Spencer is 5!

Really?!  Is my second oldest 5!?  He's getting so big and so old to me.  And yet my little Spencer is still a kid at heart.  This year for his birthday he got an extra-special treat.  Grandma and Grandpa Meservy and Uncle Ty and Jordan were here to help celebrate!  

The morning got off to a bumpy start.  Spencer and Miles woke up at 5:00 that morning so Chris and I told them to crawl into bed with us. We all fell asleep and no one woke up until 7:20!  Yikes!  Chris and Jared usually leaves at 7:30 and I leave with the other two boys at 7:45.  For awhile he's known what he wanted for his birthday breakfast, pancakes and strawberry syrup (more like a jam that I make).  I had everything ready the night before for the strawberry part but there was just no way we were going to get pancakes made, open presents, get dressed and out the door in time!  I told Chris we'd have to forgo the pancakes but he insisted Spencer would have them.  So he made them:).  And guess what... Jared was only a few minutes late, and Miles and Spencer were less than five mins late too.  The birthday boy got his desired breakfast and we still opened presents and to school at a decent time:).   

 After school, Uncle Ty helped Spencer assemble his Ninjago motorcycle from Grandma M.

 And later in the day he wanted to go to the park and try out his new bike.

 He loved that it was green.  His past bike was 12" and this was 16".  It took a little while for him to learn how to start on his own but he got the hang of it quickly.

 When Jared got home Spencer decided to try out his Jake and the Neverland Pirate Leapster game. His leapster was low on battery.  I keep the batteries in the bathroom and changed them in there.  The boys didn't even make it out of the bathroom.  This is where they played it.

Spencer picked an amazingly, simple cake.  It looked fun and he loved it!

I love the sequence of these next two pictures.  HA!

The family playing Headbandz, a game Grandma M gave him. It was a lot of fun.

Our neighbor Julie came down for some cake and joined in on the fun:).

His birthday I'd say was a success!

Things I want to remember about Spencer:

• He's sensitive.  He hates when I get mad at him or yell.  He immediately gets mad and won't let me touch him.  Sometimes it's a little extreme but it's good for me because it helps me approach him differently and more gently.  He's got a sweet, sensitive spirit that I absolutely love.
• He rarely says I love you but more, "I like you mom." Whenever I hear it I hear Love though.  
• He used to not let me give him lots of kisses.  He said I could only give him kisses if he said I could or if he gave them to me.  He didn't dish them out often so I often found myself saying sorry because I'd sneak a kiss here or there.  But recently he's been giving me lots of kisses and I've been able to give him lots too!  I love showering my kids with hugs and kisses and I've been grateful that he's letting me more:)
• He's competitive and quite the athlete.  He's fast, he's dense, and he can be aggressive.  Sometimes he gives up too soon.  He likes to be good and he likes to be good right now!  There'll be times when Jared and him will race and Jared gets a head start.  Spencer starts to catch up but after a few seconds gives up because he's behind him still.  If he kept running he often would've won.  
• To go along with the last point, Spencer loves watching Jared play the Wii.  He sometimes plays but doesn't last very long.  He says he's not very good.  I keep trying to get him to play instead of watch though.  How's he suppose to get better?
• Kids in his class are drawn to him.  He helps others and looks out for them.  One girl, Yolotzin, especially likes him.  When I help in the classroom, once a week, I often hear her yelling his name from across the room.  
• He can't wait for Kindergarten.  He asks me all the time how many days til he's in Kindergarten.
• As of right now, when he gets into first grade he'd like to play the violin instead of piano.
• He loves his older brother.  He watches and mimics what he does.
• I started teaching him back in the spring how to read.  He was doing awesome but I got busy and stopped.  I tried over the summer to re-introduce it but he didn't want anything to do with it.  Two months ago we re-introduced it and he's doing great!  Sometimes it's a struggle to get him to start but he does really well after we get going.  I love how he gets it.  It's like a light bulb goes on in him and you see it click.  When practicing individual words he'll proceed to tell me a sentence using the word to prove he knows the meaning of the word.
• I think he's going to like math.  He often asks for math worksheets.  I'm giving him sheets from a kindergarten workbook and he's doing great.  I don't even sit by him to help him.  He finishes them brings them to me and I correct them.  It's simple stuff (addition and subtraction under 10) but he really loves it.  
• This boy can pretend play like no other.  When Jared is at school, Spencer and Miles will play for a long time creating characters, building environments, and setting the mood for their pretend play.  
• Sometimes he asks me to call him Spencer Wencer.  (love it when he requests this:)
• One night when laying by Spencer he told me, "Mom, we need to have a sister so I can play house with her.  I can be the dad and she can be the mom."  Spencer gets along marvelously with girls.  He's gentle and kind and yet he can switch into boy mode quickly and rough and tumble with his brothers.  He's going to be a good husband like his dad some day: gentle, sensitive, and kind.

My big little Spencer James, I LOVE you!!!