Diego Turns 6

Well, it has taken me 6 weeks, but I am finally posting about Diego’s birthday.

Diego wanted a zumba party this year. He is completely obsessed with dancing, disco lights (which he calls dancing lights), and glow sticks. So we invited our families over and let him live his dream of becoming a zumba instructor. We made a sign that said, “Diego’s Zumba Class” with an arrow pointing towards the living room, where we moved the couches and made room for a dance floor. All the cousins wore glow sticks and Diego taught them how to dance. Reagan and Leilani were the most into it and followed his every move. It was too cute. Did I take a single picture? NO! I am soooo mad at myself. I was too busy getting video of it all that I forgot to take pictures, too. At least I have it all on video, but I would have loved to have some stills of Diego busting a move with his cousins. Oh well, here’s the video. Eliana jumps in at the end. Celo mostly played in the toy room because dancing is not his thing.

 

I mean…he loves it.

At least I did manage to snap ONE picture of him holding his cupcake right after we sang to him.

See the glow stick around his neck? You can see in the video that he had two on each wrist and two on each ankle. This boy danced for two hours straight. He was pretty sweaty by the time it was all over. The next morning he slept till 8:30, which is a big deal since he normally gets up at 6:30.

Some things about our 6 year old (many of these are according to his answers to our bday interview):

- The thing he loves most in life is dancing. Dancing lights. Glow sticks. As I already mentioned. He also loves to draw and write notes to people, ride his bike, and has just started liking golf.
- His favorite food is macaroni and cheese (which is just noodles with smart balance spread and salt and sometimes a little of his soy cheese).
- His favorite dessert is chocolate cupcakes with chocolate frosting.
- His favorite colors are orange, blue, and purple.
- His favorite place to go is zumba (not that he ever goes, but I asked and that’s what he said), the Orlando Science Center, and Sea World.
- His best friends are Sophia, Alyssa, Meredith, Tayla, Yomari, Tyson, Karly, Kealoha, Amelia, Melanie, Ethan, Lane, and Kyleigh. He basically just named all the classmates he could think of. He doesn’t really have a stand out best friend yet. He just likes everybody.
- He currently knows 300 sight words. He’s a sponge when it comes to reading. At the beginning of the year, he only knew a handful of sight words, so I am beyond proud of his progress. When I had my first parent/teacher conference at the beginning of October, he knew about 60 sight words and his teacher gave him a goal of learning 200 by the end of the year. In January, he reached that goal! Then in February, he reached 300! Most of the time he likes to work on them with me, but sometimes he gets very frustrated if he doesn’t get it right away. It’s been amazing to see him go from barely grasping the concept of putting sounds together to becoming so good at sounding out words he doesn’t know. I’m not going to lie though: it’s completely overwhelming to think that I will still have to teach 3 more kids how to read. But Marcelo and I made a deal that if I teach them how to read, he will help them with their science projects. Woo hoo!!
-He’s grasping math concepts so well. Today in the car he told me out of the blue that 15 plus 15 is 30. He said, “I don’t know how I knew that. I just knew.” He counts by 5s and 10s and adds stuff up all the time. I never realized how amazing it would be to watch my kids learn even the most basic things. It may sound cheesy but it really is incredible to watch them grow in so many ways.
- He’s about to have his first kindergarten play. At first he was chosen to play the lead role, but a few days later he said he wasn’t doing it anymore and ended up with a part that has 2 lines. I was so relieved because I’ve seen how he gets during the children’s program at church and I so could not see him singing and speaking in front of tons of people. He would have been happier with a dancing part, but he’s done great learning his two lines and I’m keeping my fingers crossed that he’ll actually do it on the day of the play. Stay tuned. 
- He came home from school yesterday with about 7 love notes! Four were from Yomari, one was from Tayla, and another was from Sophia. I don’t think he’s aware of what it means when a girl puts his name with hers in a heart and says, “Love you.” But I am. And I don’t like it one bit.
- He’s still very allergic to milk, egg yolks, and possibly tree nuts. We haven’t tested tree nuts yet, so it’s possible that he’s outgrown that one like he outgrew his peanut allergy.
- He loves to learn Spanish. He understands SO much and can speak a few words.
- He is still very sweet and loving. He kisses me multiple times a day, tells me he loves me all the time, and is just all around a giant sweetheart. No wonder he gets all those love notes.

We are so grateful for our Diego!!