Bode's 9th Birthday

It's now official:  Bode J. McGuirk is 9 years old.  Hard to believe slightly more than a decade ago the 53 inch, 75 pound boy you see before you in the below picture was a tiny 7 lbs, 11 ounces and a mere 20 inches tall, err, long.  Quite the transformation :-)

Bode made us get him up early, as he wanted to open his gifts BEFORE he went to school.  Thus, at 0620, we were doing presents.  What a great start to the day.  He got some cool things--a snap-circuits set, Halo 5, some Lego sets, a cool microscope, a motorized scooter, and some handy cash.  However, his favorite gift has to be the sort-of-life-sized rottweiler stuffed animal.  He is quite taken with it, and there is even a small resemblance to Harley.

While it's not the real dog that he wanted, it will suffice (for the time being).  We did wait until after school and after dinner to do cake.  Bode brought cupcakes to school for his class, and they sang to him.  His teammates also sung happy birthday at swim practice.  Counting the beautiful rendition Ashley and I gave, Bode heard Happy Birthday three times...I wonder how much money we owe the Jackson estate?  Here's a nice shot of Bode with his cake and his real-life dog.

Nine years old.  Half way to being able to vote...too bad he won't be able to help keep Trump around in 2020 :-)  Pleasant week to all!