Nick celebrated his 5th birthday at Castaway Play in Howell. It's a big indoor playground we've been to may times before, but always thought it would a good place for a party. He had like 14 kids show up (I lost count), every invitee. The kids were all well behaved (except for one small riff over the size of Nick's cake relative to another kid's recent party) and most of them ran for hours until they were exhausted. Nick being who he is, there was a little blonde girl on one of the inflatable slides intentionally blocking the slide part way down and making all the kids wait. So Nick thinks it through, climbs over her, grabs her feet, and drags her to the bottom, to a round of applause. He will not be denied. He was showered with gifts from birthday and Christmas, our friends and family were extremely generous. We had to designate a toy room after the holiday to contain it all.I pick him up from school one evening, and ask him about his day. From the back seat, he says, "Give me a minute, I'm thinking." I'm getting more of these responses lately. He's busy, he can't be interrupted, he's deep in thought... what's so heavy on the mind of a five-year old?
With his new school comes the opportunity to ride the bus, which comes to pick him up curbside. Kindly the driver and her helper have been very patient with Nick. In the first week, he complained about taking a dirt road, a bumpy road, and coming home using directions with which he was not familiar, or as Nick calls it, "the wrong way!" They've changed the entire route just for him. I apologized to the driver - some of that is clearly from him hanging out with me. And the route number is easy to remember... Nick rides Route 66.
We've reached the age of food experimentation. He creates bizarre concoctions like Doritos inside bread, or crackers in a tortilla, or dipping his sandwich into his Kool-Aid. What he doesn't know is his mama has been creating puree from vegetables and slipping them into his usual food, so he's getting carrots, beets and cauliflower in small doses when he least expects it. We've uncovered a few new allergies, too, but had some success.
Pictures here from Month 61!
- Jason
