Sharing a 5-year update on our little man, Brady Oliver Pitt.

He’s 5! I remember writing my post about our first six weeks with a newborn and how at that time, everything was strange, new and an exhausting struggle. It was such a disruption to our lives to add a baby, and well … now, years later, our lives are much more back to normal, but that normal includes having a little child to take care of, and we’re very much in a good routine with it.

That means things aren’t strange, new or exhausting any longer, really. In fact, oftentimes, it’s fun. Of course, we have our ongoing issues (which I’ll get into later in the post), but having Brady in our lives is mostly a good time, and I truly can’t remember what life was like without him.

At 5-years old, Brady is mostly my buddy. I love to have him around (which is a good thing, because he’s always around). And he’s a totally cool human, who is quite popular everywhere he goes.

Although, yes, Dave and I are often looking forward to Brady’s bedtime on the weekends, but then we talk about him and look at pictures of him until he wakes up the next day. Oh the joys of parenting!

Brady’s 5-year update

Many things have changed! When Brady was turning 4, he was less than a year into being potty trained, he had just moved into his toddler bed, and he was still just getting started at his new preschool in Charlotte. He was more like a big baby, who could talk.

Fast forward until today, and Brady is totally his own person. He has great friends at school, great friends in the neighborhood, great friends at the gym, and he has a busy routine of activities that he loves, and he’s so very aware of everything and everyone — he’s just “with it.” He’s very chatty and social and people know him everywhere we go. Sometimes when I’m walking around the gym, I hear “there’s Brady’s mom” from other kids. For real. I work at the gym and yet I’m recognized as Brady’s mom. He has a presence, and I love that about him.

Over the last year, he’s become more and more like a little friend to me too. Of course, I still have to keep him safe, remind him to eat and work through a tantrum here and there (I’m his mother, so that’s expected) — but mostly, he’s just my sidekick. Even though when he’s hangry he does lash out at me, but I get it — we all do that sometimes.

I was reminded of what a big boy he has become when I took him to Disney on Ice last weekend (which I wrote about here and which marked his first time attending a live performance), because he was so well-behaved and he made the perfect date. He can truly be a companion, and that’s the best.

Let’s get into some details …

Brady’s sleeping schedule and naps

Brady is still a good sleeper, but the big change from last year is that he does not nap every day any longer. Dang. And he wakes up much earlier now too. Dang again.

These days, he naps maybe twice a week, when he really needs it. But, most days, I still read him some stories and attempt to get him to nap, he just doesn’t get there. We have “quiet time” where he can play in his room, but he often comes out, even if I tell him not to. Yes, I’d love it if he was still napping every day so I could have that work time back, but even if he doesn’t nap, I still work while he plays by my feet under my desk, so it’s okay. But after about an hour, he always asks me when I’ll be ready to play with him. It’s not ideal, and I’ll need to adjust to this new normal, but I haven’t yet.

Brady goes to bed at 8 p.m. each night, and he wakes up on his own around 6 a.m., sometimes earlier (okay, sometimes a lot earlier, and he was up around 5 a.m. most days last week). He rarely wakes up in the middle of the night, but if he does, all we have to do is rub his back for a minute and he goes back to sleep.

After an incredibly rough first year, Brady has become a great sleeper, and we’re so happy about it. We’re so very thankful sleep is not a big issue around here, because we all need it and love it. And I’m so glad he stays comfortably in his bed, without trying to get in ours in the night. By the way, we finally got him a full-sized bed, and Dave put it together this past weekend. Yay!

Here’s the before of Brady’s room, with a converted toddler bed …

And here’s the after with his big-boy full-sized bed (and here’s the bed we bought) …

One cute thing that Brady does sometimes is that he comes to wake me up by pulling up my slumber mask and “booping” on my nose while standing next to the bed. Yes, I’d rather sleep longer on those days, but I love to grab his little body and pull him up into the bed to snuggle. Although he starts his day chatting up a storm, so once he arrives, everybody is up. He did that at 5:30 a.m. yesterday though, and I wasn’t as pleased that time.

But, when I think about him growing up, I know one day I’ll look back and remember him pulling up my slumber mask and smiling so big when I open my eyes. It’s precious.

Most weekdays, he plays in his room until Dave gets up though, so I only get my wake-ups on the weekends. That’s fine by me, because I’m the last to get up during the week.

Brady’s meals and eating

And now for the struggle! Brady is still not that into food, and he’s just not a huge eater. (And I reported this same thing in his 4-year update last year.)

Yes, he gets plenty of nutrients, and he’s not going hungry. But I can’t just put a plate in front of him and expect him to finish it on his own. Far from it. And when I pack him a lunch of all the things he likes for school, he comes home and the lunchbox is about 3/4 full. I ask him why, and he says that he was too busy talking and didn’t have enough time to eat. I’ve asked his teachers, and they say he is very “social” during lunch.

But then, Brady says lunch is his favorite part of his school day, because he gets to chat with his friends. Still, he’s usually hangry when I pick him up, so it’s clear he needs to eat more while at school.

I truly support this social aspect, and I love that he’s a talker and can connect so well with his little friends, however, I would love to have him eat more independently. I really would.

Here’s Brady’s eating schedule and typical meals:

• 6:30 a.m. – Warmed-up whole milk
• 7:30 a.m. – Protein waffle with peanut butter and banana on top
• 11:30 a.m. – Lunch at school: crackers, cheese, fruit, cereal (only 1/4 gets eaten)
• 1 p.m. – Second lunch at home: yogurt and remnants of lunchbox from earlier
• 2 p.m. – Warmed-up whole milk
• 4:30 p.m. – Snack bar or fruit pouch
• 6:30 p.m – Pasta, macaroni & cheese, leftover pizza, veggies, chicken nuggets
• 7:45 p.m. – Warmed-up whole milk

And that’s it! Sometimes Brady has a small cookie or a date for dessert, but he’s not a huge sweets eater. And if you’re wondering, yes, we try switching up his food to see if that helps him eat faster, but it does not. It’s not really the food. It’s the fact that food gets in the way of talking and playing.

I would definitely say his favorite food is Annie’s Organic White Shell Macaroni & Cheese, so he gets that for dinner maybe three times a week — that’s one of the few things he will sit and eat by himself without us reminding him. Otherwise, we sit there and remind him to take bites every couple of minutes in between conversation. That part … gets old.

If you ask Dave, he says our biggest struggle with Brady is getting him to eat. I’d mostly agree. It’s not the worst problem in the world, but it’s still a thing. He eats to live, he doesn’t live to eat. We’ll keep working at this, but I know for sure Brady would rather play and talk than eat, so I don’t see this changing any time soon.

Brady’s development

It’s a little silly to write about his development at age five, because it’s not like we’re hitting milestones of crawling and walking any longer. But, because I’ve always covered his development in these updates, so we’ll cover a few general ones today.

He’s totally potty trained, and that’s not a problem at all. This time last year, he would sometimes hold it too long and then have to rush to the bathroom. Now, he’s very responsible with potty, and it’s not an issue. 

Physically, he can do a lot more for himself now, and he gets himself partially dressed (we lay his clothes out), and he always puts on his own shoes (they are velcro, not tied, so it’s simple). He likes to put on his vest/jacket for himself too. He asks to help with things in the kitchen and around the house, and I often send him on little missions, which he loves.

The feedback I get from most adults and teachers that have spent time with Brady is that his conversational skills are really good. No, he’s absolutely not reading at five-years-old, nor can he count super far, but he can chat. He uses big words (a lot of times, not completely appropriately), and he can hold a conversation. He asks the “why” question a lot, and he wants detailed answers. He’s very much into poop and butt jokes, unfortunately, so that’s a thing, as well.

We’re working on him not interrupting us or others though, because he always wants to cut in and talk over people. He also randomly blurts out unrelated things sometimes, and it’s hilarious. Also, the kid can’t keep a secret, but I think that’s a common thing. You definitely don’t tell him anything you don’t want anyone else to know. 

The best is when I drop him off for preschool each morning and a different teacher walks over to get him from the car. He instantly launches into a story, and these teachers are clearly trying to rush him along with a long line of cars behind us. I have to tell him to hop out and keep it moving — but he just talks to them like he has all the time in the world.

Also, if I have to yell at Brady for doing something wrong, he immediately pouts and yells back and says “he’s mad at me for yelling at him.” It’s a cycle. I’m usually yelling at him for not coming when it’s time to go or other basic 5-year-old non-listening issues.

We’re often rushed getting out the door, and Brady does not move quickly. So on most weekday mornings, you can hear Dave or me yelling (or speaking in a slightly elevated tone) to hurry Brady along. I wouldn’t list listening as one of Brady’s strengths, to be honest.

One big change for Brady is that he is currently doing his first team sport with soccer on Saturday mornings. Even though he’s done various sports, dance and tumbling in classes at Life Time, this is his first organized team, and Dave is the coach. I can tell Brady loves it, and this is just the beginning of his athletics career. He’s really wanting to get into tennis like me, so I may put him in tennis lessons soon.

Leading up to the age of being five, Brady had a lot of new experiences …

• He started getting his hair cut professionally (I had been doing it at home for forever), and now he goes to get his hair cut with Dave at Supercuts near our house, and he’s really good about it, and he loves to get a lollipop at the end.
• He started going down the slide at our neighborhood pool by himself! So proud!
• We took Brady mini golfing, which he loved, even if he had trouble waiting his turn to putt.
• He learned to play Uno. And this is an activity I actually enjoying doing with him, much more than playing make-believe games.
• We took Brady bowling, which he also loved, but truthfully, it ended in tears, because he didn’t want to leave the nearby arcade after we were done bowling.
• We took Brady to a professional soccer game, which he thought was a little loud, but overall, he liked it.
• We took Brady tubing on a pontoon boat in Tennessee with our besties on our Pigeon Forge summer trip, and he was nervous, but he did awesome and had fun.
• We took Brady on his longest road-trip ever, and he lasted eight hours in his carseat on the way to Columbus and on the way back, when we visited our besties for Labor Day.

Overall, I will say that Brady does really well at new experiences, he does really well traveling, and he holds his own in most situations.

He’s on track in almost every aspect of his life, so that’s good. We’re lucky that’s the case. But once again, when it comes to mealtimes, he’s a lot of work. 🙂 

Brady’s favorite things and favorite toys

I’ve mentioned before, but Brady is super into toys and gifts. He always asks for new toys whenever we go to Target or Publix, and I have to constantly explain to him that we don’t get something new every trip.

Honestly, I’ve been to several of his friends’ houses, and other kids seem to have way more toys than he has, but he still has plenty, especially after the big haul he got for his 5th birthday. But he’s always asking for more, and we’re working on that.

He plays with his toys first thing when he wakes up, he brings a toy in the car everywhere we go, and he plays with his toys any chance he gets. Basically, he’s all about toys.

Here are some of his favorite things in life, including, but not limited to toys … 

• Playing tennis (we play with him at home, and he comes to pick up the balls after my clinics)
• Playing soccer (he is only a few weeks in and loves it)
• Swimming lessons (he still goes once a week and parties hard in the pool)
• Playing store (he sets up a little station and we shop at his store, and we make a sign for the door)
• Playing make believe anything (he likes to assign us roles to play)
• Legos — We like the 3-in-1 sets the best like this drone and this race car. And he often builds these with Dave.
• Monster Trucks — His favorites are Megalodon and Grave Digger, but he also has small ones, like this fire truck one. We watch Monster Jam YouTube videos a lot, and I have to admit, they are really cool.
• Hot Wheels — He can’t get enough! He loves the individual cars, and we bought him this portable track, and he’s totally into it.
• Reading books twice a day — We read a lot and like to rotate titles, but some of his current favorites include: “5-minute Racing Stories,” “Construction Site: Road Crew, Coming Through,” and “Where Do Diggers Sleep at Night.”
• Watching his morning shows — Brady watches shows or movies in the mornings before school, and his current favorites (according to him) are “The Lion Guard,” “Paw Patrol,” “Stinky & Dirty,” and “101 Dalmatians.” We mostly watch his shows on Disney+ and Netflix, but sometimes Amazon Prime too. He’d watch afternoon TV too if we let him, but I try to keep TV to the mornings only.
• Accessorizing — Brady always has a bracelet of some sort on (which he calls a wristband). He loves to accessorize, and he’ll be ready for a real watch one day soon.
• Playing with Grammie — Having my mom here now is the most amazing thing for Brady, because they are very close, and they spend a lot of time together.
• Snuggling — He’s very into snuggling and hugging, and always wants to be touched. When we’re sitting places, he’ll always say: “Mommy, wrap your arm around me.” And I always comply with his request.

Brady by the numbers

Here are some exact details on our little man …

• Height: 3 feet 9 inches (he’s still the tallest kid in his preschool class)
• Weight: 47 pounds (heavy, but not too heavy to carry or pick up, thank goodness)
• Shoes: 12 
• Clothes: 5T (although this size is a bit big on him, but we’re leaning into it)
• School: Pre-K at preschool, five days a week, from 9 a.m. to 12:45 p.m.

Overall thoughts on Brady at 5-years old

He’s adorable. He’s chatty. He likes a good routine. But he does struggle with eating efficiently, and he does struggle with listening. These are normal parts of being a little boy, and overall, we’re so happy with the little person he is and is becoming every day, even if we wish he’d sleep a little later and eat a meal without us begging him. But honestly, we’re just grateful for his health and his bright light. He’s our only one, and he’s absolutely everything to us.

There’s plenty more to say about this little man, but we’ll stop there. Thank you for reading Brady’s 5-year update. I hope you have a great day! 

Other posts you may like …

• All the details on Brady’s 5th birthday party at our house
• Brady’s 4-year update
• Brady’s 3-year update
• Brady’s favorite things at three years old
• Our favorite simple and healthy toddler eats

Questions of the day for YOU …

If you have kids, what’s the one thing you’re always working on with them?

How was your weekend?

Toys. How much is too much? (Asking for a friend.)