Dylan turns 6 today. I think 6 is hitting me harder than 5. Something about not being 5 and under or being definitely "school-aged" makes it sound so old. My first born is growing up. He will now require his own metro pass.
Starting Kindergarten has been the big event in Dylan's life this past year. He's also lost 4 teeth, grown 2.25 inches (which the doctor said was above average), and gained 2 pounds (below the 5 pound average). At our annual trip to Kings Dominion in September he got to ride rides with a 44-inch height requirement which included more roller coasters.
In Kindergarten Dylan is mostly working on writing his letters. He has improved on writing his "y"s and I now see him using more lower-case letters where appropriate. Kindergarten has been a big adjustment mostly in that Dylan doesn't have as much time to do what he wants as he used to. He likes Kindergarten when he's there and has made friends and is doing well. He often says he doesn't want to go because he doesn't like the school but I think that is just an outgrowth of the lost sense of freedom.
Dylan also began taking piano lessons this fall. He knows 5 pieces now. Practicing is a struggle, I think for the reasons cited above. But once Dylan gets a composition down, he is so excited.
Dylan has also began gymnastics this year and seems to really like it. In the spring he went an hour a week and now he's going two hours a week. He has really good balance and is learning cartwheels and how to swing around the bars.
Dylan took 8 weeks of swim lessons this spring and continued to improve his swimming skills at the pool this summer. He was able to swim across the the length of the pool without stopping and tread water for 30 seconds which allowed him the privilege of swimming in the deep end and going off the diving board which he was so excited about. I actually feel more safe with him in the diving pool than I do when he's in the 5 feet deep because in the diving pool he's always closer to an edge or a lifeguard.
I've seen a lot of evidence of strong emotional maturity in Dylan this year. He often talks freely about his feeling about Joshua's death and about other things that most 6-year-olds don't typically talk about. He hugs and kisses me and Martin and Lydia when he says bye to us. When he's angry he says "I'm angry, I feel like breaking something." While we still have to deal with why he gets so angry so often (like when his sister wants the same thing for breakfast that he does) at least he's making some verbal expression which at least gives us a warning before he goes and does break something.
We got a Wii in April (feels like a lot longer than that) and Dylan plays Mario Kart pretty much every day. He's pretty much obsessed with it which is something else we are dealing with. He now has PJs, a backpack, and a lunchbox that are all Mario Kart.
Surprisingly, Dylan is still into Thomas the Train. There are two Thomas movies that came out in recent years and he's still excited about those. I even bought him a new train for his birthday. He also likes being read to, hiking, riding his bike, and having playdates.
Recently Dylan has become more amenable to doing crafts and coloring. He often draws a picture and then wants tape to hang it on the wall. It's great to see him have more confidence in more fine motor things.
Dylan loves hanging out with his friends from school and church as well as the kids in the neighborhood. But its hard for anyone to beat time with his cousins. That's good because my sister and her family moved to MD this year and Dylan has loved hanging out with them more. They even lived with us for a few weeks so that was another highlight of Dylan's year. Steven, Zak, and Eli also joined us on trips to the air and space museum and the zoo. And Dylan went with them to visit Grandma and Grandpap one weekend (boys weekend!). Let's just say my parents really missed Lydia.
Our family vacation to VT and NY this year proved that there is no end to Dylan's energy. We hiked 12 miles over 8 days not including the walking we did when we were site-seeing. He never complained about being tired. I figured that was a good test to see how Kindergarten would go. Still not tired from school either. Some days he's hard to wake up but after he gets going, it's hard to stop him.
