The Simple Life: Dominic

Wednesday 29 December 2021

Dominic - 5 Years Old

Well he made it half a decade! It feels like he's been 5 for a while. He's in his second year of preschool, he's big and tall, he's smart, and we have two littler ones in the house! That doesn't mean it's not weird to think about though!

Weight: 48-50 lbs (90th+ percentile)
Height: 45.5 inches (90th percentile)

Notes:

Size 6 clothing for the most part. Size 13 shoes
Loves Star Wars, cars, Cars (Disney), Lego, Thomas the Tank Engine, hockey, soccer, garbage trucks...
He listens to Thomas Audiobooks on Spotify and would literally sit and listen for hours if we let him (which has been known to happen haha). I like that it keeps his attention, but isn't screen-time. Maybe we'll look into some headphones this year for him.
He is a typical oldest child. Responsible, bossy, etc. He often feels like he needs to parent and boss Emilia around. I have to remind him that it's my job to be the parent, and his job to be the kid.
He has incredible self-awareness. If he feels himself getting grumpy or tired, he'll excuse himself upstairs for some quiet play time by himself until he's recharged. To the point that this week he stood up at 6:15pm and said, "Well I'm tired." And walked upstairs to get ready for bed. Okay!!
He has a freakishly good memory. We wonder if it's sort of photographic or something. We've been saying this since he was 2 years old memorizing his cars, but it has not changed. We let him use an old phone when he's playing hockey in our living room and he has a "We Just Scored" website he uses, which shows all the NHL teams and plays their goal horns when you click on them. He has probably 90% of them memorized. If we go through and randomly click a team, he will tell us what team the horn is for with incredible accuracy within a second or two of the horn starting in most cases. It's actually kind of disturbing. I don't know how he learned this, or how he hears the different tones. They all sound the same to me.
He plays soccer and hockey all day long. Often in my living room. He'll clear out all the toys, set up a net with bar stools, and do colour commentary for himself. He picks a team he is, and plays against himself, but he's only one of the teams in his head. If that makes sense...
Speaking of which, he seems to have a natural knack for soccer. We registered him for Soccer Shots in January.
He is still very nervous in new situations and new people. COVID hasn't helped that at all. Takes him a long while to settle in, and is overwhelmed in social situations or ones where he perceives there is pressure to "be" a certain way. (It makes birthdays and gift opening interesting!)
He is teaching himself basic addition and subtraction - sort of like how he taught himself to read an analog clock.
He has a few great friends at preschool. He also has made quite the impression on other kids apparently. Almost every time I drop them off, a mom asks me, "Is that Dominic? _______ talks about him all the time!"
We have no regrets about doing a second year of preschool instead of pushing him into KG this year with his late birthday.
He can do most of his letters on his own. He doesn't love sitting down and doing art, but he has asked to practice his writing a couple times recently, and sat down to do some colouring pages, focusing for more than a minute or two.
He recognizes some words, and could probably learn to read pretty quickly if/when we put time into it.
He and Emilia are still best friends. They play SO well together until he wants to play on his own. She doesn't take kindly to that.
He became a very picky eater, refusing 80% of what we gave him. We've implemented a "try a bite" rule recently, which we were trying to avoid, but it's actually working well for him. He's eaten a few new things on his own, and has been open to at least eating some of his dinner lately.
He's really good with Eva, and responsible which I appreciate more than I thought. He's often making sure she's not eating something she shouldn't, or getting too close to the stairs or something.
At his 4.5 year post, we were dealing with the record breaking heat wave. We are now in a record breaking cold spell. Funny...
He loves playing in the snow this year! Last year he needed one of us to play with him and show him how to play in the snow. This year he is all in. He would play out there forever. I wish we had a yard so he could!
Quiet time is sort of nonexistent anymore. He and Emilia usually do "quiet time" together, which means he doesn't get his introvert time unfortunately. They do play well together for an hour or two if we're lucky. It's really just quiet time for me I guess haha. Works for me!
I've said it before, but he is scary good at vectoring. We'll be in an unknown area and I'll just randomly ask "what way are we facing?" and he'll get it right the vast majority of the time. He corrects me sometimes.
During his preschool Christmas concert (we got to watch a video recording), he was an instigator trouble maker, changing the words to We Wish You a Merry Christmas to "We Wish You a Stinky Christmas and a Cranky New Year". I am very curious what his behaviour is like in class and what it will be like when he goes to KG next year!
He has a strong dislike for any pants that aren't sweats. I can occasionally trick him into wearing jeans or khakis, but 90% of the time he's in sweats or PJs. I can't really say anything, because I live in leggings.