June 2016: 69 months (5 years and 9 months)

Dear Patrick,

• I want to remember your handwriting at this age: your “c” are not rounded - they are boxes missing the right side. Also, the “tail” on your lowercase “a” is on the left, not the right. When we point this out to you, you say, “but I like it that way.”
• As I was washing dishes, I watched through the kitchen window as you and JP carefully put “pop-its” under each tire of my car. You both brought your hands to your mouth and laughed conspiratorially like the cartoon cat in Tom & Jerry. Later that day when I moved my car, there was a loud pop.
• I like hearing you sing and hum to yourself when you are alone in the playroom or brushing your teeth.
• You asked me as we were driving home from school one day, “Do you know the movie Frozen?” I answered, “Of course - remember when you were little and we use to dance and sing parts of the movie?” You were quiet and then said, “Well, I do not dance anymore - - only to rock and roll.”
• “Mom, don’t rub Dad’s legs,” you whispered to me as I was getting out of bed one morning. You didn’t want me to wake him - you wanted to snuggle him all to yourself. It was sweet. Then, the very next morning, you apparently said to your father after I had already left the room, “Dad, are you going to work? Go take a shower!” You said this just so you could play your father’s iphone games by yourself. And apparently you spent all your father's "gold" without his permission.
• We watched the movie “Zootopia” this month and I loved how you laid on me, belly to belly and your head on my chest. Later that night, you said the dart gun part was a little scary but we “turned it around” so you could sleep.
• I read to you the handwritten letter that I sent to a friend whose father was diagnosed with the end stages of cancer and was going to die. I knew that was a little heavy for a five year old and that you wouldn't really be able to take that all in, but I want to make you aware of the struggles of others.
• Your father had an epic birthday. One word: limo.
• It is now a Father’s Day tradition with the Satterfields that we have celebrated two years in a row at the lake.
• You are 45.5 inches tall and 39 pounds, which was confirmed at the doc-in-the-box on Sunday 6/26. We spent 3 hours there (uugghh!) and finally left with antibiotic for your sore throat. (I did like the game we made up called "hot-potato-elephant," which we played to pass the time.) We rewarded your patience and ours with a trip to Yogurt Mountain.
• Omi and Pop waited an extra day in Greenville to make sure you were feeling okay and then they took you (and your medicines) to back to Macon for camp. Your Dad and I came down that next week to visit and pick you up.
• While in Macon, you took a swim lesson every day at the Wellness Center. We got a video of you swimming the length of the pool alone multiple times - very impressive. Omi also took a particularly funny video of you talking about a cow...
• When you were at camp, your father and I realized we had a lot more time in the morning since we didn’t have to say 500 times: “Patrick, eat your oatmeal. Patrick, brush your teeth. Patrick, get dressed. Patrick, why aren’t you dressed?”