Photo-A-Day 2.0 #00692

Andy turned 9 today. Yesterday on my Facebook memories a post came up of the day before Andy was born 9 years ago. At that time I wasn’t sure how I was going to adjust to being a father of two. I took that day to take Eva out and do some special things with her. I won’t say that adjusting to having Andy in our lives was completely smooth.

It wasn’t.

I was adjusting to a new job, new house and the new baby. He wasn’t a sleeper and not a cuddler. He was constantly moving and screaming. So much screaming on both of our parts. He was tough to bathe and I dreaded bath time because there was always the screaming. But, we adjusted and settled into our new lives together. I was very fortunate to be able to spend as much time as I did with Andy when he was little. Taking him to play group and then school and spending all week with him while Allison went to work and Eva to school. we watched movies and had lots of time playing with toys.

Now he is nine and he loves to joke around with people. He likes to make up jokes and do silly things to make people laugh. He’s a whiz at Minecraft. He can make you anything you want. He’s a fan of making omelets and enjoys reading mysteries. He’s also very kind and thoughtful. Last year was a rough one in school. I think that during this pandemic he has come into his own more and is much more confident. He’s showing more maturity in karate and is still a goof but has more of a sense of when to be a goof.

I took a few hours out of work this morning so that I could sleep before the day ahead. When I woke up I took Andy to Bliss for breakfast. I could have placed money on him getting an omelet for breakfast but instead he opted for a tall stack of pancakes and hash. He didn’t like the hash because he thought it would be more like hash browns. But he did dig deep into the pancakes. He did ask for a coloring page and had a fun time with the activities. I also let him order a Sprite which he had to wait till it was less fizzy. He’s not a big soda drinker but enjoys a Sprite or a Fanta once in a while.

After our breakfast we picked up Allison and Eva to go to America’s Best Defense to help assemble Thanksgiving baskets for local families. We raised enough for 609 baskets. The dojo was set up as a smooth sailing assembly line. Sensei Sarah and Mr. Brochu were letting people in the door and supplying us with cookies and Hershey’s Kisses, plus some jokes. Inside Sensei Howard sang Happy Birthday to Andy and Sensei Burns moved us through the line, encouraging us to get in our steps. We each grabbed a turkey pan and then moved through the line getting all the fixings all through bagging up the basket. We also saw Sensei Nordberg who was surprised to see Andy. He was Andy’s first karate Sensei. We finished a basket each and then went around the building to do it again. We ended u making 5 baskets each.

We then ran to Party City to pick up Andy’s balloons. It was a Pokémon themed birthday with a giant Pikachu balloon which we almost didn’t get because they didn’t give it to us the first time. Allison checked her order and went back in and got it. We picked up lunch at D’Angelo and then came home and watched My Octopus Teacher on Netflix. I slept a little bit while Andy facetimed Auntie Tara and opened his gift from she and Uncle Erik. It was a box set of Diary of a Wimpy Kid books. He then had his Minecraft class through Connected Camps on Outschool. This week was a better on than last week.

Before we knew it the time had come for his birthday parade. We had ordered 45 cookies from Dp Cookeez and went through 41 of them. It was a good parade with some surprises and even folks from the Karate Dojo came by. My parents and my sister Shelby and her kids came to have dinner and cake with us. Mom went all out and drew a portrait of Andy to put on her car.

After the parade we had a nice dinner and the kids played together. We ran a plate and a cookie over to or neighbor Joanie. She was thrilled.

after dinner we enjoyed a Pokeball cake that Allison made. Andy choose Red Velvet as the type of cake that he wanted. We also had ice cream including some from Bliss that we picked up this morning. Andy had a nice day surrounded by family and friends. Some of his favorite things included a handmade Among Us card that was expertly drawn by our friends. We’re going to have to play the game together one night remotely. As far as Quarantine birthdays ths one we pretty great. But, let’s hope that we can gather with friends for his 10th one.