My firstborn is six-years-old. At times, it's felt like ages ago that I held his fresh, tiny body for the first time. How did this tall, bright, and tender-hearted child once fit completely on my chest? Other times, I feel like I just barely got to take him home from the hospital. Time is both my sweetest friend and most-despised enemy.
Rowan at six is absolutely wonderful. He's incredibly patient with his two younger siblings who often use him as a trampoline, punching bag, and chair. He never really complains when they maul him, which is sweet to me. Rowan's thoughtfulness coupled with maturity is something special. Tonight, we told him to go upstairs and get ready for bed. He walked up without any further prompting, put his clothes in the dirty hamper, showered by himself, dressed himself, hung up his towel and brushed his teeth and additionally laid out pajamas for his little sister. It was the first time he's done that because I'm normally quick to lay out pajamas while they bathe/shower. He saw a need and filled it without any expectation of reward or encouragement to do so. He's so pure.
Rowan is loving kindergarten. He thrives on routine and order which school is blessedly giving him. He enjoys his teacher and friends and especially learning. He loves math and is already a super reader. He's already a very bright kid and being one of the oldest now is only helping him feel capable and smart. In so many ways, he is such a beautifully easy child. He's obedient, kind, and respectful. The emotional outbursts of his younger years are fading as he learns to self-soothe and regulate big feelings. He occasionally has something he can't process, but he recovers quickly.
His current interest list continues to keep switch/video games in first place. He also really enjoys sports/exercising. He started going to CrossFit kids while we were in Idaho and really loved it. He wanted to come with me on the weekends when I would work out and do his own workout. Now that we're back in Nebraska, he's started going to a kid class while we workout that teaches them whatever sport they wish. His first request was soccer and then volleyball, basketball, pickle ball, and football. He's always had a natural ability to do well in sports and I hope he keeps that with him as these next few years go by. I can't decide what he would like being enrolled in more and he gets too excited about all the options when I ask him. It makes me feel like he lives a more balanced life knowing he likes both video games and athletics. His favorite game to play is Minecraft with his dad and grandpa. It's pretty cute to watch. They'll pull up chairs close to the TV, facetime/or call Papa, and all play together for as long as time will allow. It makes me feel like he's a teenager already for some reason. He likes Pokemon, fighting robots with Dad/Rocky, making obstacle courses in the backyard, racing, daydreaming about flying, math, doing flips off the couch onto our mattress (ahhh please stop this), constantly trying to solve a rubik's cube and board games.
Rowan continues to say "I love you, mom" and dad a lot. I love it, but he still seems to say it as a filler of silence sometimes. He also talks non-stop. He needs to explain things to me or anyone else in full detail. I wish I could focus better on his long descriptions, but catch myself saying "uhuh and really" a lot more than I'd like. It's easier to soak all of his words in when Lyra and Rocky are otherwise occupied which happens very rarely. He's so encouraging and loving to his siblings regardless. Lyra hasn't slept in her bed for an entire night since we got back. We have a sticker chart going and an excessive amount of promised prizes as motivation (Nothing is working btw). The FIRST thing ROWAN asks every morning is "Did Lyra do it? Did she sleep through the night?" He's so hopeful she succeeded. He'll tell her when she wakes up "You can do it tomorrow night, Lyra. Just do it."
He eats mostly well at this age. He'll luckily eat a fairly broad spectrum of nourishing foods. His favorite "healthy" foods are cucumbers, watermelon, cantaloupe, bell peppers, fresh peas (never cooked ones), apples, and grapes. He can eat an exorbitant amount of ice-cream for his size. While in Disneyworld, he got to eat a TRIPLE cone and he ate the entire thing somehow. He still protests eating beans which makes life super un-fun for meal making since most of my favorite meals and ones everyone else will eat have beans in them. He loves sandwiches, is really into the concept of double-double hamburgers (he discovered this was a thing while eating at an In-n-Out in Utah), he doesn't like chick-fil-a food (probably because he's eaten there an excessive amount in his short-life span), and he continues to follow in GG Chocolate's footsteps by loving chocolate. He sleeps perfectly. Goes to bed without a fuss, sleeps through the night and wakes up between 6:30am-7:30am most mornings. I appreciate this about him a lot particularly because he was not an easy sleeper for the majority of his babyhood/toddlerhood.
He continues to have an incredibly contagious and cute laugh. He laughs easily and is starting to understand jokes. Rowan's favorite people in the world are his extended family. He adores spending time with both sets of grandparents, aunts and uncles, second cousins and he loves his cousins so, so much. They're absolutely his best friends. It was an amazing 100 days of summer for him to be with family so often. It made me really wish we lived closer to our families knowing how much our kids thrived being surrounded by people who love them.
I just really, really want to be like him. I wish I could be as gentle in my parenting as he can be in his brother-ing. I'm grateful for the gift that he is to our lives. We love him dearly and are grateful he's been with us these six years.
