went rigid in my arms and then started to cry and cry.... and so ends another stage.... the last baby in our house is ... a baby no more.....

After taking him downstairs for a while and making sure he had suffered no ill-effects from his fall we decided to put him in the lovely little bed we bought for him 2 years ago (and which extends into a bigger bed) and which he loves and..... he slept all night.... has done every night since and still allows me my lie-in on a Saturday morning....

What more could a mother ask for??????

Happy 4th birthday Alex..... We love you!!!