John Wayne Fact: Donovan's Reef is set at Christmas time in a "South Seas Paradise" where a nativity is a little unconventional

December 12^th: Tis the season for children to become OBSESSED with the holiday. Duke is full on into the Elf on the Shelf and finding him on the daily. He looks for “Ho-Ho”/ “Santa” out the window daily. He has totally spotted all the Christmas presents, not that they were hiding in my closet and thankfully…they are all wrapped. He asked Santa for a Chewbacca (Bacca) toy for Christmas so I think we are safe on this one.

Elsa had frozen the Elf earlier in the day, this is after the thaw.

He has become so obsessed with Polar Express that I’m genuinely concerned for his sleep. He finds paper and takes it to bed with him saying “I got Ticket.”

I'm just going to go up here and hold Baby Jesus.

Happy 5th birthday Duke

September 16^th: Today Duke turns 5. When I woke him up this morning he said he was 5 and then spelled his name “D-U-K-E Duke Williams.”

This is a milestone birthday in that Duke is no longer a toddler, but a little boy. Shortly he will be a pre-teen and I will lock myself in the closet and will cry while Steve talks me off the ledge probably for the 10^th time that week. As he is getting older he is getting bigger and with the Prader-Willie Syndrome I have to be careful with his celebration, for example when he would get cake 3 times today, it is just once and fruit for the rest of the events. This weekend he celebrates his birthday with a Star Wars theme, and his Hannah (i.e. Stephany’s best friend) will be there and I’m sure he will be falling over her all day.

At age 5 this is what Duke is into: 

·         Doctor Who: This is no joke, he loves Doctor Who and will watch a full episode of the show. When watching it he now likes to put on his angry caterpillar hat because it’s the closest thing he has to a fez and likes to spike his hair like Doctor Who. When he gets hurt he first says he wants a Band-Aid then he wants to see Doctor Who.

·         Star Wars: His favorite characters are Darth Vader and Chewbacca which could not be any further of an extreme. He recognizes the characters and will sit through most of the movie. The new Star Wars has him 100% geeking out when anything comes on the TV with Star Wars. I love this!

·         Transformer Rescue bots: He has them all…and even today as he got the final one (the Blades character…not as a plane but the ‘copter’) he has a complete collection and plays with them so feverously. 

·         Emotions: Duke likes to tell you emotions or a singer and you are to act them out. In exchange you get to do the same with him, the funny thing is when you say something is funny…he does my terrible laugh.

·         Hot Dog, Nana and Yogurt: This is what Duke wants to eat for dinner…every night. We do make the 3^rd item a berry and sometimes switch the hot dog for grilled cheese. The exception to this is on Friday’s when we go to the diner by our house and he will have a waffle.

·         Lip Syncing: We all know this…they boy is obsessed with music and knows all the song before I have even heard of it. 

·         Monkeys: He loves monkeys. His favorite shirt is a yellow shirt with a monkey sticking out his tongue with a crown and every time he wears it he points to it at random times and says “Funny Monkey!”

John Wayne Trivia: Holds the record for the actor with the most leading parts - 142. In all but 11 films he played the leading part.

May 30th: We are at week 4 of Duke going to the potty every morning. I am SO GRATEFUL for this start. When duke goes he gets a tattoo. When one gets washed off it is replaced the next morning. We have gone through 2 packs of tattoos and I couldn't be happier

Duke is also wrapping up his second year of Pre-K and he can write his name independently. Duke is able to count up to 10 and is able to identify the full alphabet and colors. His favorite song at the moment is Creep by Radiohead....he BELTS the chorus.

John Wayne Trivia "He was offered the lead in The Dirty Dozen (1967), but went to star in and direct The Green Berets (1968) instead. The part was eventually given to Lee Marvin."

March 29th: Duke has been having a rough time of potty training lately, and it's one of those things that is frustrating, but you have to remember he has extremely low muscle tone, so we can hold it...it's hard for him. He loves when he does go on the potty and the temporary tattoos that it means are coming his way.

Duke has recently become OBSESSED with Star Wars, Darth Vader and I'm okay with that. With the new Start Wars movie coming out Duke had gotten to enjoy Darth Vader yogurt for him to eat, Star Wars Rebels for him to watch and Darth Vader apparel for him to wear. He had the light saber...and then hit people with it...so that's in time out.

"When people say a John Wayne picture got bad reviews, I always wonder if they know it's a redundant sentence, but hell, I don't care. People like my pictures and that's all that counts." -

February 22nd:  In school this week Duke wrote his name without assistance. He is also working on words that start with B and has an awesome singing robot to go along with.

 Duke has taken up lip syncing semi professionally. Okay if there was semi professional lip syncing Duke would be all over this. He is so great with music and his latest GEM had me dying. Enjoy!

"You can't whine and bellyache because somebody else got a good break and you didn't."

December 25th: Duke was all about Christmas this year. He was into the shows and the specials. He knows the traditions (his elf which he changed his name to Chippy this year, the gingerbread house at school and looking silly in elf PJ’s on Christmas Eve). 

 

Duke knows about Santa, but he calls him Ho Ho, which I don’t correct him on, because it’s adorable. He knows about the reindeer and the North pole. He knows about Baby Jesus and his Ma Ma (Mary) and Da Da (Joseph), but he really loves playing with the animals in the manger.

 

Duke got up at 3am asking if Santa was here…on the hour…no one was amused. He did a good job opening gifts, but really just wanted to play with his transformers and nothing else was as interesting. He played from the time toys were fully out of packages until it was lunch time…at which point he collapsed from exhaustion and slept on his PopRock’s lap like he did when he was a baby (he loves his grandpa).

"Life is Hard; It's harder if you're stupid" JohnWayne

December 6th: Duke is able to recognize Santa....he doesn't get that he needs to tell Santa What he wants...but he knows who he is...My heart melts!