Sutton is 14!

 Sutton turned 14 on June 24th!

Photos to come...technical difficulties since I no longer own a camera! They have been taken but lost on a memory card somewhere!

Fourteen...it feels like we have entered a whole new era. Sure, last year was the year you technically turned into a teenager, but throughout the last year is when we have noticed changes in you, almost daily.

You are 5' 7" and around 125 pounds. You are officially taller than your momma! It's so strange to have to look UP to look at my child.

You have an amazing sense of humor. Very dry, like your dad. Actually, like both of us. You always have a quick comeback ready, usually hilarious, sometimes annoying. Teenager sass comes out sometimes. You are amazing though...when you do have a teen moment, you usually eventually see the error of your ways and make it right on your own.

You are developing more of a sense of who you are as a person. You're not completely sure but you're working it out. You have some different views on social issues than your dad and I. You have made your walk with Jesus your own. You have developed interests in a variety of things...space, cars, technology, soccer, science, and I'm sure many more I'm forgetting...and then you do research and explore these things on your own. You know way more than me on a lot of different topics.

You continue to be the BEST big brother. You two fight, don't get me wrong (especially this summer when you're together 24/7), but you are protective and inclusive and seriously just the best friend to Ren. He looks up to you SO MUCH.

You and Dad finally got your 4-wheeler fixed after like a year of it being out of commission. We gave you a bit more freedom and Dad took you out and showed you a way to get to your best friend Brayden's house using only dirt roads. Most evenings, you take off on your 4-wheeler to meet up with him.

This year you have started using your AirPods a lot. Seems very teenager-ish. You listen to music most of the time. You have listened to a couple audiobooks.

You got super attached-at-the-hip with Brayden this year. You got a phone for your last birthday, so that has helped in your social life, though there have been some bumps along the way (texting etiquette and learning to not be annoying and knowing when to stop with texts). You and Brayden have your own language and even weird names you call each other. Your favorite pastime is to FaceTime him on your phone, prop up your phone against your computer screen, and play video games with him online while you talk.

You have always pretty much been the oldest kid out of all my friends' kids, but this year, it seems like you are eons older. You don't play or pretend, you don't watch the kid shows or movies so much, you kinda hang out with the adults a bit these days, though we usually kick you out so we can have adult conversations.

You're pretty open with me, and I think we can talk about most things. Obviously I'm sure there are things I don't know, but I hope our open communication can continue. You know all about periods and the birds and the bees...which just matures you in and of itself.

You started calling me Gin instead of Mom. Our progression went: Momma, Mommy (we stayed there a loooooooong time), Mom (for like two seconds), Bruh (for like one second), and now I've been Gin for like the past year. I think most of your friends think your mom's name is Jen and wonder why you call her by her first name. It all started because Dad started calling me that and as much as Ren wants to be like you, I think you want to be like Dad.

You got all the highest honors at school this year. Since it was your first year of junior high, it was the first year they had honor roll and things like that. You were at the top of your class! It was a bit of a struggle getting used to a different teacher every hour of the day, and also not liking every teacher you had. We had some major issues with a few teachers and even a meeting with the principal! But none of it was about your behavior or grades, more about unfairness and lack of communication within the school...getting used to junior high was something!

You took Wood shop at school this year, your year-long project was a shelf that now resides in Dad's office. You also took Business Essentials and learned some valuable things.

You continue to play soccer. You have played for the same club team (Fusion) the past two years, with your Dad as your coach for this past year. All your teammates are going on to high school soccer in the fall, so we are trying to figure out your path since half the kids in your birth year are going to play at that high school level in th fall. Finding a team with enough young 2010s has proved challenging. 

You always insist that all the boys in your class get along, even if not everyone is "friends." Brayden is obviously your BFF, and Eli is a good buddy as well. You have become better friends with Evan this summer, he is a grade above you. Since you did Cross Country in the fall, you made some buddies in high school, and even GIRLS. You have a made a few new friends outside of school through your youth group and through soccer.

You like to say "bus" instead of "yes."

You ask me 50 million times a day if I love you. Making me feel like a bad mom over here. I had to ban you from saying the phrase "Oh, so you don't love me?" whenever I would say ANYTHING to you. 

Above all else: flaming hot Cheetos and Lipton citrus green tea. You would live on those things. You also love nachos, pizza rolls, baked potatoes, bacon, microwave popcorn, buffalo chicken anything, blue Powerade, Arnold Palmer. You don't like milk so you eat cereal dry. You prefer hummus with your carrots over Ranch dressing. This summer you have not been eating breakfast much at all, you say you're not hungry when you wake up.

You are definitely more of a savory person than sweet. I took you guys for ice cream at McDonald's today and you chose to get a spicy chicken sandwich and fries instead of ice cream.

You still love animals, especially all our cats. Smokey is your best friend. He loves you and you love him. Recently, me and Dad were out of town on a trip and you were staying with your Funk grandparents. You wanted to go back home after a day or so because you missed Smokey, not your parents. You explained, saying we had each other and were having fun (anniversary trip), while Smokey didn't know what was going on and was probably sad and missing you.

You take a long time to poop, so you're definitely a man now. You also sleep in for freaking ever. This summer, wee have been saying bedtime is between 10 and 11, but I'm not sure how strictly you follow that. Anyway, you are rarely up before 9:30, sometimes not til 11am.

Sutton, your dad and I are so incredibly proud of the person you are, and that we get to be your parents. You are an amazing kid and I can't wait to continue to watch your life unfold. 

Ren is Ten!!

 Double digits...REN is TEN!!!

Look at that cutie. We were lucky enough to travel to Copper Mountain to go skiing this year, and we left the day after Ren's birthday. So we got to do his birthday photos in Colorado!

Ren continues to be our hilarious and quirky kiddo. He is unlike anyone I've ever met and I just love his personality so much. He is not only hilarious and quirky, but clever, creative, outdoorsy, imaginative, and one of the most handsome boys I know!

Ren doesn't like sports because he hates competition. But he loves being outside! Hiking, shed hunting, climbing rocks, camping, making campfires, climbing trees, running, and making up pretend games are all things he loves to do. Sometimes I will see him outside just playing with sticks and talking to himself...he tells me that he's pretending to narrate/film Youtube videos.

Ren loves facts. He watches shows like Brain Games and Weird But True, remembers everything they say, and then will randomly pull out these facts in every day conversation. I used to question his validity but after many many instances of googling the things he said and finding they were TRUE, I just trust him now. He has started pulling out facts he learns from school and books now too.

Ren enjoys reading, but graphic novels are his favorite. He has loved the Wings of Fire series (graphic novel versions), as well as Dog Man, Cat Kid, and several others. One of his friends at school recently introduced him to the Spy School series and it is the first series that is NOT graphic novels that he has been excited about.

I believe I have said this in the past, but Ren continues to be one of the funniest kids with the quickest sense of humor that I ever have seen. I just love this so much about him. He keeps us laughing daily and Adam and I are always texting each other anecdotes that Ren said or did.

Ren LOVES LOVES LOVES animals. He is so tender-hearted and is always telling me how cute our pets are. He likes to build the cats forts out of pillows and blankets and he always makes them super cozy. He got a bearded dragon (who he named Journey) for Christmas because he'd been asking for a lizard for quite some time. He is really good about taking care of Journey, which says a lot because Ren is not the most responsible person, nor is he very self-motivated. But he turns on and off the heat pad and heat lamp every day, and he's learning to not be as squeamish about feeding Jojo cockroaches.

Ren loves to eat and is always hungry, but never wants anything of substance. He would live on cereal and ice cream if he could. He eats Maple + Brown Sugar oatmeal on school mornings unless I make banana bread, which I often do. On weekends he gets cereal and his favorite is Cocoa Pebbles.  Chocolate milk and Yoohoo are his favorite drinks. He also likes Mac n cheese, hot dogs, bean and cheese burritos, cheeseburgers, lasagna, spaghetti, creamed corn, and cheese pizza.

Ren's favorite restaurants are Doc Greens and Chic-fil-a.

We have recently discovered that Ren likes shopping. When we went to Colorado, he was very insistent that we go to the village to go shopping. I don't love shopping, so this is a bit of a stretch for me, but we accommodate him sometimes. I think he just really enjoys getting to look at all thee different options and make a careful choice about what to get.

Ren loves playing video games and watching YouTube. He plays Minecraft, Mario, MarioKart, Roblox, and some random little games on his phone. He likes watching videos about playing video games, how-to-draw, and lots of random ones with facts.

One of Ren's favorite things is to have brother sleepovers down in Sutton's room, or in our newly finished theater in the basement. He has trouble sleeping in general, and I think it helps him to have someone nearby as he's falling asleep. We use melatonin to help him sometimes, as well as magnesium lotion. Those things seem to help!

Ren tried out Cub Scouts this year. He really enjoyed it, but we struggled with his behavior during den meetings. There was a lack of structure/discipline in that setting, and Ren does not do well when it's a free for all...it was like he forgot how to be a normal, respectful kid. Since we also do so much camping and hiking of our own, we decided to pull him out after a couple months. He plans to try track here in a few weeks through the school. We will see if he likes it or if it's too much competition!

Ren is so creative. He loves drawing and has aspirations to write/draw a comic and also a flip book. He has tried several times but can't quite get it to be what he wants and then he gives up. Perseverance is NOT his strong suit. He has recently gotten into sculpting with clay too.

As the baby of the family, I definitely tend to baby him. Adam has been (rightly) forcing me to bestow more responsibility on him. So we have been making him do things I normally would do, like making his own plate at family meals, or getting his own clothes out in the morning before school.

On a normal school day, Ren's routine is that I wake him up at 7am. He chores Journey and eats his oatmeal, then he lays on the couch for 5 minutes to just chill. After that he brushes his teeth and gets dressed. I gel his hair and we leave for school around 7:30/7:40. I pick them up from school at 3:20/3:30 and we come home for some chill time. We try to get outside in thee afternoons if it's nice. Supper and sometimes showers. Bedtime is 8pm, but they're allowed to read until 8:45 when it's lights out. On the weekends, they get much more of a free-for-all and later bedtimes.

Ren's biggest struggles are focus and impulse-control. All things we've had to work at both at home and at school. He is easily distracted...we often say he's the definition of a butterfly chaser. It creates some wonderful out-of-the-box thoughts and experiences, but it's also a bit more challenging for him in the traditional classroom sense. I feel like he adapts well and he WANTS to do well in school, so it doesn't seem like a choice he's making to not focus. I really just think his brain works a bit differently and I honestly think he will do amazing things because of it!

Another cool thing about. Ren is that he doesn't care about gender when he's finding friends. He has both girl and boy besties and I think it's so cool. Currently his little group of friends consists of Vayda, Vance, Caden, and Brynlee. 

Ren is tall and skinny! It's a struggle to find pants that are long enough but small enough around the waist. Same with shirts. He could still wear a size 5 or 6 shirt but the arms and belly would be too short.

Ren cannot keep his room clean to save his life. Sutton is the clean kid and Ren is the messy kid.

Sutton is Ren's favorite person. And Sutton is so good with him. I just love their relationship so much. It's not perfect but I just know they will always be a big part of each other's lives.

I figured I'd also include a family photo since we took some while in Colorado as well.

                              

Here's Ren's 10th birthday video:

Sutton is 13!

 We officially have a teenager! Happy 13th birthday, Sutton!

You are just the coolest kid ever and so responsible. If I ask you to do something, or not do something, I can count on you obey. At least 9 times out of 10, haha. Your brother is a different story! I love that we can have real conversations about real things and that we have the kind of relationship where we talk about everything. 

At your doctor's appointment wee just had, we found out you are now 5'4"! You're only a half inch below me now. 

You are a pet lover and insisted on getting some of your photos with Riddick. He isn't great at posing...notice how he's getting ready to bolt in that last photo.

You also love allllllllll our cats. Currently we have just Blueberry who lives inside. But then outside, we have Luna and her 5 kittens (OJ, Smoky, Snowball, and the math twins - Times and Divide), Oreo and her 2 kittens (Cici and Preston), and then Coconut and Kyle. You and your brother are trying to convince me and Daddy to let Snowball live inside too. 

Our school is K - 6, so you graduated from elementary school this year! It was pretty emotional for me and I can't believe you are now going to junior high. You started weights class with your friends this summer, which also sounds like such a teenager thing to do. 

You are still loving soccer! Last year, you played mostly defender and some goalie on your club team, the VC Fusion. This year the main goalie won't play in the fall season, so you get to be goalie! Very exciting but nerve-racking for your mother. Daddy will be coaching this year, so that will be fun as well. You also do goalie lessons with your hero - Steven Hamersky - who used to be the goalie for the Wichita Wings. We go to all the Wings games together, and we LOVE it. It's so cool to have that special time with you since Daddy is down on the sidelines filming the games, and Ren doesn't enjoy them so he usually stays with Grandma.

You guys can argue like crazy people (and it drives me INSANE), but you and your brother are seriously the best together. You love each other and do everything together. He sleeps downstairs in your room on the weekends and in the summer for "brother sleepovers." He rarely uses his real bed because he just wants to be with you. You also include him when you have friends over, which is very admirable, and I appreciate that so much about you.

You're obsessed with spicy Cheetos, Lipton green tea with citrus, and anything with buffalo sauce. You love Chic-fil-a (for their Mac n cheese), McDonald's (for their spicy chicken sandwich), Noodles and Co (for their Mac n cheese), and Chili's (for their chips and salsa). You either order a bacon cheeseburger with ranch or something buffalo when we go to most other restaurants. You haven't ordered off the kids menu for quite awhile, but now you're too old for most of them!

When we go to the pool, you like to get a Twix at the break. You also love plain Hershey's chocolate bars, Milk Duds, Juicy Fruit gum (you just recently taught yourself how to blow bubbles).

During the school year, you usually eat toast with peanut butter for breakfast. On the weekends and the summer, I leet you have whatever. Usually I make chocolate chip banana bread (which you're obsessed with) or chocolate chip muffins. If I haven't made any of those, you'll do a bowl of cereal (Cinnamon Toast Crunch, dry), or an egg sandwich.

Your best friend right now is Brayden. You guys are always asking for play dates and sleepovers - which we have done quite a bit of this summer! You had your first sleepover at his house this May (other than a random one when you were 4, and aside from staying at grandparents houses). It went well and you didn't get homesick! You and Brayden are constantly texting each other, and playing video games together (while online, at your separate houses).

You love to play Gorilla Tag (GT) on the VR with your friends. Once again, online while at your own houses. You get such a workout and get so sweaty from it. You also do a lot of Minecraft. You have a YouTube channel with your brother - the Rad Redheads - and you love posting short videos of our cats there.

We did the inflatables at Splash Aqua Park for your birthday party with a bunch of your school friends and two soccer buddies. It was a blast and everyone loved it. 

You still love swimming, we go to the pool as much as we can, but you decided you didn't want to do swim team this year.

Daddy had given you his old phone a year or two ago but it wasn't hooked up to a number. If you were at home, it was connected to our Wifi so you could text or FaceTime us if you were home but we weren't. We let you have only us, grandparents, and Brayden on there to contact. But for your 13th birthday, our big gift was that we turned it into a REAL phone. So now you have a number, you can be online even when you're not connected to Wifi, and you are in the process of gathering more of your friends' numbers. You also have been added to our "stalking app" (Life360) so we can all always see where each other is.

We have been leaving you home alone, or alone with you brother a lot more often this year. It's so weird. SO WEIRD. But you seem to love it...I think it makes you feel more "adult." If I'm gone too long, you always text me to ask where I am though and when I'll be back. So you DO love me. 

You have the best sense of humor and are actually funny. Even your main teacher last year (Mrs. Ferguson) pointed that out. I love that you are positive, you don't try too hard to be cool, you are kind, you care about people and animals, you love your grandparents well, you still get excited about things like a little kid, but you're able to understand more complex things like a grown up. 

You still have some OCD-type tendencies which has always been the case with you. But I think you might be loosening up on them a bit. We always have to do the same bedtime routine (brush teeth, hold hands to pray, you always have to hold my right hand while Ren holds my left), then I have to kiss you both on the forehead and say the EXACT SAME PHRASE every night. Yours is "Love you, goodnight, see you tomorrow." I always have to say "Good morning," as the first thing to you when you come up from your bedroom. I also am always supposed to make you aware of the plan for the next day and if I don't, you get a bit upset and say "WHY DIDN"T YOU TELL ME?!" You like to keep a lot of things that I would prefer to throw away. And (as evidenced in these photos), you always wear entrance bracelets until they fall off. This one was from your birthday party. 

You got braces! You've had them just over 10 months now. You got them in August last year. Your teeth look SO STRAIGHT, especially when you compare them to last year. You are supposed to have them for a total of 24 months but I don't know why, when your teeth are already looking perfect. Wishful thinking that maybe wee'll get them off sooner? You've done really well with them, the worst was when you first got them on and then had to go to school, and ended up crying at school from the pain. Some of your adjustments since then have left you a bit sore, but nothing like that first time. You do pretty well with your elastics too.

We weren't consistently going to church for awhile because we couldn't really find one that felt right. But recently, we started going to Riverlawn mostly for you and your brother. At the beginning of June, your age group was promoted to the youth group and you have been loving it! A couple of your soccer friends go there, and it's a pretty big group that holds some fun events. You love Jesus and love learning about him, you are outgoing and like meeting new people. You make new friends easily. So it has been really good for you and I am thrilled that we seem to have found your place.

(Please notice Luna and Coconut photobombing in the photo above.)

You love to wear your Crocs constantly. With socks. You also prefer to wear those dry-fit type of shirts but will pretty much wear any t-shirt. You still don't love jeans. You have like 2 hoodies you rotate in the winter.

You're a smartie! You got pretty much all A's...ended each semester with all A's but had a B or two on your quarterly grade cards.

You play the trumpet in school and have the most amazing natural talent for it! You are doing "Sweet Dreams" and "Feliz Navidad" and "the Can Can" while the other kids are doing "Hot Cross Buns" or "Mary Had a Little Lamb." You also took the skill you now have of reading music, and taught yourself to play piano on a little keyboard that my mom gave you from when I was a kid. You Google the notes for songs you like or you figure them out yourself. So cool.

All in all, you're the best son a mom could want, and you love your family and friends so well! We are so beyond proud of you and LOVE YOU SO MUCH!!!!

(We found Kyle lounging in the woods as we were taking these photos.)

And here's the birthday video:

Ren is 9!

Ren turned NINE a few days ago!

It's our last year in the single digits and insane that we are already here. Ren is one-of-a-kind in the best way. Here are some things about Ren as he is now that will be fun to look back on:

-He is very artistic! He loves drawing, painting, coloring, creating. His current project is drawing (in detail) Minecraft weapons and then tacking them on the bulletin board he got from Grandma Nancy. He loves talking about colors...and is always trying to explain the EXACT shade of blue that is his favorite. I think we have decided that it's called Azure.

-His most favorite thing is hiking and climbing on boulders. He could take or leave a walk or a flat hike, but if it involves climbing or hills, he is all about it. He's gone on several mile long hikes and loved every second. He also loves playgrounds where he can climb, and he likes me to make "challenges" at playgrounds. Like: go across the monkey bars, up the spider web, through the merry-go-round, up the stairs, down the slide....as fast as you can!

-But he doesn't like sports. He has zero interest in playing any type of sport, competitive or otherwise. While other boys do some of that at recess, he'd prefer to play a pretend type of game. So he plays with girls a lot at recess.

-He says his best friends (besides his brother) are Leanna and Vance. He and Leanna have a very cute relationship and she recently got them corresponding Best Friends keychains.

-He is very very very very smart. He will learn new words at school or on a TV show, then incorporate them (correctly!) into every day conversation. Examples are exponential, hyperbole. He also pulls out the most random facts to tell me at the most random times. Recently he told me that Mercury is the only planet without an atmosphere.

-He does this funny thing where he alerts us when there is a "fact family" on the clock. Like, if the clock reads 6:33, he will say "FACT FAMILY" because 3+3=6...and don't forget that 6-3=3. Hence, fact family. He has recently added the tidbit that when there's a 5 and 2 next to each other on a normal digital clock, it looks like a mushroom cloud from a nuclear bomb.

-He still makes some of his letters and numbers backwards. It's never consistent and it's becoming less and less but it still happens at least once on nearly every assignment. We have just decided it's because he doesn't care about the details, that's not important. It's just getting the right answer. I'm sure he'll grow out of it!

-We had a little trouble at the beginning of the school year with him not obeying his teacher, or forgetting what she told him and doing it again. At conferences, we came up with a little system to help remind him of what he should be doing and also to give him a goal to work toward each day - red, yellow, and green - his teacher would write where he was at that day. We never got any reds, occasionally got a yellow, but he got to the point where every day was green and his teacher said he was doing so much better that we don't have to do it anymore. She said she has been very proud of the changes he made this year, the leader and friend he is becoming.

-He took speech this year. The teacher noticed some things about his speech that I didn't even, and after being evaluated we found it was an issue with S and Z sounds, and how far his tongue goes forward. He looks forward to speech every week but I think she has just about phased him out since he's made good progress.

-On school days, the normal routine is that Ren gets up around 7am and snuggles with me on the couch for a few minutes. Then I make him a bowl of oatmeal and some chocolate milk. He generally prefers that I pack a cold lunch for him than eating the school lunch but there are a few school lunches he will eat. Cold lunches consist of a meat-cheese-and-mayo sandwich, strawberry applesauce, SunChips, and a Capri Sun. We get to school around 7:50 and I pick them up at 3:20. We come home and he chills out on the couch to watch TV for awhile. If we don't have evening activities, he will do legos, drawing, or play with his pets. If we DO have evening activities, they are mostly his brother's sports, so Ren is drug around to a lot of Sutton's things all the time. He always packs a backpack with drawing things and Legos. An iPad if we allow it, which isn't often.

-He has discovered a love of reading this year. Mostly graphic novels, but he is slowly branching out to some chapter books too. 

-His room is ALWAYS messy. When you ask him to clean it, he will be in there for like 20 minutes and then you go check on him and it looks like he hasn't done a thing. 

-He can have trouble focusing...I think his mind is just constantly working and wondering. I have to get on him and on him and on him to do something and I don't think it's (usually) disobedience, more that he just forgets.

-His stories can be verrrrrrrrrrry long-winded. Like he gives all these tiny details and over-explains things. My personality (enneagram 3 = efficiency is life) has a hard time with this (he's enneagram 4 = boho and feelings and seeing the beauty in things) and I sometimes try to rush him to get his thoughts out. I do try to be aware though, and not rush him all the time.

-He does this thing where he asks you something about yourself when he wants to tell you something about himself. It took me awhile to catch on. He was always asking me things like "What are your top 3 favorite superheroes?" or "What is your second favorite color?" or "If you could buy any one thing in the world, what would it be?" And I would answer him and move on. But then I began to realize that he wanted to tell me his answers to those things. It's a very interesting way for a 9-year-old to go about conversations.

-Favorite things: Doc Greens. Mac n cheese. Mac n cheese with hot dogs and ketchup. Dog Man. Wings of Fire graphic novels. Sweats and hoodies. Footed pajamas. Cottage cheese. Yoohoo. Cute animals. Azure. His brother. Weekends. Show - the Owl House and Phineas + Ferb. Movie - Lightyear. Legos. Stuffed animals. Foxes. Gum (but not mint). Orange pop. Twix. Swimming. Trampolines.

-He doesn't love not sharing a room with Sutton, even though its been over a year since they got their separate rooms. He says he has trouble falling asleep often, we put a little couch under his loft bed and he chooses to sleep on that sometimes. He will come to our room still, every so often, saying he can't sleep or he had a bad dream or he can't stop thinking about sad things. He spends the night down in Sutton's room every weekend day for a "brother sleepover" so they just keep an extra mattress down there at all times. 

-In general, Sutton is still his favorite thing ever. Their relationship is the best. Even though they annoy me because they just pick at each other.

-He is very kind. If he has a yummy treat, he will always ask if you want a bite. Or if he does something he thinks is fun, he will ask if you want to try it. He is always so good about sharing and being thoughtful in that way.

-He mostly showers now instead of doing baths, which is new this year. He still has to use the No Tears baby soap because he's not good at keeping it out of his eyes. Another new thing is that after his shower, he likes to get fully dressed in the bathroom (instead of coming out in his underwear like he always used to) with his hair perfectly brushed, plastered to his head. He spends a really long time doing these things, and talks to himself in the bathroom the whole time, we can always hear him and it always makes us laugh. 

-He is definitely an introvert, and likes to be in his own head. I think his mind is just going going going, which explains a lot of his quirks. He needs alone time after being around too many people, this year for his birthday he just wanted to take one friend to do something. He doesn't like loudness and can be found hunched over with this hands over his ears. He's not nearly as outwardly expressive as his brother. 

-He gets in moods where nothing is happy and everything is wrong. He will throw his body around and pout and not respond appropriately to anything. These are few and far between....we find it mostly happens if he's had a bunch of unchecked electronics time.

-Speaking of electronics, his choice is to be on his iPad but he also got a hand-me-down computer and hand-me-down phone this year. Phone isn't hooked up to a number yet, but he can play games on it when he's connected to Wifi and he got a Starry Nights phone case that he loves. He likes to play Minecraft, Roblox, My Little Universe, Freeform.

-We joke that he has "cute aggression". We got a kitten a few months ago and he was just constantly saying he wanted to squeeze her so hard because she's so cute. He loooooooves animals.

-He continues to be one of the most clever kids I know, as in, he has really great comedic timing. I love it.

-We have had a mohawk since the fall. He loves it. I think he loves having something different about himself:

-He kept coming up with great ideas for poses or spots for his photos this time. He really wanted one hanging from a tree:

-One of the things we love most about him is how much joy he has for simple things. He sees the beauty in things around him, which I think can be lost on kids a lot. 

And the birthday video: