While every birthday is important and well celebrated at our house, there is something extra special about James hitting the milestone of 5-years-old... There is so much that screams "big boy" and "little kid" about him these days, and nothing left of the baby, toddler, and preschooler ages that seem to have passed by in the blink of an eye. Even comparing him now to how I described him at 4-years-old, there are some significant differences, and that was only a year ago...
So what is different? Well, he has almost no word pronunciation/alteration issues anymore. I miss those little mistakes that reminded me daily that he was still in the "little years". And as if it isn't enough that he's grown out of pronunciation difficulties and warping phrases, he now reads (sounds out words and repeats memorized sight words - he's not reading sentences easily yet) and aces his phonics tests (most of the time - he does confuse a couple of the similar letter pairs). His seatwork involves less tracing and more cognitive work (matching similar items, identifying the vowel sound in a pictured item, coloring by number, connecting the dots by number to create pictures, etc.), and is often noted to be kindergarten-level work. We're thrilled that he is thriving in his current class (the recent split of the 4-year-olds and 5-year-olds has worked wonders for James' behavior and focus, and he hasn't had a single bad day since the change) and is obviously ready for kindergarten in the fall, but it's still hard to accept the fact that we will soon have a kindergartner in the house... a full-blown, school-aged kid. He often tells us elaborate stories, either made-up or repititions of lessons that he learned at school (or from us, TV, or one of his LeapPad games), and is getting a lot better about remembering the lyrics to songs that he likes (though his sister has us all beat in that skill).
Now for the things that haven't changed... He is SO NOT a morning person. Even though he loves going to school, he will complain most mornings that it's too early and too cold and he just wants to stay in bed a snuggle for a little while longer. Having Buster sleep at the foot of the bed has actually made our mornings easier because he's happy to wake up and snuggle Buster for a few minutes before we force him out of bed. He is still extemely social and cuddly, but he gets really shy if he's put on the spot (if you single him out with a question, rather than letting him offer up an answer asked to a group, and he definitely exhibits stage fright). One exception is soccer - he seems to be coming out of his shell on the field and is taking charge of the ball more often, less worried about offending his peers or getting in their way. He still likes to boss his friends and sister around, telling them how to do things and fussing at them for things they aren't suppose to do, but it's not as bad as it was (and not nearly as bad as Cora is currently!) and the tattling has decreased a lot from last year. He still has the same best friends (though Grant is quickly becoming a new favorite, now that they are soccer buddies), including his sister, and their relationship is only getting better. They still argue, but are able to work things out on their own more often, and there is far less competition and jealousy between them than there was last year.
His favorite activities at this age include riding his BIG BOY bike (especially on bumpy trails or BMX tracks), playing pretend at home with Cora (they come up with all sorts of games lately, but most involve Cora being the mom or cat and James being the kid or dog), building with Legos, watching TV/movies and playing on his LeapPad (when we allow it - he will always have limited screen time, and other than during long car rides, the LeapPad time has to be earned), playing outside (on the zipline, playset, and the new teeter-totter) and getting into all sorts of things in the yard (moving piles of rocks and leaves and dirt and acorns and firewood), being a superhero (I hope we still have a few years of this phase - it's too cute!), and just generally exploring (in the ravines behind the house, local trails, at parks - even just walking around the neighborhood - there is always something interesting to see when you're out with James because he never misses a thing).
This boy of ours is pretty special. We think he is incredibly smart, compassionate, cautious yet intrigued to learn new things, silly, sneaky, and basically just awesome. We want to wish him a VERY HAPPY 5th Birthday!
5-year stats: 45 lbs and 44"
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