Daniel 5-Year Update

Daniel had his annual pediatrician appointment on Thursday and all is well.  He is now 42" tall (31st percentile) and weighs 39.6 lbs (42nd percentile).  That's up about 2.5" and 4 lbs from last year.  The only potential issue that came up was the fact that his tonsils are "enormous".  His doctor is going to refer us to a pediatric ENT for an evaluation.  They'll likely do a sleep study and then determine if the tonsils are causing issues and remove them if so.  Hopefully not, but better to do now than after he starts school in a year.

Other than the tonsils, his only other ongoing health concern are his allergies (and potentially asthma).  He continues to take daily medicine for both.  And, we saw the allergist a couple weeks ago and worked through a plan for dealing with the allergies going forward.  Likely after the first of the year we are going to go ahead and do the skin test on him for allergies.  We will probably (depending on the results of the test) go ahead and start him on allergy shots soon after that.  The goal being he would be at maintenance levels (only one shot a month) by the time he starts school in the fall.  His allergies are mostly well controlled with his medication, but it would be so nice to be able to eventually stop the meds and not have to worry about them anymore.

The pediatrician also ran through a list of things for Daniel to begin working on in preparation for starting school next year.  Things like writing his name, knowing his address, being able to buckle up in the car by himself, dressing himself, etc.  We were very happy and proud to tell her that he can already do everything she said.  And in addition to that, we've started working on reading and sight words.  He is up to about 10 or so words he can recognize now.  Not surprisingly, he's picking it up quickly.

Daniel is a smart (sometimes scary-smart), silly, funny, crazy, happy boy.  As is obvious by now, his main interest is Legos, but he also loves helping with projects and chores around the house, playing Police Officer with his grandparents, going to gymnastics class (it continues to go really well), reading books, and watching TV and videos.

His Lego building skills are really impressive.  He built many of his newer sets completely by himself, and only asks for help if something is particularly tricky.  He enjoys helping water the plants, cleaning the counters, and dusting.  Long gone are the days of him caring at all about laundry or vacuuming though.

Daniel's favorite TV shows are mostly PBS Kids shows - Curious George, Dinosaur Train, Ready Jet Go, Odd Squad, Bob the Builder, and of course, Mighty Machines.  We did take him to see his first movie in the theater a couple weeks go, but he didn't really like it.  He's easily scared and anything remotely intense doesn't interest him.   He does still love The Peanuts Movie though.

The videos he watches on the tablet are mostly through the YouTube Kids app.  Lots of Lego videos and things along those lines.   But recently we've discovered a YouTube channel called SciShow Kids.  He loves that, or anything related to science and learning.  We also watch the Smarter Every Day channel together sometimes.  And lately we have been watching a documentary called Human Planet.  He's a bright kid who loves learning about the world around him.  It's so fun.

I hesitate to even say this for fear of somehow jinxing us, but our main behavior issues we've had with him over the last couple of years are also getting much better.  Timeouts happen much less these days, for example.  And he's much better about trying new foods.  All good things!

I just can't believe he's already 5.  Where did the last 5 years go?  They've been a blur, but full of so much fun and happiness.  And more to come!

And just for fun, here's a video of the kids playing "Chase" last night.  Hopefully it doesn't make you too nauseous with all the spinning.  They are fast!