Six years

January the 2nd marked the time where I have been a mummy for 6 years.

SIX whole years.

Two months in and I still can't believe that I have a six year old son.  

A little man who knows his likes, dislikes and has opinions….proper opinions that he's thought about himself, not just believed whole heartedly because mummy and daddy tell him something is a certain way.

He questions things he doesn't understand and will not stop until he has an answer that he is happy with.

He inhales knowledge.  Be it dinosaurs, trains or science, he has a need to learn.  He reads book after book (with a little help) and revels in his new found knowledge.  That boy knows how a steam train works, pistons to firebox and has learned how a combustion engine works with the help of models, Tom and Grandpa.  Most Mondays, after school, he goes to one of the Cambridge science museums with Grandpa (on a boys adventure) and knows some of the exhibits off by heart.

He has a fantastic sense of humour…although I could do without so many "poo and fart" jokes…

He's incredibly protective of his family, especially his little brother(s) and the dogs.

He gets incredibly upset if he things that someone has been wronged and vehemently believes that everything needs to be fair.

He is a whizz with Lego construction and I can sit and watch him put together models meant for boys twice his age.  With this I get explanations of why that piece goes there.

His imagination does run away with him.  He can't always get all his thoughts out fast enough and it frustrates him terribly.  If you sit him down with a set of pens and paper then he'll sit for hours and draw, and draw.  Each pen stroke has a meaning and I am in awe at the complexity of his little mind. (At school they had a project to make a dragon and write a story about it.  He called his dragon "Fish" and it breathed ice instead of fire…so the knights just got frozen and didn't die.)

The boy loves to bake.  He can whip up a sponge by himself, tongue stuck out to the side in concentration.  Actually…he just loves cake in general.  He asked for a carrot cake for his birthday cake. (I was very proud as it's also my favourite.)

He is polite and kind.  I couldn't ask for a better mannered boy.  I've always said that apologising when you know you're in the wrong is the hardest thing for anyone to do…let alone a child.  That he can apologise without a second thought explains Oli to a tee.

He's a little man who will tell me that he loves me ten times in as many minutes, just to make sure that I know he does.

I couldn't be prouder of my Little Man.  ….but I still can't believe that the tiny little baby I held in my arms on the 2nd January 2008 is now six years old.