D.W.'s Perfect Wish

D.W's Perfect Wish is the twenty-eighth episode of season 3, which debuted on May 24, 1999.

Summary
D.W. is always excited about her birthdays, but when her fifth birthday comes she is unhappy. When Arthur hears about this, he finds out that Emily told D.W. that when you turn five, you're not a kid anymore. D.W. soon returns to being happy after thinking back on her memories of being four years old.

Plot
Opening

The opening begins as Arthur is marking a calendar and mentions its not hard to make yourself a calendar and shows the audience the one he drew himself before coming to March. He reveals DW's birthday is on March 1st and goes on to talk about how DW kept mentioning it the previous year. As he flips the calendar to the current day Arthur notices that it is DW's birthday and yet she's not said a word. He then talks to her when she suddenly throws her toy unicorn at him.

Episode

Arthur heads into DW's room and asks her why she's not excited for her birthday. She asks him if he actually wants to know or not, then goes over what happened. Beginning when with she was telling their dad what sort of cake she wanted, a plain old, normal, every day cake. Then a bit later DW plays a game with Emily. Emily mentions that turning five is a really big deal, and goes on to say that you can not do the same things as you used to, and that soon you'll be going to kindergarten, and that you'll never be a little kid ever again...

So now, DW is moping about as Arthur asks her the problem with this. DW begins to wonder if this is a big mistake and asks if she's wasted her childhood and Arthur tries to convince her that she's done plenty of great stuff. Such as fooling the tooth fairy, taught the entire family about fire drills, got to get stitches at the hospital, and so many other things!

DW goes over this and does not feel too happy and Arthur continues, telling her about how she learned to do flips on the balance board, her deer friend, meeting Mr. Rogers, met the president, build a chicken coop, saw Crazy Bus Live, got Chicken Pox...

She also saved cousin Lucy's ring, took care of kate upon her birth, saved a special snowball that someone saved. She then stops and blames Arthur but he denies it yet again...

After hugging Arthur, DW thanks him for helping her be happy again this day and Arthur tells her that he wants her to be happy, and reminds her about the special birthday wish. Later DW and Arthur notice how dark the house is and upon reaching the kitchen DW sees the cake and presents and then blows out the candles to make her wish. Arthur asks her what she wished for last year and she reveals that she can't remember that wish.

Her parents try to inspire her but its no use, DW considers wishing for a pony but is convinced not to do so as Arthur tries to rush her. Claiming Kate is really hungry as a result. It's then Grandma Thora tells DW that she does not need to fret over her birthday wish, since she made a nice wish for both Arthur and DW on her birthday. After hugging her, DW then realizes her birthday wish!

Blowing out the candles everybody digs into the cake. DW compliments the cake as Arthur asks her what she wished for and then he asks her that she tells him the wish once it happens. Suddenly the bowl of cake goes flying and Arthur narrowly misses it. He then slips and lands right into the remaining cake! As DW laughs, she secretly reveals that it was her wish, without directly saying it...

Trivia

 * This episode is similar to the Full house episode where Michelle ( D.W. and Michelle have similar character traits) is happy of her Fifth birthday, but soon doesn't when she thinks her father will not love her anymore.
 * In the episode, Arthur refers to Lucy as his cousin, but she is actually Arthur's aunt because she's Arthur's Mom's sister. His oldest cousin is Mo who is middle school-aged.
 * Although D.W.'s birthday is March 1st, there was no snow outside, even though spring doesn't start until March 20th on a normal year or March 21st on a leap year.
 * In Arthur's Birthday, Arthur said that D.W.'s birthday was six months away, even though his birthday was May 25th. D.W.'s birthday was confirmed to be March 1st here, which is 280 days (281 days if a leap year) after Arthur's, and Arthur's birthday is 85 days after D.W.'s.
 * D.W. said that it wasn't fun when she caught the chicken pox; but in Arthur's Chicken Pox, she became jealous before she caught it, and then found it amusing after she caught it. She must of later realize that having them wasn't as fun as she thought.
 * In the flashback where D.W. turns four, Jane was shown to be pregnant with Kate; although in Arthur's Baby  (as well as its direct sequel D.W.'s Baby) where Kate was born, Arthur was seven years old in the second grade and D.W. was three years old.
 * Although D.W. turned five years old in this episode, she is still referred to being four years old in the later episodes unless there is a calendar on display that says the date after her birthday.
 * Apparently DW can't spell No yet. As she calls it a "three letter word".