Celebrating R-A-Roo

My boy is five today. I cannot believe it, time has flown by SO fast. He is such a little man now- all grown up and helpful, caring and loving on his sisters. He is a sensitive boy - asking about others feelings and wanting to know when things are not OK.
He has a HUGE imagination, comes by that honestly. :) Both his father and I have great imaginations. His daddy tells him an ongoing story every night, "reads him a pretend story" as R calls it. R has now started "reading" his sisters "pretend stories" at night too. They are always about animals (or Veggies) who are looking for more friends, who have sleepovers and play together and he acts them out, moving around the room, "sleeping" under the crib as he tells that part. His sisters adore him, copying his movements, jabbering away as if they too are telling the story. I catch looks of adoration on A & K's faces when they look at him and it is so adorable. He is a great big brother. He has different relationships with his two sisters. With K, he watches TV and wrestles. With A, he reads stories and plays imaginary things. It is fun because it affords Mommy and Daddy time with the other girl as he does these things one-on-one with that sister usually. He loves hugging them - sometimes more than they want him to - and helping them along.
His imagination has also provided him with many "pets". We have Chippy the Squirrel, Candy the mouse, Heidi the cat, and the most famous, Dorothy the fish with her parents, grandparents, sisters and her brother Khaki. His whole class at school and anyone he plays with know about Dorothy the fish. She has a great many adventures, with and without Rhys. She comes with us most places, including holidays - sometimes including the rest of her family, sometimes not. Khaki was "pretend fish-sat" by our neighbor M (who sits the kids regularly and has been "introduced" to all his imaginary friends) and she had may stories to tell his about his adventures when we returned. Rover is his other best friend and he is still very attached to him. in fat, Rover has come on more outings lately than he ever did in the past. At school, they get to have a special day about once a month where they bring a show and tell item and R talked about bringing Rover for the entire month. He must've been talking to everyone at school as well, because when the day came yesterday, and his show and tell item was in a box and the kids were to guess, the first question one little boy had was "Is it your brown stuffed dog, Rover?" LOL He is so sweet and enthusiastic, so I guess we named him well. (That is the meaning of his first name.)
He loves his swimming lessons and music class and very much enjoys going to the "church with the ants" on Thursdays with Mommy and the girls (no they do not have an ant problem, but toy ants that are as big as my hand that he was scared with by another small boy last year :) and the "church by Calaway Park" where we go on Sundays. He has started talking about God and singing the songs he is learning and it is amazing all he remembers.
He is a son that I am very proud to call mine. I love him (and his sisters) more than I ever thought possible and cannot imagine life without him. Thank you God, for my R!