Turning 10 in Berlin

Yesterday marked one whole decade of Easton.



Our sick, 3 pound 14 ounce (1758 g) preemie who almost didn't make it through his second day of life:


(We are literally saying goodbye forever to him in this picture as he had just gone through a lengthy resuscitation and wasn't very stable but had to be shipped off to the Children's Hospital. The chaplain came and asked if we wanted him baptized, he was truly not expected to survive the journey.)

He made it! With a double dose of life, it seems (most days)!



Double digits. Exciting times for our little man. He, unfortunately, had school on his birthday, despite his January birthday, he's been able to avoid having to go to school on his birthday too often. Luckily Friday's are always short days and we let him start early.

We had agreed to wake the family slightly early so he could open a couple of presents before school. He woke up to this display:



And got to enjoy a doughnut as a special breakfast treat. Of course we sang to him:



Then he got to open a couple of presents. I steered him towards gifts he could enjoy after school while we waited on Jason to finish work. He opened this Lego Technic car from Gramoo:



And a new Skylanders Trap Team guy. Plus he popped a balloon from Paw Paw and Me-Me that contained some birthday cash. The day was off to a good start and we headed off to school. I had baked some chocolate chip cookies for Easton to share with his class and walked him up to his classroom. (I usually bid them adieu at the door to their long climb up to their classes). As soon as we entered the hall, two of the boys sitting there wished him a Happy Birthday. All on their own. Awwww. <3 They were excited about the homemade chocolate chip cookies he brought to share later. I wasn't invited by the teacher to join the class for the cookies as I would have been back home but that's okay.  




Just after 1:00, I headed back to collect the boys. Easton had a good morning and reported that he had been serenaded in English, German, Spanish, French (3 kids), Chinese (2 kids), Russian (1 kid), and "Irish" (the teacher). What a fun perk of going to an International School, eh?! There are some other languages / versions but not all the kids are brave enough to sing them on their own, I guess. I don't blame them. He said they all loved the cookies and wanted seconds (you never know how non-Americans will like such an "American staple" as chocolate chip cookies, you know?). He even shared with the two teachers he doesn't like too much.

We set off across the park to pick up Autumn and headed home for lunch. Easton loves meat but, being vegetarian parents, it's not something he gets to have too often. But I bought him some special baguettes to make him a favorite grilled ham and cheese sandwich for his lunch followed by a yogurt, granola, sliced almond parfait. Then he and Dalton got to dive into some video games as it was pouring rain and hailing outside and we were waiting on Jason for any other special fun. He got a Face Time "call" from his BFF Miles back home. Miles is 8 hours behind in Colorado, of course, but gave E a ring before he headed off to school. This meant a lot to Easton as the night before he had been really upset that he wouldn't get to see any of his old friends on his birthday.

Jason arrived home slightly earlier than usual and Easton opened some more presents.





His last gift required a short hunt with various clues around the flat...10 clues for 10 years...and he was rewarded with Lego Batman 3 which he was super excited about:



He and Dalton jumped right into the new game:



Easton loves seafood, especially crab, but my asking various other Berliners led to the realization that crab is really not available here, especially not in restaurants. Hmmmm. So, then Easton was like, "Okay, how 'bout ravioli". Once again, a search of various menus revealed not a ton of ravioli nearby either. Plus, he was sort of into his video gaming, it was still raining (when is it not lately, though?) and so he picked quesadillas for dinner to be picked up by Jason so he could keep gaming. :) We had a quick dinner, some more chocolate chip cookies with a candle for dessert and let him stay up a little bit late playing his game. He really only stopped to chat with his aunt and cousins who called on Face Time and his Gramoo who called a bit later too. Oh, and a brief pause to re-create this pic from when he was a baby:



We're a good time.

It was a low-key day, for sure, but hopefully he enjoyed it enough. His party isn't until next weekend. He is having a small "science party" here at the house, but man, I'm having a tough time finding experiments we can manage over here in Germany. So many ingredients are hard-to-find or straight-up not available. So, that's why I delayed it by a week. I'm sure I'll post about that eventually too.