Last year, we were a month in to quarantine when we celebrated William's birthday. Everything was still pretty unknown, and while there was some sadness over experiences that would be missed due to COVID, I don't think any of us really expected things to remain "different" for as long as they have. Fortunately, I think I can safely say that things are starting to look up (at least in the US, where vaccines have been pretty accessible), and even though things have looked pretty different this past year, it hasn't all been bad. There may just been a few things from "pandemic life" that I hope stick around long term.
 |
| Naturally, he lost that tooth about two days before his school pictures. I teased him and told him we were going to make him do the retakes, but I honestly love the super iconic gap-toothed smile |
Birthday Interview
Age: 8
Height: Just over 4 feet tall
Weight: 55 lbs, 12 oz
(Per the percentiles, he is a decent amount heavier than he is tall, but I really don't feel like you'd be able to tell that by looking at him. Guess he must be hiding it all as muscle or something)
What is your favorite color: Blue
What is your favorite animal: Giraffe (ironically, this is the same answer he gave at five--the first year of the interview--so maybe he's settling in to a favorite?)
 |
| While not exactly a giraffe, he did have to draw an emu (by following along on a learn-to-draw video) for his remote art class and it could *almost* pass for a very frazzled giraffe |
What is your favorite book: Treasure Hunters (So. There's a story behind this book #shocking. It's actually a series written by James Patterson this is *probably* written for middle school aged kids. But early in the pandemic when the libraries were closed I was desperate for new chapter books, and a used bookstore was offering "pandemic packs" of books. This book was in a pack with some others that looked good, so I ordered it--sight unseen--only to discover it was a massive 400+ page book. He loved it though, and after reading the first book multiple times, has since made his way through the next five books in the series)
 |
I don't think he's reading the Treasure Hunters book in this picture--more likely a book from the "I Survived" series, which he also FLEW through during the pandemic--but this picture pretty accurately depicts his reading habits when he gets into a book he likes
|
What is your favorite song: Lord I Need You (I think he actually prefers playing it on the piano to singing it, but no complaints here!)
What is your favorite sport: Football
 |
| Fall. Family. Football. Need I say more? |
What is your favorite thing to do with Mom: Show her cool stuff, like LEGO builds (he actually had a bit of a hard time coming up with an answer for this one. Looks like I need to start focusing on some Mom and William time--although I definitely don't mind having him get excited to show me the cool stuff he is working on!)
 |
| Apparently being my puzzle buddy didn't qualify as a favorite for him, but I sure love it |
What is your favorite thing to do with Dad: Play soccer
What is your favorite thing to do outside: Play soccer (it may be his favorite, but it's definitely not what he spends the most time doing since Daddy doesn't always take the time to set up the soccer goals. He honestly probably spends the most time kicking the football around, but I suppose that's a favorite too!)
Where is your favorite place to go: The bowling alley (no doubt on this. I'm surprised this has never come up as a favorite sport--maybe he doesn't actually think of it as a "sport"?)
 |
| It was a little belated, but we finally got to take him out for his birthday outing in July, and shocking--he picked the bowling alley |
What is your favorite fruit: Pear (he's not super consistent on this answer, which is totally fine, but..)
What is your favorite vegetable: Carrots (...carrots has been the vegetable of choice every year)
What is your favorite cereal: Marshmallow Treasures (also a consistent answer, because marshmallows in cereal is always the best)
What is your favorite treat: Gum (did not see this one coming. We have never bought gum for the boys, so to my knowledge he's only gotten it in suckers or as an occasional treat in school. Maybe the fact that he doesn't get it as much as other things makes it more desirable!)
 |
| I'm a little surprised cake and/or ice cream didn't make his favorite treat list (although I suppose gum is cheaper?). This is an ice cream flavor he "invented" as a remote learning assignment, and since he came up with a fairly simple idea (strawberry chocolate chip) I surprised him by making real ice cream with of that flavor |
What is your favorite meal: Honey Lime Enchiladas (another throwback to an answer he hasn't given since five! Kind of fun to see some of these reappear--and interested to see if they'll stick now!)
What makes you happy: MarioKart (oh boy. By far one of the best/worst things to come out of the pandemic was the boys getting a little toooo much unsupervised play time in our playroom, which caused them to discover all of our old Wii games. To say they've been obsessing over them is an understatement. I swear William's days revolve around when he is and isn't allowed to play Mario--and considering he only gets that privilege once a day, it's a suuuuuper big deal when that time rolls around)
 |
| Hiking/Climbing these rocks also made him reallllly happy, although we only made it to this park once before the weather got cold and wet--and I was nervous enough with the boys hiking around on dry rocks I wasn't about to take them back when the rocks were wet and/or snowy |
What makes you sad: Being 12th in MarioKart (fortunately he's gotten good enough that this doesn't happen very often, although that is just one of many--many--perceived injustices in MarioKart that causes him to get upset. Like I said, the discovery of Mario has both been really good and really fun, and really--really--bad and tantrum-inducing)
Who are your best friends: All my classmates (he would not be swayed to pick just one or two best friends, and I guess I can't fault the kid for that!)
 |
| Not a classmate, but definitely his favorite lake buddy. Luke's grandparents have the cabin next to my parents, and usually these two are inseparable, but this past summer they didn't get to play together until Labor Day Weekend because Luke's mom had a baby in August and they were being very cautious with COVID. Tubing together for the first time was definitely a good way to make up for lost time |
What do you want to be when you grow up: Astronomer (a star-gazing seed was planted last spring as part of a remote learning school assignment, and this year when we came home from the Ash Wednesday service at 7:15 and the sky was clear and dark, the stars grabbed his full attention and he hasn't looked back. I think he's read through almost all the books the library has on constellations, and we recently discovered that the library has telescopes available to check out, so I'm super excited to blow his mind with that) (Also--how freakin' cool is it that we can check out a TELESCOPE from our library?!?!)
What was your favorite part about last year: Going to the beach (with everything else that got cancelled, I think the beach was the highlight of the year for most of us)
 |
| I thought these pictures were a fun comparison--while he definitely favors the beach to the snow, he sure gets just as excited about sledding as he does about boogie boarding! |
What is one thing you want to do this year: Go bowling (weird, it's like he knew we were going there for his birthday party or something #notoneforthinkingoutsidethebox)
(And I just happened to catch this note I made on his five year post about his bedtime "stuff" that I didn't consistently keep up with, but better late than never! He still sleeps with his blue baby blanket, although it is far too small so both he and Garrett got full-sized blankets this year which they love. He still has his puppy Sammy, but I don't know how much it actually makes it into bed with him. I saw it on the floor between his bed and the wall one night and when I asked him how long it had been there he very nonchalantly answered "I don't know. Probably a couple weeks or so". Safe to say this kid won't have any attachment issues outgrowing any of his "baby" items!)
Usually I end these posts with a handful of notes/important things I want to remember (and a photo dump, of course). While the (somewhat small) photo dump will definitely be coming, I honestly don't have a whole lot more to say. So much of the past year has been "clouded" by COVID that it's hard to separate the layers that are William and his antics. Or perhaps it's just a by-product of getting older--he's not changing nearly as rapidly as he was when he was younger, so far fewer "new" things come to mind that need to be mentioned. I do know this--we are so in love with this boy and his kind heart, technical (to a fault, at times) brain, and dedicated personality. We're not quite as much in love with the eye rolls, attitude, and sarcasm that have been developing, but I'm pretty sure some of that is self-inflicted, so we probably can't complain too much (sometimes I say things just to get an eye roll out of him, and I know Darrell does the same. Hopefully he understands this as a sign of affection!)
 |
| Not an eye roll, but definitely falls in the same category. The kid seriously has some spunk to him--and while we enjoy it (even in pictures like this) sometimes he does it while we are trying to get *real* pictures, so we're trying to help him get better at making appropriate decisions based on the environment he is in. Still a work in progress for sure |
 |
| I didn't exactly count, but I definitely think we did more bonfires during the pandemic than we have in previous years. Something I'm not sad about in the least (and something the boys are ALWAYS asking about now that it is warming up) |
 |
| We registered William for his first summer of baseball two months before the pandemic hit, and while the season was shortened, the city allowed it to happen with certain modifications in place. He loved it--and we loved the sense of normalcy it brought to an otherwise weird summer |
 |
| Also on the list of modified but still allowed was YMCA Day Camp. The shortened the sessions (among other changes--like cancelling the Little Vikes program that Garrett was enrolled in), but I still think it was one of William's favorite weeks of the summer (although I was not thrilled that he lost his mask on the first day--fortunately he's been much better about keeping track of them since!) |
 |
Another thing we've done more of during the pandemic? Hiking. We've ventured to new state parks (see above photo of rock climbing) and explored new--longer--trails at familiar parks. Some of this is probably due to the ages of our kids, but it's also been easier to fit into our schedule because "normal" activities are fewer in number. Hopefully we'll be able to strike a balance with this once things fully get back to normal (or whatever normal looks like), because I have loved every one of the hikes we've done (and will always remember this one for the fact that William hiked a quarter mile with a tooth in his mouth because it fell out and he didn't know what else to do with it--apparently giving it to me to hold never crossed his mind)
|
 |
Eights years buddy. Look at you grow (and that smirk--oh my word). Love you!
2021 has also been the year of the cupcakes for birthday parties (with a mini-cake for the birthday boy); usually I love making elaborate cakes for the boys based on whatever they request, but when we decided to celebrate in person with my family for birthdays (starting with Matthew's in January) we decided cupcakes would be a better COVID-friendly option and I honestly haven't hated it (I had this perception that cupcakes were way more work, and that isn't necessarily true). I think cupcakes will definitely stay on the table as an option in the future. |
