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Wow, Keegan is 6. I now need two hands to sign how old he is, and we are officially past the time of the most crucial brain development … at least according to The First Five (http://www.ccfc.ca.gov/)

“Research shows 90 percent of a child’s brain develops in the first five years of life.”

So I guess our job is done: we have done all we could, right? Jokes aside, we can definitely notice some changes, mainly in his reasoning, and in the kind of things he says and does. In fact, I like to say he is 6 going on 16: we have plenty of rolling of the eyes, slamming doors, stomping feet, and screams of how much he does not like us when he is upset with us. He even told Matt he was embarrassed by the clothes he was wearing. He talks about “naked girls”, he explains the “birds and the bees” (in impressive scientific details) to his friends, he cares about how he looks and what his friends think about him,  and questions everything. Of course, all this is complemented by apocalyptic meltdowns if we pour parmigian cheese in the wrong bowl.

He still likes cars a lot, but he now also like Star Wars (even if he is scared of watching the actual movies) and Star Wars legos, which he usually wants help with. He also liked Despicable Me movie, and especially the Minion Characters. So we bought some cool decal to add to his door. Did you ever notice that, even if they speak gibberish, oftentimes they use Italian words?

He is also full of contradictions:he is still very active and loves to wrestle, but would not consider martial arts. He loves to stay home, but still can’t play independently, most of the times. And he still loves reading, or at least listening to books. The big question remains: does he likes reading itself and stories, or does he like being close to us, and have US read him books? I guess we will find out in a year or so, when he could actually read a real book by himself. For now, we are happy to see he likes books, and we enjoy reading to him. He still enjoys picture books, but he is definitively interested in chapter books. We have read almost all the books in the Magic Tree House Series (43/50) and tried many different ones.

My colleague Marita also gave us tons of books her kids outgrew. Keegan was very excited when I gave them to him.

Some things that changed: he learned how to read and write; he learned to ride his bike without training wheels; he learned to ride a scooter; his Italian has improved; he wakes up slightly later, around 6.39am; his ability to argue has reached new heights (hopefully this is the precursor to critical thinking).

Some things that did not change: he still loves stuffed animals, especially very soft ones; he is still very happy and smiling; he is very enthusiastic; he has a huge curiosity (often crossing over to nosiness…we are working on that); he is picky in his food, with no improvement in sight; he usually does not nap anymore (we are working on quiet time instead); he still wears pull ups at night; he still has major meltdowns; he still very sweet and affectionate.

We took him for his yearly check up: believe it or not, Keegan was very excited about seeing his doctor. She is after all, very sweet and funny. She found him well and healthy. His vision is slightly worse, but still within the norm. He is actually slightly taller in proportion, so his body mass decreased slightly. He is now almost 4 feet (3.97) or 116cm and he weights 44lb or 2okg. As always, he was asked to draw his family involved in an activity, so he drew a house, tree and the three of us. Well, he is not Leonardo, but his drawing skills are definitely better than last year. At least we have bodies.

So overall, he is a normal, healthy and active 6 years old. We are very grateful for that. Now, if he only could sleep a little longer…