Happy Birthday, Nate!

Our oldest son, just turned 9!  Wow, how time flies, but in a weird way I always think Nate is older than he is.  He sort of hasn’t acted like a little boy for a long time now, I can barely remember him like this:

or even this:

We had a fun day with Nate for the big day.  We got up early before Brennan had to go to work and opened presents.  He had only asked for basketball stuff, I found him some nice basketball shoes, but I had fun finding some things to remind him he’s still a boy.  He was excited with all he got, and I love that he’ll voluntarily hug and kiss his Dad and me.   He spent the early part of the day playing with Kade, his best friend. 

Then at 4 we had his party with lots of his friends.   All he wanted to do was play basketball with his friends.  That made it super easy for me, I reserved the church gym and put Brennan in charge.  They played an actual game for a little bit and then had some shooting contests and a dunking contest on a little hoop we brought.  While Brennan kept them busy I went for pizza and when they were done we went outside for pizza, cake and ice cream and presents.  It was about as painless as can be! 

I was so relieved to find a cute idea for a cake and that it turned out pretty well:

Then we topped everything off with a cousin sleepover.  Can’t beat that!  What a fun day of celebrating a fun boy. 

We’re so grateful Nate was born into our family.  He has such a great sense of humor and no one can help laugh when they hear Nate burst out laughing.  He is a great thinker, he isn’t always very talkative, but you can count on the fact that he’s always watching and thinking.  He often surprises me when he does share his thoughts at how much he’s observed and thought about things sometimes from a long time ago.  He can be a little stubborn sometimes, and is getting really hard to argue with – he has a definite eye for inconsistencies and knows how to expose them.  He’s also very persuasive.  I sometimes wonder if he’ll be a lawyer someday.   It’s funny that in one argument I can be simultaneously frustrated by and really impressed with him.  One of my favorite things ago Nate, which I’ve talked about many times, is his compassion.  He is the first to feel so sad for Josh when he’s being sent to timeout or any kind of discipline.  He often tells me about a situation when he saw someone get hurt or embarrassed and how bad he feels for them.  What a sweet boy.  We love Nate!