I Never Thought We Could Do This With Dekker!

Last night, we took the fam to Montana’s. Being that it was Tuesday, the balloon man was there, and it was “kids eat free” night. You guys know about that, right? If you watch the balloon man’s Facebook page, it tells you which location he’s going to be at each week. It was a bit of a last minute plan, but we made a couple of quick calls and coerced my mom and Jerilee to join us.

Unfortunately, we had a pretty big oops and I had to drive home to retrieve the diaper bag. By the time I got back to the restaurant, the balloons had already been made. The kids were SO happy and having SO much fun.

The group had waited for me, so we ordered right away and food came out pretty fast. The servers were calling Dekker by name, and I picked up on the fact that they knew it was his birthday. Now you guys probably know, but Montana’s puts on a big to-do with birthdays, with the monstrous hat and cowbell and all that. We’ve had birthdays at Montana’s before, but with Dekker struggling so hard with loud noises and overstimulation in the past, we’ve never tipped the staff off to the birthdays. True story, when I found out they knew this time around, I felt pretty nervous. Yet my Dekker is SO much different than my Dekker two years ago. So I rolled with it. And it happened.

And he survived!! No one cried or panicked. Not even the baby! They sang and clapped and whooped and he sat very still with a big smile on his face. We took pictures and videos and made a big fuss over him. And he liked it! I NEVER would’ve thought he’d be able to handle such a situation, but of course, he’s grown and changed and is a totally different guy!

At his first birthday, we couldn’t even sing him “Happy Birthday” without him crying and panicking.

What a long way he’s come <3

I couldn’t be more proud of this little guy.

I know, I know, two birthday posts in a row. I can’t help it! He just amazes me.