Nathan at 9

Nathan was 9 years old yesterday!

He is now 65 pounds and 52 inches tall.

He loves animals. He has 117 stuffed animals in his collection. When he grows up, he wants to be an animal scientist and says he wants to go to WSU.

He loves to read. His favorite books are:

1. Harry Potter
2. How to Train Your Dragon
3. Nathan Hale's Hazardous Tales
4. Who was/What Was series.

He also reads every non-fiction book he can find! He says he's read all the non-fiction books at the library.

He watches these TV shows/movies:

1. My Little Pony with Elizabeth.
2. How to Train your Dragon
3. Chasing Monsters (a non-fiction show about large, scary animals)
4. Other non-fiction shows about animals.
5. Harry Potter movies

He loves to play games with his sister where they pretend play:

1. Harry Potter
2. My Little Pony
3. Chronicles of Narnia
4. Little House on the Prairie

They can play together really well for hours and hours. Other times, they just fight and bicker and don't do well together at all. It kind of depends on the day. But most of the time, they seem to love each other and love to play together. When Elizabeth had to go to the ER a few months ago, Nathan said he was so scared and was worried he would lose the playmate he loved.

He's pretty healthy. He doesn't get sick too often. He's got environmental allergies that stuff him up once in a while, but it doesn't seem to bother him too much. His food allergies remain the same: milk, eggs, peanuts, cashews, pistachios, hazelnuts, and kiwi.

Recently, he got diagnosed as an official "anosmiac." This means that he is unable to smell. For the last few years, we realized that he didn't seem to smell. The allergist seemed to think that maybe it was just a constantly stuffy nose. We tried nose sprays and anti-histamines. Nothing worked. He told us he couldn't smell and had never been able to smell.

We took him to the ENT. They snaked a camera up his nose and said there were no sinus problems and everything looked clear. It shouldn't have been causing any kind of smell problems. Plus, they said if allergies were his problem, he would be able to smell something-even if it was strong scents. Or he should have been able to smell during the winter when he wasn't having allergy problems.

After doing an MRI to check for defects in his brain, we were told everything that should be in his brain was in there! Everything was formed like it should have been. However, something just isn't working and never has.

He did a smell test at the ENT where he had to smell 40 different scents. He smelled nothing.
After this, he was officially diagnosed as having anosmia. I guess some people can't see and others can hear and others can't smell! They told us this is nothing they can fix. He will be unable to smell for life.

We do have concerns. He won't be able to ever smell smoke or leaking gas. He won't be able to smell if food is bad or if a food contains peanuts or something else he is allergic to. Luckily, he's never had a sense of smell so there's nothing for him to miss or feel frustrated about. He never had it! Apparently less than .5 percent of people have no sense of smell. This kid is good at being unusual!

At school, his favorite subjects are reading and science. His teachers tell me he is very well behaved and they never have problems with him. He is good at helping his classmates and working with them.

He's taking piano lessons and his favorite song to play is "Ode to Joy." He plans to try out for the school steel drum band next year.

When he's home, he always has a weapon in his hand. He runs around the house with either 2 swords in hand or with a dart gun. He's a big fan of weapons. Right now as I type, he is using a bow and arrow set that uses suction cups.

He's pretty sporty! He is really interested in archery. He does pretty well! Other sports he enjoys are tennis and running. He loves to do "Junior Joggers" at recess. He likes to play tennis with me. We also play basketball together sometimes. He is really good at stealing the ball from me! He LOVES swimming. He and his sister have taken 6 week of swimming lessons so far this summer. He knows all the strokes and is working on his diving. He likes gymnastics too.

A new hobby that he enjoys is fishing! He would like to get into it more. He loves to fish. I think partly this is because he gets to spend time with Jeremy. I hope it's a hobby they can do more together.

Here are a few things he doesn't like:

1. Math
2. Clothes shopping-he hates this
3. Wearing a tie-he DESPISES this
4. Classmates that don't follow the rules
5. Anything that has to do with dressing up and looking nice.