My quarterly post is overdue by more than a month!
It wasn't an oversight.
There just weren't a lot of updates that stuck out in my mind. (I'm making an executive decision to do only biannual posts after age five.) Nor did I possess a camera that could take pictures I would consider update-worthy. :)
Not to say that this handsome little devil isn't interesting...
He definitely is. And he gets cuter all the time... in our humble opinion, of course. ;-)
However! In the past couple weeks, a handful of new points have come to mind about Sir William that I would like to remember at this age. And a few new pictures have made their way to my computer as well.
However! In the past couple weeks, a handful of new points have come to mind about Sir William that I would like to remember at this age. And a few new pictures have made their way to my computer as well.
#1 - His feet grew! He's moving into a size 11 right now and they look so big to me! Still able to wear ALL size 4 clothes. In fact, he's just growing out of some 3T stuff. Size 5 is way too big.
#2 - He is very in tune with his routine schedule and days of the week. He knows where he goes and what he does on any given day and often reminds me of things coming up. He has a solid understanding of the order of days, months, etc.
#3 - Will still twirls my hair. The way he did when he was a nursing infant in my arms. And I LOVE it. Whenever I hold him for any reason or lean over him for a bedtime chat/kiss/hug, he immediately reaches for my hair and twirls it. I hope that never stops and it's one of the reasons I wear my hair long. :)
#4 - Will has begun reading, not only independently, but silently. The days of sounding out have been long gone for awhile now, and he has started kicking back with a book and reading it to himself, undisturbed by the constant sound coming from his sister in the background.
#5 - Not sure if this is in my head, but he seems to be gagging at the dinner table a little more. He's not choking and it's more annoying than worrisome. We know he can control it and overcome the urge mentally, but he's always had a sensitive gag reflex and now seems to use it to his advantage when he doesn't want to eat something on his plate. I wouldn't say it's often, but it's more frequent than I care to witness.
#6 - My boy seems to have become a whiz with nutrition knowledge. Proud mama here. :-) He always covers all his food group "bases" when meal planning (if I ask him what he'd like for lunch, etc.) and he can't be stumped with what foods belong in which group. Even tricky ones for a child, like: nuts, beans, vegetables with seeds, any grain, cottage cheese, etc. He knows the difference between 100% fruit juice and fruit flavored sweetened beverages - we talk about this a lot - and he loves drinking water. (Though his daddy slips him sips of all sorts of sweetened things from time to time. Will knows what an Arnold Palmer is and loves it. Haha!) And while he enjoys just about any treat or junk food ("sometimes foods"), he truly does understand and seem to respect that our bodies need and thrive best on healthy foods ("every day foods"). I'm pretty confident that while he may splurge and rebel a bit when he's out from under mama's wing (who doesn't?), he has a solid foundation for eating healthy for life.
#7 - We've been talking a lot about skills that Will needs to achieve before it's time for Kindergarten. Basic things really. And, though I know this is an accomplishment more appropriate for Sophie's age, Will has really started excelling at dressing skills: zips, snaps and buttons. I know I've mentioned this before: we've kind of babied our kids with dressing. Mainly because it's easier when we do it quickly on a busy morning. And as a result, they whine when we ask them to do something for themselves. But he's been doing these things independently lately and I appreciate it soooo much. He's practicing tying his shoe too!
Similar, but on a different note, Will is opening his car door in my Jeep and getting himself buckled into his car seat independently too. I only have to straighten/adjust/tighten the straps after getting Sophie into her seat and we're good to go! Again, I know these are probably things most kids his age have been doing for a couple years, but we tend to always do this for them.
#8 - Probably the biggest, most exciting accomplishment lately has been riding his bike without training wheels. He is just LOVING this new skill and wants to ride all the time. I have more updates about this which I will save for a later post, but to answer a comment/question from a previous post: Will is approximately 41 1/4 - 41 1/2" tall and is still riding a 12" bike. I think it has actually been a blessing for learning two-wheel riding and I'm hoping the time we have left before his fifth birthday will solidify his new found skills and prepare him to move up to a 16" (?) bike then.
#9 - This is just a random Will-ism that cracked me up the other night:
We were playing our usual "I love you bigger than ___" game at bedtime and he told me "I love you bigger than Mars". I replied "I love you bigger than Mercury AND Venus!" (intending it to mean both of them combined). He obviously thought I meant separately, because he gave me this one-scrunched-eyebrow and an are-you-aware-of-what-you-just-said? tone of voice and said "...whiiiich are both smaller..." LOL!! And then with a "duh" tone of voice, followed that up with "I said MARS". Haha!! That kid will call you out on ANYthing you say wrong or "not nice". ;-)
#10 - Oh! What about karate? We still go every Monday evening, of course. And Will loves it! Occasionally, after a long day away from home, he'll gripe about having to leave the house again. (I can't really blame him.) But for the most part he looks forward to Mondays and going to class. His instructor and all the assistants are awesome and they've learned to stay on top of his constant talking/interrupting/distraction to keep him on task and attentive. They compliment him each time he seems to improve a skill (LOTS of praise going on in this class for ALL the little dragons) and they encourage him to keep trying. He's most definitely got down the kiai, though! That's the yell that's done with any kicking or punching movement to increase force and encourage regular breathing during moves. Look at his wide open mouth as he yells in all these pictures. :-)
Less than two months until Will turns FIVE!
#6 - My boy seems to have become a whiz with nutrition knowledge. Proud mama here. :-) He always covers all his food group "bases" when meal planning (if I ask him what he'd like for lunch, etc.) and he can't be stumped with what foods belong in which group. Even tricky ones for a child, like: nuts, beans, vegetables with seeds, any grain, cottage cheese, etc. He knows the difference between 100% fruit juice and fruit flavored sweetened beverages - we talk about this a lot - and he loves drinking water. (Though his daddy slips him sips of all sorts of sweetened things from time to time. Will knows what an Arnold Palmer is and loves it. Haha!) And while he enjoys just about any treat or junk food ("sometimes foods"), he truly does understand and seem to respect that our bodies need and thrive best on healthy foods ("every day foods"). I'm pretty confident that while he may splurge and rebel a bit when he's out from under mama's wing (who doesn't?), he has a solid foundation for eating healthy for life.
#7 - We've been talking a lot about skills that Will needs to achieve before it's time for Kindergarten. Basic things really. And, though I know this is an accomplishment more appropriate for Sophie's age, Will has really started excelling at dressing skills: zips, snaps and buttons. I know I've mentioned this before: we've kind of babied our kids with dressing. Mainly because it's easier when we do it quickly on a busy morning. And as a result, they whine when we ask them to do something for themselves. But he's been doing these things independently lately and I appreciate it soooo much. He's practicing tying his shoe too!
Similar, but on a different note, Will is opening his car door in my Jeep and getting himself buckled into his car seat independently too. I only have to straighten/adjust/tighten the straps after getting Sophie into her seat and we're good to go! Again, I know these are probably things most kids his age have been doing for a couple years, but we tend to always do this for them.
#8 - Probably the biggest, most exciting accomplishment lately has been riding his bike without training wheels. He is just LOVING this new skill and wants to ride all the time. I have more updates about this which I will save for a later post, but to answer a comment/question from a previous post: Will is approximately 41 1/4 - 41 1/2" tall and is still riding a 12" bike. I think it has actually been a blessing for learning two-wheel riding and I'm hoping the time we have left before his fifth birthday will solidify his new found skills and prepare him to move up to a 16" (?) bike then.
#9 - This is just a random Will-ism that cracked me up the other night:
We were playing our usual "I love you bigger than ___" game at bedtime and he told me "I love you bigger than Mars". I replied "I love you bigger than Mercury AND Venus!" (intending it to mean both of them combined). He obviously thought I meant separately, because he gave me this one-scrunched-eyebrow and an are-you-aware-of-what-you-just-said? tone of voice and said "...whiiiich are both smaller..." LOL!! And then with a "duh" tone of voice, followed that up with "I said MARS". Haha!! That kid will call you out on ANYthing you say wrong or "not nice". ;-)
#10 - Oh! What about karate? We still go every Monday evening, of course. And Will loves it! Occasionally, after a long day away from home, he'll gripe about having to leave the house again. (I can't really blame him.) But for the most part he looks forward to Mondays and going to class. His instructor and all the assistants are awesome and they've learned to stay on top of his constant talking/interrupting/distraction to keep him on task and attentive. They compliment him each time he seems to improve a skill (LOTS of praise going on in this class for ALL the little dragons) and they encourage him to keep trying. He's most definitely got down the kiai, though! That's the yell that's done with any kicking or punching movement to increase force and encourage regular breathing during moves. Look at his wide open mouth as he yells in all these pictures. :-)
Less than two months until Will turns FIVE! We are constantly teasing him about how he's not allowed to get any older. Craig suggests all the time that after his fourth birthday, he just start going backward to zero with each birthday so that we'd celebrate his third this year. :) Will knows by now that we're kidding, but he always says/yells "No!! I have to get older and bigger! I'm going to grow up to be like daddy!"
It blows me away that we will be putting him on a school bus, come fall, and that he will be playing on this playground with all kinds of new peers that we don't know well. He will continue moving forward on his path to independence from our careful parenting and become the grown up boy that God intends him to be.
He is truly a good boy with a good heart and an honest conscious.
I just pray that I can always be the parent he needs me to be. I know him so well and I know how he thrives. Under what praise and discipline he best responds. Under what way of teaching he can easily grasp a new concept. And I know how to LOVE him with all my heart. It isn't hard. But the older he gets, the more independent he will become and I want to be able to support him in the way that serves him best. I pray that God helps me know when to speak and when to listen, when to be lenient and when to stay firm. And I pray that we can always have a trusting relationship in which I don't feel the need to "hover", but that he knows he can come to me for anything he needs.
I love this boy. Every little bit of him.
It blows me away that we will be putting him on a school bus, come fall, and that he will be playing on this playground with all kinds of new peers that we don't know well. He will continue moving forward on his path to independence from our careful parenting and become the grown up boy that God intends him to be.
He is truly a good boy with a good heart and an honest conscious.
I just pray that I can always be the parent he needs me to be. I know him so well and I know how he thrives. Under what praise and discipline he best responds. Under what way of teaching he can easily grasp a new concept. And I know how to LOVE him with all my heart. It isn't hard. But the older he gets, the more independent he will become and I want to be able to support him in the way that serves him best. I pray that God helps me know when to speak and when to listen, when to be lenient and when to stay firm. And I pray that we can always have a trusting relationship in which I don't feel the need to "hover", but that he knows he can come to me for anything he needs.
I love this boy. Every little bit of him.Being his mommy is one of my favorite assignments that God has given me.
2 comments:
Thanks for answering my bike size question :) Mia is the same height and I think I'll keep her on the 16" bike. I was considering getting a cheapo 12" bike JUST for ease of starting/stopping while learning to ride (and because I suspect William will learn to ride much sooner and will *need* a 12" bike anyway), but she seems to be getting the hang of it now.
And Mia has been whining about "when is my five birthday going to get here?" for MONTHS now (two of her closest friends at preschool turned 5 back in October) so I think she'd get downright angry if we suggested that she had to go back to her 3rd birthday ;) Can you believe how fast these kids have grown? Doesn't it seem like we were pregnant with them, like, yesterday? Aye yi yi.
Awww this was such a sweet post. Especially the end! A few things... Cora runs her fingers through my hair so softly when she's sleepy and I love it! I dress Lyla more often than I should because its easier, too! I'm way impressed with his reading skills and nutrition knowledge! Working on both of those with Lyla! And I'm pretty sure you've already got him more than prepared for kindergarten! Way to go mama! Your kids are so blessed to have you!
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