Dallin turned SIX years old in May! It was so fun having a moment to celebrate him. I say a moment because his birthday landed one day before Jeremy left town for his new job in San Diego. We all moved to San Diego two weeks later, so life was really insane during this time. I’m excited to write this post because I haven’t had the opportunity to reflect on Dallin’s birthday until now.
From age 5 to 6, Dallin grew a lot–three full inches, to be exact! During the summer of 2018 while he was 5, he learned how to ride a two wheeler bike, which opened a big world for him. During the school year in Kindergarten, he learned to read! He went from a reading level A/B to G. He also got pulled out of classes by the GT teacher to do more challenging academics in math and reading. He started reading alone more frequently in his room and our library at home. He also became a more avid drawer and writer. Also at school, he learned how to make new friends. He would come home and tell me about the things he did to make a friend at recess and in class. He practiced and improved these skills in Puerto Rico, too.
While we were in PR, he got much better at swimming. He learned how to float, body surf, tread water in the deep-end and do crazy tricks while jumping into the pool and while underwater. He also learned a lot of Spanish words and phrases in PR.
Throughout the year, Dallin became even better at navigating technology than the year before. Whenever we find the boys doing anything with a screen, Dallin is the one controlling the device. He finds saved websites and browses google on the computer. He hacks the passwords to our cellphones. He helps Tanner navigate his online math work. He can pull up any youtube video that we request, on all of our devices. He knows how to set up Nintendo and much to Tanner’s chagrin, Dallin is the lead player in all of our super Nintendo games.
Dallin started formal piano lessons with me this year and progressed really well. He had lots of weeks where he was very self motivated and would get through multiple pages of his book without me. He also loves to improvise his own songs on the piano. He continues to sing up a storm and continues to love drumming when we let him. After we came home from PR, he learned how to whistle! We often hear him whistling pitch perfect to all kinds of songs.
As his 6th birthday approached, he learned how to tie his own shoes, be completely independent with his showers, and he lost his first tooth (only 6 months after Tanner lost his first tooth)!
Other firsts for Dallin throughout the year included: first long-distance bike ride on his own bike with the family, first time in a sauna (Minneapolis trip), first school bus ride to and from school, first solo singing in church (during Sept primary program), first snorkel adventure, first time horse back riding, first hospital visit (to drain the infection in his foot from a beach rock/splinter under the skin), first time going down a water slide (wisconsin dells) and his first piano recital!!
As a six year old, his favorite color is green. He loves to watch Wild Kratts, Dude Perfect, Pokoyo, and Studio C. He likes playing all sports, and loves to swim and climb. When it comes to trying a new adventure or activity, Dallin is pretty brave, often being the example for Tanner. But when it comes to watching a scary movie or going somewhere in the house alone, Dallin gets spooked really easily and needs big brother to help him feel safe.
Dal Pal is chill. He will usually go along with whatever the group wants to do. He usually lets Tanner be the boss, but over this past year he has been learning to speak up when he doesn’t like Tanner’s ideas. It’s been neat to see him walk away from Tanner and do his own thing if his voice isn’t being heard. He is also getting better at standing up for himself when Tanner teases or hurts him.
Dallin almost gave up his daily naps during the school year. But we soon found out he was falling asleep on his afternoon bus ride, which gave him a 45 minute nap everyday. He almost gave up pull-ups during the night, but continued wearing them through his 6th birthday.
Dallin became a pickier eater this year. Not sure how it happened because he used to eat almost anything we put in front of him. Now, he puts up a fight when I cook ethnic foods (which is basically all I cook). Luckily, he will try most foods we offer him. And after trying it, he decides he hates it, but I’m just glad he is trying! I can’t complain too much because Dallin is really good at noticing his hunger and thirst cues. He does this cool thing when he is hungry where he just goes to the kitchen and gets something to eat. I love how he is super self-sufficient. Dallin can even go 2+ hours without eating and still remain a nice little boy. It is such a nice feature!
His favorite food is pepparoni pizza. He loves any kind of meat as long as it isn’t spicy. We taught him how to read the nutrition labels on food this year in an effort to get the boys more excited about eating proten. It worked for Dallin. He loves seeing how much protein he is getting from his food. He also regularly eats green salads, broccoli, fresh spinach, carrots, cucumbers and most fruit. He hates tomatoes, green beans, and green peppers.
This boy continues to be the family Cuddle Bug and the family Helper. No doubt, his love languages are physical touch and acts of service. He likes to hang on us, stroke our faces, be held, kiss, sit on our lap, and cuddle. And yes, he still has a fettish with the mole on my cheek. Dallin is really intuitive when I need cheering up. He’ll give me a heartfelt hug and kiss and then make a joke to help me laugh. Dallin is my go-to person when I need help with chores. He just gets up from what he’s doing and helps me!
Dallin is our family Comedian. I don’t know what we’d do without his constant comedic relief. It’s been fun to see his sense of humor evolve this year. While we still witness a lot of slapstick and potty jokes, we are also seeing him make humor that takes a play on words or on silly situations. Dallin loves to repeat jokes from TV shows and movies. And he likes to make up his own jokes; most of which have us in giggles. He loves listening to standup comedians like Jim Gaffigan and Brian Regan. He is pretty keen on the timing of a punchline, laughing right on que, even if he doesn’t understand the actual joke. One time, Dallin completed a school paper called “all about me” where he wrote that he is funny and he likes to make people laugh. When asked why he is so funny, he said it’s because he is named after his great-grandpa Jerold who always made people laugh.
Probably my favorite thing about Dalln is that he is always reminding us to not take life too seriously. He abounds with a special LOVE for life, and humor is his way of sharing that love with others. This is a gift I have needed so many times while navigating motherhood. I am so blessed by his tender, cheerful personality. I love you, my little Dallin Jerold, and I am so glad you are my son!
For Dallin’s birthday service, he chose to buy flowers with his own money and give them to ME! What can I say? I was so happy! Dallin tried to keep it a surprise from me, and it took me a little while to catch on. Every time that I tried brainstorming with him about his birthday service, he would get upset and tell me to stop talking about it. A few days before his birthday I told him, “Dallin, your birthday is almost here, you need to decide what to do for your service!” He was very short with me. “Mom! I already know what I’m going to do, but I CAN’T tell you, OKAY!?!” Luckily, he told Jeremy so that his plan could be carried out.
Dallin’s birthday party was a big success! This was his first year having a party with friends. (With both boys, we waited until age 6 to have a party with friends, and I am so glad we did that). We managed to get six little people to come over for a Wild Kratt’s party!!
When kiddos arrived, they got to make their own creature power suit. In the TV show, the Kratt brothers wear the suits to transform into different animals. We used black t-shirts as the base for the suits. The kids chose their favorite duct tape color and we stuck the strips on the sides of the shirt to give it a similar look to the ones on TV. The kids cut out colored foam circles for their chest paw print. Then they chose 3 creatures they wanted to transform into. We of course needed creature power discs to make the suits transform into each animals, so we made those by drawing on special circle cutouts with marker. Caden had a cool idea to use string to hold the discs onto their suits!
Dallin was really excited to help his friends make their suits. He didn’t want to make his own because he already had a Wild Kratts creature power t-shirt with his name on it.
The kids were so adorable in their creature power suits! I wanted to get a quick picture of all of them before they played outside. As you guessed, “quick” didn’t happen because every time I got one kid in place for the picture, three other kids wiggled across the floor! Jeremy had a fun time videoing me struggle. I felt like I was in comedy show with how rediculously long it took to get them in a row.
We finally got them sitting still for a few good shots!! Dallin is the kid with the green shirt in the middle. I love seeing all his different expressions. He was really excited to have everyone there.
We sent the kids outside to play Wild Kratts. When planning the party, Dallin said he didn’t want there to be any real games, he just wanted the kids to play however they want. The kids had no problem pretending to transform into different animals and run around as if they were cheetahs, lions, monkeys, birds, lizards and all kinds of creatures. After awhile, I chimed in as Danita, one of the villains in the show that is always trying to capture animals for her latest fashion blitz. I was able to capture a few baby animals, but the rest of the Wild Kratts found me and tied me to a tree. The kids also caught Danita’s awkward sidekick, Fabio, played by Jeremy. He was roped into playing and roped onto a chair. So funny. I would have taken a picture if I wasn’t also tied up.
To keep things easy, we did not have the party during meal time. But we did provide a snack, and I purposfully designed the snack so that the kids got to assemble it. We made Wild Kratt creatures with vegetables. I showed the kids a few ideas of what they could make, and then they did their own creations.
Someone made a jungle spider with cucumber, carrots and raisins. Some kids made lions with the same food.
This might be a food sculpture of a Kratt brother, made out of pretzel sticks and cubed cheese. Some kids stuck the pretzel halway through the cheese, and we called it a mosquito bite!
Then it was time for the birthday cake. I bought a neat edible image of the Wild Kratts from amazon and added it to the ice cream cake from Dairy Queen.
The ice cream cake was a big hit, several kids had never had one before.
During cake time, we opened envelopes instead of presents, because this party was a “Fiver” Party! This means that in leui of presents, everyone brings $5 for the birthday boy. The birthday money goes toward one large/expensive gift for the birthday kid to enjoy. This way, parents don’t have to stress about what to buy or how much to spend on a gift, and the birthday child doesn’t end up with more toys than they need or want. Everyone was really happy about the fiver party, including all the parents and Dallin.
Every friend had a very nice card for Dallin to open up. They had cute drawings and signatures that were just priceless. After each card was opened, we pooled the money together and told Dallin that all his friends helped buy him a special birthday gift. We then revealed the gift! It was a Coding & Robotics Kit for kids!! I got the idea for this gift because I wanted to tap into Dallin’s intuitive technology skills. I figure someday he could be writing computer programs, so I may as well get him some coding games to build his skills. This kit caught Dallin’s eye while I was browsing amazon. And he has LOVED it. Once we got settled in our new home here in San Diego, Dallin and I started playing with it and going through the creative lessons that teach you how to program the robot. Since then, Dal Pal has been playing with it a lot, sometimes hours at a time. He creates scenes and paths for the robot to walk through, builds the coding sequnces for the robot, records the information into the robot’s memory and then runs the program, testing to see if the robot does what he programmed. It is one of the most educational toys we’ve ever purchased. We are so grateful to all his friends for helping us get this awesome gift for Dallin!
Tanner and Dallin displayed this cute sign on the front door for their friends.
It sure felt amazing to have my youngest boy turn six years old! Most days, it feels like he has been around a lot longer than just six years. I have to remind myself he is still a little kid. Unlike what many moms say, the time doesn’t seem to go by quickly from year to year. Instead, it’s been just right. I can’t wait to see what this next year of life with Dallin will bring!
