George’s Fifth Year

07 Feb 2017 | Richard Perry | George, Milestones

George is 5 today, 5!! He has been around for 5 years already! Where does the time go?!? It seems like no time at all since I wrote the last milestone update for George, but that was 3 years ago ! Seems I have some catching up to do!

I think this may be a long post so if you just want to read about his fifth year, then click here.

Third Year

At the start of the year, George wasn’t talking and he was referred to speech therapy by the Health Visitor. However, once he got started there was no stopping him. By the end of the year it was all we could do to stop him talking long enough to get him to eat!

Here is a list of the key events in his third year:

17 February 2014 - George had a formal nut allergy test confirming his allergy;
18 February - 2 year review, George was referred to speech therapy because the Health Visitor didn’t think he was saying enough words for his age;
25 March - George started Chatterbox (speech therapy group);
30 March - Chicken Pox ;
6 May - George put his shoes on by himself for the first time & also started a zip by himself ;
10 August - George moved into a big boy bed;
23 August - He can now recognise 10 letters;
25 August - George stopped wearing nappies at night ;
24 September - George started Sunbeams (playschool) 2 half days a week;
23 October - George had his worst peanut reaction to date and was taken to A&E. Everything was ok and this proved George’s peanut allergy is not severe because there was no anaphylaxis ;
3 November - George increased his time at Sunbeams to 3 half days;
1 January - Whilst visiting London for New Year, George got a little ill and threw up in the Shard, managing to close a large section of the Shard for nearly an hour!;
5 January - George is now in Sunbeams 4 half days a week.

Fourth Year

George is starting to grow up fast , which is great because he is more fun, but he’s also becoming more of a handful. Thankfully, he is still fairly well behaved and we don’t have too many issues with him. He is absolutely full of beans all the time and he is learning so much now that he has started Nursery. It’s also amazing to see how he is developing as a person. He is so much more confident and independant than I remember being as a child.

Here is a list of the key events in his fourth year:

2 April 2015 - George started adding (1+1=2) without prompting ;
6 June - George climbed the Newport Transporter Bridge;
9 June - George had an appointment with a dermatologist in Trevethin Clinic, unfortunately it would appear that she was not in a position to properly help him (see below);
21 June - Whilst on holiday in Cornwall, George climbed all the steps at Tintagel Castle;
1 July - He’s growing up, this was his Nursery Induction Day;
3 August - For some reason, George decided he wanted to move into the smaller bedroom;
14 August - He counted to 11 for the first time;
4 September - First day in Nursery with Mrs Appleby (here ends the opportunities for cheap family holidays in term time until he is 18);
10 October - George was a Page Boy at Mark & Carolyn’s Wedding;
14 December - George’s first Christmas Concert.

Fifth Year

So that’s another year over! George is now 5 years old, he is in school and he is able to read. What a year! At the start of the year, George was really excited to be old enough to have a go at parkrun (like Daddy) so we took him. Unfortunately after the fourth time (more specifically half way around the fourth time) he decided he wasn’t enjoying it so we stopped. I don’t think he liked the fact that he was restricted to running on the course in the direction he was told to, he much prefers to have free reign on where to run.

This year was also the year we finally managed to get George’s eczema under control. George’s skin was so bad that when we went to see a doctor at the start of the year, he decided the eczema was beyond him and referred us to a Paediatric Dermatologist at St Woolos Hospital in Newport. She was amazing! George was put on an intensive treatment regime that virtually cleared up his eczema in 2 weeks ! Unfortunately for George, he has to have a vast amount of cream applied to his whole body 4 times a day! We have seen the Dermatologist on a number of occassions this year and she is happy with how he is doing and she makes minor tweaks to his ongoing treatment as and when needed. We couldn’t be happier with the result of that initial referral .

George also started school properly this year! That was a bit of a shock to the system I think. He is loving being in school, but it really took it out of him at the beginning. Within 3 or 4 weeks we had a very tired boy! He still fights to stay awake some evenings, but at least he goes to bed without an issue .

Here is a list of the key events in his fifth year:

21 February 2016 - George ran his first parkrun ;
17 March - George decided he wanted to start to read, so he did!;
15 April - George’s first appointment with the Paediatric Dermatologist at St Woolos Hospital;
4 July - George actually managed to read his first book today;
24 July - George’s first visit to the cinema, we saw the BFG;
5 September - George’s first day at school in Owl Class with Miss Preece;
19 November - George was a Page Boy at Richard & Rachel’s Wedding;
8 December - First attempt at ice skating, and he didn’t fall over ;
1 January - George saw in his first New Year (he woke up at 1130 so we let him stay up to see the fireworks );
6 January - George started Phase 3 reading books in school.

So there we go, George is now 5 and there is no stopping him. Looking forward to what the year ahead will bring .