All About Ryder

I have a five year old now, did you know that?

Oh, how I love this guy! He is amazingly sweet and hard working. He has such a soft heart. He often wraps his arms around me when he sees I'm sad or struggling, and he tells me everything is going to be okay. He's super gentle with Hudson, always willing to help cheer him up. I love the moments when Ryder and Cannon are best brothers. Ryder loves to teach Cannon new things and show him exactly how to play a sport or draw a certain picture or follow the rules. He's especially sweet when Cannon gets his feelings hurt or is sad from getting his blankie taken away. Ryder's often there at Cannon's side trying to give suggestions of what could possibly help Cannon feel better, even going so far as to share his own blanket with Cannon.

Ryder sure has grown up a lot this year. He's learned much about friendship, having fun, taking turns and empathy. He's now excited to go on a mission when he's bigger, rather than scared. He actually enjoys playing games now, without blowing up in the end if he doesn't win. (His greatest accomplishment in my mind!) He loves to read and learn and memorize facts. He's passionate about dinosaurs and knights and ninjas and LOVES his scooter. He's not a big fan about learning to ride a two-wheeler, but that'll come with time, I'm sure.

He's supper excited about kindergarten, and he loves primary. He sings the primary songs at the top of his lungs during singing time, and I just love it! Every night he requests that I sing "I Am a Child of God," and he will never let us forget about reading scriptures or saying family prayers before bed. He has an amazing memory and often talks about the scripture stories and lessons he's learned during Family Home Evening, scripture time or his primary class. Out of no where, he'll ask me a question about a certain prophet's experience or why a person from the Book of Mormon made a certain choice. I love it.

I love Ryder's enthusiasm for life. I'm so glad he's part of our family. I feel incredibly blessed to be his mother, and I am so grateful for all that he has taught me these past five years.

Here's what Ryder had to say about his favorites at age 5...

- What is your favorite animal? “I like all of the predators, and one of my favorite predators is a lion.”

- What is your favorite color? “I like all of the colors, except not for pink or purple, but my favorite color that I like with all of the other colors is red.”

- What is your favorite game? “The monkey one.” (Monkeys in a Barrel)

- What is your favorite toy?  “I have lots of favorite toys, but my favorite is my new knight that Grandma got me.”

- What is your favorite thing to wear?  “My dino costume.”

- What is one of your favorite songs? “One of the dinosaur songs, um, Big Bad Al – Allosaurus is one of my favorite predators.”

- What is your favorite food?  “Well, like pizza and hot dogs.”

- What is your favorite drink?  “One of the juices. My favorite one is probably orange juice.”

- What is your favorite movie?  “How to Train Your Dragon and The Valley of the T-Rex. Oh, and I like Cars too. Not Cars 1, just Cars 2.”

- Who are your favorite characters in those movies?  “Well, actually I have Lightning McQueen favorites and How to Train Your Dragon characters. My favorite is probably Toothless with Hiccup riding on him.”

- What’s your favorite thing to do with our family?  “Ummmm, I like Home Amly Fevening with our family.” (aka Family Home Evening... he's said it the other way for years, so that's just want we call it around here. :)

- What's your favorite thing to do with Cannon? “To listen to stories from daddy with him.”

- What's your favorite thing to do with Hudson ”Play big legos with him. I’m not eating legos, but I’m just playing with them, and he’s doing it with me.”

- What do you like to do with Mom? “Go on walks.”

- What do you like to do with Dad? “Go searching for dinosaur bones with him.”

- What do you like playing with at home?  “Lots of toys, but my most favorite thing to do at my house is outside. It’s riding my scooter.”

- What is your favorite place?  “Nana and Papa’s house, Grandma and Grandpa’s House and the Dino Museum in Utah.”

- What is your favorite part about Portland? “Hmm, I don’t really know… Let me think a minute. Maybe like our hotel or something, like our apartment. Hotels and apartments are kind of like the same.”

- What is your favorite thing in Seattle? “Swimming class.”

- What is your favorite part of swimming class? “Maybe the jets.”

- What do you like to sleep with? “My bear.”

- What’s your favorite thing about school? “To play outside. To play fireman things, like when you get a truck and race around going to fires and then you pretend the park is the fire station, so you have to back your truck into it. Not the whole big park, just the slide and the places where you stand on top. And then when the fire bell rings, you go down the poll and race to our trucks.”

- What do you like to do with friends at our house? “Play dinosaurs.”

- What about Kindergarten are you most excited for? “The park.”

- What was your favorite thing about your birthday? “All of the swimming!”

- What’s your favorite thing about being 5? “Because I get to do lots of running things and I can learn a lot.”

 

Happy Birthday, Ryder!