Happy 1st Birthday Sloane!!

April 15, 2019

 

Happy 1^st Birthday Sloane!!

It takes a pretty special person to make us travel across the country to attend their first birthday party, in fact I cannot recall the last time that Kathy and I even attended a first birthday party. When Kathy was teaching three year olds at the Key West Preschool Co-op, we went to quite a few third and fourth birthday parties but rarely if ever did we have the pleasure of attending a first birthday party.

 

I am so glad that we did not miss this one, Sloane is a wonderful and amazing baby and her parents went to great lengths to prepare their home to host a party that included many of Sloane’s young friends as well as many of their friends. Not having any offspring of our own, this may be the closest we ever get to the “grandparent” experience. Not that I am complaining, it is just so cool to have been able to remain such good friends with Dakota well after Kathy’s days serving as her mentor in the Take Stock In Children program.

 

Dakota and Andy have carved out a pretty wonderful life for themselves and Sloane in spite of the inherent issues of being a military family, facing frequent separations due to deployment and, the occasional moves due to reassignment. In fact, after meeting a good number of other military families at the party, I was surprised at the closeness of the friendships that had formed in what is in some ways a very transient existence. 

 

 

It seemed like every other family we met was heading off to some new location for a variety of reasons, yet at the same time there seemed to be a tight bond of all who we met. It was pretty cool to see, perhaps their very circumstances make them value and rely on each other way more than for example we do with most of our friends.

Kathy 

Sloane is remarkably well adjusted and pretty much just a happy and talented baby. It was also cool to meet so many other young babies. I have always heard that all babies develop at their own pace, but seeing how different babies close to Sloane’s age all were. Some were barely able to crawl, while other’s like Sloane are walking up a storm and verbalization skills were all over the map. They were all pretty damn cute though and in all it was a really awesome group of kids and parents. 

 

There was plenty of food and drinks for all and the children just seemed to have a great time playing with the large collection of toys that had been set up for their enjoyment. It was just a really fun and enjoyable afternoon and we were so happy to have made the trip. It was with a heavy heart that we headed out to Clovis Airport to board our Boutique Airlines flight back to Dallas. Though it was a quick visit, it was pretty wonderful and I am fairly certain that it won’t be another year before we are back to see them all again.