William is FIVE!

William was excited to turn five, but he wasn't talking about it much.  Ashley and I fixed that with a paper birthday countdown chain.  Ashley hung it right over his bed and William took great pleasure every morning in telling us exactly how many days were left until his birthday.

William woke up the morning of his birthday with great enthusiasm.  He asked for french toast for breakfast, which we granted him, along a rare treat of chocolate milk (which happens to be the only milk William will drink).  When we asked William what he wanted for dinner, he said, "roasted hot dogs!"  He asked for oranges along with the hot dogs but quickly changed his mind once he saw the delicious fruit salad Grandma made.  We gave William several options for a birthday cake, but all he wanted was s'mores.  Done and done.  

I think William had a nice day.  He asked to go to the museum, much to the other kids' delight.  We love this museum.  It is filled with exciting animal exhibits.

They had fun messing around outside near the bronze statues.  William greatly admires Everett.  He becomes interested in everything that Everett has been interested in: legos, pokemon, and lately, minecraft.  William tries to sneak onto the ipad minecraft game Everett did chores to pay for.  This does not make Everett happy.  But William can't help himself--he just wants to be like his big brother.

We decided to drive up the foothills on the way home from the museum so the kids could get out and admire the view.  We have only been in Utah for a little while so the mountains are a wonderful novelty.  Everett and Ashley were happy to do whatever William wanted on his birthday and they tried their best to pamper him.  We love birthdays in our family--the birthday kid gets to decide the meals and activities for the entire day.  With five kids, having a day where you get to decide almost everything is really special.  When else does that happen?  The kids count down to their own birthdays but are always thrilled to celebrate those of their siblings.  It seems we never pass by too much time without stumbling upon a birthday.

William is starting to lose some of his little boy look, but I am glad he is still only five.  He will start kindergarten in the fall, and is happy about it but not overly excited.  He loves friends, though, and jumps in eagerly to any group.  He recently went to a birthday party where he knew no one.  He joined in the activities without a backwards glance and came home asking to go back again.  "What are the names of your new friends?" we asked.  "I don't know," he replied with a casual shoulder-shrug.  It didn't matter to him.  William just likes being with other kids, no matter who they are.

William is earnest and sweet and reliably happy.

He is also reliably silly!

We all love William's enthusiasm.  When he is happy, he goes about the house rhythmically making up nonsense words and songs and rhymes.  I smile every time I hear him do this.  Even when he was a small baby, he took great pleasure in jabbering nonsensically.

It is always easy to get William to giggle.  He loves to laugh.  I sing him a little lullaby each night that I've sung ever since he was a baby.  William likes it when I tickle him during this song so much that he calls it "the tickle song."

William woke up the day of his fifth birthday and proudly announced to me that he is so much stronger than he was when he was four.  We all were appropriately impressed.

James and William have a special bond.  They are pretty good buddies but they can also get on each other's nerves.

It is always nice to see them enjoying each other.  Only occasionally do I have to get after William for bothering James.  When I do, William gets huffy and refuses to let anyone touch him or look at him.  When William was littler, he'd always cuddle when he'd been corrected or reprimanded, but I suppose getting older has heightened his indignation and sense of being wronged.

William has a special love for Charlie.  He always brings Charlie his special blankie, carrying it around his shoulders like a superhero cape, and triumphantly tossing it down to our giggling and clapping baby.  William loves giving Charlie cereal or anything else he wants to eat.

When Charlie is upset, William takes it upon himself to fix the problem.  If he can't, he brings Charlie to me.  This is generally ok, but too often William ends up banging Charlie into something on the way through the house.  Today Charlie ended up with a bloody nose.  William is always dismayed at the injuries he causes but can't help himself the next time Charlie needs help despite our repeated reminders to not carry Charlie through the house.

William still loves dinosaurs.  He knows a lot about each kind of dinosaur.  He really loves dino trucks.  There is a specific brand he has been very fixated on.  William loves these trucks so much that he has watched all of the product videos on amazon multiple times.  He loves these trucks so much that when my Dad pulled up a bunch of pictures of dino trucks online and asked him about them one day, William could tell him all the features of each truck, what the sizes were, and how they worked.  

William has also become very interested in legos.  He can  build for hours and hours.  He has great focus.  He loves building with other people but is often just as happy to build by himself.  He loves creating any vehicle he can add "speedy boosts" to along with a lego dinosaur to ride on it. 

William is also my only child who will even semi-regularly put his clothes away carefully in his dresser.  His preschool teachers affectionately called him a "perfectionist" because he painstakingly finished all of his work as carefully as he could and hated to move on unless it was completed to his satisfaction.

William's favorite amount is "google-infinity."  As in, "No, you mean it is google-infinity times better!" 

William still loves to come sneak in bed with me for a snuggle.  He nestles calmly into me and thrashes his feet into Joel all night.  My kids know that I am always too tired to walk them back to bed and they take advantage of that.  I am just trying to enjoy the snuggles until they are too old to want them.  And William gives exceptional snuggles.

William is excited and proud to be five years old.  We are excited and proud that he is a member of this family.