Jaden is 5! :-)

Jaden turned 5 on May 30th.  Wow, how did that happen?  (As always, questions like "how did another year go so quickly" are answered “one day at a time.”)

It has been quite an amazing year for him and for us.  He has enjoyed it and has changed so much!  I was looking back at several pictures and have compiled some “then and now” pictures below.

Jaden has been in his family for almost 500 days now (it will be officially be 500 days on Wednesday, June 4th).  He was 1332 days old when we got him, so he has been with us for over a quarter of his life now.

(Incidentally, he will have been with us for half of his life on September 14, 2016 and Katie will have been with us for half of her life on February 25, 2016.)

Looking back to the time around his 4th birthday, at that time he was speaking about 200 English words (quite the accomplishment for having never heard the English language until four months prior).  And now he is essentially fluent in the English language (for his age).  There are still times when he pops up with ways to say things that make us stop and wonder “in what context did he hear that?”

The only area where he tends to struggle is with gender / pronouns (he, she, his, hers, etc). In Chinese there is no gender associated with pronouns.  "He" or "she" would simple be “ta” and he was old enough that this was wired into his brain pretty firmly.  As strange as it seems to us for him to continue to struggle with this issue, we know that of course it will eventually be a non-issue.

His writing skills have come along amazingly well in the past year (when we got him he had never held a crayon), but he does still have a way to go on his reading abilities … but again that will be taken care of with time.  He will be repeating Pre-K to allow him a chance to catch up (and allowing us to have him an extra year at the end of his schooling!)

He continues to be a happy kid overall, being glad to go to school, glad to go to the office, glad to go to the park, glad to go to church, etc.

He especially enjoyed each of our trips during the past year.  He gets great joy out of going on trips and really likes to go to new hotels or to fly somewhere.  When we finished our 24+ hour trip home from China with Katie, we hadn't left the airport when he was saying “I miss the airport” and wanting to know when we would go on another trip!

The biggest event in his life as a 4 year old of course was going to China and bringing Katie home.  He was excited to become a Gege, and tends to introduce Katie as “my baby.”

He has done incredibly well as a big brother, sharing very well and for the most part accepting that his new sister will have to get priority for our time.  Admittedly he has been more needy and clingy at times (no surprise there), and at times will tell us “You have two babies” which is his cue that he wants us to “baby” him a little, too.

Lately he and Katie and I (Tim) have been going to the park at the YMCA while Tracy, Mitch and (when she is in Okmulgee) Laura go play racquetball.  Katie pretty much requires my full attention while at the park, and I was worried that this would be a problem.  For the most part, though, Jaden plays with whatever other kids are there and enjoys himself.  When he needs some Dad time he asks to go over to the swings so I can push him.  It has been good to see him working on his social skills and learning to interact with a variety of other kids.  One of the areas that he has continued to need to mature in has been his interaction with other children.

He was a joy to watch as he and Katie opened presents Friday night.  We went ahead and had them both celebrate together since their birthdays are two days apart, and rather than just ripping into one present after another he took time between presents to play with them.    (Although I do think that at his office birthday party he may have been a little more on speed-opening mode!)

Anyway, while it is hard to believe that he is 5 it is also hard to believe that is was only 16 months ago that we got to hold him for the first time.

HERE ARE THE "THEN and NOW" PICTURES 

First day of Pre-K

Last day of Pre-K