Cumpleanos de Danny

Dear Daniel, you are turning 5 years old and I still can't believe it. It seems like yesterday I was still rocking you to sleep. Thank you for choosing this crazy family to be with. We all love you to pieces!!! You are an amazing kid and I'm so proud to be your mami. This year since we moved to Mexico, you have had quite an experience. It was hard to adjust to Mexico and its busyness. You are so sensitive, and I could feel that you were struggling with the change. Nature for you is very important. You kept talking about Los Gatos Mountains, the trees, the forest and your dear friend Sasha. I knew you were having a hard time and so thank goodness, at your school, one of your friend's mom is a Flower Essence therapist and gave you some remedies to help you with the transition. I was blown away with the results!! In less than 2 weeks, you were ready to go to school and happily playing and participating at school.

El Bosque de Micael was an amazing experience for you. You walked everyday for a couple of hours and the trees, sticks and mud were your toys. You learned to speak Spanish in no time and with a mexican accent. Your teachers were very loving and made you feel at home.
I was very impressed by your ability to stay as part of the group and see me as your teacher whenever I came into your classroom to tell the story.
I had the best time watching you dream into the stories I brought and then act them out in different occasions. You had lots of fun playing with Matias, Carlitos and Tamara.

You also picked up interest in horses since we went with Santiago to watch him during class. Esteban, the instructor would take you with him many times on the trails while Santiago had his class.

Towards the end of our stay, you had more confidence and rode on your own a few times. This made you feel so proud of yourself!!

Santa brought you this bike and you have so much with it. On the weekends we take you to a local park and oh...boy, you go soo fast!! We get lots of comments from people who are so impressed at how you well you ride it.

Your imagination is incredible, you can play for hours and hours by yourself and I love watching how you create, and recreate your world in your play. Cars are a big part of your play this days and I wonder if part of it comes from watching so many cars go by in Mexico City!!
When your brother and you play together, it is usually recreating the city with tolls, bridges, traffic lights and traffic jams of course!!

You love to do real jobs!! Here you are helping me clean the windows the same way you see people at stop signs cleaning the windshields of cars. They usually use a plastic bottle and fill it with soapy water and clean our windshield (most of the times without asking us)
Your brother had the idea and made you a plastic bottle for you too...so both of you spent an afternoon cleaning the many windows our house has!! Working alongside your brother is one of your favorite things to do. You love him and admire him soo much!

You are our rainbow after gloomy days. You are always wearing a bright smile, ready to give a hug, a kiss and whisper in our ears how much you love us!!
Everything for you is exciting, helping out in the kitchen anytime..baking, selecting the beans and picking out the little stones that we always find hidden among the beans or lentils...Nati loves your help too!!

The day of your birthday, you were surprised by the birthday fairies again...who usually leave a trail of golden stars from your bed to the birthday table.

After the birthday story, you were eager to open your birthdays and loved your new flute, the legos and remote control car.

At school, the teachers celebrated your birthday in such a meaningful way, with the birthday story and songs that are traditional here in Mexico. As a gift, they gave you a bird's nest that you had found in the forest a while ago...it was so meaningful for you!!

You showed your friends the nest and inside it, teacher Paloma placed a wooden bird that she had beautifully carved herself.

Then it was cake time!!! Daddy helped you cut it and give it to your friends. Here is your whole class ( Emiliano, Wambly, Eduardo, Matias Hugarte, Matias H., Carlitos, Max, Angela, Tamara, Valeria, Santiago, Dulce, Gabriel y Julie) all your friends whom you played and had such a great time for a whole year!!
You are such a lucky boy!!