Mom, Is It My Birthday Yet?

I made the mistake of telling him that his birthday comes after Easter. He knows it is on July 16th, but has no concept of where July falls in relation to April, so every day I get the same question. And every day the answer is the same: No, not yet (insert me heaving a huge sigh of relief, because really, he cannot be almost six.)

Here’s what’s going on with our energetic caboose of a boy at 5.975:

• As the picture clearly shows, his freckles are developing nicely – an essential for any Lee child.
• He loves puppies the most out of anything in the world. We puppy by proxy, visiting our friends the Knolls and the Rands when he needs a live puppy fix. Otherwise, his days are spent with the twenty gajillion stuffed puppies he owns – each with a fabulous name, fur color and softness level. When we pass people walking their dogs in the neighborhood – which is at least fifteen times a day  – his reaction is always the same, no matter what the breed or how cute/ugly the dog: “Awwwwwwwwwww!” I am going to have to do an entire post just on his puppy collection.
• He has discovered Rescue Bots on Netflix, a cartoon version of Transformers for little kids. He walks around singing the theme song all day. At first it was so endearing. Now it is so annoying.
• He will eat the following in copious amounts: strawberries, grapes, loaded burritoes, chips and salsa, Greek yogurt, ham & cheese “roll-ups”, and carrots with hummus.
• He refuses to eat the following: zucchini, broccoli, green beans, peas, asparagus. In his words, green food. Help.
• He talks pretty much from the minute he gets up in the morning (7:23 AM, like clockwork) until the minute he goes to bed at night (7:30 PM for my sanity). The kid does not stop talking.
• He has a friend at school named Nyla. He asked me the other day what does girlfriend mean. I told him at his age it means a friend who is a girl. He told me Nyla is his girlfriend and they both like to sing the song “Shut Up And Dance With Me”.
• He is afraid to ride his bike, even after all the practice we did last Spring/Summer. He doesn’t like wiping his own bottom because he’s had a few poop-on-the-hands experiences. He thinks shoes and socks together sucks because there are lumps.
• He can beat me at Memory. He loves to put puzzles together (good boy!). He thinks blowing bubbles and catching them on the wand is cool. He jumps on the trampoline every day. While I exercise he runs laps around the house with no shirt on.
• He still wants to snuggle me every morning, but the snuggles have become shorter and much more wiggly. That is when I feel time slipping through my fingers the most.
• He is listening to me as I read the second Harry Potter book to him. He asks really great questions. It is how we end his day and I love it so much.
• He loves breakfast, Ninjas, Legos, snacks, baking cookies with me, walking to the park, his brother Soren, Wild Kratts, and his Momma. (He loves his whole family, too, but me the most!)