Happy 9th Birthday Will!

I told William on Friday morning that I was going to his school to watch the school sing Happy Birthday to him at the morning assembly. He protested. "No Mom! I don't want you to come!" I promised him that I would hang out in the back in the corner and no one would even notice me. I kept my promise. The funny thing is as soon as Will saw me his face exploded into this huge grin, he ran over, and snuggled up to my arm. I tried to stay "cool" and said, "Hey Will!" Then he ran off for a few minutes, came back, stood by me, ran away and repeated that sequence a few more times. I was just laughing to myself. The school sang Happy birthday to the birthday kids. The principal lets the kids pick what age they're going to be. William said, "19". I waved goodbye to him when his class lined up and brought him Mc Donald's for lunch later. Isaac came with me too. Then we went outside for recess and observed from the bench. Then I checked him out of school and took him with me to run errands. That night, William learned how to flip under water and kick off the wall at his swimming lesson! He's learning certain skills to help him when he joins the swim team this month. 

William wanted a Terraria themed birthday. Van helped us the night before to get things ready. We stayed up until 10:00 pm working and watching episodes of Family Matters. I drew the pictures on the balloons and Van and Isaac made the poster.

He got a Minecraft stop motion kit from Grandma Lisa for his birthday. He's made about six films. He loves to create with technology. He even said so himself. Isaac and I gave him this toy Bloxels. You build something with the blocks, take a picture of it with your iPad and the app creates a game out of your character. It's so cool! Van loves it too.

Will chose to have a buddy birthday again this year. He invited his friend Colin over and they played with his new birthday toys. We took them to King Chef Buffet for his birthday dinner. There was orange chicken on the menu, but not in the buffet, which is what he wanted. The manager gave him a free plate of orange chicken and waived his meal since it was his birthday. Hooray! When they asked him if they could sing to him, he politely said, "No, thank you."

Colin, William, and Van making a stop motion movie.

After dinner we played Mario Kart and Terraria and then took Colin home. William didn't want his birthday to end. We decided to stay up longer and watch old movies on our Nitty Gritty blog. The boys were cracking up at themselves when they were babies. I can't believe how fast time has flown since that night I went into labor with William!

William is still struggling with liking school. One day he came home and told me the following story. "Mom, this teacher came into our class today. Not Ms. Watson, another teacher. She told the kids, "What are the rules of the classroom?" The kids responded with 'Keep your hands to yourself, raise your hand, be quiet," and she wrote them on these sticky notes. Then she asked the class, 'You guys know the rules. Raise your hand if you think your class can follow these rules.' Everyone raised their hand but me. I was just thinking, 'Ya right. There's no way this class can do that.' Sure enough, they were good for like thirty minutes and then they were bad again." I told William that I'm actually enjoying the stories he tells me everyday and that we should make a comic book. Kind of like The Diary of a Wimpy Kid.

William earned his Wolf Badge and doubled his score on his reading test all in the same day. I said, "Wow Will! You should be proud of yourself!" He responded, "All I care about in my life right now is getting the Terra blade in Terraria." This kid!

When we shared what we love about Will, I said, "I love how smart you are. You told me that babies are born with 300 bones and adults only have 200. I had to look it up to verify and sure enough you were right, not exactly right, but close to it."

We love you William! I love how you think--it reminds me so much of your dad! You make Van laugh and that makes me happy. You're a good example to your peers. You're so creative and I hope you get to make video games one day. Happy Birthday!!