The land of a million questions

I have always heard that kids will get into the habit of asking why about everything. Fletcher does not have this problem. He asks VERY specific questions and a lot of them. Where is that ambulance going? Why do you have to stop for them? Why doesn't that truck have anything on its trailer? Why can I see the moon during the day? Why can't we see the stars during the day? Why isn't there a sidewalk here? I could on, but I think you get the idea. And he won't take simple answers and let it go, he has follow-up questions. I am not complaining, I love that he is curious; but it is exhausting explaining everything in a language that a 5yo can comprehend. Today I had to explain the characteristics that make a good climbing tree. Last week we had a long conversation about the difference between a first down and a touchdown (admittedly I really enjoyed that conversation). He will talk your head off and if it is not questions, it is plan. He is all about making a plan about what he and everyone else around him is going to do, step by step and in great detail. He must get this from Mark (I see a lot of lists in his future) because it does not come from me.
He loves race tracks. We must have at least 50 and he will be quick to point out the ones he does not have. We have even taken to getting some for the bath tub.

He remembers everything he sees, hears or is told. Dinosaur Train is one of his favorite shows and honestly, he knows more about dinosaurs than me at this point. It is one show I don't feel bad about letting him watch because it is very accurate and well done.

He is currently big on expanding his vocabulary, although he just calls it learning new words. He was so proud of himself when he told me that he learned a new word for funny = HILARIOUS! And then another way to say make = CREATE. I, of course, had to tell him these are synonyms, and we have been learning new ones everyday. He is quick to ask me what a word means if he doesn't understand it, and he will request a simeron (he can't say synonym). He just learned the word infinite at school, but he doesn't truly understand yet. He does however, try to use it when he thinks it's appropriate.
He loves to sing and still makes up songs about what he is doing. He remembers songs from music class at school or ones he sees on TV.

He has taken to creating drum sets out various items. I am hoping the desire to play drums fades quickly.
He is a vanilla junkie, and I can get him to eat most things by proclaiming it is vanilla flavored. Ice cream is no exception.

Silly faces are a must when the camera is out and he immediately says, "let me see it" . He would have struggled in the days of Polaroid cameras.
He loves to play games, and is big on identifying the rules. They make up games on the playground at school all the time, and I think they try to outdo each other with the number of rules they can come up with.

Having friends over is still one of his favorite activities and with mostly girls who join us we have to make it  a dance party.

Please note the game of Candy Land on the table. Fletcher had to stop periodically to play this game during the dance party. Maybe he will be good at multi-tasking one day.
We took him to his first concert in June. It was a friend of ours band (a WSP cover band of course), and it was early and outside. They advertise it as kid and dog friendly. Fletcher loved it and after dancing with me he leaned over to give me a kiss. Please tell me this will never end.

 

He continues to be sweet and loving all the time,and although this picture makes me a little sad I wanted to share it to show how wonderful he really is.

Happy Birthday

Fletcher turned 5 in June and for about 9 months prior to that he said he wanted to have his birthday party at Brick by Brick. It is a basically just a big room with thousands of Legos. They do camps and parties and have the kids race to build the tallest tower or build a car to race down a ramp. It is genius really because kids love it and their over head is really low. Why didn't I think of that?!

 

Well, I foolishly scheduled F's party for the Saturday of Father's Day weekend, so a week before I had not heard from many kids and was worried the turn out would be low. I sent a few emails and low and behold we went over on the number of kids with nearly his whole class and all the neighborhood kids. Oh well, he had fun (even though he still had the cast on).

He still does not like chocolate, so I had to make vanilla AND chocolate cupcakes, because he readily admits that all his friends like them better. It was a Lightning McQueen party (of course) and all the kids just licked the icing off the cupcakes. Maybe next time I'll just give them a spoonful of that and skip the baking altogether!

 

Despite my concern about how many would show up, Fletcher was only concerned about one person, SILAS (on the left)! They were in the same 2's, 3's and 4's class and they are best buddies. They were inseparable the whole time. Silas had his party at the same place.

 

So I decided to have 2 parties (this will come back to bite me next year). Since F's bday is in the summer it is perfect pool weather, but I do not want to invite his entire class to my parents house. I do however, want to enjoy a day at the pool with the Harris family and F's bday is perfect excuse to do so.

Mac and Fletcher spent the day in the pool tormenting poor Kate, but she is tough despite their attempts to run her over with the raft or shoot her with the water gun.

 

My big boy slowed down long enough to take a picture with me.

 

Speaking of big, he was the 25% percentile for height and the 50th for weight in July. I question the weight because it is nearly impossible to find pants that are long enough but small enough in the waist. Let's just say you can count his ribs pretty easily.

I took this picture last week to show that he has grown considerably since June. He is bugging me to mark it again but we only do it twice a year. I wonder where he will be in December.

Chipping away

So it must be obvious that blogging is not my favorite thing to do. I'm too much of a perfectionist, and I want it to be witty and thoughtful. Well I'm just going to have to get over that and do it more often. So here is my attempt at chipping away at the last year.

Fletcher broke his arm (this year) playing on the monkey bars. Apparently, they were trying to run and jump to the fourth rung after successfully making the third rung. Fletcher said he didn't want to do it, but Natalie dared him. Great, he succumbs to peer pressure.
It was a Friday afternoon and I got the call from his school around 3:30. They said he fell and then did not want to keep playing. Not good, he will do just about anything to be able to play with his friends. By the time I picked him up he seemed okay and was able to move his wrist. However, the x-ray showed a hairline fracture, but that was not until 5:30 on a Friday afternoon. Perfect timing! We put him in a splint for the weekend and waited to see the orthopedist (who we obviously need to put on speed dial). He got the cast Monday afternoon May 28 just in time for summer. It kept us out of the pool for a month....

but not out of the river! Fletcher and Mark went to MS for Memorial Day (I went to CA for a wedding). I was horrified when he told we they had been out on the wave runner, but luckily no one fell off.

Fletcher and his cousin, Gray, had a blast together. It is a bummer that we don't live closer because they two LOVE each other.

They both only know one speed, so they go hard and fast...and neither was able to escape the day without a nap.

Fletcher has decided that we need TWO wave runners of our own. One for he and Daddy and another for me. I will fight this as long as I can.