Donovan’s 5th Birthday Update
Donovan is five years old! He is SO much fun. Seriously, he’s sweet and funny and silly and great at games. He is best friends with Serenity, loves his baby sister, and snuggles with his Mama and Daddy. His least favorite thing is being alone. We love his laugh, it makes us laugh too. He’s a happy guy, quick to help out. He and Serenity spend hours making up their own little worlds. Usually in my closet. If Maia feels sad he tries to be silly and make her laugh. He is a joy to be around. =)
Games are the first thing we think of when we think of Donovan. He loves games! He watches even long and complicated games with fascination. It’s wonderful to watch him figure out strategy and think ahead. And he can really do some crazy math when he’s adding up his points. I mean it’s not typical for a 4 year old to be able to add in his head things like 8+7=15 without using his fingers or pausing. It’s interesting, because sometimes he counts it out, and sometimes he just says the answer.
Some of his favorite games include Legendary, Seven Wonders, Bugs in the Kitchen, Ticket to Ride, X-men, Castle Panic, Lost Puppies (although he’s outgrowing that one), Flashpoint. Flashpoint is what he will tell you his favorite game is, if you ask right now. He discovered that game thanks to Aunt Tina and Uncle Colen on our trip to Tahoe last August. He loved that game! It went on his amazon wish list, and just this month for his birthday his Grandma Diane bought it for him. Since then he is flashpoint crazy =) He even wants to be a fireman (or a gymnast) when he grows up. This time, when I told him those are professions that require eating vegetables to grow big and strong, he actually ate some carrot sticks and claimed to like them. Woo hoo!
In Seven Wonders, he is really good at setting goals and finding ways to make them happen. If he goes military, he is all in. He is very determined about it, and not really interested in shifting gears if something else comes along. =)
Legos: DZ LOVES legos. He spent all his birthday money on kits, asked for them for Christmas, and just today checked to make sure I know that he would love another Lego Advent Calendar for Christmas this year. He is pretty good at doing them all by himself too. He has trouble with some of the advanced connector pieces, we call them Mama Pieces. But other than that he loves building kits. He doesn’t often make his own thing, but he plays with the stuff he assembles from kits. When he’s done with a set, we usually put it in a gallon bag for the next time he asks for a kit to build.
Skylanders: Eric bought the Skylanders game from Barrett a year ago, and Donovan loves it! Eric gives the kids Skylander points whenever they do really awesome things, and after ten points he brings out the stash of guys he got from Barrett and lets them choose another. It’s fun to watch them work as a team!
Crafts: Donovan has an excellent attention span and really enjoys crafts. He actually sewed with me on the machine this year! I showed him a page from a website I like, thinking he would pick one of the projects, but he wanted to do them all! He ended up sewing a turtle, a sun, and a mouse. So cool! And he is obsessed with Perler beads. He even made perler bead hearts for everyone in his class! He makes really cool projects, like Star Wars characters and Pokemon. He draws some really cute pictures at school. I love the way he draws people. And Tie fighters.
Dress Up: DZ usually dresses up as a Ninja, Superhero, or an Arctic Wolf. He loves being a pet =) He bought a ninja costume with his gift card to Kiddlestix from Papa (and a ninjago lego set to match). He is so cute leaping and twirling around the house with his katanas. This probably led to his recent interest in taking gymnastics classes. He wants to work on his Spiderman moves =) He hadn’t taken any classes since tennis in the fall, so we were excited to sign him up! He’s only gone once but he is very happy =) He dressed up as Cyclops for Halloween, and he decorated his room Batman style. His Papa even built him a bed for his room, and Donovan loved helping with that! His birthday was a Superhero Splash, and he added Spiderman as his favorite Marvel Character, and Batman remains his favorite DC character.
Books: DZ is starting to read! He can confidently read BOB books now, and he has learned quite a few sight words. We usually sit together and he will read until he stumbles or gets stuck on a word, and then I help him and he continues. He’s been building up his skills and is getting so much better! The summer reading program especially inspired him to read a lot recently! We still read together every night. This year, his favorite books (and mine too) are probably the 5 Minute Storybooks that we have. We have a 5 minute Marvel Stories, and 5 minute Star Wars as well. He loved those! He also loves Ninja Turtles, Pete the Cat, I Can Read Batman and Star Wars, . In nonfiction he loves the Angry Bird Animal and Atlas and Dinosaur books.
And now month by month photos:
