Silas had a fairly low-key birthday (and I took an inadequate number of pictures. Like nearly none). It’s not his year for a party, since he had Frozenpalooza last year. Instead, he had a series of small celebrations. His cousins JJ and Olivia came to visit the weekend before his birthday, and we went to Pump It Up (Petey found it overwhelming and had to leave early, but the other kids enjoyed it) and then to see my production of The Brothers Grimm Spectaculathon at EMU Theater. Silas said it was his favorite of the many plays I’ve directed. He also picked up some new vocabulary from it like, “dang it!” and “It’s a giant hottie!” (which he thought meant monster…). Also, his take on the play’s opening: “Can everyone see this? Good, because this has sword-fighting, bloodshed, death, comedy, people being cut open with scissors, ships, sailing, horses running here and there, warriors fighting for their lives, and…peanuts!”
A few days later, we went to Mom and Gary’s house for a pool party at the country club where Gary works (awesome pool!) and cake and presents afterward.
And then presents and a special dinner on the actual day. A drawn-out celebration!
Silas got exactly what he asked for, present-wise: Pokemon EVERYTHING. Mom got him a Pokemon shirt, book, and 144 tiny Pokemon figures. JC got him like…500 Pokemon cards from ebay. I picked up a couple of Pokemon shirts for him, too. And a few puzzle/activity books, games (Uno, Sleeping Queens), and some new Star Wars PJs. He was super thrilled with everything, and has spent the last few days playing Pokemon figures with Petra and sorting and re-sorting his new cards.
I’m super bored with Pokemon, personally, but he’s so passionate about it, I just let it ride. A lot of his play is pretending to be a Pokemon trainer, and casting Petra as Pikachu (which she is totally sick of). He loves doing Pokemon Go, but he doesn’t have his own device for it and there’s not much to catch right around our house, so that’s something he does more or less exclusively with JC (and since JC has a job, the “screen Pokemon” time is naturally self-limiting). I do like that it gets them out of the house and interacting with people. He’s practicing reading by sounding out the cards, and his math skills are growing by leaps and bounds now that he’s playing the card game a lot. He actually corrected Olivia’s math when they were playing the card game together at the cabin! I’m trying to focus on what is good about this. He’s learning science (“Why are water type Pokemon susceptible to electric type?” THERE IS ACTUALLY A REASON). He’s using his imagination to create his own stories and characters in this universe. He’s reading the cards. Hey, good enough for me!
As for him being six.
It’s really nice, actually. He’s suddenly much more mature and aware of what he’s doing. He’s more self-sufficient in a lot of ways. There are even funny things that I wouldn’t have thought of or imagined as related to growing up that are happening. For example (a weird example), the other day, I pulled some leftovers out of the fridge and they smelled a little off. Normally, I’d get JC to give me a second opinion before I chucked some food, but he wasn’t home. “Hey, Silas,” I said, “can you smell this and tell me what you think?” And he did, and agreed that I shouldn’t eat it. And it wasn’t that preschooler “all food is horrible” thing, it was just the way an adult would experience it. When he was little and I imagined him helping me out around the house, that wasn’t want I pictured, but it’s weirdly good to have someone else I can check with.
I always say that Silas’ development is in leaps and plateaus, where Petra is much more slow and steady. After making me seriously wonder if we were stalled forever, Silas is in a place of big, sudden leaps. Those can be a bit unnerving for all of us, but it’s also exciting. He’s synthesizing stuff that he learned from different sources. He’s remembering things he learned a year ago, but seeing them in a new way.
And he’s playing a ridiculous amount of Pokemon….
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