Dear Alden, You’re 5!

Posted in Alden by Liz

Dear Aldi Boy,

This week you turned five years old! You were SO into your birthday this year, asking Alexa to count the days for months ahead of time. You were so proud to tell everyone it was your birthday too.

Since you were so pumped, we of course had to go all out celebrating you. We had a big birthday party at the new bowling alley, then you woke up on your birthday to about 100 balloons your Dad blew up in the house, presents, donuts, and Lucky Charms. You took goodie bags to school for your preschool friends (with FIVE things in them because you are FIVE). Then we capped the day off with your annual homemade Hot Chocolate cake.

I just love you so much at this age buddy. You are generally very easy going, sweet, happy to go with the flow. You get dragged to all your siblings activities, but always manage to find ways to have fun. Like this fall when you went to your brother’s soccer tournament out of town. You made a friend at the field, gathered sticks, and found a hill to roll down repeatedly. You make any situation better!

You make friends easily and will often have a group of kids following you around at the park or playground. It’s adults you could do without! Pretty much the only adults you don’t mind acknowledging are me and your Dad. Sorry grandparents! Haha.

You love your siblings, all things sports, the color “rainbow,” eggs, Bluey, and reading the same bedtime book every night for months on end. You are a “do it myself!” boy who takes pride in keeping up with your older brothers. You often show me how strong you are by lifting me up.

A few months ago you ditched your own room to move in with Davis and Whitaker. You adore your older brothers and Lila. And except for the occasional ganging up on you from the twins, they adore you too. I often find you guys playing sports in the backyard, competing on Roblox, or just being silly (and loud!) all around the house.

You are the best baby of our family (even though you do NOT want to be called a baby). Your easy going nature, fun personality, and independent nature fits in perfectly. Thank you for making my life easy! lol

We love you so much Alden and can’t wait to see what your fifth year of life brings.

Love you buddy!

Mommy

16Mar2023

Dear Alden, you’re three!

Posted in Alden, Kids by Liz

My little Aldi, you are three! Despite earning “big boy” status, you still insist you are “baby Aldi.” Your birthday this year included your annual hot chocolate cake made by mommy and driving around with your family to look at Christmas lights. I love this tradition and plan to keep it going even when you’re all grown up!

While last year’s birthday post mentioned you weren’t talking much yet, this year your speech has exploded and we pretty much can’t keep you quiet! You talk in a sweet, soft voice and I often have to put my ear right up to your mouth to hear you.

You are very easy-going and chill. In fact, this week was only the second time ever that you threw a tantrum while we were out (at gymnastics) and that was only due to daylight savings. You are just a happy guy who can find fun in any situation.

You are still obsessed with your siblings and love to get in the mix with whatever they are doing. Your favorite lately has been playing Mario Party or Mario Kart with them, and honestly, you do very well! When they have a friend over I often find you chasing them, pretending to be a “bad guy,” while saying “Ha Ha Ha!” in a scary (funny) voice. If we are at a party, I usually find you sweaty and red-faced from running around with the older kids.

You finally got your chance this year to play sports after watching on the sidelines. You tried basketball, soccer, and soon t-ball. While you can be a bit timid around the other older kids playing, you ask repeatedly after when you get to play again. You also have learned to swim independently at not even 3 1/2, making you our youngest. I have a feeling you will end up being our best athlete, which is saying a lot considering how athletic your siblings are.

It cracks me up what a spoiled, baby of the family you are sometimes. I call you Little Prince because the motto “what baby wants, baby gets” rings true around here. Lately, you’ve adopted this name yourself and have been asking me to “make eggs and feed me like a little prince.” This entails me hand-feeding you eggs in bed while you watch your iPad. I am such an enabler, but I can’t help it because you’re my last baby and so sweet. You know that if you want something your siblings or Dad, or I will get it for you because we all adore you.

Some of your favorite things include anything Mario, anything the color orange (your fav), your BFF Charlotte (who you say is pretty), gymnastics at the Y, all the eggs you can eat, and being with your family. Even though you are quiet and chill, you make your preferences known! These days you will only wear orange shirts (or Mario) and eat off orange plates. :)

Our family wasn’t complete until you joined, Alden. You are the perfect caboose to our group and we all love you so much. Next year you start preschool and while I am excited to watch you take that next step towards growing up, I will miss our days at home together. We have had so much fun going to art class, gymnastics, the coffee shop etc. I cherish the three+ years we’ve had together 24/7. Being with you has been one of the greatest joys of my life!

We love you so much our Aldi baldi, bitty boy, Aldeezy, little prince.

Mommy

12Dec2021

Dear Alden, You’re Two!

Posted in Alden by Liz

Alden Roy,

This week you turned two years old! I really cannot believe it because I am pretty sure it was last month that you were a teeny baby in my arms. Where did the time go?

For your birthday this year you woke up to balloons, presents and cinnamon rolls. Your siblings each drew you a picture and Lila made you a special bracelet you wore all day. Your babysitter Amanda took you to Imagination Station during the day. At night we went to dinner at a hibachi restaurant where you loved watching them cook in front of you. Then we drove around looking at Christmas lights and had homemade hot chocolate cake. It was a great day!

You are such a delight in my life. Truly you make me so happy and I just love being with you. And while you are a fiercely independent Sagittarius like your daddy, you know just how to melt my heart with your hugs, “momeees!” and sly smiles.

While I would love to keep you little, you want nothing more than to be a big kid. You follow your brothers around and want to do everything they do. At parties we can always find you chasing after the big boys trying to do whatever they are. We also ended up giving your high chair away because you absolutely refused to sit in it and demanded to sit in a big boy chair like everyone else, THANK YOU VERY MUCH!

You are a very coordinated and physical little guy who started scootering to and from school (1 mile away) at just 18 months. Every person we pass on the way marvels and how good you are on your scooter for being such a little guy. It cracks me and daddy up when you start lifting your leg to the side and doing swerving tricks just like your brothers.

You’ve never met a ball you didn’t like and will regularly inch your way out onto the court at your brother’s basketball games. Recently when I took you to a store they had baskets of balls sitting out front and you about lost your mind screaming “BALL!!!!!” over and over until I let you load a bunch in our cart.

You are obsessed with eating. Mostly eggs. Not only eating, but also cooking. Each morning you bring a carton of eggs to Daddy and demand he put you on the counter so you can help him cook them. You do the same when I’m making dinner. Its not unheard of for you to consume 4 eggs in one sitting and then go back for some fruit to finish it off. I think that may be the reason you’re in the 99% for height.

(Also note the mario boxer shorts of your brothers that you regularly refuse to take off)

If there are two things you’re not that interested in, it would be talking and smiling. Grunting and pointing remains your preferred method of communication and I usually have to explain that you’re a “stoic baby” to the little old ladies cooing at you to smile in the store. Although you refuse to smile for mommy when I take pictures, you’re more than happy to cheese it up for your babysitter! I think you’ll be the type to know your mind and not be swayed by others.

You’ve been thriving despite having hemophilia. I honestly forget about it most days thanks to your medication. You’ve still never had a bleed and hardly notice when we do your monthly injections. We feel so lucky that if you had to have a chronic illness, that it is hemophilia, because it’s been very manageable.

My sweet Roysie Boysie, Baldi Aldi, Boo Boo. I love watching you grow up and and cherishing your toddlerhood as my last baby. It’s clear you’re going to be spoiled because as I tell your siblings “what baby wants, baby gets!” All joking aside, I love being your mommy.

Hugs and kisses forever baby boy!

Mommy

10Dec2020

Dear Alden: You’re One Year Old!

Posted in Alden by Liz

Dear Alden,

This week you officially turn one! My last baby is leaving behind his babydom and entering the toddler zone. I know I should be sad about this, but you are such the perfect ending to our baby years, that instead of sad I just feel content.

I do feel bad that this is my first post dedicated to you since I chronicled your birth story, but 2020 has been a YEAR baby boy. With the pandemic, school closures, work and raising four kids, my time was all used up. But I want you to know that I love every second we’ve spent together this year.

You have been such an angel baby. Don’t tell your siblings this, but you have been by far our easiest, most content baby. From your amazing birth to now, you’ve made life easy for me. You took to nursing well, you slept through the night early on and you generally are just a chill, happy dude. I’d like to take the credit for how sweet you are, but I know in reality it’s just your good-natured temperament.

Before you were born, my friend has a “psychic party” where the psychic told me you were the oldest soul in our family and that we’d all learn from you. At the time I got chills because your name was already picked out and meant “old, wise friend.” I think this prediction was right too, because you have a mature, almost angelic quality to you.

Physically you started rolling, then sitting up, then crawling earlier than any of my other babies. You have started taking some steps and love to climb everything. You seem very sure footed and very rarely take a tumble. You are also a very curious little baby who is always creating mischief – usually by dumping out Finny’s dog food and water.

Due to the pandemic, you have mostly been a “house baby” as I like to say. Your days are spent in the safety and familiarity of our house among your siblings, dog and parents. You love crawling from the playroom to the kitchen and back exploring the toys set out, finding remotes to bang and attempting to break through the gates and up the stairs. You bring so much fun to our home.

One hard part about your first year was your diagnosis with severe Hemophilia. I noticed when you were four months old that you started getting bad bruises just from rolling over. When I took you to the doctor, they thought I was abusing you and made me take you to the hospital with warnings that CPS may be called on me. That day about broke me.

Thankfully the hospital workers were kind and very quickly we got your diagnosis. We were all in shock as we have no family history and you have two older brothers without the disease. Recently though we found out that I am a carrier and didn’t know. I felt so much guilt when I found out – like I had given you this awful thing you have to carry for the rest of your life.

Early on though, Daddy and I decided that this disease would not define you. It would be something we dealt with, but not the focus of your life or who you are. Thankfully you were able to get on a new medication called Hemlibra that has dramatically changed the lives of hemophilia patients. Instead of infusions three times a week, you just get one injection every month. And my sweet boy, you’ve been absolutely THRIVING since we started your injections. It’s been such a wonderful blessing.

I’m so looking forward to this year (and the years to come) to see how you grow and develop into your own special person. I know that nothing will hold you back from doing the things you want in life. I will make sure of that!!

So many people love you baby boy. You bring a special light to our family that I cherish. When you’re in the room it’s pretty much impossible to feel upset. The sweet way you lay your head on my shoulder, when you try to say “doggie!” when you see Finny, the way you wave at daddy, your squeals of delight when you’re around your brothers and the way you light up when you see Lila fill all our hearts. I’m pretty sure you’re everyone’s favorite in this family.