mylo makes 5

It's hard to imagine that my little baby is 5, but in the same breath it's hard to imagine his as anything else. I've considered him 5 for months now. He is just so grown up. He is organized, he is a planner, & he loves rules. He is so on top of things. Around these parts he is known as Mylo, Mighty, My-els, Hajibaba, Haji, Bybo, Chubby-maan, Brylo & Wild Thing. I often times try to see things through Mylo's eyes & it is purely magical. He has a wild imagination & the boy is pure fun. He was in heaven at Disneyland & Universal Studios. He really believed everything he saw. Like the dinosaurs at Jurassic Park. He was captivated by them & still tells everyone he meets about how he saw real life dinosaurs. Oh, & Darth Vader. He brags about how he fought Darth Vader at Disneyland (he had a plan to choke Vader & kick him in the legs but after his Jedi instructor said he needed to hold his light saber with two hands he had to change his fight strategy). He thinks of things that no one else would consider & comes up with ideas that our truly all his own. He is one of a kind. 

This little guy is extremely independent. He can take care of most things "by myself." He bathes, brushes his teeth, styles his hair, & gets dressed without any assistance. He makes his own oatmeal & toast & cuts the tops off his strawberries. He calls his daddy at work & schedules their own lunch dates & beach meet ups. He packs his own ounces, snacks, & toys. He knows how to use our essential oil diffuser & his favorite scents are lemon & lavender (not mixed together). He gets his own slurpees & sodas when we eat out. He once tried to remove a splinter himself! He is just so on top of things.

He rocked prek & cannot wait to join his brothers in elementary school. He is a smarty & is beginning to sound out words, add, & subtract even before kindergarten. He is probably the best problem solver I've ever met & he loves a good riddle. But that's not his strongest school quality. He is a social butterfly. He is by far the most extroverted of the team. He has a million friends & knows every detail about every one of them. Mylo is thoughtful. He makes sure everyone is involved in everything & never leaves anyone out. He uses his own money to buy treats & toys for his brothers & best friends, & he's known to give away toys when friends that come to his house show extra interest in certain things. He picks me flowers every chance he gets & always insists I put them in my hair. His prayers rival his grandmother's in length & depth. He insists on saying every family prayer & they are known to last more than a few minutes. He makes sure to pray for every person & every thing he can think of, including Jesus, the Holy Ghost, God, & Mary. Every single night. He has a major sweet tooth to go along with that sweet spirit. This guy loves treats, in every shape & form. One of his birthday requests is to have dessert for dinner & that's after he has cinnamon roll waffles with ice cream for breakfast, & donuts, cake, cake pops, cookies, churros, & ice cream at his birthday party! He could eat sugar all day (just like his mama). 

Mylo beats to his own funky drum. He knows who he is & what he wants, & no person or thing wills stand in his way. He is definitely the most stubborn of our stubborn crew. He isn't exactly what I would call a goal setter or an overachiever. Don't get me wrong, he is super smart & super talented. He just prefers to rely on his natural abilities rather than develop his skills. A few weeks ago Todd asked him what he wants to be when he grows up, Mylo said, "nothing." So Todd asked him how he was going to have money & how he would buy a house. Mylo said, "I'm just going to be homeless." I'm pretty sure he is the only four year old who had homelessness on his list of aspirations. Fortunately, he changed his mind & now he wants to be a builder. He wants to build a house that connects so I can live on one side & he can live on the other. He wants to have 10 kids, a dog, a cat, & a snow leopard. He wants to have a truck, a worker truck, a race car, a motorcycle, & "daddy's race car." How's that for a plan? Mylo is structured to a T. When given options he pretty much sticks with a routine of sorts. Dessert? Pizookie. Dinner? Pizza. Mommy date? Fun Factory & slurpees. Video game? Minecraft. Board game? Bingo. Book? No, David. Again, & again, & again. 

He loves having places to go, people to see, & things to do. He's really taken to surfing & begs his daddy to take him almost every day. Mighty is quite the soccer player been though he claims baseball is his true love (probably because that's the only organized sport he has yet to play). He jukes, out dribbles, steals the ball from, & straight takes on boys nearly double his age. And all with the biggest smile on his face. It's pretty incredible. He loves to play & the boy is fearless (well, that's not totally true. He is terrified of sleeping in his own bed & the mythical Wailuku Wolf daddy insists is real & preys on small children who don't go to sleep at night). When Mylo was just an infant, not more than a few days old I named him my wild one & in his birth announcement I warned the world to "watch out for this one". Little did I know then how true these statements would be. He is WILD. He has more energy than the rest of us Watkins combined. He is too brave in the water, constantly diving in to waves twice his size without any thought possible consequence. He's been caught standing in front of waves with his arms spread wide & letting them crash him. He could do flips in the water well before he could swim. And he gets so frustrated that the roads on Maui don't have any loops or ramps. When he first learned to ride a bike he was so trying to do tricks on his bike before he had the hang of peddling. He definitely keeps us on our toes.

Mylo, we love you more than words could possibly say. You bring so much constant life to our lives. I can't even imagine how dull the world would be without you. We love you more than words could possibly say. You complete us.

1. mylo's best friend: mosiah & tave
2.  mylo's name: myles watkins jr.
3.  mylo prefers to go by: mylo

4.  mylo's favorite animals: turtles

5.  what does mylo want to be when he grows up: a builder
6. mylo's favorite movie: ninjago & beymax
7.  mylo's favorite song: everything is awesome

8.  what makes mylo happy?  playing screen like Lego Marvel & Mario Kart & surfing big waves

9.  what makes mylo sad? going to stores that i don't want to
10.  mylo's favorite food:  steak, chicken, & bacon
11.  mylo's favorite place: taco bells & the cove
12.  mylo's favorite color: green
13.  mylo's favorite game: uno
14.  mylo's #1 wish right now: lots of presents
15: cute mylo quotes: oh, man. there are way too many god mylo quotes. a few weeks ago we were heading to one of his baseball games & he said, " Is today the championship?" "Mylo, there is no championship." "Well, if we don't win this game today we are not going to get the trophy." "Mylo, every kid gets a trophy." "We play the Phillies. We played them before. And we smoked them." "Mylo, they don't keep score in t-ball." "We are totally going to get the trophy." I love his enthusiasm, even if he doesn't quite understand the game. Then today when cooper was explaining the rules of soccer he said, "there's no kicking other people. if you do that you get a penalty." and mylo said, "ok. but is there punching allowed?" 

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