Guess Who’s 5?

I love this goofy kid!! Oliver is such a sweet, funny, smart guy. He is kind to his brothers and is so helpful to me. He makes friends so easily and loves to laugh and play. Some of the things that stand out to me about him at this stage are:

--He gets dressed all by himself and picks out his own outifts (his style trends towards “comfort first”, with his fleece sweatpants in constant rotation)

--He hums to himself while he rides his bike. This just melts my heart. It is so cute, it is exactly what is meant by a “flow experience”-- he is totally immersed and completely happy.

--He loves to write and draw pictures. He isn’t quite reading yet but he likes to sound out words that he is trying to write. He likes reading Richard Scary’s Cars & Trucks & Things That Go or the I SPY books with Elliot. It makes me so happy to hear them giggling together in their room.

We are having a birthday party for him on Saturday. It’s an outdoor party (a bike parade) and it looks like it might rain, so we may have to take the party indoors, to the church gym. He LOVES riding his bike so I thought this would be a fun idea. But he has been telling everyone he is having a Monster Truck birthday party. So I think I’ll do a Monster Truck cake.

Since today is his birthday I told him he could do ANYTHING he wanted (as long as it was safe and not inherently unhealthy…so no candy for lunch, sorry). So he ate chocolate chip pancakes for breakfast, swiss cheese and lemonade for lunch and we’ll see what’s on the menu for dinner (Extra Cheddar Goldfish??? I hope not!) He also decided that what he wanted to do more than anything was to watch TV for most of the day. (My dad pointed out that this choice may fall into the “inherently unhealthy” category.) It’s raining and cold outside so there aren’t too many other compelling options.  Actually, he wants to do an art project now, so I’m going to wrap up this post.

The President of Oliver’s Fan Club (Nana) is arriving from New York this afternoon to celebrate with us.