Happy 6th Birthday, Will!!!

This is 6! Today Will is officially a 6-year-old. It’s been 6 years since he entered the world and made our little family complete. Here are some fun facts about Will at 6…

Will is now officially a “big kid” and in kindergarten. He is so excited to be in the same school as his big sister and to be a big kid going to kindergarten. He soaks up everything he is taught like a freaking sponge. Will is officially a member of Yili at school and thinks this is the coolest thing. He was so excited to get a house this year like Kenzie. He started the year in virtual (as did every OCPS student) and did fairly well, but he definitely likes being face to face. He is obsessed with learning to read. He has a crazy mastery of phonemic awareness and phonics and one of his favorite games to play is to ask us to give him a word to try to spell. He also randomly tells us words he can spell without help. He has picked up all the sight words taught to him so far like it is going out of style and he can decode some words too. He is already better at spelling that his sister. Haha! Or rather… he is at least spelling better at this point in kindergarten compared to how she was. He also loves math and is already working on some multiplication (thanks to a math obsessed sister, because that certainly isn’t something we have taught him).  

Will is still super tall and skinny. We do not have a firm height or weight on him as his well check isn’t until next week and our measurements are always sort of off. I can tell you that he rode Space Mountain at Disney a few weeks ago for the first time and he met the 44" requirement with inches to spare. Haha! We also know that in the last few weeks people have been making remarks about his height. He is still so super skinny. He does, however, have quite the abs for his thin frame. It’s pretty impressive actually. I’m going to give credit to all the swimming he does for those. 

Will is a fish! I never thought I would be able to say that. He was terrified of the water just 6 months ago. Well, not terrified. He loves the pool, but he didn’t want water anywhere near his eyes and he was not anywhere near ready to try to swim independently… or so we thoughts. Within a week timespan back near the beginning of summer, Will went from refusing to leave the stairs without some sort of floatation device to doing cannonballs and belly flops in the deep end. He challenges his sister to swimming races (and loses because that girl is fast). He can almost keep up with her though. He has decided that he definitely wants to do summer swim next summer and maybe one day swim competitively like Kenzie. I think he may have a knack for it, but we will see how it pans out. 

Will still loves baseball. He is playing coach pitch again this season and while he isn’t the most athletic kid on the team, he has sort of started to hit his stride. Something finally clicked and he is hitting the ball more consistently. He is getting better at fielding and is not quite as nervous when the ball comes flying at him (though he does still flinch). He still makes the cutest little catcher, too!

Will has lost two teeth. I know at his 5-and-a-half-year update, I said he had a wiggly tooth. That one came out shortly after that update. Then he lost another a couple weeks later. Now, he has a top tooth that is wiggly. I think it may hang on a bit, but it is getting more and more wiggly by the day. 

Will is really, really, really into Legos. He can handle full sets made for his age (and much older) mostly on his own now. Every now and then he needs help finding a piece in the huge number of pieces he has or maybe removing a piece he accidentally put on wrong, but he is mostly independent. He can follow the directions with no assistance and even likes to build things on his own that do not follow the directions. He uses his extra pieces or takes his pieces apart after he builds something to try to make something else. However, he usually likes to build the sets and try to keep them together as long as possible to play with them. 

Will is still our affectionate one. He loves hugs and kisses. He loves to come snuggle with us any chance he gets. 

Will is having less night terrors than he was… but he still has them periodically. We went thought a period a few months ago that he had one every night for a month straight or so. That was tough. He also likes to sleep. We try to get the kids in bed fairly early except when we have activities (which is pretty much 5 days a week right now) and he likes to “read” in bed for about 15-20 minutes to wind down before he goes to sleep. Once his time is up, he is usually out like a light pretty quickly. Then he sleeps hard until morning. He has been having some difficulty getting up, but in his defense, I have to get the kids up at 6:10 or so every morning to make sure we get to extended day on time. 

Will is such a great kid. He is smart, funny, loving, empathetic, and ridiculously adorable. We couldn't have asked for a better kiddo to complete our family of four. Can't wait to see what his next year brings.