Friday, April 22, 2011

Now we are five

William turned five years old today.

Five. FIVE. F-I-V-E.

This is what five looks like:



















I mean, wow, it just doesn't seem possible.

From this...


















...to this


















...in just five short years:

With his Star Wars birthday cake yesterday:



















With his dear friend Leland:















And in true William fashion, today was a whirlwind day. We started the day with a trip to Pancake Pantry with William's Dee Dee and Grandadaddy Aaron and Uncle Mark. Then Dee Dee took William to Cheekwood to see the new model train exhibit and then on to Sweet CeCe's for frozen yogurt. THEN we went to our church's Easter Egg hunt, then went to soccer practice and THEN went out to dinner at Las Maracas with Leland and her family. (That first picture was taken today after soccer practice.)

William should be in a coma right now, honestly. We finally got him in bed about 15 or 20 minutes ago. I told him, "Hey, you have a whole year to be five now."

It's good to be five, he'll tell you.

_______________

Oh yeah, and a quick anecdote from William's first day as a five-year-old:

Andrew seems to love dogs, and he practically jumped out of my arms this afternoon at the Easter Egg hunt because he wanted to get down to see the host's dog.

So I said to William on the way to soccer practice, "You know, Andrew really seems to like dogs. I think you're more of a cat person, but I think Andrew's going to be a dog person."

William's response: "I think I'm more of a werewolf person."

Monday, April 11, 2011

The last book

Well, you all might have thought I just disappeared, huh?

Nope. I've been (thankfully) busy with a number of freelance articles, as well as a number of other commitments, the last two weeks. I was so busy writing about things like physician-patient email communication, value-based purchasing agreements, and radio talk shows hosted by registered nurses that I didn't have much energy left over to write much else.

Also, the baby was under the weather this weekend, so that also prevented me from sitting down and doing any serious blogging.

But here I am! I should be working on another freelance article, and of course I will get back to that soon, but I just wanted to say hello.

Oh, yes, and to say that we are fast approaching William's (gulp) fifth birthday. His very last book from the Dolly Parton Imagination Library's Books from Birth program arrived in yesterday's mail. Inside the cover is a very sweet letter from Dolly herself encouraging all the big five-year-old graduates to keep on reading, even though they'll no longer be receiving books in the mail.

Sniff. My little guy is growing up. I mean, when we started receiving those books, he was still putting books in his mouth, you know? He was just a little older than Andrew is now, which is incredible to me.

Luckily, I don't think I'm going to have much trouble keeping William interested in books. He's still very devoted to the Elephant and Piggie series by Mo Willems (of Knufflebunny fame), and he still loves the Madeline books, too.

And he's recently discovered The Magic Tree House books. He's been devouring them as fast as we can read them to him. David was gleeful to discover that we can check out electronic copies of those books for the iPad, so we really will be able to read as many of them to him as he wants. And I can't wait for him to realize that, hey, he can read some of those words himself and what might happen if he tries to read a few more?

I remember being his age and really starting to read. It was a wonderful time. We didn't have much money, but it seems like my parents always somehow found enough money to make sure I had plenty of good books to read. I'll always be grateful for that.

So, I'll get on back to my article now, but I'll be back soon to update you on Andrew "Uh Oh" Wyckoff.