I can't believe my baby is five. If you were reading this, Phillip, you would be quick to let me know that you are not a baby. And I would be quick to remind you that you will always be my baby.You are getting so big. The time is going so quickly. You just graduated from pre-school and you will be starting Kindergarten in the fall. It will be fun for you to be in elementary school with your older brother for one year before he starts middle school. You weren't so sure about starting pre-school this last year. Every day you would come home and tell me how you liked all of the other teachers better than your own. You also had one day this year where you stayed at preschool all day. That was called "lunch bunch". We put you in that so you could get a taste for what it would be like to be in all-day Kindergarten. You would come home from that every time and say "that was the longest day!". Full day will be interesting next year. Thankfully you grew to love your teacher, Mrs. Randazzo, and she sure loved you too. You always made her crack up. We will all, always remember your sweater vest craze. You're starting to grow out of it a little bit, but you LOVED sweater vests. You would sneak them under regular shirts and then when no one was looking, you would peel off the shirt to reveal your beloved vest. During your Christmas concert at school while you were singing, you kept looking at me and pointing to the vest you had on underneath with your sly little smile. I wish I had that on video camera. It was so funny.
You love the color red. If we get ice cream or a slushy it doesn't matter what flavor it is, as long as it is red.
You are growing out of your CARS and Buzz Lightyear fetishes. You have now moved on to super heroes. You love Batman and Superman and Spiderman to name a few. Most of your presents this year were Batman toys and of course you had a Batman cake.
You love to play video games. You would play them all day long if I would let you. Your favorites right now are Harry Potter LEGO, Indiana Jones LEGO, and Gladiator Duel. I'm always amazed at how well you can maneuver through those and you don't even know how to read yet.
You have the best laugh. It is contagious. It is a full and hearty belly laugh and when you get started we can't help but laugh too.
You have two best buddies, Harrison Hoyt and David Rodabough. But your best buddy of all is your Dad. You love him so much. When he is not traveling you always want to be with him. You want him to read you stories at night and you want him to tuck you in. You want to go on errands with him and you want him to sit by you at dinner. Last year when we were at our family reunion, I was giving you a bath and when it was time to get out you told me that you wanted Dad to get you out instead of me because (and I quote) "You're not awesome!".
You still have such a sweet little voice with cute ways of saying things. For example you say INSEPT instead of except, and ACTUWEE instead of actually, and adding B to many verbs, such as battack! and bestroy!. You hold you hands out with fingers (or as you would refer to them, "swing-gers") extended and kind of twist them when you're trying to explain things. You also scrunch up your nose and kind of tilt your head to the side when you don't quite understand something.You just started your first year on the summer swim team and you love it. You are getting better and better every day. You cannot wait to wear your Speedo on your first swim meet.
You have the cutest blond (although it gets darker every day), curly hair and I LOVE the smattering of freckles across your face. You love it when I sit down with you and name them all.
You HATE peanut butter. What kid doesn't like peanut butter? but you do love plain jelly sandwiches. That is definitely something I can count on you eating well. You are a little bit of a picky eater. You would be just fine with cereal for every meal. Some other foods that you like are hot dogs and most fruits and surprisingly, you love salad!
I love you so much and I'm so glad you came to our family. You make our family better by being in it. I can't wait to see what you will be up to next year. Well, considering the warp speed in which time is passing, maybe I can....
