X to the 5th

My handful of a fifth child turned five yesterday!  I was the fifth child, and a perfect one at that, so I'm not sure why Alexander isn't following suit ;)  He certainly keeps us on our toes.  Case in point, two days before his birthday, he was sitting beside me on the couch and went to stand up.  His little legs were tucked beneath him, and as he went to pull one out, it got stuck on the leather (pleather?) and he fell face first into our coffee table.  There was mucho blood and after the tears and blood stopped, he looked like this:

I sent out an SOS on Instagram and emailed my dentist's office a photo, and the Office Manager called me back from home, on a Sunday, because she's awesome and we share the same name.  

Side Note 1: every time I call the dentist's office, I have to clarify who I am by saying "Colleen Martin, the pregnant one"  or "Colleen Martin, the one with all the kids" so they know which one I am.  

Anyhoo, she said to bring him in for an xray the next day.  The next morning, he wasn't in any pain, and Phil took him to camp with him until his appointment later that afternoon.  After morning Mass, I get a text from Phil that Xander had opened up his water bottle with his teeth (as one does) and the tooth got wiggly and started bleeding and he pulled it out himself!  I won't share the tooth photo here again but you can hop over here to see what a baby tooth looks like, root and all.  I took him to the dentist and they just cleaned it up a bit, took an xray and said there's nothing more to be done now.  God is good, because he may have had to get it pulled if it didn't come out on its own!  We went for some (soft-serve!) ice cream to celebrate:

Xander was very excited to show everybody his tooth in the cool tooth holder they gave him, that he almost lost it twice at my parent's house within minutes.  That would have been devastating because how would the tooth fairy have come??!!??  

Side Note 2: I once lost my little sister's tooth under out kitchen island when we were kids.  She got so mad at me and I had to write a note to the tooth fairy apologizing.  It was traumatic for the both of us and I can't not think of that story every time my kids lose teeth.

On the morning of his 5th birthday, Xander awoke to a whole dollar from the tooth fairy!

Side Note 3: JP declared that he only got a quarter for his first tooth and then a nickel for each one following.  Total lie, but he really believes it.

  And now his smile looks like this:

Hey Shorty, it's your birthday, and we gonna...you know the rest.  

He picked pancakes with strawberries and whipped cream for his birthday dinner (he called it "dreakfast") and Declan be like, where's my berries and cream, woman?

He got some too, don't fret, we just wanted him to eat some pancakes first and once the whipped cream comes out, that's all he will eat.  Who can blame him?

 Then came presents from Mom and Dad:

Eamon was at a basketball game, and JP was taking the world's longest shower when gifts happened.  It was already past bedtime so we kept the party rolling right along.  You snooze (or ball or shower) you lose!

He got a Superhero Book, an Avenger Wii game, another Avenger Wii game, a stomp rocket, and a pack of dinosaur flashcards.  He also got a bouncy ball from Andrew and one from Eamon, so sweet.

My parents and his godfather will be coming over on Sunday to celebrate again, where we will have Chinese food and ice cream sundaes (birthday boy's choice!).  My parents couldn't make it on his actual birthday because my Dad had surgery to remove the staples placed in his chest after his open heart surgery a couple years ago.  They were causing him pain, so out they went, and he looks like he did fantastic:

Grandparents of 22 on St Joachim & St. Anne's feast day.

Side note 4: That's grilled cheese and chicken soup for dinner, in case you were wondering like some of my siblings were in the group texts last night.  We love to eat :)

Happy 5th Birthday, Alexander Blaise!  We can't get enough of you and your funny, shy, accident-prone, quirky personality.  I'm pretty sure God broke the mold when He created you! You're our one-in-a-million kid and we love you so much!