Second Son's Birthday Post: Six Years Old

Last month, Second Son, my baby, turned six years old. He wanted a Star Wars birthday party, so we planned a Jedi Academy for him and a few of his friends. They tore through those tasks in about fifteen minutes! But check out the cake!

This picture of Second Son with his godmother and the amazing BB8 cake she made is one of my new favorites.

I love the look of awe on his face when we lit the candles.

This boy loves his chicken enchiladas. He requested them for his birthday and his baptismal anniversary. He also asked for Kansas Dad's chocolate peanut butter cake for his baptismal anniversary dessert.


His other favorite foods are angel food cake, sherbert, Mountain Dew (a controlled substance in this household), a host of other sugary drinks, and snacks. He tends to skip breakfast, then start begging for snacks around 10:30 am and basically graze the rest of the day. It's hard to believe how much he eats because he's so skinny. (Hard to believe, too, he was my biggest baby at an ounce over ten pounds.) We keep telling him to eat more, but he spends so much time bouncing around (literally on his trampoline), that there's no time for the calories to build up in his system.

His favorite saints are St. Micheal the Archangel, St. George, St. Moses, and St. Francis. He asks them to pray for us every night during our litany of saints and evening prayer.

 

He loves water. When we went on our Grand Adventure, he spent every minute he could right at the water's edge (if we were near water). He would claim he was trying to stay dry, but this was a hopeless endeavor day after day.

Second Son says his favorite parts of the trip were visiting the aquarium in Vancouver and the science museum in Denver, but I really think it was the ocean.

He mastered rudimentary reading on our trip. We did a lot of phonics and a few early reading lessons last year in school, but he started sounding out longer words and really reading books on the big trip. All those hours in the van, I guess. His first book? Calvin and Hobbes. Yep.

 

He lost the two bottom teeth earlier this summer. So far, the top two teeth still aren't coming in, but the bottom ones are. We keep promising him a big celebratory dinner when those top teeth come in and suggesting things like apples (which he can never bit properly) but all he wants is sherbet. (Those top two were crushed in a pool accident when he fell on his face just before his second birthday, so it's been more than four years since the boy had top teeth.)

He's starting kindergarten this year. We didn't start him properly last year because of his late birthday, though it's nice that he's already reading. He loves all of his lessons, but especially reading, dot-to-dot books (which he does for some math, just because he likes them), and Aesop's Fables. (This book has been a favorite year after year. I've been reading from it for four years straight and plan two more with him.)

first day of school

He loves to play games. He'd play games all day long. When no one can play with him, he sets everything up and plays against Mr. Nobody. In the past, Mr. Nobody always lost, but Second Son tells me he recently won three games of chess in a row. "He had good moves." (Second Daughter taught him to play chess; I'm not really sure he even knows the proper rules.) He received Star Wars Risk for his birthday, so it's a new favorite, but Munchkin is still at the top of his list. (Standard warning: Munchkin is not for all households.)

His favorite books are Asterix comic books and Jedi Academy 2. We'll pretend he's also reading from the extensive and lovely library I have built over the past dozen years (spending a good bit of Kansas Dad's earnings).

He takes showers now, which are faster than a bath (and the only reason he allows them). He still needs some help making sure he gets all the bubbles rinsed away. He would wear flip-flops everywhere if I let him, and prefers to go barefoot rather than wear any other kind of shoe.

His bedtime routine is similar to last year: three stuffed animals have to whisper dreams in someone's ear (usually Kansas Dad, who is best at deciphering their hilarious misadventures). Last year, it was just Mousy Mouse (a kangaroo rat purchased at Great Sand Dunes), Fluffy (a puppy that was First Son's years ago), and Teddy (a teddy bear that was a gift after Second Daughter's birth). Now he's added Cody (a stuffed coyote purchased with his own money at the Grand Canyon), Doritos (a finger puppet chipmunk purchased with his own money at Rocky Mountain National Park), and Yellow Belly (a yellow-bellied marmot he received for his birthday; he had wanted to buy one on the big trip but he'd run out of money).

Second Son announced on his birthday that, now he was six, he was old enough to start taekwondo with the big kids. I'm not sure where he heard six was the magic number, but we let him give it a try and so far he seems to be doing very well. He saws taekwondo days are his favorite days, though he hates waiting all day for the class.

This little guy is getting to be quite the joy for us. He's grudgingly taking on more chores, controlling his temper better (now that he knows he can't go to taekwondo if he hits anyone), and reading everthing. I can't wait to see what the future holds for him!

Happy birthday, Second Son!