Tiago turns 6

Tiago had a great birthday last month!  I was planning on doing something as a family, like Legoland, or Chuck E Cheese, because he just started a new grade and has all new kids in his class.  Nine days before his birthday, he said, "Actually Mom, I want to have a party with friends."  He was so sure of it (although never mentioned it sooner) that I started googling ideas.  I saw an idea to do cake decorating, and ran the idea by him.  The next day we created invitations and the next day he handed them out.  So it was a bit of a rush but it worked out great.

During the week there was a lot of cake baking going on.  I used 5" pans, so it only involved 4-5 boxes of cake mix.  And a tooooon of butter for all the frosting.  We got a bunch of candy and sprinkles.  And chef hats for everyone to wear.

On Friday morning he woke up at about 6 am, a hour early.  We had taped up balloons against his door that fell down on him.  We made him go back to his room and read for 45 minutes until we were ready to be awake and open presents.  We set the balloons up again for him.  He got a tie, kids Book of Mormon, a few books, and walkie talkies.  But I think he was most excited by a $3 play "police" kit from Target with plastic handcuffs and a night stick

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Friday after school he had 3 classmates (Izabella, Rumaisa and Jonah) and 3 church friends (Jaxton, William and Zachary) come over to decorate cakes and make pizza.  The girls were great help, and several of the parents came (with a few siblings.)  School friends can be tricky because who wants to let their 6-yr-old go to the house of a complete stranger?  So that seemed like a good solution.  One mom was particularly helpful in getting things set up, washing the kids hands, managing the chaos, etc. 

Kids are so funny in their preferences.  One kid dumped a bunch of stuff on his cake and then declared he was done only a few minutes after starting.  Tiago hadn't even started on the decorations for about 15 minutes.  And with pizza, some kids made really good looking pizzas, and another boy had flatbread with 3 pepperonis on top.  (Trader Joes flatbread pizzas saved us!  I was going to use dough, but randomly found these for a great price, and it was so simple to put on toppings and bake for a few minutes.)

They spent the last bit of the party running around outside and playing in the water table. (While I let out a huge sigh of relief that we survived.)  Even after everyone had left, Tiago was trying to soak Hyrum with water, and got quite a few splashes to the face.  They were soaked. 

My favorite part of the day was eating lunch at the cafeteria with Tiago.  When we finished eating, Tiago was walking with us across the room to where his class was sitting.  He reached up to hold my hand.  It occurred to me that he may not be doing that still a year from now, but I'm glad he still likes to be seen with us, and still holds my hand. 

A few days after his birthday he had his annual physical.  He's grown 5" in the last year!  He is in the 90th percentile for height, but still skinny as a rail.  (47.75" and 42 lbs)

Tiago is great at this age.  He's mostly outgrown his moments of rage we've seen over the last few years.  He is adorable with Enzo, and sits and stares at him.  Most of the time, he is best friends with the girls.  The girls' teacher told me that when they see Tiago in the hallway, and he waves at them, they say, "Tiago said hi to us!!"  He's a big rule-follower, so I'm sure it's just a wave, and no talking.  Because that's apparently very frowned on in the hallway.  A few days before his birthday, Mila found a dried-out dandelion and said she was going to make a wish.  She said, "I wish that Tiago has the best birthday!"  (Then Siena informed her you can't tell your wishes, so she said she changed it, but still...)

He's incredibly curious and has a great memory.  He has the first 3 articles of faith memorized in Spanish and reads each night with Hyrum in Spanish.  Most of his free time is consumed with informational books on space, dinosaurs, animals, history, geography, etc.  On more than one occasion, when discussing the size of something (like the Empire States Building), he has said, "If you were a mini-figure it would be this  *demonstrates with his hands* big."    He obviously loves Legos.  He can already read some chapter books, but starting in Kindergarten they've really begun working on writing.  His spelling is adorable, because he is trying to write words like cretaceous, extinct, and Tyrannosaurus Rex.

Tiago sleeps like a teenager.  He sleeps deeply at night, and when I wake him up in the morning he pulls the covers up over his head and ignores me.  (I've started waking him up 10 minutes early to compensate.)  He finally goes to sleep willingly (without demanding Hyrum lay next to him, which happened for years.) 

He's still fairly timid around people he doesn't know, but it's great watching him easily make friends and gain confidence with his teachers. 

He is a special kid and we're glad to have him as our first and big brother to Mila, Siena, and Enzo.