Carter is 5!!!

Can you believe this kid is 5?!?!  Because I can't!!!!  My mind can't wrap around the fact that he'll be in Kindergarten in 7 short months.  Where did the time go??

Shoe Size

Carter is comfortably wearing a size 11 shoe now.  I think he went through a big growth spurt, foot wise, about a month ago because I bought him a pair of shoes that he's only worn probably 3 or 4 times before he outgrew them!! 

Clothes

He is wearing mostly 5T clothes.  A lot of his jeans are still 4T though.  Just depends on the brand.  We're about to transition in most clothing stores though.  He's still in the toddler section but within the year, my guess is we'll cross the aisle into the kids section where there's no longer "t" sizes.  I'm sure it will be super easy to buy matching clothes for the boys once that happens.  Sarcasm.

Eating

Favorite foods at this age definitely include hot dogs, yogurt, granola bars, gummy packs, and ham.  He still loves to eat out at Mexican restaurants and he also loves Chick-fil-a.  He eats pizza (this has been a struggle for him over the last year), but it's definitely not a favorite.  He requires me to cut it up for him to eat it though.  He won't eat a slice the way adults and big kids do.  He still refuses anything related to a hamburger or cheeseburger.  We even try to make it a little easier by making cheeseburger quesadillas (just a cheese quesadilla with some hamburger meat sprinkled in there).  You'd think I'd stolen his favorite teddy bear and put it in a shredder.  He cries his eyes out when we have that for dinner and a timeout is usually involved.  Other than the cheeseburger thing, there's not a ton of foods he completely refuses.  He'll usually at least try one bite of something before telling us he doesn't like it.  Carter is really good about cleaning his plate too.  Whatever food he is given, he knows he has to clean his plate and he does.  He is still on the slow side when it comes to eating.  He's a social butterfly so he tends to talk and talk and talk and before he realizes it, meal time is over and he isn't finished.  He'll get a little upset because he knows he needs to finish but doesn't understand that in order to finish, he's gotta quit yapping!!

Sleep

Naps at this age are hit or miss.  I would say he takes, on average, about 2 to 3 naps a week.  When he does nap, it lasts anywhere from 1-1.5 hours.  He rarely takes a nap that's more than 2 hours.  On the days he doesn't nap, he knows that he has to go to bed early.  Even when he doesn't actually fall asleep during naptime, he always goes into his room for at least an hour and a half of quiet time.  He may just toss and turn and talk to his animals, but he is required to stay in his room with the light off.  Bedtime on days that we have a nap is 7:30-7:45.  No nap days-bedtime is at 7pm.  All of this is of course assuming we don't have anything we're attending.  If there's a church event or something special we're going to, bedtimes tend to be later. 

Preschool

Carter switched preschools this year.  He was attending our church preschool last year and he really loved it!  But we wanted something closer to our home.  So this year, he started school at Hunter Street in Hoover.  I was so nervous for him on his first day.  Not knowing any students or any teachers is tough.  At our church, he knew everyone, even the teachers that weren't his, because we were members there.  The building was familiar, the hallways were familiar, and he knew where everything was.  At Hunter Street, it was all so new to him.  But he had absolutely zero adjustment issues.  He loves all his friends in his class.  He's never been on yellow or red (teachers there put kids on green, yellow, or red depending on their behavior that day) and his teacher loves him and says he's a joy.  At Hunter Street, they learn two bible verses a month.  We were already doing one per week in our house, so we just decided to do the two per month that Hunter Street was doing.  It made it easier for Carter!  He's up to 20 bible verses that he's memorized!!  I'm so proud of him.  I asked him the other day which one was his favorite and he said Philippians 1:21 which says "To live is Christ, to die is gain".  That's a pretty good one to be a favorite!!

Statistics

At his five year appointment, his blood pressure was 98/62 and his heart rate was 99.  He was 38lbs (35th percentile) and 41.5 inches tall (25th percentile).   He's on the small side for sure, but he's healthy and growing just as he should.  Doc guesses he'll be at full height at about 5'8 or 5'9. 

Other Abilities/Random Things to Note

• He is reading like crazy!!!  I haven't even taught him certain words and yet he knows how to pronounce them.  I can't wait to get his reading level tested in Kindergarten.  It will be interesting to see where he is on the reading scale.  He's also starting to pick up on math.  He told me this morning, for instance, that 6 plus 6 was 12 and that if he had 4 hands, then he'd have 20 fingers.  So he's starting to pick up on that kind of stuff too.
• Still loves cars to the moon and back.  He can tell you every single hot wheel he's got.  Buying him Hot Wheels at Walmart or Toys R' Us is a challenge because he already has most of them.  But he doesn't care.  When he gets a new hot wheel car it's like Christmas morning to him.
• LOVES Christmas.  Just like his momma.  When we got out the Christmas tree ornaments he FLIPPED. OUT.  He got so excited seeing them all, especially the ones he made in school or church in previous years.  He loves the ones with pictures of him or his brother on them.  And he really enjoyed helping me hang them.  He'd pick on out to hang and give it to me and then he'd tell me where on the tree to put it. He loves Christmas lights and frequently makes us drive around the neighborhood just looking at lights.
• He still doesn't really watch tv much.  That's a good thing, I know.  He's just not too interested.  I'm trying to get him to be interested in movies.  He's only seen one movie in a theater (minions in 3d).  Justin and I are planning to take him to see Secret Life of Pets in the dollar theater this weekend.  We'll see if he makes it the whole way through.  He made it about 45 minutes of Minions in 3D but I really think he didn't like that one because he didn't like wearing the glasses.  He kept complaining about them.  I also think he'll like the topic of this movie better because he LOVES animals. 
• Carter loves to pick out his own clothes.  Most of the time they match, but every now and again, I have to go change the shirt he picks out. 
• He played a sport for the first time this year!!!  He was on the Hunter Street Upwards Soccer team league.  It took some time for him to figure out the game.  I think he loved all the running back and forth, but he wasn't competitive at all.  He didn't like trying to steal the ball from the other team because he said that was "mean".  I don't see sports in Carter's future at this point, but we'll see what the future holds.  I'm not saying he won't be good at them.  He'll be good at whatever he puts his mind to.  I just don't think his personality is that of a sports guy.  He opted out of basketball but has said he wants to do baseball so we'll sign him up for the same Upwards league in the spring to do baseball.  He is enrolled in a class at school that meets once a week called "Playball".  They go in the gym when school is over for about 45 minutes and they work on all sports related skills (dribbling, throwing, rolling, running bases, Frisbee, etc).  He loves that class!  He got his evaluation back this week and he was in the green for all skills, meaning that he wasn't struggling to pick up on any of the skills.  I'll be interested to see if he likes baseball.  I hope he does.  Part of me kind of always wanted to be a baseball momma.  We'll see!
• He remembers EVERYING.  And I mean…EVERYTHING.  We can’t promise him something and not follow through because he will totally call us out on it.  He also repeats absolutely everything he hears so if you come around my child and curse, be prepared to see the bad side of this momma!!  **I actually wrote this bullet point in his 3 year post but left it in his 4 year post and I’m leaving it here because it is STILL true**
• Sadly we don't play outside much right now because it's so cold.  I'm hoping we may have a couple of warm days over Christmas break where we can go on walks outside.  Both boys love to walk around the circle we live on.  It's almost a mile long circle so I'm shocked they like doing it.  They just both love being outside. 
• He has seven trillion stuffed animals on his bed.  It's ridiculous!!! 
• And yes, he still loves and adores all things related to Buicks!

I love this kid to the moon and back y'all.  There are days where he makes me want to pull my hair out, but I just can't fathom my life without this precious blessing.  He made me a momma and for that, I will forever be indebted to him.  Happy Birthday Carterman!