To the Doctor's Part 1

This past Saturday morning I took Zeke to the doctor's for his 6 year check up. He weighed in at 47 pounds (Deacon weighed in at 45 1/2 pounds on Monday, by the way) and is 4 foot tall even (so, 48 inches). The doctor said that places him in the 50% range for weight and the 90% range for height. Go figure. His vision is 20/20 and his hearing is fine.

The doctor pronounced Zeke to be in perfect health. She also threw out there that he has a functional heart murmur. It's no big deal, pending he doesn't suddenly start tiring out easily and get sick more often. One website I read said, a functional heart murmur is basically your heart whistling while it works. So, nobody panic, he is fine.

Now a little bit about my sweet boy's personality.

I sometimes think we should have named him Barnabas (son of encouragement). He is almost always overflowing with excitement and is ready to praise a person for just about anything. Last night, for example, I showed him a different way to do something he was having a hard time getting done and he said, "Yeah! Good thinking, Mom! High five!" Then he high fived me and went about his business.

Zeke is also a big help around the house. He helps me clean up, he's started helping me make his lunch on school days, he gets himself ready and helps his brothers once he's all set. He carries things for me (if they aren't too heavy for him), and he takes really good care of Finn. In the mornings he lets Finn follow him around while he gets dressed and ready for school. The other morning I listened as Zeke dried off Finn's hands after Finn got his hands wet while Zeke was brushing his teeth. He also lets me put Finn in the shower with him, and he helps me by making sure all of the shampoo gets washed out of Finn's hair. He really is just so sweet.

Zeke is also a lover. He's very affectionate and will hug just about anyone. If I had to guess, I'd say that physical touch and words of affirmation would be his main "love languages" (for anyone who's read that book). He still likes to sit on my lap on occasion, or right next to me. I'm not going to lie, I like that. It'll be a sad day for me when my boy doesn't want to cuddle anymore.

Anyhoo, Zeke also LOVES school still. He's very excited about going every day. He's doing really well too. He seems to really like math, as it's one of the few things he'll actually tell me about when he comes home at the end of the school day. Zeke still likes reading, especially now that he's learning sight words and how to sound out what he sees on the pages. He's also learning how to figure out what might happen in the story by looking at the pictures, so he's become quite good at "reading" to his brothers.

Yes, he still gets WAY to wound up sometimes for his own good. Yes, he sometimes throws fits when he doesn't get his way, and yes, he tries to turn everything in life into a competition now (especially meals). But Zeke is my favorite 6 year old boy, in the world, and I wouldn't want him any other way.

I love you my sweet, sweet boy.