Five and a Half

This week was pretty exciting for Peter.  He turned 5 and 1/2.  Around here, half birthdays are special days since 6 months is a very long time when you've only been alive 5 years or even just 14 years.  He got to pick a present, choose all his meals, and go somewhere fun.  He chose a Lego star wars ship for his present.  He chose to go to IHOP for breakfast, mac'n cheese for lunch, and lasagna for dinner, and he wanted to go see Beauty and the Beast on stage.  We had a great day.  Sadly a good friend of mine died so we also had to attend her funeral that day, but he was a real trooper during that long ordeal.  It was a great day overall.  As usual, I didn't think to take a single picture until he was getting into bed, so this is my Peter at 5.5 picture (with his new Lego set which he built by himself in about 2 minutes).

I love Peter so much.  He's cuddly and cute, incredibly smart, very stubborn, and still very shy.  However, it's funny because people have learned how rarely he speaks to others and so when he does mumble hello or goodbye or answers a question, people will get a giant smile on their face and look at me and mouth, "He answered!!" or "He said hello!!"  I can't decide whether to laugh or cry about it.  I guess the best course of action is to be happy that I have friends sweet enough to keep trying to engage him even when he gives them no reason to try so hard.

More cutie pics of Peter:

Us at Beauty and the Beast (the day after his 1/2 birthday).  He had a great time.  His only complaint was that Gaston didn't die at the end like he does in the movie.  The play was geared to kids so he simply stumbled off the stage.  A bit unsatisfying for Peter, I guess.  Definitely a boy raised around teenagers and their video games.

I never have enough time to work on my lessons for seminary, so Kelly tries to take Peter places when he can.  Peter had been asking to go to Panda Express again, so he got a little daddy date.

Peter loves to take pictures of sunsets and sunrises.  This was a picture of the sunrise this week as I was making breakfast.  I would never have noticed it if he hadn't called to me and asked for my phone to take the picture.  I'm so thankful for his help in noticing the beauty around me.

I'm still trying to get him to do chores consistently without a battle.  Still working on that.  However, this day he willingly did it and he looked so cute doing it too!