You have grown up so much in the last year. You have become so self reliant, so capable, and so big. Towards the end of the school year I realized our morning routine had become magical for me; our activities in the kitchen were almost choreographed. I'd come out of my room in the morning, ready for the day, and you would already be dressed (since this is a requirement before you're allowed to play any electronics on school days). You would head downstairs to feed Sonic while I would help Tyler get himself dressed and down the stairs. You would put on your shoes and get Tyler's out. You would make your water bottle while I made breakfast. You would fix drinks while I got out vitamins. You would fill out your reading log and then put snacks in your backpack while I signed the reading log. I can not explain what a strange phenomena this is, eight years in the making.
I do have to concede that your helpfulness doesn't always come cheerfully. I've made a habit of letting you out of the car at the end of the pipestem on our way home to bring up the trashcans, and you complain heavily about this. We'll ask you to run things up or down the stairs and you grumble. We send you back to the basement to turn off the tv and lights you or Tyler have left one and we hear, "Oh, come on!" (You sound just like Gob, but you don't know who this is.) Recently Grandad was trying to explain "freedom" to Tyler and you interjected, "There's no such thing as freedom when you have parents. I do everything at our house." But you're not always that upset about helping out. You have gotten pretty good about accepting cleanup time for the basement or your bedroom, and you even seem to understand that Tyler is expected to do certain, easy, tasks while you're expected to do most of the work. You also have plenty of moments of appreciation as well, for our house, lifestyle, and how much Daddy and I work to provide for it. You do frequently tell us how much you love us and that we're the best parents ever. Just last week when Dad wasn't home one evening because he was doing shave ice, you said, "Poor Daddy. You and Daddy work so hard. You guys deserve a break." Followed by, "I know! This weekend I'm going to make you guys breakfast and bring it to you upstairs!" I've also heard you talking to friends and saying, "I'm not really spoiled, but I do have pretty much everything at my house." I have to say, you're pretty spoiled, but you're also a good, sweet kid, so I don't really mind.
You are still an excellent big brother, 90% of the time. You now help Tyler with getting dressed in the morning, or brushing his teeth before bed. You've been very encouraging of him as he truly learned how to swim this summer. The day that it all clicked for him, he was swimming back and forth between Daddy and I. You asked him to swim to you too, and I had deja vu from Tyler first learning to walk and him going to you. You do plenty of teasing, picking, and arguing as well, but there's no doubting your love for Tyler. You've shown him how to play a few things on the piano, worked with him on identifying his letters, and love to play video games with him too. You would be so bored without him!
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| You literally took Tyler under your wing to show him around at the Kindergarten Orientation! |
A new game, Pokemon Go, came out this summer. It's unlike any game that's ever been out, but I'm sure you'll laugh at this part of this entry some day as it will be a common game type. I mention it here because we have all been playing it together like crazy. The first weekend you, Tyler, and I wandered around for 3 hours playing. Another weekend we met up with Uncle Joe and Lindsey to play. We also went to DC one Saturday to play and wandered around the Air and Space museum for a little while too. The four of us played at the beach and even got Grammy playing. You text Uncle Joe funny pictures you take in it and compare notes with all of your friends. You and I, on my phone, are the farthest along of anyone we know, and you love that. It's been a lot of fun, but it does feed your electronics obsession. I swear you would play with something electronic from morning to night if we would let you. Half the time when we tell you it's time to turn off the Xbox, we'll turn around and find you on the iPad, and you'll think that's okay! You've also been caught after bedtime with the iPad a few times. We try to keep you balanced by sending you outside, to read, or to play your piano, and we know that most days, most of the year, your schedule doesn't allow for much electronics time anyways. One cool thing is that you are able to play online with some of your friends, including Aidan Cheek, Uncle Chris, and now you recently exchanged Xbox names with your pen pal from last year, so now you can play games and talk to each other as well as continuing to write each other!
I think that Caleb continues to be your best friend, but I think that you think of him more as a family member, a given who will always be around, like a cousin. He is the only friend that you ever randomly ask when you will get to see next, or say that you miss. Even though we rarely seem to go more then a week at a time without getting together, unless one of us is on vacation. However, when you are asked who your best friends are, you automatically say Nate, and now Nathan. The three of you call each other "The Three Doritos" which was a phrase Nathan's mom coined during a sleepover at his house.
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| You're on the far left, Caleb on the far right, getting ready to paintball for Caleb's birthday party. |
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| The Three Doritos! You, Nate, and Nathan |
Girls became interesting to you towards the end of 2nd grade, after not really even having any friends that were girls in first grade. I even overheard something about a kiss when I picked you up from school one day, as a buddy asked you about it. You finally told me who he was talking about (Izzy Stinchcomb) but I'm still unclear if the kiss was recent, or something that happened when you two were in the same preschool class. You also had a crush on another girl, Caelyn M, as did every other boy in your class. Unfortunately she moved to Texas after the school year. The song Treat You Better came on in the car one day, and you said, "If Caelyn had decided she liked another boy, I would have sang this song to her." I liked that you were talking about that openly with me, and that you were choosing a song about treating a girl well. Please keep up both of these things.
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| You and Caelyn during your birthday party |
We are slowly expanding the foods you like. You don't complain as much when we put something new or that you "don't like" in front of you. You do try to bargain for something that you do like if you eat what we give you first. A few weeks ago we had baked chicken for dinner. You complained at first, but ate the serving I gave you, asked for more, and ate it too. The next day you asked for the leftovers. I consider this a huge win. You are pretty willing to try anything now, but I can't say that you take an actual bite out of some of the things you are "trying." Your favorite food continues to be bagels, so we still have some work to do... Your appetite is definitely starting to grow with you, you frequently decide you're starving right when we're asking you to take care of something or walk out the door or go to sleep, bananas or yogurt drinks have been our go to fix for these requests.
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| Trying Calamari, without knowing what it was. When I told you, you stopped eating it, but, you've eaten it again since! |
You fight sleeping. It's been years since you've napped regularly, but you barely nap at all; I nap more often then you do. You're a night owl like your dad and the two or you regularly stay up later then me on the weekend. You are still the first one up the next morning though! You are like a robot. Until you aren't. One weekend this summer you were just done, emotional, whiny, and pitiful. We sent you to nap three times and you kept coming back out. I finally laid down with you, and you were out for hours. This was following two weeks of baseball camp, with the second week being 5 hours a day and in scorching heat. Then you stayed up late Friday and Saturday night, and were up early Sunday for a few hours of paint ball in the heat again, for Caleb's birthday. You are regularly on the go like this, and you usually enjoy it.
You've stayed pretty busy this summer with camps and I am so proud of you for your attitude through all of it. The first two weeks of the summer you were at basketball camp. The first week you knew you had buddies going, but the second week we had no idea if you would know anyone. You didn't have any hesitation walking in on your own. It turned out that you did know a few people, and you would tell us what they accomplished each day as well as about your own great steals, passes, and money shots. The following week you went to VBS at your old preschool, Tyler went as well. You both loved it. You would come home so excited, talking about all the fun things you did and singing the songs, and telling me that you have the coolest counselor there. Cool is not what anyone else would have labeled him, and when I passed along what you had said it clearly made his week. We followed that week with a trip to Myrtle Beach where you boogie boarded and went out in the waves like a teenager, leaving me an anxious mess. You were so happy and grateful the whole trip. You finally had one week off before rolling into the baseball camps I already mentioned. The first week was pitchers and catchers camp, with the high school coach and some of his players running it. We were a little disappointed when you chose to work on pitching only, no catching, but you did really focus and work hard on the pitching. There were only 12 kids out there and you quickly started calling the other boys your buddies. The next week was the 5 hour days and probably 25 boys, including Nate. You continued to take camp seriously and you were excited by your personal victories each day. The last day of camp Dad scheduled you a one-on-one practice with the high school coach afterwards, and you were happy to go. All of this to say, I have just been so impressed with your attitude and your work ethic all summer. You're growing up to be an amazing kid.
You have recently added a phrase to your attempt at puppy dog eyes when you are asking me for something. You've started saying, "Please Mama, for your little baby?" The first time you said this I just stared at you blankly. All I could think was, you are so not my little baby, you are so big. As much as you will always be my first baby, you're zero parts baby any more. And as I literally cry about this, I am just so excited to watch you continue to grow up and become yourself. We are so proud of you, and we love you with all of our hearts.
PS~ As much as I've known I needed to get this entry written, you actually encouraged me to do it! About a week ago at bed time, Tyler asked me to tell him everything that he had ever told me about his rainbow monsters. I pulled out my phone and started reading through blog entries that mentioned his monsters, one being, To Tyler at 4 years old. You asked me to read one about you, so I read To Timmy at 7 years old. You loved it, and asked for at 8 years old, and I had to admit it hadn't been written yet. You told me that I needed to get to it! It made me so happy to have you guys enjoy hearing what I've written here so far. I love you!
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