The Nine Year Old

Dear Dane Christopher,

I know you're thinking your mother doesn't love you, because it has taken me almost two months to blog about your ninth birthday.  I promise it's not true.  In my defense, I haven't even gotten around to blogging about Christmas yet.  You had a great ninth birthday, Dane-o.  As your birthday fell on a Saturday this year, the celebration started a couple of days earlier.  'The Hobbit' came to theaters that weekend, and your daddy took you to the midnight premier late on Thursday night.  Daddy and I decided to let you stay home from school that Friday as a special treat, instead of subjecting your teacher and classmates to a grumpy sleep-deprived boy the next morning.  Unbeknownst to us, you had told your entire school, including your teacher, that you "were skipping school Friday because I'm going to see the Hobbit with my dad".  Great.  We are the parents taking our then 8-year old to see a PG13 movie at midnight on a school night.  Your (awesome) teacher apparently replied to you, "The Hobbit was one of my favorite books that my dad used to read to me when I was younger" instead of reporting us to the truant officer.  That Thursday night, you went to bed promptly at 8pm, getting a short nap in before your excited Daddy woke you up at 10pm to go stand in line at the movie theater.  He said you stayed awake through the whole movie, and that the two of you had a great time.  Welcome to being a 9 year old, Dane.

When we started planning your birthday festivities about a month before, you decided that you would rather accept a wad of cash in lieu of a party with your friends.  So far, this is one of my favorite birthday traditions that we have started with you kids.  You got a few small gifts from us, including a Tim Tebow jersey (the hat wasn't one of your gifts.  The hat is what happened when your dad went to a garage sale)

and a book for all of your football cards,

then planned and plotted how exactly to spend your $100 in cold hard cash.  Your purchases?  Two football video games and this t-shirt:

This is SO a t-shirt your dad would have bought...

We took you to JAX for burgers for your birthday lunch, and you spent a couple of hours playing football at a friend's birthday party.  Ugly birthday cake was consumed for at least three meals that weekend. 

At nine-years old, Dane, we love getting glimpses of the young man you are growing into.  You are still obsessed with football, and can rattle off statistics of players who retired before you were born.  A great day for you includes backyard football with the neighbor boys on this field that your daddy put together (unbeknownst to me) one day while I was at work:

You love video games, and would play them 24/7 if that pesky "school" didn't get in the way.  You are only allowed to play them on weekends, so during the weeks you busy yourself with football and reading.  In fact, you read so much during the school day that they have allowed you three library books at a time, but you can only go to the library once a day.  Aidan Cooper is still your best friend in the whole world, whether you admit to it or not.

At some point in this last year, you decided to grow your hair long "like daddy", and it is driving your mother crazy right now.  It is VERY long, and I can't exactly convince you to cut it since your Daddy's hair cascades down his back like Jessica Simpson's.  You're at this magical age when your Daddy is your hero, and I couldn't convince you to be different than him if I tried.

So Happy, Happy (belated, yes) Birthday, Dane Christopher!  We love you so much and are so proud of you!