SIX

My baby boy is six. And it's fantastic. He is growing to be a fine young boy. This year he started his first year of hockey. He likes it and seems to be doing well. It's been fun to watch him skate in full hockey gear. He's a total stud!

He was always easy to spot because he is the one with the white helmet. 

Silas is loving school and has made a handful of friends. He comes home each Friday with a folder full of 'work', and each week I am excited to see what he had been working on all week. 

(he's super into flags)

                      (He's got the writing thing down. Now we just  need to master the reading part)

                                                             (this makes me giggle!)

(I love his art)

As for his actually Birthday. We decorated his room so he woke up to streamers. Veda is way more into that than he is! And Joe and I went to his school celebration. It's a small little thing they do, fifteen minutes, but it's SUCH a big deal to the kids. And Silas was pretty insistent that Dad come, too. It was sweet to see him so excited and to see all his friends excited for him. 

Silas asked for a surprise party this year. I know, it's so funny. So I threw one together. Just family and church family. Joe took Silas to get his skates sharpened and when they came home the house was full of people and everyone said SURPRISE! The best. He loved it.

Joe's parents got him an electric train set to go with his bandanna and conductor hat. It's a pretty neat train set. The kids have been having fun with it, and Rocco has been having fun destroying it. 

The following weekend Silas had a party at Pinz (bowling alley) with this friends at school. All of the children that we invited were able to come, so that was fun. 9 total, including Veda. 6 boys, 3 girls. During pizza and cake the boys spent most of the time shooting each other with imaginary guns. And the girls spent most of the time covering their ears.

It was way more chaotic than I imagined it would be!

All of the kids got to sign the bowling pin, and now it sits in Silas' room. A cool memory that will probably be kept forever because he's stuck with me for a mom and I am the queen of keeping memorable things (like the three boxes of notes sitting in storage I can't seem to part with from high school!)

And then they bowled. And everyone was overstimulated. What you don't see are the strobe lights and the neon lights and the flashing TV screens and OMG! 

But the kids totally understood the game and between us breaking up the boys from wrestling and corralling the few that wanted to run off and play tag, I think everyone had a great time.  

Silas and his bestie Drew. Could they get any cuter?! 

Veda loved it, too.

Audrey was my little buddy. The boys were too wild for her and she must be used to hanging out with adults, because she was genuinely fun to talk to. Great group of kids!

I die. This is so cute. And Rocco (to the left), not a great place to hang out with a 10 month old who doesn't walk, but crawls super fast. Stress!

Water break!

Everyone was watching for their name to pop us when it was their turn. 

So the parties were successful and Silas got a good amount of time where we celebrated HIM. I love making birthdays a big deal for the kids. Now as an parent, I get more excited for their birthdays than my own. And more stressed too, but all worth it!

Favorites: 

Silas is still into peanut butter sandwiches and is on an oranges kick. He loves Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and has recently gotten into dinosaur stuff. He is capable of sitting and building Legos for hours (days?). He got several different Lego sets for his birthday from his friend and he has completed most of them already.

He has imaginary sword fights with something imaginary (the air? himself?) almost daily. And now that it's warmer out I know I will start seeing sticks tied up to toys and hanging over the deck. His trademark. Silas' teacher and I joke about how Silas is so poky. I think it drives us both nuts. Nuts in nothing but a loving way, of course! He still strips down to his undies the minute he gets home. Clothes scattered all over my house. Always! I know some day my kids will no longer be running around in their underwear, so I'm making myself enjoy the innocence. It is so dear! He and Veda usually get along and play well together. They have their moments. One moment that I can count on is the car ride home from school. Silas will be singing loud in Spanish (not really Spanish, but his impression of Spanish) and Veda will get so irritated. Thankfully it's only a 12 minute drive. 

Silas often changes his mind about what he wants to be when he grows up. One thing that that never changes is that he does not want to get married. He does not want to have to kiss anyone! We'll see how he feels about that when he's 16 ;)

His recent occupational interests: race car driver, scientist and builder. I hear those three pretty often. 

And, my favorite, he still calls Veda "Wayda". And it might never change. And I hope it doesn't. 

Seriously, Silas is one of a kind. We love that boy to smithereens and wouldn't change a thing about him. It's fun to look back at baby photos and remember those days and that time. I can close my eyes and remember each moment of those photos. Where I would kiss him when I rocked him to sleep and how he would kick and scream when it was time to come inside. Now, at six, I get to see his passions and his sense of self shine through. He is growing so tall and strong and once in a while, when he has his hands in his pockets and a certain look on his face, I see him at 15, and it scares me. I can control how I invest in him and how I parent him, but I cannot control how fast time will go. So I do what I can. I study his sweet face and memorize his little boy voice. I stare at his mannerisms and talk with him before bed. These are the days I'll remember. They truly are.