The Big Five

I can hardly believe it myself, but I am now the mother of a five-year old. Sometimes I look at our Alex with an odd sensation of disbelief. Did he really grow in my womb? Was he ever really a tiny baby? A toddler just learning to walk and talk? I look back at pictures and know he was, and yet I still have difficulty imagining him as anything other than the smart, lively, energetic boy he is today.

Alex had his fifth birthday at the end of February. Once again, we spread out the celebrating across two continents. From Chuck E. Cheese and cake and icecream with his grandparents and cousins in America (see last picture on my previous post), to his school party and team party here in Portugal:

Birthday cupcakes with his class at school

Birthday cake for the team party -- he asked for a Star Wars cake, so I took the easy route and made a chocolate sheet cake and put a few Star Wars toys on top. He thought it was cool, and he loved that he got to keep the toys after we ate the cake!

Five!

Just before opening presents from his friends.

I had intended to make a slideshow of the first five years of Alex's life to show at the team party, but sadly, it was one of those things I just didn't get around to doing before his birthday. I still plan on doing it at some point, but it won't be a "birthday slide show." But I did think it would be fun to take a little walk down memory lane by posting pictures from the first day of each year of Alex's life so far:

Less than 1 day old - Mito, Japan

1 year old - Portland, Oregon

2 years old - Memphis, Tennessee

3 years old - Little Rock, Arkansas (living in Detroit, Michigan at the time)

4 years old - Lisbon, Portugal

5 years old - Lisbon, Portugal