Some of Braden’s friends in his after-school program collect football cards, so naturally Braden has been collecting them, too (an easy gift idea for him). Unfortunately, Braden’s friends have been taking advantage of him during trades, as Braden gives up good cards for so-so cards. Brian had to teach Braden not to be taken advantage of and how to conduct fair trades. In one instance, we asked Braden to reverse a bad trade that happened, and to our surprise, Braden did so successfully.

Braden also follows his friends’ lead in rooting for any team other than the Packers. Braden says he likes the Patriots (to Brian’s dismay) and the Bears and Lions (to Kristin’s dismay). At least through the football cards he’s starting to learn teams and players, though he still can’t watch an entire football game (e.g. he watched around 10 min. of the Super Bowl).

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For Braden’s birthday party this year, we went bowling at Ten Pin Alley. This was the first year we let Braden really choose the invitees (vs. just inviting the entire class). He picked friends from his class, his after-school program and his old preschool class (both of whom are in Carson’s class now).

It was really cute to see all the kids huddled in front of each lane. They also all wolfed down their pizza, cake and soda. Most of Braden’s gifts were either football related or Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles related.

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