Day 1041 | The Five Year Old

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This guy. This funny, sweet, thoughtful sweet pea is five today. I've always thought of five as a turning point. All of a sudden my baby is old: he's a real kid. I've been joking with him the last few months that I decided he was going to stay four forever. He always gets appropriately outraged and I give in and *allow* him to turn five. There is some truth to this request, though. Four was a good age for Chase. He has made huge strides in his confidence + personality + social skills and is a total joy to be around. I'm going to miss four year old Chase, but boy am I excited to see what surprises five year old Chase has in store for us. 

Without further ado... 

MY Top Ten Favorite Things About Five Year Old Chase

  1. His voice. Someone said to me the other day, I hope Chase's voice sounds like that forever. He does have the sweetest, high-pitched little boy voice ever.  It also never stops, in case you're wondering. Our days are filled with incessant chatter, story telling, made up words, and singing.
  2. His vocabulary. He gets complimented on this frequently, actually. I think it might just be because of lots of practice (see above). 
  3. His love of puzzles, superheroes, wedgits, and legos. He's really honed his interests this year. No more baby stuff for this guy!
  4. His mad scooter skills. You saw the post, no further elaboration needed
  5. His empathy. This has been a Chase characteristic that started way younger than it should have and just keeps developing. He's so kind and compassionate to those around him...except, on occasion, his brother, but what can you expect? 
  6. His morning breath. I used to love the smell of Chase's breath when he was teeny. Somehow it never smelled bad and that was endearing to me. He's definitely grown out of that phase, but this new big kid with his new smelly morning breath, continues to warm my heart. I know...it's just morning breath. Call me crazy. 
  7. His favorite people: Family. Chase loves family. Chris, Robbe, and me but also his grandparents, cousins, aunts + uncles. He just lights up whenever they're around. 
  8. His rash disappearing. As more of a historical note, his crazy rash (that appeared before Robbe was born!!) disappeared this year. We're fairly certain the rash was hinting at a cat allergy and the move this year proved that to be true. 
  9. His sense of humor. He's got his dad's sense of humor, that's for sure. And, if you've spent any amount of time with Chris, you know that's about the best thing he could have inherited from either of his parents. Chase manages to crack himself [and the rest of us] up on a pretty regular basis with all the crazy stuff he says. It's good to laugh. 
  10. His sensitive soul. He's a feeler, this one. Although I often struggle with the need for him to "use his words" to express these strong emotions, I know that having the capability to feel the way he does is only going to fill his life with strong relationships and people that can appreciate and reciprocate these intense types of emotions.