Oliver at Age Six

I've been told that kindergarten is a big growth year.  Sure, us parents make a big deal out of it because it's symbolic of our "babies" becoming bonafide big kids, but entering school really forces them to grow up.  Oliver now walks himself to his classroom, has a locker and takes an hour-long bus ride home with students as old as eighth grade.  While his kindergarten classroom provides a secure  home base, he has some classes in other rooms of the building, eats his lunch in the cafeteria and attends after-school activities in yet another location.  More is expected of him socially, academically and maturity-wise.

Oliver shows a lot more independence at home.  He can dress himself and he's even started taking showers.  He can put an entire Lego set together by himself.  As long as one of the neighbor kids is outside, he can be outside without Chris or me.  We trust him that he'll follow the rules for playing outside without us. 

Despite Oliver's budding independence, change is still hard for him.  Routine is really comforting for him.  Just as soon as he started to get the hang of the school routine, he learned he was going on a field trip and that prospect had him anxious for days.  The same anxiety cropped up on the first day his after-school arts and crafts group would be meeting because he didn't know exactly where in the school building they would meet and then I would be picking him up instead of him taking the bus home, and while he liked that idea, me picking him up still threw off his routine. 

For the first time in his life, there's a big chunk of Oliver's day we don't have vision to.  Luckily, he's doing a surprising good job of reporting back to us on his day.  Some of the details don't necessarily add up, like the classmate who moved out of his classroom, supposedly to eighth grade, (his teacher told us later the child was moved to another kindergarten classroom to balance out the class sizes) but we nonetheless love hearing about his day and what's important to him, like what he had for lunch and who he plays with at recess.

Oliver continues to be really into arts and crafts.  When I told him he could choose from sports or arts and crafts for his after-school activity, Oliver chose the latter. Art is one of his favorite subjects (along with Gym).  For his birthday, his grandmother took him out to dinner and then to a craft store to let him pick out his own birthday present.  In a surprise twist, he came home with a chemistry set!

To the delight of his parents who love to play board games, Oliver not only enjoys them, but is finally at an age where we can teach him to play.  We played a lot of Monopoly Deal on our trip to North Dakota and when we got home, he discovered the Monopoly game I got for my eight birthday.  We think he likes games so much because he's such a rule-follower.  

Oliver is very well-behaved at school, and his teacher called him a sweetheart.  He received his first birthday party invitation from a classmate who had invited only the girls in the class, and Oliver, because he's the nicest boy in the class according to the little girl's mother.  These moments make me beam as a mom.  Then at home he pushes the limits of our parenting abilities and continues to humble Chris and me into accepting that six years later, we're still figuring out this parenting thing and will never have all the answers. 

We've got one stubborn kid who is full of opinions and energy and sometimes raw emotion.  But Oliver also has a tender, emotional side to him. He wants to cuddle with us while we read him a book and he can't go to bed without a kiss goodnight or let me leave for work without a final hug and waving to me from the window. He's incredibly creative and is often found in the midst of a new project or drawing.