Speed Turns 5!!

Our little Speed-o turned 5 this year. Crazy! He had a pretty good day of playing and waiting (rather impatiently) for his sister to get home from school. He also requested spaghetti for his birthday dinner and then Someone invited extra friends and then insisted on homemade meatballs. Sigh. So the dinner portion of the evening was a bit crazier than I usually go for. But anyway...

After dinner we did presents and then cake in pretty quick succession. Jacob had a scuba class that night so we wanted to be sure the main part of the festivities happened while he was still home.

At least the cake Speed requested was pretty easy to do - he wanted a Goomba cake.

The cake

Presents pre-opening

The dinner spread

Present time

Lego from his aunt and uncle

He loved his Minecraft toys from Oma and Opa so much that he gave them a big hug

Just a little excited about his new Pokemon DS game

And the Hot Wheels carrier truck he's been eyeing at the grocery store FOREVER

He got some very awesome toys and clothes from his aunt and uncle and grandma

Just don't let his reaction fool you - he loves the new clothes

One of the presents from his aunt was a bug hotel, which Speed wasn't thrilled about. We explained that you could put stuff besides bugs in it but he still gave it away to his sister on the spot. We're still working on manners, obviously. But Jacob went out in the yard and caught the kids a gecko to keep in it and they all thought that was super cool until Zizah let it out a couple of days later.

A pretty good view of the gecko

 

Speed is such a fun and loving 5-year-old. He has his sassy times but he's usually the first one to say he's sorry (without being prompted by parents), the first one to give or want hugs and kisses, and he absolutely must have at least one hug and one kiss from me after I "snuggle me in" at night.

He's a creature of habit and pattern - he does NOT like it when things don't go the way he expects them to (for example, having a substitute teacher at church) but he's working on that. He has lots of aspects of my personality: physically affectionate, cries with most negative emotions, and takes time to get used to new situations. 

Karate has had a HUGE impact in his life and behavior. He's learned a lot more self control and respect for other people. The biggest change has been in his confidence and talking to other people. A year ago, if someone he didn't know said hi to him, he'd hide behind me. Now, if we're out for a run and someone says hi, he'll yell out, "Hi! How are you? We're running - bye!" :-) He's much more outgoing than he was a year ago and when he knows he can do something, he KNOWS it.

Speed loves to play video games (he's really good at them too) and watch shows on Netflix. He also really likes exercising and is currently working on his third fitness star for karate. We don't push our kids too much in the pre-kindergarten academics but just from watching his shows and talking with his sister, he knows all the letters, most of the sounds, and can read a good number of words already. The really amazing thing is his math skills. He'll just pop out these math concepts that he really has no business knowing at 5 and he knows them with confidence.

I am dreading the start of kindergarten because I'm going to miss having my Speed around all day. Whenever I'm sad or frustrated, he'll give me a hug, no questions asked. He's such a sweetheart and I love him so much.