A Celebration of Daniel D (nee Alexander)

Please, everybody, look at me! 

Today I'm five years old, you see! 
And after this, I won't be four, 
Not ever, ever any more! 
I won't be three or two or one, 
For that was when I'd just begun. 

Now I'll be five awhile and then, 
I'll soon be something else again. 

~Marie Louise Allen

Daniel D is 5 years old today! Turing five seems like a huge milestone. I remember my Mom (Grandma) reciting the above poem whenever anyone in our family had their fifth birthday and it seems to capture the momentousness of the occasion. One whole hand!

As a celebration of Daniel's much-celebrated life thus far, I wanted to reflect on his birthdays through the years. 

Zero-ith Birthday: April 17, 2008

Will and I welcomed to our son, Daniel Alexander, into the world at Winnie Palmer Hospital for Women & Babies in Orlando, FL! This event marks Daniel as the only member of our family who is both a True Floridian (with a social security number with a prefix that I can never remember) AND who cannot actually remember living in Florida. Daniel was born two days after his due date with a completely natural birth and was 7 pounds, 11 ounces and 20 and 3/4 inches long. We celebrated his birth by nursing (Daniel) and eating cheez-its (the rest of us).

  

1st Birthday

Shortly before Daniel's first birthday, we changed his middle name from "Alexander" to "David." It would be more interesting if there were a juicy story behind this, but alas, we just liked the name better and thought it fit well with The D. We celebrated with festivities at our house with our good friends Thomas and Dana. Daniel got to eat cake for the first time and was not a big fan, not foreshadowing the fact that he would later have the biggest sweet tooth in our family. 

2nd Birthday

This was less than two months from when we moved from Florida to Kansas and right around the time that Will defended his dissertation and graduated. His whole birthday is honestly somewhat of a blur to me. I know that Thomas and Dana celebrated with us again and am pretty sure the Hills were there too; I also think that we got a dragon-shaped birthday cake from Publix. However, Daniel's birthday was less than two weeks from the time that we got our first "professional" pictures taken, so we have lots of proof that Daniel was Super Cute. You can't tell in any of these that Daniel was screaming "NO CAMERA!!!" in between all of the outtakes. 

Third Birthday

Daniel's first birthday in Kansas! We had a gathering at our house with our family and our good friends the Millers and the Sutliff Sanders over to celebrate with us. Daniel had originally requested a "snake birthday" but this rapidly changed into a "pirate birthday" after he spotted a super awesome pirate cake at Hy-Vee. 

4th Birthday

This was Daniel's first birthday of having a "friend party," aka inviting his friends from preschool and beyond. He wanted a "Gymnastics Plus" party, which is where he had been taking gymnastics lessons. The other big request he had was a "Star Wars"-themed party because well, Star Wars is awesome. 

5th Birthday

You can read all about Daniel's party here. Today on his actual birthday, we are trying to make the day special. And what better way to be special than with food? Daniel is having special birthday breakfast cereal (Lucky Charms, with MARSHMALLOWS), a special lunch at preschool where I am going to come and eat with him (complete with PARTY MIX today), and dinner tonight at either his favorite restaurant (IHOP) or his favorite food that we will make at home (Kraft Easy Mac??).  Oh, and last night I slept with Daniel in his bed at his request so that we could have a "slumber party for my birthday."

Happy Birthday, Daniel D. It is a joy and an honor to be your mother. You have taught me so much about life and loving and exuberance. You make me laugh every single day, make me think deeply about  physical and philosophical truths, and challenge me to want to be a better person. I love you, buddy.