Happy 5th Birthday, Robin!

Robin is 5 years old today!

He received presents from his sister and brother, and from me and his dad this morning.  Then I took him and his siblings to see Rio in the theatre with some friends and cousins.  Popcorn and a great time were had by all.  Then we walked to a nearby ice cream shop and everybody had ice-cream and Robin opened a few more presents.  We sang Happy Birthday in the parking lot.

At home his dad took him for a long bike ride near our neighborhood.  A neighbor came over for dinner and a birthday cake.

I think he had a happy birthday :-)

Trip to Texas

Last week we went to Texas to visit Robin's grandparents, three aunts and uncles, and 5 cousins, with 2 more on the way.  I'm sure Robin's favorite part was visiting with his cousin Gray who is 3 months older than he is and with whom he spent TONS of time up until Gray moved to West Texas almost 2 years ago.  They were so happy to be together again!

We're back now, and today Robin learned to pump himself on a swing!

Reading and Math

Robin likes to "read" me a book when Wolfy reads me a book.  He picks out a board book he pretty much knows by heart and recites it, sometimes with a little prompting.

He is also doing the very beginning of the Saxon 1 Math book we got for Wolfy.  Wolfy needed to start about 40 lessons in, although much of it is still really easy for him at that point.  Robin is well-able to do the first lessons, although some bits of it he likes better than others.

Silliness

Robin under the influence of chocolate:

Getting Ready for Christmas!

Robin is SO excited to be getting ready for Christmas. Today he wrapped presents, packed a box for mailing, made ornaments, and selected a gift for his sister. And apparently, for me!

Counting to 10

Robin is very smart, but he seems to have some difficulty translating what he knows into the right word coming out his mouth. This is true about colors, and letters, and numbers, all of which he basically knows, but all of which he has a hard time spitting out the word for in the moment.

Just this week he seems to be beginning to be able to smoothly start counting at 1 and get all the way through to 10 without stopping in the middle. I'd say he's about 75% doing that right now.

I've wondered and wondered if he might be colorblind (my grandfather and one brother are red/green colorblind) but last week when we were in the doctor's office they happened to have a book of colorblind tests sitting there and I asked him to look at it. He couldn't say the numbers they were using (like, 73 and 124) but he traced them with his fingers - he definitely could see them (which he couldn't if he were colorblind).

And we keep working on letters. Some he's quite clear on - others he has to guess the names for (but he gets them about 90% right if I give him multiple choices.)

Fake Blood

"We put peanut butter in a bowl, and put syrup in. And then mixed it. But then we put in soap and food coloring, red and blue, that's what the ingredients said, so . . . then Mommy mixed it up to make red. Then you put it in your mouth and drool it out and that makes blood! That's how you make fake blood!" We found a fun science project for today :-) Picture of Robin with plastic fangs and fake blood to come.