It is the Little Dudes Birthday today, the big OH-FIVE, which is totally amazing.

Amazing because OMG, my youngest is 5 and that means I am pretty much through the messy bit.

And extra amazing as this is the first year he “gets it” He is so excited he might burst and we have been on Birthday countdown for the past 2 weeks.

Today is all about cinnamon buns for breakfast, a half day of school (perfectly timed parent/teacher meetings), swimming in the afternoon, homemade pizza for dinner and ice cream sundaes for dessert. Tomorrow is all about his favourite things, and making him the star.

He came out a small, fuzzy baby. We struggled with balancing 3 kids under the age of 6, making sure there was time for everyone.  He adapted as we packed up our life and moved to an island. He flourished surrounded by chickens and space, his passion for hiking growing stronger each month as his legs grew longer.

He showed us how little boys ARE different than little girls (or different than our girls at least) as he fell in love with lego movies and talked us step by step through his creations.

He became our “Chicken Whisperer” and showed us chickens DO snuggle. He is our super helper, pitching in around the house, mucking coops and (as he says) building his muscles.

He is our carb loving, vegetable hating, book reading, fussy over every single pair of socks little boy, and we love him for that.

And today he will open his presents, a handmade kitchen centre and all sorts of goodies to go with it and remind us again, that even though he showed us that he is different than his sisters, he also shows us that he is his very own unique self.