Happy 5th Birthday, My Sweet Brady-bear!

Monday, January 11th--Wow, I'm feeling emotional right now! I spent a chunk of the day going through blog posts and photos of Brady's life. What an amazing kid! I just love him so much! Like the saying goes: "To know him is to love him". That is this little guy. I say "little" and I'm sure a little laugh or smile comes because he's not so little. Brady is a huge kid! He wears size 8 clothes and his shoe size is 1-2. And as so many say, he's just solid--you can't pinch an inch. We don't know what's in store for him as far as size and height but it doesn't matter either. I look forward to all the wonderful things in store for Brady. He's talented, lively, tells a great story with expression and all, and just plain entertaining! He'll do something that makes you laugh and you laugh everytime you think of it from there on! I swear he needs an agent! I'm so thankful he's a "go with the flow" kind of kid. Very rarely do we deal with tantrums and even those are usually related to low or high glucose levels. Next month we register him for Kindergarten. He's so excited to start, he talks about it all the time. As I said in the last post, I'm intensely nervous but we're teaching him how to test himself and I know I have a lot of support from fellow parents who have small children with diabetes and the school system seems to be on the ball.

Saturday we invited all the Armstrongs over for a sledding party. It was SOOOO FUN! We have some great sledding hills in Eagle Mountain. The one at the amphitheater was frozen ice, making for great sledding. Off to the side of the hill was a small hill, perfect for little kids and not-so-brave adults (like me, even though I chose not to sled that day). It was almost like a turnpike, very cool! Nate and I made up some hot chocolate and we happily drank while everyone took a break from sledding. After sledding we came back to the house and had hot soup and rolls. I made baked potato soup. Nate made chicken noodle and Rosemary made taco soup. DELISH!

Brady opened gifts next. He got some fun things that he'll enjoy very much, along with some money he wants to put away for our next Disneyland trip. Brady chose a dinosaur themed party. He and I picked out some fun dinosaur items at Partyland. We ordered a dinosaur cake from Costco--yum! I'm not sure he wished for anything before he blew out his candles but I did for him. I wished for, simply, an amazing year full of happiness, adventure and excellent health.

Today, his actual birth date, he brought some treat bags to preschool and handed them out. I put them together last night so he would be suprised by what was in them. There was 2 pieces of candy, sunglasses, a mini-flute and a rubber bouncy ball. Brady wore the sunglasses, along with a golden yellow crown he got from preschool, all day long. His teacher remembered his favorite color is orange and got him an orange helium-filled balloon. He was in heaven! After I picked him up he and I got some lunch and McDonalds and then headed home. I told him he could do whatever he wanted until it was time to meet up with my sister, in the evening. He chose to play in his room, with his toys, then clean up a little and finally, play Xbox.

In the late afternoon we got in the car and headed up to Chuck E. Cheese. We met my sister, Alishia, and her family there. Thank goodness for coupons! We got some good deals on dinner and tokens to play games. Brady and Elise loved earning coupons to exchange for prizes. We got one of their small cakes and Chuck E. Cheese, himself, brought it to Brady. He loved that! Alishia gave Brady a toy dog that walks, wags its tail and barks. He adores it! She also got one of those rolling balls with the furry tail attached to it. We turned it on and, at first, it creeped Brady out a bit but then he decided he liked it. And he got a furry Pez dispenser with Pez candy. It was a GREAT evening!

We are so very thankful to have Brady in our lives. The happiest 5th birthday, my sweet boy! Love always, mom