Damon's 3rd Birthday

Damon turned three years old yesterday!  He's been excited for his birthday for a while. 

We usually wake our kids up singing "Happy Birthday," but we were up late making a cake, wrapping presents, and putting his bike together.  And Damon wakes up at 6:00 or a little before.  We couldn't get up before him.  Natalie and Kelton were good helpers and didn't let Damon go downstairs where his presents were.  At 7:00, Nate and I got up and told Damon to run back to his bed.  He jumped back in and then we sang "Happy Birthday" to him.  Then we went down so he could open his presents.

I have a big roll of Christmas wrapping paper that I don't really like, so we used that, inside out, to wrap his bike.  We thought he would have fun opening that.  We were right.  Here is an action shot of him unwrapping his bike.

Along with the bike, we gave Damon a dinosaur toy and an airplane.  (He has three other airplanes in this set that he got for Christmas and he loves them.)  Grandma and Grandpa Webb gave him a Color Wonder (the markers that only color on special paper) travel set and a package of Color Wonder markers.  We kind of confiscated those, knowing he had other toys to play with, because we want to open that in the car on our drive to California next week.  They also gave Damon one of those singing cards (it was a Chuggington one) and it was a big hit, just like last year.  He's been walking around the house singing along with it today. Grandma and Grandpa Burgess gave Damon a Transformers Bumblebee helmet and a Bumblebee toy that easily converts from robot to car and back.  He had fun all day playing with Bumblebee.  He loves cars, so having one that he could also turn into a robot was really fun.  The helmet was also a nice upgrade from Natalie's old one, which was covered in pink flowers.

For the last few weeks Damon has been telling me things like this:  "My birthday is coming.  And Kelton had a birthday, and he had a Mario party, and his friends came.  And on my birthday, my friends are going to come and I'm going to have a party..."  I can't believe that he remembers all about Kelton's party and that he realizes that he can apply that to his birthday.  The problem is, I was not going to do a birthday party for a bunch of two and three year olds.  I haven't done a party for any of my kids until they have turned five.

So I came up with a solution.  We would have a cake party instead.  So we invited a few of Damon's "friends" and their families to come to the park to sing "Happy Birthday" and have cake with us.  It was fun and Damon felt like he got his party.

Damon's request was for a Backyardigans cake.  His favorite character is Pablo, so that's who he got on his cake.

In the morning, when Kelton saw the partially done cake in the fridge, he came to me and said, "Mom, it looks like there is grass all over Damon's cake."  I had to laugh as I told him is was supposed to look like grass on the cake.  Mission accomplished, I guess.

Damon was excited about his cake.

He told me he was "going to eat it like this!"

At the park.

 

It didn't seem windy, but there was enough of a breeze that we had massive trouble getting the candles lit.  Actually, it never happened and Nate ended up just holding the lighter on them while we sang and then Damon blew them (mostly the lighter) out.  It was a little frustrating because we made everyone wait while Nate went to Safeway to buy the candles and lighter, because we forgot ours at home, and then they didn't even work.  But, later Damon--in telling me about his day--specifically mentioned that he "got to blow the candles out!"  It made him happy, he remembers it as a highlight, so it was worth it.

A few things about Damon...

He is naturally good natured and sweet.  He has a happy personality.  I first realized this when he was only a few weeks old.

That being said, he is also a button pusher.  He is really good at figuring out what exactly will bother you and then he does it.  He even does it to me.

You can't call him little, or use the word little to refer to him at all.  Like if I say, "come here my little boy."  He will reprimand me and say, "I'm not little!  I'm big!"  And don't try to ever tell him that he is too little for something, even if he is.

He has intense, dark brown eyes.  Whether he is upset, or really excited, his eyes have an intensity to them.  I love it.

You can't call him cute.  His reply goes like this:  "I'm not cute.  (insert grouchy face)  I'm handsome."  (insert big smile)

He is too smart for his age.  I don't mean school smart--though he does know his letters and some of the sounds--I mean, aware smart.  He understands things, conversations, implications, what's going on around him... I've had other two/three year olds and they are mostly clueless to what's really going on because they aren't old enough to understand.  Damon understands.  You can't even talk about him in code because he will still know you are talking about him.  He also speaks really well.  Especially over these last six months or so, Nate and I would find ourselves marveling over the fact that he was still only two years old because, cognitively, he seemed more like a 3-4 year old.

He will almost always run to give you a hug, if you ask.  And he always does it with a huge smile on his face.

He is always the first one to be helpful.  If something needs to be cleaned up, he will do it.  If he sees me picking stuff up, he will come over and help without being asked.  Often times when I call for helpers, Damon is my first, and only, responder.

He loves to play with Natalie and Kelton.  He's really good at making Arie laugh.

We love this kid!  Happy Birthday Damon!