10.5 Years Old!

Today is Ian's half birthday! Here is what he is like at 10 1/2 years old....

1. He's usually the first child up in the morning. Sometimes Oliver beats him to the punch. Every once in a while Ian sleeps past 7:00, but he typically wakes up between 6:10-6:45. If I'm not already up, he snuggles with me. Sometimes I have one boy on either side of me, which I have to say is a wonderful way to start my day! If this happens on a Sunday morning, he snuggles in between Paul and I. His bedtime has been 9:00 for 18 months. He is really looking forward to his bedtime moving to 9:30 when he turns 11 in December.

2. Ian's appetite has been growing by leaps and bounds. For breakfast he either has two bowls of cereal, two bagels, or a bagel plus a bowl of cereal. He'll eat plain, blueberry, or cinnamon raisin bagels with butter. As for cereal his favorites include Cocoa Puffs, Froot Loops, Apple Jacks, and Reese's Puffs. When we have breakfast for dinner, his top choices are chocolate chip pancakes or a bacon, egg, and cheese bagel. This boy LOVES bacon. 

3. Ian has really taken off with his piano skills. He hasn't been spending much time playing in his Level 5 books lately because he's been enjoying playing songs from the three books I got him that are all arranged by Philip Keveren. I really love playing duets for four hands with him. He really enjoys the Star Wars and Disney Songs solo music. He also is improving in his ability to play songs by ear.

4. He still loves to draw. Lately almost all of his drawings have been of Pokémon characters. Sometimes he spends multiple hours drawing during one day.

5. Over the years he has gone through phases where he favors either the Wii or the iPad. Lately he's been using the Switch for one hour a day.  He earns the privilege of watching tv for about 40 minutes plus 60 minutes on the Switch by doing one puzzle, reading 2-4 chapters of either a Paddington Bear, Tumtum and Nutmeg, or Olga da Polga book, and practicing the piano. Although he enjoys chapter books, he still also reads picture books several times a day (strictly for fun... not to earn a turn). 

6. Whenever he has any money, he spends it on either Legos, a Pokémon plush, or a Mario Bros. plush. The picture below shows the stuffed animals that are always on his bed. Believe it or not, he gave some to Oliver a couple of weeks ago. There used to be more stuffed animals on his bed. I tease him that soon there won't be room for him in the bed! He also has more stuffed animals in his closet. These are his favorites. Oliver and Nadia lean more toward being "savers" when it comes to money, but Ian is absolutely a spender. He usually spends money as quickly as possible after he receives it or earns it.

7. He prefers wearing pants to shorts. When he was younger he had a preference for long sleeve over short sleeve shirts, but now the transition to short sleeve shirts doesn't bother him. He doesn't like to wear jeans. He wears a polo shirt on Sundays. He often asks me, "Could today be a PJ day?". He wears socks as little as possible, but if he's going to wear socks he likes to wear the ones that go farther up his legs.

8. Ian's favorite foods to eat at lunch include hot dog with mustard and ketchup, crunchy peanut butter and marmalade on honey wheat bread, bologna sandwich, peanut butter and cheese crackers, half of a Gala apple cut into three slices, and YoCrunch yogurt with M and M's. 

9. He isn't a big fan of eggs or cheese. He will eat either of them if they are with something. He prefers a hamburger over a cheeseburger. He doesn't eat grilled cheese sandwiches or string cheese, which are two things his siblings love to eat. 

10. He likes to eat cashews, peanuts, and candy that has almonds in it. He is definitely allergic to walnuts and pecans. 

11. He still LOVES hugs and snuggling. I'm hoping he never outgrows his love of hugging!

12. He really likes Beast Academy math. The day the 5th grade books arrived in the mail a few weeks ago, he sat down and read the guide books just because he wanted to.

13. In February he had to experience losing a pet for the first time. He likes Buttercup (his new guinea pig), but he's definitely not as attached (yet anyhow) to her as he was to Patches. He also had a pet rabbit for 2 months earlier this year. Now he's trying to convince me to find a hypoallergenic cat that wouldn't be a problem for Paul. I surely don't want a hairless cat, but maybe we could look into a hypoallergenic cat that does have hair at some point. Oliver wants to get a pet for his birthday in August. Lately he's been asking for hermit crabs. I think three guinea pigs plus two hermit crabs will be enough for us right now.

14. Ian prefers board games such as Life, Sorry, Candyland, chess, and checkers. One exception would be Pit. He really likes that game even though it doesn't involve a board.

15. Over the last couple of months Ian memorized the order of the 45 US Presidents. He also can identify the provinces of Canada on a map as well as all of the countries of the world on a map and the capitals of the South American countries.

16. He loves to tell jokes and puns! Of my three kids he's also the one most apt to saying "thank you" and expressing gratitude/appreciation to me.

17. His favorite foods to eat at dinner include tuna noodle casserole, rigatoni and meatballs, taquitos, chocolate chip pancakes, bacon, egg, and cheese bagel, chicken tenders or nuggets, pizza, chicken Caesar salad wrap, pork chops, taco salad, and fish sticks.

18. He's an introvert who enjoys time spent at home, but he's been spending a lot more time playing with neighbors the last few weeks. He does some rollerblading, but most of the time he rides his scooter or bike. He's spent a lot more time on the trampoline the past three months. 

19. After wearing glasses for more than 4 years, he experienced a pair of broken eyeglasses for the first time when another child hit him in the face at Bee's Backyard. Because of COVID-19, I waited a few months to take him to the eye doctor. He has an appointment on June 23. His first two pairs of eyeglasses were purchased at the eye doctor. This time I'm planning to order a new pair online.