Ezra: 5 years

It is birthday season here, and Ezra recently turned five, so forgive me for another in-depth look at my sweetie boy.

• Ezra is a thinker.  He is very much his father's son, and I can already see the engineer brain in him.  He loves reading books and learning new things.  He loves asking questions, and consulting the "ok Google" function on my phone.  He is a knowledge sponge; he has this insatiable need to know, and processes information with remarkable efficiency.  I can almost see the neat rows of boxes in his brain; I can imagine him filing away tidbits in carefully organized compartments for later recall.  Ezra also has a memory like a steel trap.  On a number of occasions he has said, "But Mom, don't you remember when..." and he will recall with great accuracy some random comment I made about this or that several months earlier.  Yea, that is my Ezra boy.  
• Ezra loves the truth.  Almost as much as he needs to know facts, he needs to know the reality of things.  The classic example is our heart-to-heart conversation last Christmas--when he was just four--about the reality of Santa Claus.  He had some disconcertingly intelligent questions about his modus operandi, and came to the conclusion after examining the facts, that Santa Claus was in fact, not real.  Often when we read a book or watch a movie, he will ask, "Did that really happen?"  "Is that really true?"  He asked that question after watching the animated movie Anastasia recently.  In basic terms, we discussed the real story of the Romanov family, the Bolshevik police, the Russian Revolution, and Communism.  He was fascinated.
• Ezra is confident in his interests.  At his five-year well check, the pediatrician asked him a number of questions.  Among them she asked, "Do you have friends at school?"  He immediately responded, "No I don't need friends, I like to do what I like by myself."  She was quite surprised, and said that most children at this age crave friends, and assume that everyone likes them.  Nearly all his school peers and church associates are enamored with super heroes and sports; Ezra hardly gives those genres a second glance.  He is the budding scientist, and continues to be fascinated with all things animal.  One of his favorite pastimes is studying the animal encyclopedia.  
• Ezra has serious focus.  Ezra can sit for an hour or more engrossed in a stack of books.  He will studiously fill whole notebooks of letters and drawings in a day.  And, when he is in the mood, he is neat, tidy, and organized; his bed and box of things is a favorite area to fix up and set right.  Today, for example, he filled a pint Mason jar with numbers written on miniature sticky notes.  He explained that the numbers represented money saved for the temple in China.  He was saving it up to give to the bishop so China could have its own temple, "And a church building too," he added, if there was enough left over.
• Ezra struggles with new or challenging tasks.  Ezra tends to shut down when things get too hard.  He has done that since he was a baby.  I think it is a control issue.  He likes to feel confident, and capable, and anything new or challenging tends to unravel him.  He is not driven by competition.  He will not dive into a new activity if he senses it is not safe or doable.  He is not a dare devil.  Better safe than sorry is how he likes to operate.  Maren tends to try new things before him.    
• Ezra is growing into the big brother role.  Recently, I saw a touching example of Ezra being the protecting older brother.  We went to a park, Ezra and Maren were having a lovely time playing together, and then two boys maybe seven and four showed up, and proceeded to claim all park property as their own, refuse access to various play structures, and yell, chase, and generally bully Ezra and Maren.  I was impressed with Ezra's calm reasoning.  From a distance I could hear him addressing the boys, "I think playing together is more fun than fighting.  I choose to walk away," and then he carefully led Maren away, who was cradled under his arm.  At another tense moment, Ezra rescued Maren and hugged her tightly, and said, "This is my best sister, and you can't scare her."  Yesterday while I was in the shower, Ezra took initiative and cleared the breakfast dishes, wiped the table, tidied the living room, and stacked all the library books.  Later, he gave me a little tour of his work, and said matter-of-factly, "Mommy, you can't do all the jobs anymore, I need to do them.  You have a big belly."  Cute boy!               

  

  His b'day request: pumpkin muffins with whipped cream & chocolate bunnies