5 years - WRM

Ryan turned 5 this past week, which means we have been parents for five years now! Ryan is just about as good as it gets for a kid. I know it sounds cliche, but there isn't much I would change at all about this little one. I feel like it is okay to say that because I know not all of our kids will be this easy! He is the most kind, respectful, well-behaved, inquisitive, fun-loving kid there is. He loves life and loves to learn. He's a people-pleaser by nature, and does not like to get in trouble. He prides himself in the fact that he has never had his name on the board at school. He is always interested in learning new things and figuring out how the world works. One day on the way home from school, he asked me if he could go to a school where he could learn Spanish and that after that, he would like to learn French.

Taken before heading to Kinder Orientation

His favorite things to do these days include: building Legos upon Legos upon more Legos; playing with Superheroes and Ninja Turtles, playing pretend (mainly that he is either a superhero or Ninja Turtle) playing at the park with our neighbor friends, riding his bike on the trail when we jog, playing t-ball and basketball in the backyard, and putting together puzzles. We were doing a good job with sight words and reading books, but have kind of backed off some as we have just been so busy. At one point, he could recognize about 25-30 sight words. We need to get back to working on them before he starts school in the fall, ahhhh!!!

He has definitely started forming his own opinions lately. For instance, he does not like country music. I listen to just about all kinds of music, and one day it was on a country station and I hear him in the back say 'Mom, change the station. I don't like cowboy music." This was during the time of the rodeo, so I think it was on his mind, but he clearly prefers pop and rock music. 

He's also really big on doing things himself and helping out as much as he can. He loves to do chores, he even got a chore chart for Christmas. We have started allowance on a weekly basis and he is really into it. He is getting $4 a week and after about 4 or 5 weeks, he wants to go to Target to pick out a toy. It's pretty funny watching him walk up and down the aisles contemplating what he should get. He even mentioned how it was going to take him a while to check everything out before he made his decision. There have been times when we didn't know what something cost, so we had to go scan it for a price check. He's so cute asking if he has enough money to buy it. If I forget to give him his money for the week, he'll hound me for it. Most days, I feel like I am parenting an adult. He asks so many questions and wants to understand everything.

I'm pretty sure he has his first crush. Lo and behold, it's his teacher. In his defense, she is very pretty and so sweet and nurturing, so I don't blame him. One day she told him that she really liked one of his shirts and guess what, he only wants to wear that shirt now. At least once every week. He prays for her and apparently his other teacher said that this is a pretty big crush. Haha!!

He's turned into a pretty good eater over the past year as well. He is never going to prefer veggies over sweets, but at least now I can force him into eating them. We've implemented timers, dinner charts, you name it to get him to eat faster. He is the world's slowest eater. No doubt. It's painful to watch, but he'll eventually get it done, just sometimes an hour and a half later.

He is a wonderful big brother. I couldn't draw up a better older brother if I tried. He is always willing to watch over the boys, go get me something, actually loves to play with them even when not asked, and I can tell he will be a great role model. He and Bradley are forming a pretty sweet bond, and I just love to watch them grow close to one another.

We went to the doctor this week and his stats were:

Height - 45.25 in. (90%)

Weight - 45.5 lb. (79%)

BMI - 56%

For his birthday week, we had a lot of fun things planned. I made him some coffee cake for breakfast, where B and I sang to him Thursday morning before school.

They celebrated at school on his actual birthday where he was treated like a king and he was pretty excited to wear the crown all day! On Friday, Wes had off, so we had Yami come over to watch the little ones so we could spend some one on one time with Ryan. We started off at breakfast at a new, yummy place in Katy called Dish Society. Nutella French Toast for the win!

We then headed over to Main Event for a day of fun with our big boy. Apparently, I got the times wrong and they weren't quite open yet. Ooops. They were nice enough to let us in and play pool before they opened.

 We headed over to the arcades next. Ryan loves air hockey, so that was a must.

 We had the entire place to ourselves, so we hit up just about every single game they had!

We then went and played a few games at the bowling alley. We all had a blast and Wes and I had some friendly competition going with each other as well.

 Ryan was very concerned with trying to get spares, not strikes. Spares. And he did get quite a few.

One of the workers there heard it was his birthday and as we were leaving, let him grab a huge stuffed animal out of the giant crane game. He was pretty pumped.

It was such a fun day, and I was so thankful for our time together with just him. The next morning was Ryan's first t-ball game. Doesn't he look adorable in his uniform?!?!

He is playing with the YMCA and has a buddy from school and a buddy from our neighborhood on the team, so it's been a lot of fun so far. They don't keep score or outs, so everyone gets to hit and run the bases. Ryan had a blast. The boys pow-wowing before the game.

I could hear Ryan and Grant discussing his birthday party that was later that day.

 His first at bat!

He had two good hits and had two good "catches" as he called it - meaning he retrieved the ball out of the dog pile twice. He even got upset when someone took the ball from him which is very unlike him. Here is Ryan and B both taking a seat along the sideline while his team was batting. B just helped himself to a bucket to sit on.

On the way home he said that he had more fun playing t-ball than the other sports he has tried. I was very surprised, so we will see how the season goes.

We are so lucky to be Ryan's parents and can not wait to see what this next year brings when he heads into Kindergarten :)