Ro & Co.: Ronan turns 9

Ronan turns 9!

A to O: Can you believe that Ronan is nine?
O: Oh no!!!

Ronan actually turned nine four whole months ago, so let's see what I can remember! First off, as soon as the birthday banner went up, it came down per request of a birthday boy who doesn't like decorations. We let him plan his ideal party and it was this: Go Kart racing, dinner of Mac n Cheese and ice cream cake, a movie (the Martian), and a sleepover with a subset of the kids followed by pancake breakfast. We survived, albeit with a slightly dimmed view of the future of humanity after the all-9yo-boy-sleepover.

This is 9 versus 3.5!

At nine Ronan is getting into reading by leaps and bounds, having devoured most of the books by Rick Riordan (especially the Percy Jackson series, but now others too). He read several of them on a kindle at night in the upper bunk of the loft in O's room. His arm break is a thing of the past and he had a very active fall soccer season that bled into winter indoor soccer (and now has re-emerged as late spring soccer). Orion potty trained earlier this year, and Ronan took the opportunity of his ninth birthday to say that we no longer need to inquire about whether he has recently taken the time to go pee. Having been forbidden to do so with the elder, we are free to focus all such (still necessary) conversations on the younger.

Ronan's favorites past-times these days are soccer, mischief and being silly, Minecraft (or the Mars game), piano practice (often done quite voluntarily), puzzles while listening to Harry Potter audiobooks with mom, and being silly. He plays really well with Orion (at least when he wants to), and has occasionally really saved us by getting up with him on a weekend morning and letting us sleep in!

As always we are so impressed by and enamored of this amazing kiddo.