Jack turns 5!!!

My little baby Jacky has turned 5.  He has grown so much in the last year.  A lot of the pants that I bought him in the fall are already too small, they didn't even make it all the way through one season.  For the first time he's actually wearing the size that is made for his age (5T), rather than a couple sizes smaller (just six months ago he was still wearing 3T stuff). 

He's still as stubborn as ever.  He won't wear anything I choose for him.  He only wants to wear soft pants and shirts, especially the shirts which are actually hooded jackets with the hood up.  He just likes to be very cozy and warm. 

Jack is doing well in preschool, although you wouldn't really guess it.  He's still not very enthusiastic about going, and from what I could tell, he didn't seem to be learning much.  I just had his parent/teacher conference and even his teacher was surprised when she tested him and he knew all his letters and numbers and other things.  He's even started to read some small words.  He's just very different from Lily in that he doesn't like to show it off and doesn't seem to care about praise that much.  He's a smart little guy.

He's super good at iPad and now Xbox games.  We got him some racing games for Christmas and has beaten one and is much better than I am.  For his birthday we got him a Star Wars Lego game that he's a little obsessed with.  We have to put some serious limits on how much screen time he gets.  The biggest problem is that he calls R2D2 "Wall-E", which for a Star Wars Fan and Disney hater, is sacrilege.  We've been trying to find the Star Wars movies for the kids to watch to try and set him straight.  This picture is from last summer, but I think he was being a bird, or indian, or something.

Here is Jack's annual birthday interview, I'm surprised how many of his answers have stayed consistent:

What's your favorite color?  Blue, Orange, and Green
Favorite animal? Tigers
Favorite TV Show? Jake and the Neverland Pirates
Favorite Movie? Mighty Machines (the Monster truck one)
Favorite Food?  Pizza
Favorite Hobby? Xbox
Favorite Dessert?  Halloween Cookies (I have no idea where that one came from)
What do you want to be when you grow up? A monster truck driver

Here's a joke Jack told me while eating lunch:
"What do you get when you hear "Meow, Meow, Meow!"
An Exercising cat!"
Then he jumped down from his chair and started doing push-ups, laughing, and spitting bits of scrambled eggs.  It was pretty hilarious.

Another good one was while we were playing Lego's, and there were two that were stuck together, so he asked me to pull them apart.  I did, and he said "Mom, I sure am glad you go to the gym so you can pull my Lego's apart."  To which I said "Ya, I'm pretty buff."  Here he is, licking the cookie spoon.

Jack has a baby doll that he takes very good care of, occasionally.  I'm not worried about him playing with a doll, he's as much of a boy as I could imagine.  Her name is "Flashy" (I don't know why) and she originated as Lily's doll, which I gave her when Jack was born.  Just like our real baby, Lily had no interest in her and rejected her.  The doll waited a few years in the toy box and now Jack is her dad.  He was particularly nice to her when Hannah was visiting with her baby, Aaron.  Jack fed her bottles, swaddled her, put her down for naps, changed her diaper, made her sit in a car seat in the car, etc.  He's a very kind, little fellow and hopefully will be nice to our new baby.  He's a little unpredictable with Annie, sometimes very kind and helpful, and sometimes a little rough and mean, which is how I always imagined brothers.

Jack's birthday party was a good time.  I wanted to actually try and keep it simple this year so we went to Trafalga (a local fun center) because they have laser tag, which Jack has decided he loves.

Played some other arcade games, too.

This is the whole laser gang.  I love getting Stoney to do kid stuff, it's so fun.  Jack somewhere picked up this old school rapper pose from somewhere, I think he might have come up with it on his own, which just proves he's naturally that cool.  I love it.

Then we had some pizza, cake and presents with friends.  It was nice.  Jack wanted a Lego cake, I think it turned out pretty cute and tasty.

He's pretty great.