Happy Birthday, Ryan!

prelude
I'm not very good at birthday posts. I tend to be overwhelmed by the expectations set forth by other bloggy moms. I don't want to sound all braggy even though I am very proud of my kiddies. I guess I'll have to just put that aside and write so Ryan can know when he reads this he knows what he was up to at age 5. So if you don't want to read about how great my kid you can skip this post.

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Ryan is 5! It's hard to believe that 5 years ago I gave birth to my first child. 5 YEARS! He's getting so big. He's very inquisitive. People keep telling me that asking questions is a sign of intelligence. Let's just say that if the number of questions someone asks is directly correlated to that person's intelligence my child is a stinkin' genius. I usually don't mind all the questions, but I can tell other people get frustrated when there is at least one question for every answer. It can seem rather endless. It's all good natured, he is just genuinely curious, but it can be exhausting. It takes him a little while to warm up to people, but once you're his friend he is devoted and loyal. He likes school and loves riding the bus. Every day when I ask him what he did in school he says I played and had fun. He usually remembers something specific to tell me later. He really seems to like art and PE. He is such a handsome little guy. He has worn polos about 90% of the time and almost always wears khaki shorts. I was a little surprised that he didn't argue with me about wearing the athletic shorts I put out for him on PE day. He was probably okay with it because I coupled it with his soccer jersey. He loves that jersey. He had so much fun at soccer camp. I love when I see little bits of me in him. I love soccer, but I didn't discover it until much later in life than Ryan. He has also discovered his love of photography a lot sooner than I did. He likes taking pictures so much we decided to replace his Fisher Price camera that's designed for little kids with our old Cannon G2. The fisher price camera is a cool idea, but the pictures just didn't turn out great. Since the G2 has been sitting in a closet unused for years we decided it would make a good camera for Ryan and at least it would be getting used. We gave it to him for his birthday. We also gave him Hyper Dash which is really cool. We had some technical difficulties with his party, so I need to figure out exactly when I'm going to do for him. I'm thinking It's going to have to be pushed back to the 20th. I'm sure he will survive, but I hate feeling like the mom who can't get it together enough to have her kid's birthday parties in a timely fashion. On his actually birthday we celebrated by letting him watch Star Wars for the first time. We were going to have a marathon of IV-VI, but we had so much fun doing other stuff that day we didn't have time. We had some family rounds of Hyper Dash. Grandma and Grandpa were here and good sports that they are they played too. Lily even got in on the action. Then we made a town with the Legos Grandma and Grandpa gave him. He took pictures with his new camera. I think he really enjoyed his birthday. It was a good day.

There is so much about Ryan I thought lists would be a good way to share.
likes...
playing soccer
watching swimming in the Olympics(especially Phelps)
reading
having chapter books read to him (especially Magic School Bus)
school
doing math problems
playing math bingo
teasing his sister (you didn't think they were all going to be good, did you?)
chocolate milk
ketchup
cars
getting money to do chores
playing Wii
playing dolls with Lily
Rush Hour game
building (Legos, Brio, blocks, etc.)
playing tickle and chase games with Daddy

dislikes...
eggplant
any kind of melon
getting punished for teasing his sister
when people at unfair
cleaning up
being the center of attention

Obviously I can't contain everything about Ryan in one post, but I think this captures the essence of who he is and what he likes.

Just You and Me Sista Daughter

Since Ryan is in school all day now Lily and I have time to just spend being together. It's really the first time in her life that we've had this much of an opportunity since her nap time was the same time as Ryan's preschool last year. We have had a lot of errands and things like dentist appointments that we needed to do this week. We have had something every single day. I really intend on deliberately making time to just play with her, but everything this week was time sensitive. We have not had a fully open day where we could go to the playground or something fun like that, but we've managed to have some good times at home. We've played a bunch of board games. Maybe it's because it's a new thing, maybe it's because Lily knows it means one on one time, maybe she just really enjoys them, I don't know, but she has really been on a board game kick lately. We've played Cariboo, Balloon Lagoon, Chutes and Ladders, Green Eggs and Ham and The Very Hungry Caterpillar to name a few. We've read books. We've had tickle games. We danced and sang. We did sidewalk chalk. It's been fun.
It's been so quiet with Ryan at school I feel like I might be able to get some of my sanity back. The teasing starts as soon as he gets home along with the fussing and screaming, but I have 6 solid hours without it a day now. I finally understand all those moms who can't wait for school to start during the summer. I'm not sure if I'm one of them or not, but I really relish not having the teasing and screaming all day long. Lily seems to like having the freedom to play however, where ever and whenever she wants while we are home. I really have to fight the temptation to use the time to get a lot of housework, errands and other stuff done because it's so much easier with one child. I think I've been doing a pretty decent job of balancing the time I have let in the day after all the "need to" stuff is done. Tomorrow I need to bring cupcakes to Ryan's school for his birthday. Lily will have to have a babysitter, but she enjoys her babysitter (sometimes more than she enjoys me, but that's another post). After I do the cupcake thing she and I will probably have to go to the store to get Ryan a birthday present, so tomorrow doesn't look much better than the rest of the week. Next week we will hit the playground, Lily, I promise!

Ryan's First Day of Kindergarten

At Ryan's school they do a gradual entry for kindergarten students. So Ryan's first day was only 2 hours with me there. I drove him and he went home with me. Tomorrow will be his first day all by himself and riding the bus. Tomorrow I'm more worried about than today. This is Ryan before we went in to the school in the morning. You can see the slight trepidation on his face. He keeps talking about how excited he is and I think that's true, but I think he was a bit nervous too. Who wouldn't be?

We went into his classroom and they did some of the things that will be in their morning routine while the parents filled out paperwork. I don't have any good pictures from that time that don't have other kids with name tags on, so I didn't want to post them on the Internet.

We went down to the cafeteria to have a "practice lunch" so they would know where to go and what to do tomorrow. Ryan enjoyed his cookie and juice.

When we went back to the classroom the teacher had them draw self portraits. The had little mirrors and crayons. Ryan took a little too long drawing the stripes on his shirt and didn't have time to draw arms. His mouth is blue because when he showed me I told him not to forget the mouth and he had a blue crayon in his hand(not because he was feeling cold or anything.)

They read a story and then it was time to go.

This is how Ryan looked at the end of the day. Much more relaxed. I think he really enjoyed his first day. I hope he's not mad tomorrow when I have to pull him out for a dentist appointment. His dentist only does kids under 6 before noon, so he will have to miss school whenever I schedule it. ::sigh::

School Starts Tomorrow

Ryan starts Kindergarten tomorrow and I'm going through all the emotions I went through last year and more. I wonder if I'll be this nervous at the start of every year or if it's just the idea of "real" school and bigger kids that make this year especially nerve racking. Whatever it is tomorrow feels like a big day. I know I don't like the idea of putting him on the bus and not seeing his teacher daily. Maybe I'll be able to volunteer in the classroom to get a better idea of what goes on and who his teacher is.

On the plus side I am looking forward to having some alone time with Lily.

Magic

Ryan: Mom, I want to do a magic trick for you in my room.

Me: Okay.

Ryan: Sit down here. See this coin? I'm going to make it go in my ear. Excuse me for a second. ::disappears behind bed:: Don't look!
A few seconds pass..."Abracadabra". He emerges from behind the bed, head tilted to the side. The coin falls from the upper ear almost before I could even see it there.

Ryan: Did you see that? It feel out of my ear. I'm amazing, aren't I?!