June 12, 2003

It all started at 4am on June 12, 2003. Mitch and I arrived at Arrowhead Hospital in Glendale AZ, ready for our 1st born. After a long day of pain, drugs and 2.5 hrs of hard pushing, our world changed. Robert Josef Hammes was born at 5:43pm. We were so excited.....

5 years later, we are even more excited. RJ has always been a great kid, but I think spending a year in Japan has done wonders for him. He is reading (in English) and can understand and speak some Japanese. He can write all of his letters (in English, and some Japanese) and numbers and is starting to do some addition and subtraction. We are so proud of him.

Today at 6:20am, RJ walked into our room. I was not ready to get up, so he crawled into bed with us and TRIED to go back to sleep. The problem....someone left a pile of presents on the floor and RJ spotted them. Now this is where I know that he is his father's son...he didn't say a word about the presents! (I would have been all over them) He waited till 7am (when we are suppose to get up) and then started asking about them. It was so cute. Thanks to all of those who helped make RJ's 5th birthday so great.
A present from Grandma Pat

A Japanese/English book, with CD, from Chieko (one of my university students). He as so excited (forgetful mother forgo to charge the battery for the camera, so there are no more videos from this morning, sorry)
a pencil case with a pencil sharpener (he was so excited to have his own pencil sharpener), pencils, tape dispenser, glue and ruler. All Shinkansen (the bullet train)

a card from Grandma Leister with a note that he gets to celebrate his birthday AGAIN when he gets home. He was very happy to hear that!
A movie from Aunt Tracy, Uncle David, Mark, Chance and Dylan
a very heavy box from Nathan and his mommy (and daddy and brother too)
That box was stuffed!! KRAFT mac & cheese, books, a lantern, brownies, muffin mix, cookies, all kinds of things...
and Twinkies....RJ had no idea what this was....maybe Mitch and I will eat them before he has a chance.

A BUNCH of cards from all of RJ's friends at Mission Bell (Thanks Sara). Each kid had their picture on their card and then wrote a message or drew a picture. RJ loved seeing all his friends! He also got some stickers (which he easily shared with his sister) and a sticker book.

He also received a card from Kyle which had a picture of Mickey Mouse that he colored and a personal card that Kyle wrote. RJ had fun reading it!!

Look at all that loot! RJ said "Thanks Everyone! I love my birthday!" (I will try to get it on video tonight when the battery is charged)

Then Daddy made RJ a special breakfast. He requested pancakes with peach yogurt and octopus sausage

Sara didn't want to be left out any more

It was a great morning!!! Thanks again to all of you who helped make RJ's birthday special this morning!