FIVE

Daniel turned FIVE today. Wow! I have been thinking about this day five years ago. The awesome experience of bringing a child into this world - it is the biggest accomplishment of my life. I have never felt so strong and vulnerable at the same time. Five years ago today I learned what the condition "neonatalaltoimmunethrombocytopenia" is and how it affected my son. I immediately identified with the quote equating parenting to having your heart walk around outside your body.

Daniel has been so excited about turning five. It is a landmark birthday for him, for some reason. He feels big. He feels in control. He is so rational and quite the problem solver. He is a caring and sympathetic person - especially to Elizabeth. He has learned to calm her down and reassure her when she is nervous.

He is sensitive - in a good way. On the way to the first day of school, he told me he was a little sad. I said something like, "Yes. What are you thinking about?" And he said, "It's hard to be alone...without your mom." He was talking a few nights ago about his birthday and turning five. He was excited, and then he kind of stopped and his eyes filled with tears. He said, "Mom, I don't want to go away to college." I told him we had thirteen more years in the same house together before he had to worry about that.

Our sweet boy.

We had a great day today. He woke up to a new bike, which he immediately started to maneuver around the house. We went to school together and celebrated with shark cupcakes (that took me four hours to create), but the look on his face made the lower back pain and carpal tunnel worth it! His favorite lunch at Subway and then celebrating with Scott, Grandad, Grammy, Nana, Brad, Toni, and E. Gigi and Gramps gave him a guitar that he took to bed with him. He had me sing his books while he strummed along! I really hope he will be interested in some lessons next year.

When Scott went in to check on him after I tucked him in, Daniel was laying in his bed quietly strumming. He asked Daniel what he was singing about, and Daniel said, "Love." (He often asks what the songs mean that he hears on the radio, and we tell him when they are love songs.)

Pre-K is Daniel's favorite year of school. He has such a sense of accomplishment each day - he loves learning and from what I saw today, participating in class. He still loves the Washington Nationals. We went to several games together, and he and Elizabeth did great! Clapping and dancing and enjoying themselves, EXCEPT for fireworks. He'll tell you his favorite team in the Richmond Spider because you can't get traded in college. Daniel has embraced more fruit - apples and watermelon, and I nearly fell over the other day because he asked to have one of my carrot sticks! He favorite dinner is turkey smoked sausage and mac-n-cheese. It's really a family favorite.

Kyle is Daniel's best friend. They have been buddies since last year in their 3 year olds class. I think they have a great friendship. They "get" each other and treat each other well. Today, when they sang to Daniel for his birthday, Kyle put his arm around him. I nearly choked up.

Time to retire for the night. I promise to catch up on E via the blog this weekend. My wrists are killing me from the shark cupcakes tonight.