Five going on Twenty-five...

Please someone tell me it's not just my five year old who suddenly thinks that because he is FIVE he can suddenly break all the rules, back talk and generally do whatever his little heart desires?

Please. Anyone?

I mean seriously. It started right before his birthday. It was bedtime and I told him to go brush his teeth and get ready for bed. His response: "Mom, I'm almost five now and I don't want to go to bed so I'm not."

For reals.

Today he was eating Chex snack mix when I told him that he didn't need a snack, we were leaving for Pizza Hut in half an hour and to put it down. He told me ''NO" and pulled the snack cup in closer. I pried the snack cup from his hand, put it high up on the counter and told him that he needed to listen to mommy. He promptly told yelled ''No'' again, while batting his hands at me and telling me that he WANTED his snacks.

Yeah, that earned him a big fat timeout.

The thing is {and I know this is why I'm taking to so personal/hard} Bubba has never been a defiant child. He's usually a people pleaser, a natural rule follower, happy to help, first to tattle and seems much more mature than his peers for his age. I barely recognize this little boy who is back-talking, ignoring my requests, intentionally doing things he knows he shouldn't, etc. And I should clarify, it's not every moment of the day; it's fairly random but man oh man is it annoying nonetheless.

I know it's a stage. My recent ''Big Kid E-mail'' from babycenter.com even had an article on defiance. I know that he's at that awkward age where he's no longer a baby but he's not quite a ''big kid'' yet. He can do most things on his own but still doesn't get complete freedom to do as he wants. He's testing boundaries. He's trying to get attention, positive or negative. One minute he dresses himself completely, even remembering to put his dirty clothes in the hamper without being asked and the next moment he's using baby talk to ask me to watch Netflix. I keep telling myself ''This too shall pass".

But onto his stats, Tuesday at Dr. S' office Bubba weighed in at 35.5 lbs and was 40.25 inches. This puts him into the 7th percentile for weight and the 4th percentile for height. He's a petite little thing but healthy and still staying right on his own little growth curve. At his 5 year well child appointment he had his blood pressure checked for the first time:

He thought it was pretty funny:

He passed his eye exam {reading from the letter chart, not the shapes}

Developmentally, he is right on track. He knows his alphabet (upper and lower, he recognizes them and writes them), knows his colors, he can hop on one foot, identify and draw basic shapes and define basic words. The resident that was helping Dr. S asked him to define the word "Lake", Bubba responded "Like a pond...it's water" and looked at the guy like "Duh". There is nothing we need to keep an eye on or look out for, just keep doing what we're doing. He did have to get 3 shots and while I'd love to say ''He did awesome, barely shed a tear'' that would be a lie. A huge, big, fat lie. He was screaming "No, no, no'' the moment Donna walked in the room. He intertwined his arms across his body and refused to take off his shirt. He cried, then bawled, then got to the point where he was almost gagging and this was BEFORE he even had the shots! But we managed to get them done and we were good to go. My oldest baby is officially ready for Kindergarten......