Tribute to Damon

So awhile ago I did a tribute to Tyler and Doug has been after to me to do one about Damon, well he beat me to it. He wrote most of this (I added a bit). So here's some fun things about Damon.
Damon is our oldest son who will be 6 years old in about 4 months. He is our constant ball of energy. We don't know if he knows how to get around the house other than sprinting, or flying, or leaping. He’s experiencing new things each week and becoming more and more an older boy.

Damon is about half-way through kindergarten. He is one of the youngest kids in his class but his teacher says he is doing very well. He likes to see his class-mates around town and has enjoyed making new friends with his first organized soccer team. Damon loves math and numbers. His favorite way to pass time in the truck is to ask us what X+X+X equals. “Dad and Mom, what’s 5+5+10?” followed by other renditions. Tyler has also gotten in the act and can already count to over 30. Damon enjoys counting and is our little Rainman. One time we were in a room and he whispered fairly soon after entering, “Dad, there’s 23 people in here.” Damon is learning his sight words and doing well at spelling. One of the nice surprises that Damon has shown us, after showing no interest earlier in life, is art and coloring. He’s not the best at coloring but will now do it. He’s a good little artist who prefers to draw dragons from the movie How to Train your Dragon.

Damon played his first soccer game on January 29^th. He is funny - he is much more interested in running around and kicking the ball occasionally than getting in the group of kids clustered around the ball. After one practice he told me this was because he was worried other kids might push him down. Then the next day he said he had a new "hypothesis" (big word which when he said it I laughed because I didn’t know he knew that word). His hypothesis was he was more worried about getting kicked in the legs, than being pushed down. He has some shin-guards so hopefully he realizes it won’t be so bad if he does get kicked. Before his game he said it wasn’t important who won the game but that he had fun (good little repeater of what mom and dad say). Good thing because when he was goalie he got scored on twice. He did score a goal himself but unfortunately it was an own-goal when he was trying to clear the ball out. So his team ended up losing 3-0 but Damon had a ton of fun even though he contributed to all the other team's points.

Damon likes to go to his dad’s basketball games. He's his number one fan and sometimes cheers a little too loud. One time when somebody was getting ready to shoot free throws, he yelled out, "Let my dad shoot them!" I think then his mom explained the rules to him. He knows his dad likes to play basketball and whenever he goes to play he encourages him to make a basket for everyone in the family.

As for some of the other things Damon likes, he has really gotten into Legos. He has a couple of sets which along with Tyler's and Dad's make for hours of fun. He likes to make cars and flying ships. Damon also likes to play the Nintendo Wii. His favorite game is a tank game where you drive around and try to shoot the enemy tanks before they shoot you. He also likes to play NBA Jam and his favorite part is where you can shove people without being called for a foul. Damon also enjoys cartoons like any other kid. He has a great imagination when he's playing and is at the age where he can entertain himself with it. One thing we're appreciative of is Damon likes to eat his meals unlike his younger brothers. He's always been very good to eat what he is served even at family functions. Other kids may be done and playing but Damon will often stay in his seat and finish his food.

Another funny thing Damon does is he loves to hide and especially be sneaky around the house. We sometimes pretend we cannot see him as he darts from room to room and hides. He thinks it's pretty cool how he can sometimes move around "without us seeing" him. Damon is a kid who is not that adventurous or daring. The other day we were watching the Winter X Games and the Big Air contests in snowboarding and snowmobiles. After watching them flip through the air and do crazy tricks I asked Damon if he wanted to do that when he got older and Damon said, "no way." Later when Tyler was watching I asked him if he wanted to do that and he said, "oh yeah, but maybe not as high." That is one difference between the two. Mom said to dad to keep his mouth shut and not encourage any of them to do that!

Here are some of the funny things that you might hear Damon say around the house. When answering a question correctly or being smart he'll say, "just using the old Dino brain," which he got from watching Dinosaur Train. If anything is easy he'll say, "that was easy peasy lemon squeezy." He likes to play peek-a-boo with Christopher so we'll hear them play together. He has also taught Chris to roar like a lion - it's pretty cute.

Damon is a great kid who we love very much. Sure there are times when he gets timeouts and we feel as parents like we've totally failed but then we realize how blessed we are to have good children. Damon loves his brothers Tyler and Christopher very much which we hope continues as he grows up. We sometimes wish our boys would grow out of phases a little bit sooner but we enjoy them just the same.