A turned 5

A turned 5 last week so I thought I would update you on the wonderful skills he now has. I was waiting until his 5 year well visit so I could write about how big he has grown, but it had to be rescheduled from today until 2 weeks from now.

While we were in Dallas in April, we took the training wheels off his bike and he has been riding on two wheels ever since. It was very frustrating at first but he stuck with it and now cruises along. He has his first bike race of the season this weekend and is very excited about showing off his new skill. He has become very confident on two wheels and can turn around in a single car driveway, ride figure 8's in our double driveway, stop on a dime, ride with his feet on the top tube (not very safe in my opinion) and start riding all by himself.

He also just completed his first running race. On his actual birthday, his elementary school had their annual 1 mile fun run where all the students, teachers, and neighbors come out and run a loop around the school. It was led by a 5 time world champion triathlete (who has children at our school) who gave a great motivational speech to the children and then ran 3 loops (3 miles) with the 5th graders. A's heat was last, the preschoolers, but he ran the whole way, without stopping to get super soaked by the fire engine spraying the children, passed most of the kindergartners and first graders and even a couple second graders to sprint across the finish line. He did an excellent job and Dad and I are so proud of him. Dad and A had been training together for the big birthday race. A can't wait for his next running race. We are thinking about entering him in the local kiddie triathlon this August. The total time to finish the tri is 15 minutes including all three sports, he is great at running and biking and the swimming at his age is just running through the ankle deep water of the reservoir.

We signed him up for a local soccer team where he can run around with other 5 year olds as he has begun to like soccer again. I was also going to sign him up for another round of ice skating lessons since he wants to play hockey, along with swimming and tennis but his summer is getting pretty full. In the backyard he loves to shoot his slingshot, go down the big slide standing up "snowboarding style" as he calls it, fight pretend dinosaurs in order to save his sister and our neighbor, throw a Frisbee, hit a pitched baseball (left-handed), ride his bike on the racetrack around the table on the patio, run races, play soccer (boys versus girls), and climb the fence and trees. Superheros are his favorite characters and he enjoys shooting web from his spiderman armband, especially if it accidently hits his sister. He has a bunch of matchbox cars he races, Levi always wins somehow. He can name most of the winners of the International bike races and gets excited to watch a new race with Dad on the weekend, Levi is his favorite bike racer.

A has continued to become a great reader. He can sound out words and write them himself, with his right hand. He still loves to rhyme words, make up jokes and now riddles. He stumps me every time with his riddles. Here is one from the other day:
A- Mom what is white and is not a marshmallow?
M- A momma rabbit?
A- No.
M- What letter does it start with?
A- I am thinking about it, M.
M- A microwave?
A- No. (said while laughing because it is so simple I should have the correct answer by now)
M- Mayonnaise?
A- No, it is really big, enormous actually.
I make a few more random guesses and give up.
A- It is so easy Mom, a cloud.

Back to his wonderful new skills, he can name garden plants by their leaves and loves to pull the weeds and look for worms in the garden. When we went to the Master Gardener sale a few weeks back, he impressed everyone by repeating "Look mom, a strawberry plant. We need some of these." with strawberry's, tomatoes, beans, peppers, and basil. He lets me know when the rhubarb and parsley need to be harvested, as that is one of his favorite things to do in the garden, eat the fruits of his labor. He draws pictures for me of the flowers in our yard and can name most of them by leaf or flower. He loves to walk out front and count the poppy blooms or the number of bees flying around them. He also loves to search for the 3 snakes who have moved into our front yard.

He has caught a bunch of moths, butterflies as he calls them, with a badminton racket and we actually got two into a jar one day. After he named them Whitey and Orangey, we let them fly back to their families. Whitey and Orangey come back to our house almost everyday and we watch them flutter from flower to flower. He sits on top of the Little Tikes house in the backyard and waits patiently for more "butterflies" to enter our yard. Bugs and rocks are his favorite things to collect these days.

A is a great big brother and does an amazing job of teaching the other two. He is kind and considerate of others and his preschool teachers never had a negative thing to say about him all year. He is honestly concerned about the environment and tries to get us to recycle or compost everything we can. He is able to explain the many ideas he has in order for us to understand what is going through his cute little mind. He remembers everything and enjoys learning new things. He is a true joy to have in our family.

The End (added by A)