FIVE

Jack Lion turned FIVE a couple of weeks ago!  We celebrated the heck out of it with 5 of his best friends  on the day before his birthday and spent the actual day enjoying it as a family.  It was a weekend full of reminders that I'm oh so glad that he's ours...

He loves being outside.  Spring can't come soon enough.  This is the first year he's had actual gloves, instead of mittens (WHY don't they make gloves for little tiny kids?  They all HATE mittens.) and he has loved them so much.  He wears them all the time.  I am fascinated that he has not lost them.  I should clarify...that he has found them every time that he has lost them.  They kind of look like the have spider webs on the palms.  I think that's what makes them so cool.  Max is quite jealous of the gloves.

He loves Max and Max loves him.  Sure, they get on each other's nerves and they fight over things, but they also have the VERY best time together.  I remember being so worried, the night before Max was born, that Jack was going to be so upset that I had to divide my time with him.  And I'm sure at times he is.  But I honestly think Max was the greatest gift he could ever get.  They are so very different, but Jack is such a great big brother.  In fact, last week when Jack got to take cupcakes to school for his birthday, he went and got Max from the Orange Bird classroom and brought him to the Yellow Bird room to have cupcakes with them.  He's a good big brother.

He can write and read and count to a zillion.  He's smart.  Have you met his dad?  This doesn't surprise me, but it does still fascinate me.  Today in the car he told me all about Abraham Lincoln and the Emancipation Proclamation.  I'm not even kidding.  Fascinating.  And listening to him read, never ever gets old.  Watching them walk for the first time is exciting but they really kind of figure that out all on their own.  I didn't teach him to read, but we did teach him letters and sounds and we read him no fewer than 3 million books. So you feel like maybe you had some sort of impact on it I guess.  I don't know, but I love it.  He's even really pretty good at math and loves it. He loves adding things.  Again, have you met his dad? I take zero credit for this.  But I'm glad, because best I can tell, math is kind of important and hard to avoid, so you might as well like it,

He also still loves to draw. 
A lion on a giraffe's back:

 A map to all of his favorite places.  If you look closely you'll see Virginia Tech, Liverpool, our house, Grandma's house, Grams, Gramps and Unk's house, Emory and Ellie's house, an airplane and the beach. And a few good games of tic tac toe for good measure.

The Liverbird - Liverpool's logo.

 Part crab, part octopus, part snake.

He drew these, cut them out and hung them up, all alone.  I did tear the tape off the roll, but that's all.
He is also very practical.  Have you met his mother? :)! 

He loves school.  He loves his teachers and his friends and learning.  He organizes games of soccer and football, depending on the season, on the playground.  He thinks he owns that school, or at least runs it.  He knows it inside and out and feels so very much at home there.  When people ask me if I'm scared to send him to kindergarten, I answer with a very strong YES.  I'm not scared he won't get there or will be lost or won't have friends.  I'm scared that they don't know us and they don't know Jack.  I'm scared that he won't be looked after like he is at his school now.  I'm scared he won't feel as loved and we'll lose part of his spunk.  But I know it has to happen and I'm just happy that he'll still get to start and end his day with his other family. And I'm really excited about all of the new things he will learn there and all of the new friends he will make.

He loves Wild Kratts, the tv show. It's half animal documentary, half animated show about that same animal.  It's pretty interesting and quite educational.  Do you know what a caracal is? I do now.  He doesn't like movies because they all have bad guys in them.  And it's true.  I'm a little bit the same way. I don't like anxiety and watching people in bad situations gives me a lot of it.

He loved football until it ended and now he lives and breathes soccer.  He'll start in the Little Kickers program at school in April and then in the Fall will hopefully play on the Munford team.  He's really looking forward to that.  If the weather is remotely reasonable he's begging his Daddy to go play soccer with him.  It is ALL that he wants to do.  
(This picture might sum up his idea of the perfect morning (and mine too!)...we met Emerson and his family at a park in the Fan and they played lots of soccer.  It was a day we didn't have to wear coats and the sun was shining and everyone was happy and life was so very good.)

He loves the color green.

He loves couscous and peanut butter apple butter sandwiches and pesto pasta and cheese pizza and yogurt.  But the yogurt must be greek, vanilla and plain white.  He also loves milk and drinks a LOT of it.  Probably too much.  He is not a huge eater and must be coerced with the promise of a chocolate treat in order to clear his plate most nights.  I know, I know, that's probably a bad idea, but it's the only thing that works and we have tried them all.  He won't eat much meat - maybe 1 chicken nugget and 1 fish stick a month.  I do not know what we would do if he didn't like peanut butter.  He's very skinny.  5 slims fit great for length but still have to be cinched up in the waist.  He has to have 5 t shirts for length as well.  But he still doesn't weigh 40 lbs.  39.5 lbs to be exact.  And 42 inches tall.  He got a glowing review from his pediatrician at his 5 year old check up.

He's happy.  If not, he's tired.  There's no two ways about it.  He still naps on the weekends and occasionally at school.  But it's dwindling.  What used to be a 4 hour nap on the weekend is 1.5-2 if you're lucky.  But that's ok.  He still sleeps about 10.5 hours at night.

He still loves his blankie and sucks his thumb.  Only when he's tired though.  It's ok by me...I get it.  I sucked my thumb forever too.

He still wears a pullup to bed at night but is dry almost every morning.  We hate changing sheets in the middle of the night so we don't push it.  But he's a sound sleeper and I'm just not sure he's quite there.

He will sometimes ask me to stop what I'm doing and snuggle with him on the couch.  And yes, I stop, whatever it is, and go snuggle.  He promises me he will never stop wanting to snuggle with me. I hope he means it.  I also still snuggle with him every night before bed.  Sometimes I feel rushed to get other things done, but I really feel like it's a special time, not to be rushed.  He tells me lots of things during this time and I remind him how much I love him and why I'm so proud of him.

He didn't ask for anything for his birthday.  We got him a new bike, because he needed a bigger one and Max needed the smaller one.  And he was really excited, but he didn't ask for anything.  

We had decided on a football party some time ago...perhaps the week of the Superbowl.  We picked out a really neat cake and I asked the cake lady to make it.  I ordered football plates and napkins and such.  Everything was done.  The week before the party the kids and I were at Target and we walked past a pinata and Jack said he'd really like to have a pinata at his birthday party.  I told him that was a good idea but we'd look for a football one, since that one was shaped like a donkey.  He looked at me and said "Football?  Why football Momma?  I don't like football. I like soccer.  I want to have a soccer party!"  WHAT?  We agreed that perhaps we could have a combination football/soccer party and left it at that and then I spent the week trying to change everything I could to soccer.  Thankfully Grandma was on it and saved the day and the sweet lady who was making the cake turned the football into a soccer ball with no trouble!

He loves to say silly things like, "skunk hotdog" or "chicken nugget momma."

He has asked a LOT of questions recently about "when they cut you open to get the baby out."  I can't quite tell where it is coming from but have tried to answer them to the best of my knowledge and have given him no additional details.

He laughs with all he has.

He has always called cupcakes pupcakes.  We tried to correct him the first 100 times but it didn't work so we left it alone and came to call them that ourselves.  This year his teacher told him they weren't pupcakes, and he came home and asked in the most sincere way..."Miss Enid says they aren't pupcakes.  They are CUPcakes.  Is that right Momma?"  It took all Kenny and I had. It's the last thing he says wrong, except sometimes he still says prayground instead of playground...but we told him the truth.  It was hard.

He recently got a belt and he loves it and wants to wear it at all times.  It makes him look older I think.  It's super cute though.  

Kenny took the boys out to Dunkin Donuts the other morning.  One opened very close to school and Jack had been begging to go for months.  So they went and got a box of munchkins.  There were too many for them to eat so they decided to take the rest to school and share them with the teachers.  Nothing makes Jack happier than getting to give his teachers something special.  He was more excited about that than getting to eat them himself.  He's got a big heart.

I'm not gonna lie - realizing how old he is makes my heart ache a little bit.  But watching him learn and grow is the greatest gift one could ever get.  You can't have one without the other, so I guess I have to settle for him getting older.  I am so VERY thankful that he is happy and healthy and smart and sweet.  And thankful for all that he continues to teach me and the better person he helps me to become every day.   I love you Jack Lion.