Because Dawson’s birthday landed on a Sunday, we celebrated on Saturday and allowed him to do whatever he wanted all day. He loved just being able to play the wii and try out his two new games. Then his brothers joined him for more game fun after they finished their Saturday jobs. I think they had one game beat by the end of the day! And apparently it was exhausting fighting bad guys, because Dawson fell asleep on our way out for pizza that night!
For Dawson’s family birthday activity he chose to go to Jump on it in Lindon which is pretty much just a big warehouse with trampolines all taped together where kids can jump like crazy. They had swings, bounce houses, rock walls, basketball hoops, and foam pools to jump into. So fun! The kids loved it.
Dear Dawson,
I can’t believe you are 5 years old already! When did my little baby boy grow up? Can’t we just slow down time for awhile? đ Life is flying by way too fast!
Daws, you are such a joy to have in our family. You are little boy who is always smiling even when you are in trouble and you love to laugh, be tickled, and have fun. Right now one of my favorite things in the world is that you are a “Mommy’s boy.” You absolutely adore your Mommy (me) and it melts my heart in a million ways. One of the things you like to do is to “take care of me.” If I ask you to get me some ice water, to warm up a rice if I have a headache, or to bring me an extra blanket when I’m feeling sick, you are so quick to respond and do so happily and lovingly. When I ask you why you are so good to me you just smile and then say something like “My Mommy” in your squeaky voice, or “because you are so sweet to me and love me so much.” I just love you!
Just this week you brought me in a plate with a piece of buttered toast and a banana for breakfast one morning just because you love me. You also ask everyday for “Mommy time” where you love to just curl up in my lap for some snuggles or get a few books to read with me. I just love it and enjoy the close relationship that we have. I can get you to do just about anything (even your jobs) simply by asking if I can do it with you. You just love any chance we have to spend time together.
Another one of your favorite things to do together is to have “picnics” outside. And often you will go and get a blanket, lay it out on the grass, and then go inside and make everyone (that is not at school) peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. You are always so good about making your own lunch each day and then usually love making lunch for Adalynn and I as well. What a good boy you are!
One of the things we are struggling with at the moment though is getting you to EAT. You are by far our most picky child and often without even taking a bite of something you will decide it is gross and won’t even try it. Not even one bite. You would rather go hungry than be subjected to eating even a small portion of whatever we are having, even when everyone else in the family loves it. You are one stubborn little guy when it comes to food and have a hard time trying anything new. Sometimes you won’t even try things we KNOW you like (even pizza one time!) You just sometimes get in moods where no matter what it is you won’t have it. I think it is your way of feeling in control, but man almighty has getting you to eat new foods been hard. I’m really worried how you will respond to India when we move there and can’t get all the foods you like.
Some of your favorite foods though are cereal (cinnamon life being a favorite) which you like to eat with coconut milk (you say its like they put candy in the milk). For lunch you love peanut butter sandwiches with homemade strawberry jam, chips and salsa, buttered bread, mangos, and pretty much any fruit (oranges, apples, pears, grapes, strawberries, blueberries, peaches, etc). For dinner we can usually get you to eat spinach salads, and then you love enchiladas, spaghetti, quessadillas, and pizza. Other than that though you usually throw some sort of fit over dinner until we make you try one bite and you realize its pretty good. Its just crazy how hard you dig your heels in every single day over what you eat though and we just HOPE its only a phase you are in and that someday you will get over the stubborn eating phase. đ
You can also be really stubborn when it comes to doing jobs and even if you aren’t stubborn you are SOOOO easily distracted. That is unless you are super motivated because you want to play a game on the wii or watch a movie. Then you are lightning fast getting your jobs done!
One of the things that I’ve noticed about you though is that you don’t like to go outside much. Your two older brothers and little sister LOVE being outside when the weather is nice, but you mostly will only go out if I or your Dad are with you. We’ve been trying to make “outside time” part of your routine though and usually once you are out playing you’ll stay out and have a good time, but its hard to get you to WANT to go out. Just this week we made you go out one night and you ended up crashing REALLY hard on your wiggle bike going down our big hill, and scraped up your face really bad. The first thing you said when you came in to get cleaned up was, “see why I don’t like going outside!? This always happens to me!” Mind you, it was your FIRST bad spill on your bike, but you like to over-exaggerate things quite a bit for effect.
I love watching you when you are outside though (usually during our picnics) because you really have a great time. You love going for rides on the wiggle bike, and even love giving Adalynn rides. You take turns with her really well for the most part, love pulling her in the wagon, and this week I even caught you trying to give her “bike riding” lessons on her little trike. You were trying to teach her how to peddle with her feet, and how to turn the steering wheel. It was really cute.
You have a pretty good relationship with your brothers as well but still prefer Harry’s company to Bransons. You and Brans still butt heads sometimes, but it seems to be getting better. You are also less of a bully with Adalynn now and play better with her than you did a year ago. I think because you two are the only ones home during the days that you are learning its more fun to play together than on your own and you are both getting better at sharing and being nice to each other. Its good to see your relationship improving. You still both fight almost daily about whose Mommy I am though. “My Mommy!” “No, MY Mommy” as you both grab onto a leg or crawl all over me while I’m sitting trying to be the first in my lap! Some days I find it really cute that you both fight over me so much, but other days I just wish you’d both realize that I can be BOTH of your Mommy’s. đ
You also really love your Dad, but have a more hands off approach to him. You love it when he tickles you though, takes you on hikes, takes you on bike rides, plays wii or xbox games with you, or plays ball with you, or spends time with you in any way. You just aren’t very affectionate or talkative with him. When he is gone to India I often have to FORCE you to talk to him, and often you run when he asks for a hug or kiss. With me though you come running and WANT to kiss me, snuggle with me, and hug. I’m not sure what the difference is, but like I said, you are a definite Mommy’s boy. đ No complaining on my end though. I love it!
One of the things that makes us laugh about you is that you can fall asleep anywhere. We find that when you in one of your moods where you are extra stubborn about doing something, its almost always because you are tired, and when you run away because you don’t want to eat, or do a job or something we can almost almost find you asleep in the most random of places. Out in the hall on the hard wood floors, under a big pillow in the TV room (where you were hiding from us), or under a table or in a closet. You crack us up with the random places we find you sleeping.
In short Dawson, you are just so much fun to have in our family. You say the craziest off the wall things (this week it was “this medicine tastes like rotten shoelaces!”) and you bring so much joy to our family. You crack us all up with your silliness, with your words, with your cute voice, with your dance moves, and with pretty much everything you do. We sure love you and are so grateful you are ours! Happy birthday little man! Thanks for being born! đ
Love, Mommy pants