9.5 Years Old

There are only six months left of us having a child with a single digit age as Oliver will turn 10 on August 7. February 7 is also special because Paul and I met on February 7, 1997, at a ballroom dancing class at Boscov's department store. The teacher of the class, Barbara Snitzer, is currently ninety years old. 

Paul finally took Ian on his belated birthday date two days ago (albeit Ian's birthday was December 12). They went bowling and had pizza. Oliver won't have to wait nearly as long for his half-birthday date with Paul as Paul plans to take him to Treasure Castle Playland this Saturday. The kids love the tradition we started last year of them each getting two dates a year with a parent. Here are some ways I would describe our 9.5-year-old whom we love very, very much. 

1. He started learning to play the piano over the last several months. He's making good progress! He has learned to read some notes in the treble clef and is working to learn some in the bass clef. He's just begun to play songs that involve playing 2-3 notes at a time whereas previously he only played one note at a time. His goal at this time is to learn to play the electric guitar. I told him first he needs to learn to read music via the piano lessons. 
2. His favorite way to earn screen time is by doing jigsaw puzzles. He has come a long way in the last few months in this skill. He can now do 300-piece puzzles on his own in a very reasonable amount of time.
3. Almost every day at lunch he eats 1-2 hotdogs as part of his lunch. He doesn't put ketchup or mustard on them, and he doesn't use a bun. His asks me to sprinkle some shredded cheddar cheese on his hotdogs every day. 
4. He never plays with the Oculus, and he rarely uses the Nintendo Switch. He occasionally uses an app on the iPad when he has screen time, but the vast majority of the time he watches something on the TV or the iPad via Right Now Media, Disney+ or a DVD. I gave Paul his Valentine's Day gift early yesterday - a three-month subscription to Netflix. We hadn't had Netflix for years. Oliver is also enjoying Daddy's Valentine's Day gift.
5. Oliver plays outside more than his siblings, even in the dark in the winter. One of the neighbors who is fourteen years old will often knock on our sliding glass door after dinner to ask if Oliver can come out to play with him. 
6. Oliver has had sutures on his head three times - two of which were in the last a little more than six months. Here's to hoping that trend won't continue! His most recent one won't leave a visible scar because his eyebrow will cover it up as it gets bushier when he's older.
7. I decided recently to have Oliver repeat the fourth grade. If he hadn't been born two months prematurely, he would only be in third grade right now. I can always have him skip a grade in the future if I end up thinking this decision was a mistake. I have toyed with holding him back a grade in the past, but I feel more confident now that it's the right choice to make. I don't think he's ready for fifth grade next year. One upside to this is that I get one additional year before I have an empty nest. In our state homeschooled kids have to take a standardized test three times. I want him to have an extra year before he takes the test as a fifth grader. This decision only really impacts him in two ways #1 he won't graduate from high school until he's eighteen instead of graduating when he's seventeen, and #2 it means we will delay his entrance into the youth group at church by one year (not until June 2024 instead of June 2023). A boy who lives across the street from us was also born in August 2012, and his parents delayed his entrance to kindergarten until he was six, so that also helps Oliver accept the idea of him being in fourth grade next year as that's what grade his friend (who is practically the same age) will be in next fall. Part of Oliver's problem is that he daydreams way, way too much. I'm trying to get him to do a better job of paying attention and not letting his mind wander.
8. Oliver is still very, very generous, and he still really, really appreciates physical affection - hugs, his back being scratched, etc. It's not only good habits that have been true in his life for an extended period of time. I have been trying for years to get him to say "brought" instead of "brung". We shall see when he eradicates that word from his vocabulary!
9. For many years it was hard to come up with ideas as to what to get Oliver for his birthday or Christmas because he almost never asked for anything. In 2020 he did start to come up with a couple of ideas at Christmas and his birthday. In 2021 he swung the pendulum and could easily come up with a very long wish list. 
10. Oliver does a great job of filling in the blanks in the sermon outline during the Sunday morning worship service! He takes after his big sister in this regard as Ian has always been one to draw on his sermon outline rather than fill in the blanks.