Donovan's 10th Birthday Update!
Donovan is ten years old! He is such a sweet, kind boy with a great sense of humor. His giggles are still the best sound. He adores games of all sorts, and anything related to playing with balls is lots of fun. He plays online games like X-box, Roblox and Fortnite with his friends, and they have a blast together. He is such a people person, quarantine was a challenge but he is such a good friend he made an effort to do as much as he could with them, whether it had to be facetime or outdoors. He loves to be silly! When he has a good idea, he’s a “big brain boy!” in a funny little kid voice.
Donovan LOVES his sisters. They have sleepovers all the time, and they love getting out every pillow, mattress and stuffed animal to make crazy beds, forts, and nests to sleep in. It’s adorable and so much fun! Their favorite activity is playing “Talking Games.” These are the BEST! I usually just get to hear tiny tidbits, but they are so creative and hilarious! They take whatever they are into at the time, and they make up stories together. I’ve heard them do it for Pokemon, Skylanders, favorite book series. They take turns telling the story and then they want to keep adding to it night after night! DZ is always a bit bummed when Serenity decides she needs a night of sleeping in her own bed to catch up on sleep.
Donovan Month by Month:
June 2020! He loves biking with Daddy!
July 2020: Donovan loves books! He still calls them his book books when he wants to sound adorable and stay up past his bedtime reading. We still do quiet time where he can read or sleep from 8:30 or so to 10:00 but that’s not always enough! I love this pic with his tongue, he makes this face all the time when he’s concentrating and it’s adorable!
August 2020! Time for 3rd grade. He still adores tigers!
September 2020! Donovan can wear Eric’s periodic table shirt. He’s winning Legendary in this pic I believe.
October 2020: DZ got the golden ticket from the chocolate party at school! Yay Willy Wonka! He loves school, and has a blast with both four-square and football on the playground. His teachers tell me all the time what a great sport he is, and very athletic. But also a great friend. I think they’d keep him if they could.
Halloween 2020: After Maia and I started reading the Ranger’s Apprentice series together, Donovan and Serenity got sucked into the read aloud and it turned into a family event! I LOVE it! We made it through the first five books in the series together, so it was a perfect family Halloween costume theme! And since we didn’t want to go door-to-door this year, I added some fun twists to Halloween. The kids had to use their ranger skills and shoot glow bracelet targets to get the bags of candy. Donovan said it was better than trick-or-treating. I only bought candy they like and still the trade negotiations were intense.
November 2020
December 2020: In his favorite mask, the puppy mask! Love those eyes!
Snowball fight day is one of DZ’s favorite advent activities!
January 2021: Donovan built this baby Yoda that he got from a friend at his class gift exchange. So fun! We actually watched the whole series of the Mandalorian when we got Disney Plus for Christmas. Donovan LOVED it! I was thrilled to get to watch with him! We went on to watch nearly ALL the marvel movies this spring! It was exciting. Donovan loves Thor 3 best! It was hilarious. He does cover his eyes and groan at the kissing parts though.
February 2021: Snow day!
Yes Day 2021! We celebrated the one year anniversary of finding out Donovan has diabetes with a Yes Day! I am so proud of how the kids handled everything this year has thrown them. Donovan earned all about counting carbs and how his insulin works and does a better job making reasonably healthy choices than a lot of adults. They’ve asked for donuts for breakfast, to download half a dozen new apps on the iPad, (normally I only let them get one even though they are free) and Maia asked for Puppy Place books. They broke open the taco piñata and found washi tape, Avengers bandaids and bouncy balls. (No candy, they brought home valentines yesterday ). So far so fun! Giant tent and no limit for electronics? YES. I especially loved that they took my whole washi tape stash and made clubhouses on the top shelf of their closets. They decorated it like crazy. They’ve always loved playing up there, it was a perfect project!
March 2021: Donovan loves his swords and bats! He plays lots of wiffle ball in the backyard with Eric and the girls. They also enjoy running routes with the football in the living room.
March 2021: DZ dug out the Wolverine mask to watch X-men cartoons with Eric. I LOVE it! You can also see one of his favorite foods in the pic, chick-fil-a nuggets. It’s a distant second to Ted’s burritos though.
April 2021: Bunny Hunt time! More escape rooms for my DZ. He’s gotta figure out the zoomed in picture to find Umbry and his favorite bunny Patches.
May 2021: Rose Hill day for Donovan!!! It was such a fun end of the school year! We baked the cookies and everything
June 2021: Bacon Boy! I often fix him a whole tray for a carb-free snack! It smells great!
Happy 10th Birthday DZ! Nerf Blast!
More about DZ!
Donovan is the sugar-free popsicle king! It’s his favorite treat, he eats them all winter.
Online DND with Daddy, Uncle Andrew, and Evan!
Random Funny DZ saying:
June 10th Donovan just yelled across the house “I’m hungry! I’m FIGURATIVELY starving!!!” So I’m doing something right. Not all the things but some of them
Kicking the Covid pinata in the butt =)
Donovan was THRILLED to get to go back to school in person. His school was very careful, requiring masks all the time, splitting the classes in half so they could socially distance, and anyone with any kind of symptom had to quarantine and work online from home. His teachers Mrs. Thomason and Mrs. Poleman worked so hard to make class fun, letting them bring bean bags, putting funny Bitmoji’s on morning work, and calling their kids Thomcats, Polecats, or Straycats, depending on what room they were in.
Donovan LOVES frisbee golf in the neighborhood! He goes frequently with Eric, but this time was especially fun since his best friend Hatch was there.
Christmas Escape Room! Gotta earn those presents! DZ is great at figuring out puzzles!
Donovans LOVE Tacos! He got this taco pillow for Christmas and sleeps snuggled up to it nightly.
Donovan was missing sports and friends, so we made a plan to take his friend to a park to play tennis with him every week. They always have a great time together! They also loved just getting to roam the playground together.
I meant it when I said Donovan loves Tacos. He slept with his taco pinata from Yes Day.
We got in a little baseball fun this year despite quarantine! A wiffle ball party for Donovan’s class.
