FIVE!

Our baby boy is officially half a decade old.  He's so excited about being 5.  He frequently says things like "Remember when I was 4?" and "When I was 4, I couldn't do XXXX, but now I'm 5, so I can do it."  My favorite so far is "Do my arms look longer than they did when I was 4?" 

In case you don't know what it sounds like to have a five-year old living in your house...it sounds something like this:  "What does 'about' mean? What does 'progress' mean? What does 'never' mean? What does 'ever' mean? What's inside skin? What is lint? How does a straw suck things up? How did you get milk to feed Alyse? What does 'I fell in love' mean? What does 'run for president' mean? What does 'offered' mean?  How old will Tessa be when I'm 7?  How old will Alyse be when Tessa is 7?" And I'm only talking about a 30 minute period of time here...

It's becoming increasingly difficult to get a good picture of him.  If I want to take his picture, he gently reminds me that I have to say "Can I please take your picture?" I said please for this one.

He is sooo in love with his baby sister.  He constantly showers her with kisses and attention and loves to point out to strangers how cute she is.  For a while he would say "Alyse is cuter than a box of animals"  (no idea where he got that!?)  But recently he tends to just say that she is soooooooooooooooooooooo cute!  He recently decided that she is no longer to be called "sweetie", but rather "L.A. or Little Angel'.  He asked me for some spelling help, wrote "Little Angel" on a piece of paper and taped it to the wall above her crib.  :)

And Tessa?  Well, Tessa really knows how to push his buttons.

 

But, they have good moments too. 

He loves to perform 'science experiments' which usually involve water, mud or ice (or all of the above) and sometimes my kitchen floor too.  This particular experiment involved mud, water, chalk and bubbles.  He made "white mud" and "mud chalk". 

Other tidbits about Calder at age 5:

He loves dinosaurs, outer space, and legos.  He received a lot of legos for his birthday and he does such a fantastic job putting them together!

He LOVES to swim!

He is already showing a love for math (how could he not?)  His addition and subtraction skills are really quite impressive! 

He's starting to recognize and spell some basic words.  He's especially good at spelling sets of rhyming words (big, pig, wig, etc.)  He's so excited about learning to read!  He's not so excited or interested in the writing part.


He came home about a week before his birthday and announced that he has his first loose tooth.  It's really quite loose and we can already see the adult tooth coming in behind it, so it looks like the Tooth Fairy will be visiting our house very soon! (September 1st update:  He lost the tooth today!  Let the Tooth Fairy duties commence!)

At his 5 year well visit, he told the pediatrician "I'm a man because I have hair on my arms.  See?"  

Did I mention he is very inquisitive?  After learning that one of his classmates is allergic to pineapple, he came home asking what it meant to be allergic.  We explained that it meant that if his classmate ate pineapple he would feel sick afterward.  His response?  "Oh.  I'm allergic to chicken."  

His favorite things to eat are Peanut Butter and Jelly, fruit and yogurt.  He ventured into eating chicken for a few months, but no longer does.  (I guess it's because he's allergic.)

He's starting to become a little picky about his clothes.  He frequently doesn't want to wear what I pick out for him and he will sometimes disappear into his room only to emerge in a completely different (non-matching) outfit (underwear and socks included!) 

He loves to make his bed -- especially "the fancy way, like in hotels" (i.e. the sheets turned down).  He loves to help me bake and prepare food. He sets the table, clears his dishes from the table and even sometimes asks "May I be excused?"  :)

When he grows up he wants to be an astronaut or a dinosaur digger and a daddy.  But he also wants to live with us forever. :)

He's incredibly interested in places.  When he hears of a new place from a book or TV show or just in conversation he always says he wants to go there.  Among other places, we need to start planning visits to the Grand Canyon, Mount Rushmore, California, Rhode Island, the Arctic and Africa.  Oh, and we'll be booking a submarine ride soon too.  :)


He gets so excited when I ask him to go get the mail.  He comes running back from the mailbox (minus a few pieces of mail that he dropped along the way) grinning from ear to ear.

He's very sensitive.  He's funny.  He's silly.  He's smart.  He's energetic.  He's curious.  He's sweet.  He's our amazing little boy!