Asa Turns 5

Asa turned 5 today.  My heart can scarcely believe that my baby is 5.  Then there's this photo that makes him look like a teenager and I find myself barely coping with the passing of time.  My baby is 5!  How have 5 years gone by since he came into the world???

The Bubba has been counting down to his birthday since September began.  And this morning he woke everybody up, bouncing around and asking for presents.  I guess you could say he likes his birthday just a little bit :)

So we started off with presents.  And what better way to give our rhino-loving boy his first present than in a bag with a rhino on it?  That was like a present all by itself :)

There was no rhino inside, however.  Instead, Asa got what he knew would be coming for a long time: his own piggy bank!  We've given each boy a piggy bank and let them start receiving an allowance when they turn 5.  This poor kid has been watching his brothers get an allowance for a long time now and has been patiently waiting for his turn.  Well, today was the day!

(I ordered this tractor piggy bank on Etsy about 2 years ago and hauled it over the ocean a year-and-a-half ago.  It takes some serious planning ahead to prepare for some of these birthday moments!)

I was super excited to give Asa this safari jeep, and he was super excited to get it.  I found it several months ago at a tourist shop and couldn't resist.  Asa very much still plays with cars and trucks and tractors, and he loves going on safari, so it was the perfect gift.  He immediately started driving it around and setting up animals so he could go on safari!

Kai made this note for Asa as his present.  The king cobra in question is a brand new toy that Kai bought in Nairobi with his allowance money and which Asa desperately wanted a turn to play with but struggled to understand the concept of Kai getting to play with his own brand new toy for as long as he wanted.  So apparently Kai decided upon this solution.  Be still my heart.

Asa was blessed with a friend coming to play today too.  Our househelper's daughter likes to come and play sometimes (especially since all the schools have been closed this year) and it's always a good time.  They particularly liked playing with play-dough today.

When it was time to bake the cake, the birthday boy wanted to help, of course!  He had picked out a cake mix at the store in Nairobi - dark chocolate flavor.  Mmm...

Asa really wanted a dinosaur cake this year.  When I asked what he had in mind, he specifically requested a suchomimus and a T-rex.  I had no time to plan ahead for this cake since we'd been in Nairobi for several days and didn't get home until the end of the day yesterday, so I whipped up a design this afternoon and hoped he'd approve.  Thankfully, he did!

He informed us that the battle between the suchomimus and T-rex ended in a "winner's tie" :)  I like that concept a lot.

We invited just a few friends over for a taco supper and birthday cake.  It was a really nice, relatively quiet birthday evening.  It was perfect.

Asa wanted us to sing "Happy Birthday" for nap time and for bedtime, which makes me smile.  He really enjoyed this day, which makes me happy.  I love that he loves his birthday.

Asa is a beautiful and precious son.  He is our goofiest kid, making silly faces all the time and laughing at his own jokes.  He is outgoing and social, unafraid to try new things or meet new people, and he fully tries (and usually succeeds) at keeping up with his big brothers.  He is active and has boundless energy until right before lunch when he tends to noticeably slow down, and he still naps every other day for a solid 2-3 hours.  He loves snuggling and being read to, always with his snuggle blanket shoved in his face.  His snuggle blanket is still an absolute necessity, and whenever's he's tired or needs comfort, he grabs that blanket and shoves a corner against his nose which is just how he likes it!

Asa is a smart kid.  He's starting to read and loves doing school alongside his brothers.  He knows a lot simply because he picks up knowledge from hanging around his brothers during school time.  His attention span is small, however, because he's still such a little boy at heart.  His tractors and construction machines and dinosaurs and superheroes and bow and arrows always seem to be calling his name.  He is so playful and we love it.

More than anything, we love how much Asa loves the Lord.  He loves to look through his Bible and learn new stories.  He memorizes Scripture.  He prays with confidence and sincerity.  He astonishes us with his faith.  We continue to pray that he will be like his namesake, King Asa, who "did what was good and right in the eyes of the Lord and had a heart fully committed to Him."

Happy Birthday, Asa!