Drew version 5.0

A half of a decade, a whole hand, cinco, F-I-V-E - our Drew celebrated a monumental birthday last month!  :)  Drew version 5.0 is pretty great, I have to say.  This boy was born sweet and just keeps getting better with age.  Love him so!!!

At 5 years old:

*  Drew weighs 48 pounds and is 44.5 inches tall.  He wears a Small (5) in shirts and a 5 or 6 slim in pants.  He wears a size 13.5 in shoes.  According to the growth percentiles calculator, he is 88% for weight and 85% for height.

*  Drew is doing great at his new preschool!  He is learning so much and we couldn't be prouder of his hard work.  On September 16th, I picked Drew up from preschool and asked him how his day was.  He said (casually, like it was no big deal), "It was good.  I can count to 100 now."  Then he proceeded to count to 100 twice without skipping a beat.  I couldn't believe it!

*  His writing is also getting better.  He is bringing home work that I can actually read without him telling me what it says.  ;)  I am crazy about little kid handwriting - backwards letters and all.  So adorable!

I like Raspberries, Pizza, Pie, Chocolate, Goldfish

Little kid drawings are pretty great, too.  Drew drew (ha!) this for me during church service last Sunday.  He said it was he and I.  ;)

*  Drew is so good at sharing his things.  I love his little heart.  He gives his brothers anything that they ask for.  When we got home from his birthday party, we realized that he had given them half of his presents on the car ride home.  Ha!  His generosity inspires me to give more freely.  I hope that he hangs on to that characteristic for the rest of his days.
*  Drew has this infectious laugh that is part cackle/part giggle/part all-out-laugh.  I can't help but laugh with him when I hear it.  If you could bottle up pure joy, it would sound just like Drew's laugh.  :)
*  Recently, Drew's preschool teacher did a "walk through the alphabet" letter assessment.  Drew recognized all of his upper case letters and almost all of his lower case (missed b, h, l, n, and q).  He got most of his letter sounds as well (missed e, g, i, o, q, u, y).  He does better at home - hardly ever misses a letter.  Maybe he has performance anxiety.  ;)
*  The preschool had a private company come in to do hearing/vision screens on all of the students.  I was sad (but not surprised) to get a slip saying that Drew failed his hearing screen.  :(  I have wondered about his hearing before, but thought maybe the issue was more "selective hearing."  It appears as though he may have an actual hearing issue, though.  We are hopeful that the test results may be due to fluid, and not an actual loss.  We will see his ENT on November 21st for a screening with their audiologist and exam.  We shall see...  :-/
*  Drew says the funniest things!  He starts most sentences with "Which....,"  "However...," and "Besides...."  He sounds so cute using those words with his little lisp.  He still calls Netflix "Net-fah-lakes."  He talks in the third person often ("Drew would like to watch..."  or  "Me, Drew, wants to...").  We tease that he talks like Grover.  Ha!  He also uses the term "FYI" more than I thought it was humanly possible and does "air quotes" with his fingers quite often.
*  Other funny Drew phrases are:
        -  He calls croutons "kryptons."  :)
        -  In the bathtub one day he was trying to describe goose bumps and said, "My skin pokes up when water gets on me."
        -  He was trying to talk about something costing a lot of money one day.  He said, "That costed like a hundred pieces of buck."  ;)
        -  He told me that he wants a sleep sack like Owen sleeps in.  Ha!  I laughed so hard thinking about the giant sleep sack that his long body would need.
        -  When his stomach hurts he says, "My waist hurts."
*  Drew is so snuggly still - the first one of my offspring to jump in my lap at bedtime most nights.  One night we were on the couch snuggling and I said, "Drew, will you live with your Mama forever?"  Usually, he says "Yes!!!" and gives me a big hug.  Oh this particular night, he said, "Nah.  I am going to grow to be an old man and I want to get a cat."  Ha!  He knows that we are not cat people and his Daddy is allergic, but he wants one sooooo bad.  :)
*  Just this week, Drew learned how to pump himself on the swing set and to tell digital time.  He can also read years (I had no idea that he could until we were looking at a pack of vintage Lego minifigures and he read 1978, 1981, 1992, 1996, 2002).  I can't believe how much he is figuring out these days.  He is a little sponge, for sure!
*  Drew eats fruit like it is his job.  He loves bananas, strawberries, grapes, raspberries, blackberries, peaches, pears, any fruit really.  Although, he has never met a chicken nugget or corny dog that he didn't like either.  ;)  I'm hoping that they balance each other out.  That's how it works, right???

My Darling Drew,

How on Earth are you five?!?!  I have begged and begged for you to stay four another year, but, once again, you shot me down.  You were insistent that you wanted to turn five.  I would give my eye teeth to have another year of you being a four year old.  It was such a great year to be your mom!  You grew and changed and wanted to be more independent.  You were still such a Mama's boy, though!  It was a perfect balance to me.  I know that change is good, though, and being five may be even more awesome.  I can't imagine it getting better, but I am certain that it will.  :)

On the first day of school for Clayton (he started the week before you did), I was totally fine.  It is just another year for him - going to school is old hat for Clayton.  As we walked away from the school after drop off, you held my hand in the parking lot.  I looked down and it hit me that you will be at Clayton's school next year as a Kindergartener.  A wave of emotion fell over me and I my heart literally ached.  I know that you will only be there two days a week, but the fact that you will be in "big kid" school, is almost too much for me to bear.  I still think of you as my baby - you are still so little to me!  I am confident that you will do great and will thrive in a new learning environment.  It will be great.  Can you tell that I have to give myself lots of pep talks these days???  ;)

You played soccer for the first time this Fall.  It was your first ever sport, and you loved it!  You declared yourself the "soccer master" after the first practice.  Funny boy...  You were playing on a Kinder team with kids older than you, but you held your own.  You scored the most goals of anyone on your team (not that I was counting...), and showed an aggressive side that I had never seem before.  My meek and mild little boy must have a competitive streak.  Who knew???

You have a sweet, sweet spirit, my Darling boy.  You are kind, gentle, and sensitive to correction.  You are not perfect, by any means, but your bad choices are few and far between.  I love your heart and try hard to nurture that part of you.  You are a precious treasure to me, Andrew Michael!

I love you to the moon and back!
Mommy