Atlas is Six!

 

I have a 6 year old boy! Any toddler look in his face that was left over is definitely gone. He has grown a lot in independence in the last year. Atlas is the kid that I have to nudge along to be more independent with everyday tasks. If it was up to him he would let me do everything for him forever. He tells me he's not getting married and he's going to live with me forever. So yeah, he needs a little push with certain things. So we trained to get buckled all on his own in the car and to put his own shoes on and he can do both now! I think that sparked a little something that made him want to do some more for himself because it felt good! So although he'll still ask me to do some things for him, he has started to take pride in doing things for himself. I'm so proud of him for that growth! He's also getting better at making friends and wanting to be social. We are still working on controlling emotional outbursts and learning to adapt to something new or any change in our daily routine, but he's better and better each year and continual improvement is all that matters to me. :)

Atlas continues to excel at video games! He still sticks to Mario based games as his favorite but he has branched out some since we discovered free downloadable demos on the Switch. He LOVES to find new demos to try. There were 500+ free demos and we have gone through the whole list and tried everything that looked interesting and appropriate for his age. We found some gems too. Clone Drone in the Danger Zone is one that comes to mind. Robots fighting each other and witty commentary. It's also how we found out he really enjoyed Pikmin and New Super Lucky's Tale that he got for his birthday. He picks up on games quickly and continues to impress me with what he can accomplish. Still trying to find video game-life balance and put reasonable limits on him without squashing his passion and talent. I feel this is an appropriate place to put his success with school! Because getting to play video games after he finishes school is the BEST motivator. He stays focused and always gets it done quickly with a pretty good attitude! (He still has his days) He's blazing through Kindergarten. He's already moved on to his 1st grade math book and is crushing it. He hasn't had one lesson yet that stumped him at all. Handwriting is the only thing he actively tries to avoid. But even then I see a lot of improvement and it's less of a struggle as it has been with Jane. I feel he is right on track with reading and has his sight words down really well. Still working on phonics and sounding longer words out. I'm proud of his progress and look forward to 1st grade with him next year!

Although Atlas can be a loner sometimes because of his love for video games, he really loves all of his siblings a lot! Jane and Atlas are buds! When something happens and Jane is not around she's the first person he has to tell. If she's not in the room when it's time for bed he can't sleep. They are almost total opposites but love to play together. Even though there are many disagreements on what they should play once they get started they have a lot of fun. Alexandria and Atlas have the most in common! They love bowser and most of the same movies and shows. Xan is showing a great interest in playing video games as well. When playing make believe it's easy to decide what to play but once they get started there can be some disagreements. It's so interesting how they play differently than Jane and Atlas. Flynn and Atlas have a solid brother relationship. Since Flynn is still 2 it's mostly just wrestling and being rough and liking boyish things like trucks and dinosaurs, etc. I know Atlas loves having a brother because when we found out we were having baby #5 he was very excited and definitely wanted it to be a brother. When we found out Piper was a girl he was in denial for a while. He's finally come around but it took him quite a while. ;) I wonder what kind of relationship he'll have with his baby sister. I can't wait to find out! <3

Atlas continues to show many similarities to Sam. I went into what makes them similar in his 5 year post. You can read it here. The only thing I'll add to this year is we found out the way Atlas learns is very much like Sam as well. Once I show him how something works he catches on quickly and it's like he doesn't even have to think about it anymore. Sam said his brain works the same way. Since Sam and Atlas like most of the same things it's pretty perfect that their Birthdays are only 3 days apart because a trip to an Arcade was exactly what both of them would enjoy and they could enjoy it together! Cidercade was perfect!! One entry fee and then free play to anything in the building for the whole day! Amazing. We all loved it and had a great time. We will be back!

Weight

Birth: 8lbs 7oz

1 Year Old: 22 lbs

2 Years Old: 27 lbs

3 Years Old: 32 lbs

4 Years Old: 35 1/2 lbs

5 Years Old: 37 3/4 lbs

6 Years Old: 42 lbs

Atlas is still a lightweight! Probably because he's still a pretty picky eater, also because if I don't remind him to eat he would probably skip meals a lot. He wants to play video games straight through meal times. Sam will do the same thing sometimes! His well check had him in the 24th percentile of weight. So still healthy! I'm just happy he's not quite as picky as he was last year. We're still working on it though.

Height

Birth: 21 1/2"

1 Year Old: 29"

2 Years Old: 33"

3 Years Old: 36"

4 Years Old: 3' 2.5" (38.5")

5 Years Old: 3' 6.25"

6 Years Old: 3' 8.75"

Atlas hasn't hit any super growth spurts yet, but he doesn't seem overly short next to his peers anymore. He's in the 33rd percentile for height, so still on the shorter side but not as much as the last few years. He doesn't seem to notice at all. Boys really grow in the teenage years! So I'll wait to place my bets on whether he'll end up tall or not for a while.

Firsts

It's time for firsts and favorites! I said last year I was pretty sure I would have to supplement his firsts with some notable memories or events but I got very creative with finding firsts and still made it through every month with the unconventional firsts list. I just love to watch him grow through the photos and notice what they experienced or accomplished for the first time! Sometimes I didn't even realize a first until I go back through the year.

Beating Mario Galaxy 2! - March 2021

Swinging himself - March 2021

Cavity - April 2021

Reading - May 2021

Holding a chicken - June 2021

Buckling himself - July 2021

Falling asleep reading - August 2021

Starting Kindergarten - September 2021

Monkey Bars without falling/help! - October 2021

School on the playset - November 2021

Making Fluffy Slime - December 2021

Yearbook picture - January 2022

Finishing Kindergarten Math - February 2022

Arcade visit - February 2022

Favorites

As much as Atlas loves playing video games he will choose to turn it off and go outside to play with his siblings without me making him. Sometimes he needs a little nudge but most of the time he will turn off the game on his own for a good break. The trampoline is Atlas's favorite place to be outside! Since he learned to swing himself this year the swing is a close second now! He likes to play pretend with Jane and Xan as well and chase Flynn around since Flynn is a little young to play pretend still. All water play is still a favorite. So he loves it when I bring out the water balloons or slip and slide.

This is the first year that Atlas helped me with his favorites, so most of these he came up with himself. He is still a really picky eater. But he is getting better about trying things. Unfortunately he still doesn't like much that he tries though. Most of his favorites are still the same from last year. His favorite dinner is still Hamburger Helper! He also enjoys Pigs in a blanket, ketchup hamburgers NO CHEESE! strawberries, watermelon, pancakes, waffles, Donuts, grilled hot dogs, homemade pizza, homemade chicken strips. Cliantros is his favorite sit down restaurant and McDonalds is his favorite fast food place, Whataburger is second. 

Atlas doesn't play with toys unless someone else initiates it, so it's hard to peg down what his favorites are. These are the ones he came up with. It took him a bit of thinking to come up with any actually. ;) Teddy, kinetic sand, Metal Mario, Bowser castle and airship with figures, Goo-jit-zu action figures, Lego Mario sets.

TV and movies are definitely something Atlas enjoys. It isn't usually his first choice since when I allow shows I also am allowing video games in another room while I get my work done. So it doesn't usually end up with him picking the show, someone else does and he ends up watching when he gets bored of the video game he's playing. He told me some of his favorites are Zig and Sharko, Hotel Transylvania 3, Lego Movie 2, Goo jit su, Donald duck shorts, Raving Rabbids, Twirlywoos, Grizzy and the Lemmings, Sonic the Hedgehog and Pacman youtube videos.

On to his favorite of favorites!! Video Games! When I asked for a list of his favorite video games this is what he told me: Luigi's Mansion 3, Mario Odyssey, Bowser's Fury, Super Smash Bros and New Demos! He loves watching trailers for video games and downloading the demo if it's available and it looks cool to him. We've found some great games that way! Other favorite games/demos I can think of are Clone Drone in the Danger Zone, Pikmin 3, Mario+Rabbids Kingdom, Super Lucky's Tale, Yoshi's Crafted World, Kirby Star Allies, Kirby and the Forgotten Land, really, all Kirby and Mario games. And truly, his favorite game is always the game that is the most new to him. Getting new games is the most exciting thing to him! 

Atlas loves books! But when I asked him what books he liked he said, "Only Mario books." After some nudging I got him to admit he likes sonic comics and the book Oliver's fit as well. He will stick on one book from a stack of library books we've checked out and read that one book every night for a week and then he moves on and almost forgets it exists! He's really enjoyed books by David Wiesner like Tuesday and Flotsam. He loves the silly books that make him laugh and I can do fun voices for.

All of Atlas's favorite activities remain the same! Video games are number 1 for sure but if swimming is an option he will choose to swim over video games. Of course I've helped him see over the last year or so how you can play video games any time you want but other activities are just for a certain time and you don't want to miss out because you chose video games instead. He's seen the light and will usually make the right choices about other activities when presented with the opportunity. Other favorite activities are swinging, jumping on the trampoline, playing monster tag, hide and seek and imagining with his siblings.

THE BEACH is Atlas's favorite place of all for sure! He never wants to leave. He LOVED his first trip to a real arcade, Cidercade, this year as well. Other favorite places are Main Event, the library, Zero Gravity, Marmee and Pappaw's house, friend's houses, the park and the Fair. Last year I said he had kind of regressed from his goer personality and become a homebody again. But this year he has landed squarely in the middle. He likes to stay home and chill and has no complaints when we have a day we don't go somewhere, but he rarely passes up an opportunity to go somewhere when I ask him nowadays.

It's been another year of great growth for Atlas! He's made some real friends, found some independence and had a wonderful start to his school years. I'm proud of all the progress he's made and know he'll continue to make more and more. Like I mentioned before he struggles with some seemingly smaller things that don't bother most people but I've really seen him try his best to get through it this year. Sometimes that means going to his room until the big feelings become smaller, other times it means just sitting to the side on his own to get a breather. But he has found the ways to help himself calm down and find solutions. For example, (I'm time hopping a little here since it was Jane's birthday 3 months later this year) We recently changed seating arrangements at the dining table to make room for Flynn at the big table instead of the high chair and that means Xan is now sitting where Atlas used to sit and Atlas is sitting up at the bar with Jane. But when we do cake for birthdays I have all the kids sit around the table while I stand and Sam will sit in his desk chair. Well Atlas was super upset he couldn't sit in his old chair since Xan was sitting there. When I suggested he sit in my chair at the table he had a meltdown and went to his room on his own to cool off. I followed him after a minute and told him we were going to sing happy birthday and I knew he didn't want to miss it. I also told him we weren't going to wait because we can't make someone else's birthday about us, it's unkind. He took a minute and came to the kitchen with a small kids chair from the playroom and set it next to Jane at the table. He said all he wanted was to be next to Jane. He solved the problem on his own! I was so proud he decided to put what he really wanted for himself aside and chose something that could work for him and everyone! He is such a sweet and goofy kid and we all love him to pieces!

Happy 6th Birthday Atlas! We love you so much!

1 Thessalonians 5:14-15

Now we exhort you, brethren, warn those who are unruly, comfort the fainthearted, uphold the weak, be patient with all. See that no one renders evil for evil to anyone, but always pursue what is good both for yourselves and for all.