My Big Five Year Old

Oh Jac, how can you be five?  The oldest cliche in the book, but time really does fly.  I think the most accurate is that the days are so long but the years go by so fast.  At least for a stay at home mom. 

As Jac matures I see glimpses of what he will become.  I want to help him be the best him he can be.  He is my sensitive boy, my cuddler.  He has a tendency to explode into expertise on a subject or with a task because he holds off until he has almost mastered a task before displaying it.  I used to call him my little incredible Hulk because most of his mile stones that he achieved as a baby were done in a fit of rage. 

He is all boy.  He loves cars, sports, space.  He kills spiders for me.  He loves to help with house projects and wants to use the tools.  He loves geography and traveling and maps.  He wants to figure out how things work, like where the water from the toilet goes, and how the Earth goes around the sun and why the car gives of "smoke" on a cold morning.  He loves to be silly and gross, but by and large only does this in the company of other little boys.  He is sensitive enough to play well with little girls and because of geography and because he has a sister plays with girls quite often. 

It hasn't always been an easy task, raising, disciplining, teaching, steering this little boy.  I have cried more times than I can count because I feel ill equiped.  But I discovered that a mother's love grows each day.  I was actually a bit shocked by this.  I thought that my love was quite large and strong when he was born and I gazed at what looked like an impossibly large baby that had just come out of me.  I didn't know that as I learned about him, as I got to know him and all of his quirks and likes and preferences my love would grow.  I am awed by this and wonder if it will continue to grow throughout our lives together. 

Jac's birthday wasn't this spectacular event.  We were driving back from Hilton Head, none of his cousins, grandparents, aunts, uncles or friends were there to greet us.  We didn't have a big party AND it was Mother's Day.  However, on Saturday I hope to make it up to him and throw him one amazing space bash.  More to come on that later.  He got some cool toys but still seems a bit confused about when his party is. 

Here are some of my favorite photos of Jac through the years.  I have decided that the fifth year was a big one, it is when they lose a lot of the babyishness and become little people.  They master a lot of things that have eluded them and emerge with all these new found talents.  Savor their fourth year, the last of the baby,  and revel in the fifth, it is an amazing time.

Clearly he doesn't know what to think about getting his first sink bath - he reminds me of a snowman.

Transitioning from two naps to one is hard work, he would fall asleep while eating.

Always curious and a big helper, our tradition of carving several pumpkins is a keeper.

His first picture of a "person".

The best gift we never gave him, Thanks Aunt Tina!

First fishing trip with Papa last summer - he caught a really little catfish.