6 years - WRM

I realize this post is a little late, but better late than never. I have already posted about Ryan's birthday celebrations, but now I owe him a recap of this past year and how he has grown.

Speaking of growing, his update at his 6 year check up was as follows:
Height - 47.5" (85%) I am going to go ahead and assume by the end of May he will be 48" for the waterpark!
Weight - 52 lbs. (82%)
BMI - 75%

So, it looks like his measurements have evened out over the years. He's lost his two bottom middle teeth in the past few months. He wears size 13 shoes, size 7 in tops and size 6 in bottoms. He goes to bed about 8:45 and gets up at 7:15 (that's me waking him up for school; somehow on the weekends though, he is up an at 'em by 7 am!). He is a pretty good eater and will try most things we give him. Wouldn't say he eats a ton of veggies, but a 6 year old kid, I would assume he's pretty normal in that department. His top favorite foods would probably include PBJ, cereal, fruit (strawberries and blueberries being his favorite), cheese sticks, pizza (most Italian type of dinners), Mexican food, and clearly any and all desserts. He loves to buy his lunch at school which I find pretty gross, but apparently it's the cool thing to do. He is obsessed with drawing/tracing. I feel like I have written this before, but he is currently tracing "If you Give a Mouse of Cookie" and wants to claim it as his own when he is done to take to his school for show and tell. Our friends introduced us to a YouTube channel that teaches you to draw various things, and he is currently loving that. His math skills are also pretty impressive for a Kindergartner, in my humble opinion!

I would say over the past year, what sticks out quite a bit is how much he loves school. He's made so many great friends, loves learning new things, has awesome teachers, and it just seems to suit him so well. He also has more energy than I could possibly imagine. On the days he doesn't have school, he is literally bouncing off the walls. Even on the days he does go to school, he can get so antsy in the evening. Ever since the time change, more of his friends have been going to the park to play after dinner and that has really helped him burn off that pent up energy he still seems to have at the end of the day.

He's also been playing baseball this Spring and has really improved from last year. It's dad's pitch and he seems to really have gotten the hang of it. His fielding has been pretty great, and he's really getting the hang of how to make an out and throw to the base the runner is on.

 He's playing with one of his best buds from Pre-school last year, Jacob!

Here's one video I have from a few weeks ago. You can ignore all the misses! At the end is a pretty decent hit!

I do love that he is willing to try all different sports and to really give it his best effort. Not sure what "his sport(s)" will end up being, but it seems like basketball and swimming  are so far the front runners. Guess the apple doesn't fall far from the tree.

I would say one of his biggest accomplishments over the past year would be learning to read. From the moment he started Kindergarten only knowing roughly 50-75 sight words, to reading the Magic Treehouse chapter books, he does enjoying reading. He will read to his brothers whenever they are willing to listen.

Ryan and B have been having so much fun together this past year. B has really grown up and they are able to play on more of the same level than ever before. They make up games together, build Magnatiles and other toys with each other, play make believe, etc. They have such a neat bond, I hope they only grow closer. Most weekend mornings here lately, we will wake up to find the two of them playing together in one of their bedrooms so quietly so they won't wake us. It's so sweet. Here they are playing with one of Ryan's birthday toys together. It was hilarious.

Ryan's spring field trip was about a month or so ago, and they went to the zoo. I was unable to go since I had the little ones at home, but our sweet friends sent me pics throughout the day. Here is Ryan's kinder class.

Ryan and his "girlfriend"

Just hanging around

Ryan wanted to be like dad here! He looks so grown up!

I know I've also mentioned before how close Ryan and Charlie are, but it's too cute not to share again. Charlie is always wanting to know where he is during the day. If he sees me come home sometime in the afternoon, he will ask about Ryan since he knows I always bring him home after he gets up form his nap.

A few weeks ago, Houston was hit with some pretty crazy flooding. It ended up cancelling school out in Katy for an entire week. For the first two days, there wasn't much open and whatever was open was insanely packed and crazy. After hearing how crazy Chick-fil-a was, we opted for PDQ for lunch one day. The kids had been so pent up for almost 48 hours, they were jumping around on the booth, hiding under the table, it was seriously like monkeys escaping from the zoo.

Love these little monkeys

One thing I definitely want to remember from this past year is his love for Legos. He is crazy about them. It gives him such a great sense of accomplishment when he finishes one, and he likes to set goals on how fast he can finish them, etc. Not sure if I have ever completely captured the essence of his obsession, but here is a look into his Lego World in his room. Wes built these shelves for Ryan for his birthday. I love how they turned out.

He has taken almost every set apart and rebuilt them at least once. We even signed him up for a monthly subscription where he picks a set, they send it, he builds them and then sends them back for a new one. You can't see it in this picture, but at night, we let him stay up for about 20 extra minutes after his brothers go to bed so he can play Legos. He usually puts his little clock on the bottom right corner of the table and watches it like a hawk until it's time for bed. Pretty sure he has never missed a bed time.What's even funnier is that he told me the other day that even though his bedtime is 8:45, he closes his eyes at 8:46 for bed because it's an even number. Talk about OCD!!

He is such a stickler for things being fair and equal, it's crazy. Not only does it have to be fair, but he has to be able to justify the way things are in his head. For instance, one night for dinner the boys were eating a hodge podge of leftovers. I had given B pizza because I knew he probably wouldn't eat the other leftovers. Ryan asked me why B got the pizza and not him. He quickly answered his own question with the thought that two nights before he had spent the night at CoCo and Poppy's and had pizza there, so it made sense that B got it that night instead of him. That's just one example from a line of many that I probably can't even remember. Maybe he will be a judge one day! He also LOVES to ask questions. Which I know is normal for this age, but whew! It can be exhausting. We do appreciate his willingness to learn and how he craves knowledge. He always wants to know and understand how things work and why things are the way they are. Truly the mind of an engineer at work, I'm sure! I already don't have answers to probably 25% of the questions he asks. I can only imagine what that will look like a few years from now!

We had a Mother's Day breakfast at Ryan's school, and it was super cute. They sang a cute song and had breakfast together. I love how sentimental he can be at times, he has such a big heart and I hope he always wants me to come to school to do things like this with him!

We love you and are so proud of the big kid you are becoming, Ryan!