Stupendous Seven!!!

MOM FAIL!  I wrote this post last Wednesday, the day before Tyler's birthday, with the intention of adding the pictures Thursday after the kids were in bed.  Yeah. That didn't happen. I totally forgot and then I kept remembering when it was not convenient to finish it!  Such is life!  So here it is, a few days late!

My baby is SEVEN years old!  I really don't know how that is possible.  I can't remember my life without him!  He is just the most incredible gift, the smartest, sweetest, most amazing little guy in the world and I can't believe he is my son!  Like last year, I'm going to go down to the school for lunch (with McDonalds) and we'll have Steak N Shake for dinner, with chocolate sprinkled cupcakes for dessert!  Things have been terribly crazy lately(have I published my update post yet?), so instead of planning a big family party, I decided to take Tyler and a couple of his friends to Monkey Joes (a bouncy/inflatable place) for a play date, so I am working on arranging that soon!

Here are some things about Tyler at 7!

• He's doing really great in school!  He loves his "special" classes, especially PE.  He seems to do pretty equally well at math and reading so far.  He reads extremely well and seems to comprehend what he's reading well.  He is doing well at spelling too.  He has quite a few friends, although his best friends aren't in his class this year.  
• I've fought it for awhile, but I'm coming to grips that he's a gamer.  We tried to limit screentime for years, but now we are sort of shifting gears and focusing more on making sure that a good amount of screentime is educational.  He just loves video games, just like his daddy.  We closely monitor the subject matter, of course.  It's fun now because he can play games that have words and storylines, because he can read them himself.  I've had to accept that games are what he really likes, he's not very into playing with toys! Recently, he's also gotten into Skylanders, a video game that uses small figurines.
• He still shocks me with his vocabulary. I keep thinking he'll stop surprising me, after all, six and seven year olds can be pretty well spoken, but when he uses words like "apparently", it still makes me smile.
• He's still my super sensitive sweetheart!  I would have never thought I'd have a child MORE sensitive than I am, but he seems to be!  We struggle sometimes with him getting upset about silly things, or getting upset because he ASSUMES something upsetting will be happening. I'm trying to work with him to keep calm and ask first, then if the result is upsetting, crying is justified.  I can't blame him, I certainly know tears can't always be controlled, but I hate when he gets upset needlessly.  He's also a worrier!  I'm always telling him to let me do the worrying!
• He's still on the smaller size for his age.  He went to the doctor back in October, I think?  At that time, he was 3 feet, 9.75 inches and 46 lbs.  I'm guessing he may have gained another inch or two and probably a little weight, but not major growth spurt, I don't think. Finding pants that fit in the waist and are the right length can be a challenge!  He is mostly in boys extra small clothing, although they are a little bit big.  He also wears size 10 boys shoes, only one size larger than AJ! He hasn't lost any of his teeth yet, either!
• He's still a picky eater. I've tried and tried, and we've made some progress on getting him to TRY new foods, but we haven't had a ton of success with him actually LIKING the new foods. He's also not terribly consistent.  He loves McDonald's chicken nuggets and the chicken from a frozen meal we get for him, but he won't touch any other kind of chicken. He loves cheese. He still doesn't really eat any other meats, aside from a little bit of bacon.  He likes strawberries and bananas and green beans and corn on the cob. He likes Steak N Shakes vegetable soup and O'Charley's Chicken Noodle soup.  He will try just about any kind of pizza, and most of them he will eat a decent amount.  He also loves when Mom makes homemade potato soup or rice and Chinese food.  He has an incurable sweet tooth! He also shares his daddy's love for loaded cheese fries!
• He is a great big brother!  AJ likes to see what he's up to and Tyler loves to make him laugh!
• He likes music. He'll hear a song on the radio or in a store and recognize it. I guess they listen at school sometimes.  Compared to AJ, who tells me "No gank (thank) you!" when I sing, I'm happy!
• He is giggly, lively, always moving, and he LOVES to talk!  Even when he is playing a game, he's wiggling and talking to himself about it!

I love him more than I could ever have imagined loving anyone! I am so grateful to be his mommy!

One last birthday note:  Tyler's sweet friend made him a birthday card that totally cracked me up! 

Quite the impressive Turtle!

If you can't read it, it says "No cake, eat your candles.  It's a joke."  LOL!