Not Nine

He is not nine. Not my first baby.

But he is. It doesn't seem possible that I've been his mom for nine entire years. He loves to hear the story of when he was born, how it had snowed more that a foot and how we were up all night. Then when we dozed off and he started crying Adam and I had that moment where we realized we were really parents and we had to take care of this little human.

It's so awesome to watch him grow and change and develop. He's such a cool little person. He does great in school and chatters away about the smallest things. He makes friends easily. He's sensitive and sweet and funny. He loves computers and video games and anything technological. He is steadfast that he wants to be a YouTuber when he grows up. He is still a picky eater and still small for his age (something he is aware of and a little sensitive about). He is full of energy and fun!  He loves his little brother and always wants to be affectionate to him, even when AJ resists! He wants a little sister, which breaks my heart just a little!

He had a great birthday (I'm late posting this, of course. His birthday was January 28). Friday, I took a long lunch and drove down to have lunch with him at school. The school is about a 40 minute drive from work (since traffic wasn't an issue) but the look on his face when he was me made it well worth the time! He knew I was coming, of course, but boy was he excited!

Might have to zoom--Running to me with his arms out

Happy to see me--or the McDonalds I brought with me

Saturday we did our usual errands and let Tyler pick where we ate lunch. He chose Arni's because he loves their cheese fries. It poured rain all day, but that didn't stop us. Both boys needed new shoes, so we stopped at Target after lunch. AJ got yet another pair of Paw Patrol shoes (in a size 12!) and Tyler got his first pair of (SOB) big boy shoes in a size 1. I know most kids his age have probably passed this milestone before the age of 9, but not my little guy!

Posing with Target Dog (in their old shoes)

I spent the afternoon running around like mad trying to find his birthday gifts. I succeeded, but it took 7 stores and paying $15 more for one item than I would have paid if I'd ordered the darn thing online, but oh well!

Sunday was his actual birthday. I baked chocolate cupcakes with chocolate frosting (and letter candies and sprinkles, per Tyler). We let him pick dinner and he wanted to order pizza. He got two new games for his Nintendo Switch, a game for his DS (see above note about loving video games), plus Monopoly Pokemon (see note about paying $15 too much), a Minecraft hat, several game pieces for his Monopoly Gamer board game (which is actually a pretty fun game), and a gift card(that's from us, Michelle, Angie, and her finacee Jon). He was thrilled with everything, of course!

Loot!

Wonder what he wished for? And AJ being cute even blurry.

All smiles

Opening said loot

The boys love their board games. We have at least 4 versions of Monopoly alone

 I could tell he felt special all weekend and loved every second of it and that just makes my heart melt! I just love these boys more than I could ever have imagined possible!!!

Oh, I must include a couple random AJ pictures...He's been going through a phase of skipping his nap (yes he still naps at 5 years old. Because he can and because he is cranky by 7:30 if he doesn't!  The kid also wakes up at like 5 am most days, which is annoying, but he just seems to have his own schedule)--anyway, he keeps falling asleep before bedtime. Photo evidence:

Fell asleep sitting up

Mid-bounce? Not really. He was actually pouting and fell asleep.

And so my baby turned nine. We aren't talking about what number comes next. I still have three hundred and fifty-odd days before I have to think of that. We are also not thinking about how I registered AJ for Kindergarten recently...

Wrapping up a better year!

Wow I haven't blogged since September! This has been SUCH a busy year!  I think overall it kicked 2016's butt, but let's see what the survey says (sorry Family Feud is on TV).

1. What did you do in 2017 that you’d never done before?  I officially became a published author!  #bucketlist #check

2. Did you keep your new year’s resolutions, and will you make more for next year? I didn't make resolutions really. I feel like I accomplished a lot of things, especially with selling our old house, buying our new house, and getting my promotion at work.

3. Did anyone close to you give birth? My friend Pam had her baby boy, Corbin.

4. Did anyone close to you die? A few distant cousins.

5. What countries did you visit? I only went to Birmingham this year.

6. What would you like to have in 2018 that you didn’t have in 2017? I got some really major things I wanted this year! I would like to continue trying to become more financially stable (read: I'd like more money) and I'd like to get back to trying to be healthier

7. What dates from 2016 will be etched upon your memory, and why? February 14th when we got our book contract offer, July 13th when the book came out, and the day we closed on the houses

8. What was your biggest achievement of this year? The house, the book, and my promotion

9. What was your biggest failure?  Weight/healthwise.

10. Did you suffer illness or injury?  Nothing major this year

11. What was the best thing you bought? Our house!

12. Whose behavior merited celebration? The three biggies again: book, job, house

13. Whose behavior made you appalled and depressed? Ugh, Donald Trump. (Some more)

14. Where did most of your money go? Bills and the house

15. What did you get really excited about? I'm actually looking for things to calm down a little. There has been a lot of excitement lately.

16. What song will always remind you of 2017? Nothing is really springing to mind. Anything from Carpool Karaoke, since I've been obsessed with that.

17. Compared to this time last year, are you: a) happier or sadder? b) thinner or fatter? c) richer or poorer? Happier, fatter, and about the same.

18. What do you wish you’d done more of? excercising

19. What do you wish you’d done less of? Stressing out

20. How did you spend Christmas? The family was pretty sickly this year, so we stayed home all day in our PJs and had a very nice quiet day. We had a big breakfast and a salad/baked potato bar for lunch which was delish.

21. Did you fall in love in 2017? More and more every day with my husband and kids

22. What was your favorite TV program? Big Bang Theory, Dancing with the Stars, and The Little Couple

 23. What was the best book you read? I recently read An Abundance of Katherines by John Green and it was really great.

24. What was your greatest musical discovery? Carpool Karaoke

25. What did you want and get? Publish my book, promotion, new house!

26. What did you want and not get? I really got so much I wanted this year!

27. What was your favorite film of 2017? Pitch Perfect 3 which we saw last night was very funny, if corny

28. What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you? I turned 35. I don't remember doing anything in particular. I think I had to work.

29. What one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying? hmm. Maybe a vacation?

30. How would you describe your personal fashion concept of 2017 ? I'm still loving leggings and boots. Right now, whatever fits, is comfy and looks semi cute

31. What kept you sane? My hubby, my kids, my mom, my sisters, my family, my friends, and my coworkers! Talking and writing and laughing and music!

32. What political issue stirred you the most? Donald Trump is still president

33. Who did you miss? My sister, my grandparents and my great aunt and my little Gabriel.

 34. Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2017.  Hard work and perseverance do pay off!

 35. Quote a song lyric that sums up your year. Coming up empty here lol!

Big Changes

Wow it's been like two months since I've posted. In my defense, my life has been CRAZY! In the last two months:

• We moved! It actually happened! We sold our house and bought a new one and everyone made it to the new place in one piece!  Moving is terrible! I can't find my stuff! I have a ton of unpacking and projects to do! My new neighborhood is great, though. The house is great too, although we've already had a few hiccups. On to the next bullet!
• We had a ton of rain and then water leaked into my mom's room in the basement. BOO! Our friend/contractor came over last weekend and he and Adam graded the ground on that side of the house--apparently it was somewhat sloped down toward the house, which isn't good. We've had a good 5 dry days but more rain in expected tomorrow so fingers crossed that it's fixed the problem!
• We had to have some electrical work that was supposed to be done after inspection repaired, which was super annoying. Then we had our friend/contractor fix it some more. We'd asked that all the ungrounded 3 prong plugs in the basement be grounded, but the replaced them with 2 prong grounded plugs, which these days are pretty useless! Since we needed to plug in computers and the like, our friend changed them out.
• Did I mention our neighbors are so nice? The realtor that sold the house lives across the street with her husband (who I recently found out is the dad of a guy I went to high school with). Two doors down from them is a guy around my age that works at Tyler's school. He brought over coupons for Macy's the first weekend. We also met the neighbors on both sides of us. There is an elderly lady to one side and a middle aged couple on the other. We are particularly fond of Mary (who is deaf and I'm fascinated by sign language)  and her husband Kevin. Kevin found out that our mower had died (literally the week before we moved) and I looked out my back window one evening and Kevin was mowing our grass. SO NICE!
• Where did I leave off with the book? I think I mentioned we were seeking out professional editing. Our publisher recommended a couple of people and we ended up working with a guy named Rob. His price was fair and he was very willing to edit without making huge plot changing suggestions. He cleaned up our technical writing a lot (God bless him, I hate that part) and made some great suggestions that we were able to incorporate with only minor edits and additions, but that I really feel make a big difference. And he's just all around a really nice guy and he really seemed to like the book and admire our writing. He was particularly impressed by our synergy writing together.
• Once we incorporated Rob's edits, we sent the book back to our publisher. About a week ago, we got the edits and their smart-edit report back. This publisher offers this report on all books they publish--basically, it's a list of possible grammatical errors, commonly misused words, works that are possibly overused, and other such things that their computer program can recognize. They are very clear that you can chose to make no changes based on the report. I thought it was pretty helpful and made a good deal of very minor tweaks, most of them on the repetitive word issue. The manuscript went back to the publisher late Sunday night and now we are OFFICIALLY in the production queue! A publishing date should be coming very soon, along with their proposal for our cover art!  So exciting!
• I got a promotion at work! I've done the same job for 11 years (at least in title, although the job has changed a lot over the years) and I've been searching for a new opportunity with my company for a long time. It's been difficult. We are a large corporation, but my office is relatively small and opportunities are very limited. About a year ago, my boss helped me make a big push to take on leading the group of people that do the same job as I did. The girl that coordinated the group ended up going on maternity leave (she was the one who was due around the same time I would have been with Gabe), so I performed a lot of her duties while she was out. When she returned, she didn't really go back to doing that portion of her job. They posted the job as a hybrid-type role--someone who would have regular shipping and invoicing duties (that's what I do (did)) and also act as coordinator and lead the team--train new associates, update work instructions, liaison with other departments, develop new process, etc. I am very happy that I got the opportunity and I had a lot of support. It's a lot of work, but I'm glad to be more challenged again.
• Unfortunately on the work front, I'm really juggling things at work now, covering for a coworker that is out on medical leave and preparing to cover for an invoicer that is leaving as of next week. Remember when I did the Canadian invoicing and then went to Ontario to train their new hire. Well, she's leaving. So now I'll be doing that again.
• Aside from that, there has been birthdays, field trips, and not nearly enough sleep!

Oh, one last thing! Kelly and I created a separate website for author/book stuff. If you'd like to follow us there, just visit positivevoicewrites.wordpress.com . All of our social media is linked there as well.

What a year I'm having!  The book, the job, and the house have been things I've wanted for a long time and they are all going to become a reality in the course of a few months! It's awesome and overwhelming!

10th Blogoversary!!!

10 years!  I have been writing (on and off, but I had posts every year) here for 10 years! Granted, I have very few readers, but still, I have to give myself points for longevity. Maybe I just like to hear myself talk?  LOL anyway, I'm still here and man, a lot has been documented here in the last 10 years--high points and low points.  I've documented the birth of my kids, my losses, my infertility journey, the joys of motherhood and marriage, the trials over everyday life, fitness journeys, new homes (more to this coming VERY soon!), and now my journey as an author.  There are posts that are merely funny and some filled with deep thoughts and self-exploration.  I know not many people read my ramblings, but I go back and read them sometimes and I'm glad I have them written here.


So if you're reading, thanks.  And past me, thanks for taking the time to document these memories.

Belated Eight

Bad Mommy!  I missed doing Tyler's birthday post!  In my defense, it has been BANANAS lately. Work is busy, we've got the house listed and we're house shopping, etc etc, etc. Anyway, I missed it. My baby boy turned 8 on January 28th and I have to mark the occasion.

Toothless cutie!

This year, Tyler's birthday was on a Saturday, so we ate lunch with him at school on Friday. I also brought M&M cookies for his class. Saturday, we had a nice lunch with my dad. Angie and her b/f Jon also came. We had O'Charley's, Tyler's favorite. We went home and I planned to make cupcakes.  I turned on the oven to pre heat it while I mixed the batter.  When I went to put them in, the oven was still stone-cold. 

Of course.

Long story short, something in the oven had stopped working. We were able to fix it after a couple of days, so no big deal in the end, but we had to make due with store bought cupcakes.

Gifts and his Gaga's favorite potato soup finished the day!  Almost.  After he went to bed, he actually started throwing up! :( Poor guy. He actually had a stomach bug (or something) twice in two weeks!

So who is Tyler at 8 years old?

He's a smart cookie. He is a solid A student at school, maybe one B in handwriting (he got that curse from me).  He was slipping on his reading tests a little, so we started working harder on reading comprehension and now he's right back to his high scores.

He still loves all things electronics. We used to limit "screentime" with him, but we've slowly let that go. It's just what he likes. He's no couch potato and he does play games and read some too, but he's just not into toys too much.

He does love a collection. Yo Kai Medals, Pokemon cards, and stuff animals are just a few of the things he's collecting right now.  We just got him a new bed to help fit all his animals! He insists on toting a bunch downstairs every day, so we got him a little grocery bag (TMNT of course) to carry them in.

Still a picky eater! That really hasn't changed much. I'm still hoping that he'll expand his food likes someday.

He weighs 52 lbs and is 4 ft tall. He's smaller than average, but right on track for him.

He tells a great story, he's so darn cute! Especially right now, because he's missing a couple teeth (see evidence of this cuteness in the pics).

I love him to bits, that sweet, sensitive, smart little man!

Checking out his bday loot

Heartbreaker!

SURPRISE!!!!

Yes, that's right, BABY NUMBER 3!!!

I still can't really believe it.  It's still sinking in, for sure.  By the way, I'm writing this Monday, May 9th, two days after I found out.  This will be published at a later date, and I'm sure there will be updates at the end. But I wanted to document this before I forget any details, because pregnancy brain is REAL!

So I'll start off by saying my cycles have changed a lot since I had AJ.  For the past 6 months, my cycles have only been 26-27 days. And I hadn't had a ton of success pin pointing ovulation. I had actually been starting to think I was probably ovulating too late in my cycle to get pregnant on my own.  But we were so busy, we basically had been sort of trying/not preventing.  I figured once the house was ready we would start focusing more on it.

So I wasn't really focused on my period, but I knew it was probably due around the end of the week before Mother's Day.  By the end of the week, a thought had entered the back of my head, but I still really didn't think much of it.  I had looked at my tracking app earlier in the week and it had predicted I would start Saturday, but it's usually more optimistic than I am, and usually I beat it to the punch.

Saturday morning, I woke up at 5:30 and couldn't sleep. My brain started whirring and so I got up and went to the bathroom, because I knew there was only one way to stop thinking about it.  The trouble was, I'm not in the habit of keeping pregnancy tests around and the only ones I had were from an auction Adam bought, and they'd expired in June 2015. I figured it would be negative anyway, so why not use it up?

Except it wasn't. I never look at my tests while they are processing--the whole "a watched pot never boils" thing....so I fiddled around in the semi-darkness, eventually counting to 120 so I knew three minutes has passed. I flipped on the light and there were two solid lines staring back at me. I think I whispered oh my god a bunch of times, but I was also reminding myself that the test was EXPIRED and therefore unreliable.  I snapped a picture with my phone and hid the evidence, then when back to bed. I used my phone to post a picture on my facebook group with my old Infertility buddies.  Their consensus was it was probably positive, but to get some more tests ASAP!

Now, I have had a BFP (big fat positive) three times before this.  With the boys, of course, and with my miscarriage in 2011. And each time, we had been really trying to get pregnant and Adam always knew when it would be time to test. This time, I had a slight edge. This time, it would be a surprise.  So I didn't say anything and acted casual. He needed to finish mowing the grass, so I was going to run errands with the boys by myself, then he was going to meet us for lunch and we would go to the hardware store to pick up somethings. So I had the perfect opportunity to buy pregnancy tests in secret.  I bought an 88 cent test to take that afternoon and a package of First Response.

After all of our running, I got the boys settled and Adam went upstairs to work on installing our closet doors.  I slipped back out to the van and grabbed the bag with the tests.  I put the First Responses and the box for the cheap test in my purse and took the test downstairs to the bathroom.  The test showed up positive right away!  I had a little moment by myself there.  It was really true.  And we weren't even trying hard. Somehow, on the day before Mother's Day, when there was only ONE possible day it could have happened, here I was, pregnant.

No doubt about it!

So now I had news to tell.  I planned on telling everyone together on Sunday, revealing it to mom through her present.  I had bought a kit of little foam owl crafts for Tyler to make her for Mother's Day/her birthday (her birthday fell on Mother's Day this year). So after AJ was napping, I took Tyler upstairs and told him the news!  We've talked about it before, and his friend Luke's mom is expecting, so he knew what it was about and was excited!  He won't stop talking about how he hopes it's a girl because we don't have any girls!

So Tyler made an owl for Gaga and I make two more. On the backs, we put the boys' names and on the third, I wrote "Baby #3, January 2017".  Later we were hanging around downstairs and Adam said, "Aren't you supposed to get your period pretty soon?" I tried to play it cool, casually checking my phone, looking at my app.  "Yeah, probably today or tomorrow." I said.  So he said we should play around that night, because he thinks that makes my period come. Uh oh. I decided I had better tell him. So I said I wanted to go up and see the new closet doors he'd hung. I snuck the test out of my purse and into my pocket and went upstairs. He came up after and so did my mom.  We looked at the doors and then mom when back downstairs. I closed the door and pulled out the test. I don't even remember if I said anything. He just started laughing and we hugged and laughed about how it only took once this time around!  I think he said are you kidding or are you serious or something.  LOL Then he admitted that he'd gone to get a receipt out of my purse and seen the box of tests. He thought I was going to test though, he had no idea I already knew!

So I still planned on telling my mom Sunday, but Adam started saying we should go ahead and tell her. I didn't need much convincing!  So I went upstairs and wrapped up the owls and gave Tyler the package. We took it to her and said, "Tyler made this and he didn't want to wait to give it to you." She opened in and oohed and ahhed over the owls. Then I told her he'd put his name on the back. The first one she turned over was the one that said baby.  She looked at me and then back at it and back at me. "Are you pregnant?" I nodded.  "Are you really?!" Then she screamed and jumped up and hugged me. Michelle came in too and everybody was talking and laughing and I was telling them about the whole day.  It was great!

Our family of owls

With the new addition!

On Sunday Angie came over and we showed her the owls too.  She BURST into tears!!  I was surprised, she'd never gotten so teary before, but she said it was because she wasn't expecting it.  It was really sweet!

So that's it for now!  I'm 4 weeks and 2 days according to my last period, but my guess is that I might be a couple of days further along than that. I don't know exactly when I ovulated. My OPK was close to positive on day 12, and less so on day 13, and I pretty sure it wasn't positive on day 11 (which is the day we conceived), so I don't know, somewhere around there.  I don't even have a doctor's appointment yet.  I called my OBs office but they haven't called back yet. I have a call into my rheumatologist too, just to be sure there isn't anything I should be aware of, given my lupus. I know my medication is safe to take.

So as of now, I'm due around January 14th. Given my history and previous C-Section, I will just schedule this one, which is kind of a relief.

What a ride this will be! Goals before baby number 3 arrives: Finish the house, sell it, move, and potty train AJ!  God help me! :-)

UPDATES:
 
WOW, I wrote this over a month ago!  A lot has been happening!  Tomorrow is my first Doctor's appointment. I will also have an ultrasound.  It's not my first ultrasound, however.  This post will get very very long if I tell the whole story, so it will get it's own post that I will publish in a day or so. Last Monday night (June 6th), I suddenly started bleeding.  I went to the ER and long story short, blessedly baby is okay!  The ultrasound showed the baby with a strong heartbeat (185) and actually measuring ahead at 9 weeks (by my last period I would have been 8 weeks, 3 days then).  I was diagnosed with a subchorionic hemorrhage (SCH). It was SUPER scary, but they aren't uncommon.  I was instructed to take it easy, NO lifting more than 10 lbs (no more picking up AJ), and put on pelvic rest.  We were SO relieved!

Symptoms: Morning sickness started about a week after we found out (BOO!). Also major gas (sorry), sore breasts, serious fatigue and many many food aversions.  I'm just hoping and praying these subside at some point, since with Tyler they really never did.  No throwing up yet, so that's a plus, I guess.  I've been taking the Vitamin B-6 and a half a unisom at night, per my doctor's advice, but it's not completely alleviating it. We'll see how it goes.

FIRST DOCTOR'S APPOINTMENT W/ULTRASOUND
Everything went well today (6/14)!  The baby still looks awesome, with a heartbeat of 183. We could see it wiggling it's little arms!  When I asked if I was really seeing it move it's arms, the baby bobbed it's head and the ultrasound tech swore it was nodding!  SO CUTE! Adorable profile!  My SCH is still there and had grown a tiny bit. They'll continue to watch it with weekly ultrasounds until it starts to get smaller and resolves itself. She gave me some samples of dyclegis (which is similar to the B-6/Unisom combo I've been using) to see if it helps my nausea a little more. Everything looks great!

Already so photogenic!

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!