Oh sweet Christopher, Happy 5th Birthday dude! 5 years sure went fast. My Ben 10 obsessed, imaginative, silly, kindle playing, swimming-lesson-loving, show watching, (sometimes) thoroughly irritated by everything, bath bomb loving, 5 year old. This year has been a big one for you! First off you 
are our FIRST official pre-schooler. You’re learning the ropes at “William’s school” as you call it, in preparation for kindergarten next year. Wow. I wasn’t sure how we’d fare when we got morning preschool, as you’re wired differently than your brothers and tend to be a slow lazy starter in the mornings. I think you got that from me. You’re a bit of a night owl though, and can play-pretend chattering to yourself happily in the dark long past when bedtime was scheduled to happen. You are my great pretender. You love to make up games and act out epic battles. Your favorite pretend partners (ranked in order of pretending compatibility) are William, Daddy, Mommy, and then Andrew. You’d probably play pretend by yourself or with Kiki before you really willingly played pretend with Andrew. You are William’s right hand man but little brother Andrew can irritate you by his mere existence. We’re working on growing some patience and tolerance which I think will help you better handle kindergarten as well. 
You are the messiest eater in the world! We’re also going to work on this skill before you start kindergarten or I may need to send an extra change of clothes with you each day. Feeding you can be amusing at times, your favorite mealtime phrase is “What are the options?”, as in “Hey Christopher, what would you like for _______?” Christopher: “What are the options?”. Sometimes the options need to be repeated several times. The options are NEVER remembered from day to day. You have a serious soft spot. You are sensitive, you care deeply about people and things. At preschool you would freak out any time someone else hung their backpack by your hook first and we discovered it was because you were afraid to push anyone else’s backpack aside for fear of upsetting them. We thought we’d lost your favorite stuffed cat on spring break, and upon finding the old one and comparing it to the new replacement we’d gotten you, were devastated for the new stuffed cat when you found out nobody had loved him yet (and that’s why he didn’t look fuzzy and worn like your old one). You are the household giver of hugs. “Hug time”, is very Christopher phrase in our house. You are also the best maker of faces. We have more funny picture faces from Christopher than anyone else. So silly and expressive. Keep being you dude. We’re looking forward to what this next year has in store!
