A Springtime Daniel Update

There are a lot of things we could put in a posting about our almost-five-year-old, but it just wouldn't be right to lead off with anything except the new bike.

Daniel had pretty much outgrown his little 12" bike, although he was still having a lot of fun on it. On the larger wheels, he goes much faster and further than before.

We've taken several trips from our house through the state park, to the reservoir and back, and he just goes full speed up and down the hills with the biggest smile on his face you can imagine.












Daniel is sort-of reading books now. When he focuses, he can read simple sentences, recognizing a lot of shorter words and will sound his way through the longer ones. Some of it is memorization, some of it he guesses at, but there's no denying that he's really, really close to a reading breakthrough.

His favorite books have been the "magic treehouse" series for some time now -> he's read the first 28 adventures of Jack and Annie, and is apparently constantly talking about them at school. His teachers say there isn't a subject that he doesn't have an opinion on, and frequently starts a sentence with: "I learned that from my Jack and Annie books".

For those of you who are keeping track, Daniel did have another seizure here a couple of weeks ago. That makes 8 so far, and it'd been about 9 months since the previous one. So they're coming infrequently, and always triggered by a fever.

This was the first time we didn't go to the hospital at all, and it worked out OK, if a little nerve-wracking to do without the safety net of the nurses and doctors.

Daniel wrapped up the ski season with a third lesson, which didn't go all that great. He ends his first year of skiing knowing how to turn and stop, but not comfortable with going fast. That's OK, there's always next year.

In the last couple of months, Daniel's drawing abilities have really turned a corner, and it seemed to happen overnight. All of a sudden he's drawing recognizable people, houses, cats, dragons... He also writes his own cards and notes - you have to spell things out for him, of course, but you don't have to prod him anymore - he'll say "I want to write this.."

Daniel is now all signed up for kindergarten in the fall. It's hard to believe he's starting school already. He's ready for it, though.













Back in January, Daniel went on his first sleep-over at Grandma Babe's house when his cousins were in town, and most weeks have at least one playdate, either at our house or at a classmate's. Rarely does a play session last long before it somehow turns into a sword fight.

Speaking of sword fights, Daniel's birthday party will have a "Star Wars" theme to it, and 20+ kids will be running around the park with light sabers. We've bought up the entire local supply of blue pool noodles in order to make lightsabers for everyone.












On Tuesdays, Rachel has school, and Daniel doesn't, so it's Mama-Daniel day. On one recent tuesday they decided to go ice skating at the local rec center. Daniel was well-prepared with kneepads, elbow pads and a helmet, but quipped "Mama, I wish I had a butt-pad".

Like his sister, Daniel has a "Chart" of things we'd like him to work on, and upon completing it, he gets a reward of his choice. Past rewards have included various toys, experiences, etc. On one of his playdates at a friends house, he got to play with a nerf gun, and that's ALL he wanted.

We were pretty apprehensive, having previously laid down a "no guns, no shooting" rule. Not that that was working all that well - he would still make a gun from his index finger and thumb and run around going "piew, piew" until he got it trouble.... So he earned the nerf gun, played with it for awhile and got that out of his system, and now he doesn't rebel with the finger guns anymore, so this is all good.

Daniel has been taking Spanish lessons after school from Senora Cardoza, and that's been interesting. He knows colors, numbers and some other things. Some words he's learned are different than what is used in the Dora and Diego books, and when we asked about it, he said "Dora is just wrong".

Daniel and Papa got to go see Monster Trucks when they came to Denver, and that was a popular event. Much smaller than the Houston event from last year, but still fun. He particularly enjoyed the motorcycle tricks. Between the bike and his fascination with cars/engines, I suspect we're looking at a future gearhead.

Finally, Daniel's preschool class held a father-child ice cream social a few weeks ago. The dads got to come to the classroom, hang out for a while and eat ice cream. The highlight was that each kid had written a little essay about their father and what they liked about them, and the teachers made that into a laminated poster. I'll have to try to scan and post a picture.

And that'll have to do for the Daniel-specific updates for now.