It's Gobbles Time!: Five!!

Petah Pan,
Help us please,
We need you,
Wherever you ahhhhhhhhre
- As sung by the Lobster Roll

Dear Mr. Gobbles,

I got the chills as my fingers tapped the title of this post. Five. I cannot believe you are five years old, where did my baby go? You heard me being wistful this morning as I sang that song above that your sister sings day in and day out in the British accent, with you piping in saying Pizza Pan! I could use a little Peter Pan right now because my eyes are welling up at the thought of you growing up. Yesterday when I asked you if you'd live with me forever, you told me that you're going to move out when you're 18 even though you have to cook for yourself. Oh buddy.

Okay, enough of me being sappy over you growing up and onto all of the things you do that make me beam with pride. First, and most important, you are incredibly kind. You are always considering other people and I don't think you've ever received anything without making sure there was something to keep your sister happy too. Sometimes you get frustrated because other kids don't see things the way it's supposed to work out in your head, and it upsets you greatly. You are very much like me in that sense- always envisioning a situation and getting upset if you lose control and things seem unfair. You'll learn to deal with that in time, it's hard, I get it. But despite this, you're always thinking about how to include everyone. You even asked Santa for some more pull-back cars, because even though you have two, when your cousin comes over there aren't enough for her, so you want to make sure there is next time. You're the only 5 year old I know who would use up a Santa gift on someone else.

Gobbles, I know you hear this all the time, but I have to reiterate, you are so.darn.intelligent. (btw, stop saying 'darn'). I have no doubt in my mind that there will come a day where you become smarter than your Daddy and I, you just have to keep up that enthusiasm for learning that you have now. Your favorite subject is science because you love the experiments, and half the time your teacher would report on your daily that you're one of the few kids to accurately predict the outcome. You display a natural ease with numbers and math and are able to perform the four functions through simple division without much brow furrowing. As far as reading goes, you can pick out a lot of shorter words but are still trying to sneak through with your memorization instead of sounding them out, usually because you're in a rush to get through the story or because it's tiring to read at bedtime. Daddy and I have a hard time spelling in front of you now because even when you seem like you're not paying attention you are listening and you'll repeat what we spelled, usually later at an inopportune time.

You are going on your third year of wanting to be an engineer, just like Mommy. In your classroom, a distinguishable picture of a backhoe (excuse me, an excavator as you corrected me) with the caption "When I grow up, I want to be an Engineer" -Gobbles hangs in your classroom among kids wanting to be firefighters, spiderman, and batman. As much as you love the super heroes (and growing very rapidly, Star Wars), your old soul still shines through, and you are always thinking and planning.

On the way home from school the other day we were listening to "I want a Hippopotamus for Christmas" and I asked you and your sister if you'd want that. You replied "That's ridiculous, our house is not big enough for a hippopotamus! We'd have to borrow Mr. Rich's pool just to store the thing!" I love that just in the time span of your reply, you were already working out in your head the logistics necessary should we get one. Similarly, we were joking the other night at dinner asking if you guys wanted a third dog or a third kid in the family. We already knew your answer, since you always say instead of a brother or sister you'd want "a nothing! because I don't like babies!" This time though, you elaborated - "I want a giant dog, like Clifford the big red dog. So we can use him to climb to the top of the house and get that J off and throw it in the toilet!" (referring to the J on the side of our chimney installed by the original owners indicating their last initial) It doesn't seem to bother us but it must bug the heck out of you, Gobbles.

This year, your big birthday party will be shared with your sister since we've got a lot going on, so we had a solo family party for you on the day before your birthday. Your two favorite gifts from there are the Hess Truck / Rocket and a Star Wars angry birds jenga game. You have not put these toys down in the last week and it's quite refreshing to see that you're into these because lately, it's been Kindle, phones, and Apps. I'm glad you still have some little boy in you and you're not all tech all the time (although we do love a good round of Frozen Free Fall together). And despite us having all kinds of Christmas fun with Santa stuff this weekend, you shared with your class that your favorite part of this past weekend was setting up your ninja turtles zipline with Daddy. I would have to agree, buddy, that from the sound of your voices and laughter coming out of the basement while you played ninja turtles together, that was my favorite part of the weekend too.

Well Gobbles, five will be a big year for you, Kindergarten in a new school will be here before you know it, and Mommy, Daddy, and your sister will be here with you to celebrate every step of the way.

I love you so much!

Love,
Mommy