David turned 5 on October 13th and we celebrated with a full blown week long day birthday specular. It was great. This is the first year that David was truly excited for his birthday. He did a countdown starting in late September. He woke up every morning in October and announced the number of days left until he turned 5. He made a list of the friends he wanted to celebrate with and had a lot of input and ideas about what he wanted at his party. It is amazing to see the kid that he has become. He is the sweetest, most loving child I have ever met and he has the best heart. He is also hard headed and very opinionated - traits I particularly love about him. At his recent parent-teacher conference, his teachers both commented on how emphatic and compassionate he is. It was the best compliment that they could have given Matt and I as we strive to raise a compassionate and caring child. They also said he was super advanced and a rock star- also nice things to hear. Needless to say, we left the conference beaming with pride.
On his actual birthday, Matt and I got up in the middle of the night and decorated the kitchen and surprised him with donuts when he woke up. He loved it and he loved the donuts. They also had birthday bread and a little celebration at school that Matt and I attended. That evening, we took David to his favorite place - Dave and Busters for a birthday dinner and games. Our good friends- Carol and Travis and Kristen and Dave, as well as Hayley came to help David celebrate. For all the complaints that Matt and I have about our family never coming to visit us, we truly have a great group of friends that are like family. David and Lila have grown up together and Carol and Travis have been great friends to us. In addition, Hayley treats the kids like her own and is so thoughtful and loving. She is always there to help when we need it and would literally do anything for the boys (even when it means sacrificing things she wants to do or cancelling on other obligations/plans). I feel blessed that we have such great people here in Dallas to be our family. Dave - who our David thinks is the coolest guy ever and has decided he must go to Princeton since that is where Dave went to college - got David a GG button. Most annoying gift ever - but he loves it.
David's birthday was on the Monday following Texas/OU weekend - so we had his party the following weekend. We had a little drama with the scheduling - originally the party was going to be on Saturday, Oct 18th, but that is apparently the prime day for fall festivals and soccer tournaments, so we moved to Sunday so that David's friends could make it. Everything turned out great (including some pretty amazing weather) and we had a great time. Matt's two brothers came down for the weekend and his parents came down on Saturday. It was nice - they got to see David play Tee-ball on Saturday morning and we hung out at the Lot in the afternoon to enjoy the super nice weather. The Waterman side loaded him up with Ninja Turtle gear and Granny D and Papa Bruce got him a maze/puzzle game that he has not put down yet. Henry loved the visit because both Uncle Jake and Uncle Luke brought their dogs with them and Henry is OBSESSED with dogs. After the dog bite incident with David, we are extremely cautious with the boys around dogs... but Henry had a good enough time just following them around and pointing. One of the few words he can say - Doggy! Everything else is just "this, this" as he points.
