Ike is Five

It happened on Sunday: Ike turned five. I've tried not to spend too much time wondering how this happened.

At five years old, Ike is sometimes a pill, but I'm not going to focus on the negative things in this post.

Ike is a great older brother, especially to his baby sister. He loves her so much, and it is adorable to watch. He also loves Felix, and they usually play incredibly well together. I recently heard him negotiating with Felix to take turns with something, and I was really impressed and pleased that he is learning to work things out when they disagree rather than fight or bring their issue to me.

Ike's favorite thing to do is play with friends. He will go from one house to the next, to the next, to the next, all day long, if I let him. From his friends, he has learned about a lot of pop culture things like Star Wars, Avengers, zombies, The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, and ninjas. We don't watch many shows, and we heavily sensor what few shows the kids see on Netflix, so some of the things he tells us about those shows and their characters has been surprising. One day we'll happily watch Star Wars with him, but right now we think he is too little.

His favorite toys are his dinosaurs, and I enjoyed putting the dimetrodon puzzle (pictured above) together with him. (Eric picked it up, brand new and unopened at a yard sale several months ago. Woot!) He also loves his Hot Wheels race track and his wooden trains.

All of Ike's teachers (at Primary, tumbling class, and pre-school) tell me that he is exceptionally well-behaved and polite. Other parents also have commented on how polite he is. This is both thrilling and baffling to me. Thrilling for obvious reasons, and baffling because he can be such a stinker with us sometimes!

I sure do love this little boy of mine. He is so fun and such a good helper. I look forward to seeing how he grows and develops over the next year as he starts public school.