Ian turned five on April 30 this year. He isn't in Kindergarten yet, but now he's more ready than ever. Story time is no longer a passive endeavor. Ian's learned to read a large handful of words that he points out with loud enthusiasm as we read together. He started Faith Formation this year, which has opened a whole new line of questions for mom and dad to attempt to answer. Thankfully, he loves it and does his weekly lessons eagerly.
Turning five came with a number of perks for Ian, like being allowed to chew (and buy) gum. Another perk was inviting two friends to his birthday party at SkyZone, an indoor trampoline park. They enjoyed jumping around in the general jump areas and taking turns leaping into the foam pit. Ian invited Josie and Jaxton, and the three were as thick as thieves.
From Ian's perspective: "I'm happy that Josie and Jaxton got to come. And I love Josie and Jaxton."
With a new Star Wars movie on the horizon, Miles decided it was time to introduce Ian to the (original) Star Wars galaxy. We took several Sundays, popcorn and root beer in hand, and watched the saga set a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away. Much to Miles's dismay, Ian was immediately fascinated with Stormtroopers, the worthless foot soldiers of the Empire. He eventually passed some of his allegiance to Darth Vader, but it wasn't enough to earn back the paternal pride he had lost.
Ian surprised us with an unexpected complaint this summer. He couldn't chew food with his front teeth. When we took a look, it was clear why: he had a loose tooth! We thought it was a little early and took him to the dentist who told Ian, if he kept wiggling it, it would be out by the next week. It didn't quite happen that quickly, but soon he had lost his tooth. (In fact, he pulled his own tooth on an early Sunday morning while his oblivious parents slept.) He put it into his tooth pillow and was rewarded by the Tooth Fairy the next morning. His smile wasn't gap-toothed for long, however, as a new tooth was already coming in before the baby tooth fell out.
Said Ian: "I felt happy when I got my tooth out."
Bedtime routines come with a certain amount of flexibility, especially as the kids grow and mature. Ian introduced a new feature to his routine with Holli: improvised songs. He'll give Holli a couple topics to choose from, and then launch into a bedtime song on that subject. Holli has had the foresight to record some of these for parental enjoyment afterwards.