5

It would seem that we have a 5 year old in the house.

How did that happen? 

How did half a decade go by? How did he grow so big? Where in the world did this creature come from? 

Oh wait, I know the answer to that last one. 

I have to say (and I think Rob would back me up here) that we really couldn't have hoped for a better little boy. He is healthy and active and listens fairly well. He can be sweet and considerate and thinks of others. At Christmas, he wanted to wrap up and give everyone gifts--even if those gifts were items that belonged to me. He's gotten a crazy sense of humor and comedic timing from somewhere. He can be a little slow to warm up to new situations and new people, but when he's in familiar territory he shows a great deal of confidence. His teachers have commented on how helpful his is in class, and how he likes to be leader there. He is so creative, whether it's when he draws wonderful pictures of aliens and buildings, or when he's playing with his toys and weaving great stories around his creations of Legos and vehicles and animals and paper. That creativity extends to his interest and observations about the world around him. He notices things that never even occur to me. He asks questions about why things happen and how things work. He is fascinated by animals and spends lots of times with his animal figures and animal books. And my goodness, does he have ideas about how things can be accomplished! He'll slide his stool over to the fridge to get his own yogurt. He'll get his scissors to open up a packet of crackers. I think he's often frustrated at how Rob and I try to slow him down a bit, how we're not quite as quick to do something as he might like.

What I'm finding most fascinating and exciting now is how he's so clearly learning to read. Whenever he sees letters he reads them out (often right to left, but we'll work on that), very quickly and accurately. Then he wants to know what it says. He wants to know how to spell words so that he can write them down. He's definitely starting to get the link between a letter and the sound it makes. 

I also love watching him with his friends. I wasn't prepared for him to have such closeknit friendships this early, but he really does. He and two other boys in his class are all within 3 months of age of each other, and they have been dubbed the Three Amigos by their teacher. They adore each other. They conspired to all wear the same Halloween costume. They now all have the same sneakers. The teachers have commented on how well they interact with each other. If one of them commits some sort of transgression against one of the others, he'll be politely told by the others, and then he'll apologize---all of their own volition. I've had all three of them playing at our house, and I barely knew they were there (which, it turns out, was because they were pulling out every single toy in Zack's room. But they were doing it QUIETLY!). There are also two girls in his class that are about his age and have been there as long as he. All of them have a certain understanding of each other and it's just wonderful to watch them make up and play games with each other. They've all taken to "attacking" me when I come to pick up Zack, pulling me around the room by the arms. My heart just melts to see him have such good friends. 

So Happy Birthday to our very sweet boy. We wish you lots of years of love, laughter, and fun.