Ian is 5!!!

Can you BELIEVE my child turned 5!?!?! How did that happen?!?!?!

THE PARTY
We threw Ian a birthday party at a bowling alley and had a handful of friends come. He had soooo much fun.

Waiting for the party to start in his brand-new bowling shirt:

(We were all getting over being sick so he wasn’t 100%. He looks very tired in this picture.)

Ian and his friends:

From L to R: Lily, Aaron, Kyle, Megan, Ian, Jason (Ian’s BFF), Rachel and Raegan)

I have 94 pictures and 5 videos from Ian’s party that I haven’t looked at so I’ll be posting about his party another time.

THE BIRTHDAY:
Because we had so much going on this month, we actually split the birthday festivities over a couple of days.

We celebrated with Mike’s family on Sunday the 20th:

He got lots of awesome gifts from the Samulskis but I think the ones we are all most excited about was the fishing gear. Ian has been talking about going fishing with Daddy and Grandpa Samulski this coming summer so he was super excited to get his own pole. By the end of the week, he was already an expert at casting!

We celebrated on his actual birthday (Thursday the 24th) with my family. Mike and I got out of work a little early and met everyone at Olive Garden (Ian’s favorite restaurant). We usually avoid this restaurant at dinner time because it gets so busy. Even though we were there at 4:30PM, we still had to wait about 30 minutes for a table. Matthew was NOT amused and therefore, neither was I. LOL Needless to say, I’ve had more pleasant meals. The good news is, the food was very good and both boys ate well. Ian must have told our server about 25 times that it was his birthday so that was funny. LOL

After dinner, Mike and Ian ran to Wegmans for a cake (because, for the first time ever, I didn’t have time to bake a cake on my son’s birthday) while Matthew and I headed home to get ready for the party.

Ian’s a little slow in the unwrapping department (and I still needed to pack for our trip to VA) and Matthew didn’t understand why he didn’t have any presents so it was a team effort.

Reading the card from Matthew:

(I was so proud that he read the entire card all by himself! It’s becoming pretty clear that this boy is officially a reader. He picks up stuff he’s never seen before and reads it like a complete pro.)

A new scooter!

Legos from mommy, daddy and Matthew:

(He opened it up and yelled “LOOK LEGO KINGDOMS!!!!” I didn’t even know he knew anything about Lego Kingdoms. LOL)

Birthday cake:

(Ian picked out the brown color for the writing. LOL)

THE PEDIATRICIAN:
Mike took Ian (and Matthew) to the pediatrician for his appointment the next morning while Mom, Dad, Rachel and I drove to Virginia for Kaitlyn’s birthday weekend.

Ian’s appointment was fairly uneventful.

Mike asked about:
-Vitamins: We’ve had a lot of sickies in our house so we wondered if vitamins would help. The doctor was pretty ambivalent on the idea of vitamins but said it might be a good idea since Ian is so skinny. LOL

-Medical forms required for Kindergarten registration: (Kindergarten WHAT!?!?!) We’re actually already registered for Kindy because Ian attends the pre-K program run by our district. We just have to update his medical forms. Mike got the required form before he left the doctor. Related to this, Ian had to have 4 immunizations at this visit (Varicella, Polio, MMR, DTaP).

-Recommendations on a pediatric dentist: We’re bad parents and haven’t taken the boys to see a dentist yet. Ian has to have his teeth examined in order to attend Kindy next year so we got a list of local dentists to consider. Need to make an appointment soon for that.

-Raw spots on the inside of Ian’s elbows: Ian is really bad about itching the skin right where your arm bends (inside, in the crease). He routinely itches it raw and we have to keep it covered. Mike asked if there was anything we could do about it and they recommended hydrocortisone cream and keeping it covered. Hopefully it improves quickly.

Ian’s measurements:
Height: 45.83″ (95th percentile)
Weight: 40lbs 9oz (51st percentile)
BMI: Normal/13.6 (3rd percentile, told you he was skinny! LOL)

We go back again when he turns 6!!!

On the Disney front, most of the rides we’ll be going on have a 40″ or 44″ requirement so Ian should be fine for the most part. Based upon his height right now, we’d only have an issue on 2 rides: Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster (48″) and Tomorrowland Speedway (54″ to drive, can be a passenger no problem). I’m anticipating that Ian will meet the height requirement to ride Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster by November….whether I want to take him on a roller coaster that rough is another story. I’m confident that Ian will be a passenger at the speedway. Oh well! We shall see!

THE PHOTOSHOOT:
Mom and I took Ian to Olan Mills yesterday for his 5 year pictures. He did really awesome!