6 years - BLM

Our middle dude turned 6 over the Christmas break. We decided to wait and have his party until after the holidays, but wanted to make the day special for him. Every year, it's hard to put into words just how grown the boys become and how proud we are of them. This guy is something special. Anyone who meets him, sees it, too. He has a heart of gold and a personality that will fill a room. Sometimes, I just stare at him in awe of the little boy he is becoming and feel so lucky he is ours. Kindergarten has really matured him and he has fallen into the roll just perfectly. He kicked off the school year as being chosen for Student of the Week and his teacher wrote me the sweetest email describing the type of child/student he has become. She will send me videos or pictures of him doing kind gestures for his classmates or helping a student with their work. He sees the good in everything and everyone and truly loves life. 

He's thriving in his academics and has really become a dedicated baseball player and swimmer over the past year. Anything he puts his mind to, he can achieve and if he doesn't at first, he's willing to keep working and trying harder to achieve his goals. Here he is trying to perfect his wink!!

He's currently in the highest reading level in his class which shouldn't come as a surprise given his determination, but I wasn't quite sure as to where he stood going into the school year. He really has started to develop a desire to read more and will bring books with him on the bus. Watching a child learn to read truly is amazing. He went in to Kindergarten knowing about 50 sight words and now can sound out about 80% of the words he reads. He will play outside with Ryan and try to mimic everything he does. When Ryan's basketball season started, B would be out there with him practicing, and he was bound and determined to be able to shoot on the 9 foot goal. Lo and behold, he actually started making them. He would stay out there sweating uncontrollably until he was dead tired, trying to make those shots.

He has already lost 3 teeth prior to his birthday! The first one was before school started, but since then, he has started pulling them out himself. Either the 2nd or 3rd was pulled while he was on the bus with another kid's homework paper. He folded the tooth into the paper, blood and all to bring it home so he didn't lose it. I must say, I'm not mad about the fact that I don't have to pull them!

We kicked off his birthday morning FaceTiming with CoCo and Poppy to open their gifts as he just couldn't wait to open a gift. His first gift was very much anticipated. Since his birthday obviously falls around Christmas, he has been looking at toy magazines for a solid 2 months. Of course, what he would want would change from time to time, however, there were a few things that remained from day 1 and this was one of them.....

I don't have it on video because we were FaceTiming, but he was ecstatic. He set the entire thing up later that afternoon. It was a craft set he had been eyeing for weeks and weeks.

He also got more school supplies for their classroom they have been wanting to set up along with some Intro To Piano books (my dad gifted us his old full size keyboard and the boys have loved having it).

After breakfast, we headed to Chick-fil-a from a pre-movie lunch.

We headed over to the movies where they went all out with candy, popcorn, and HUGE Icees!

They were some happy campers and Ralph Breaks the Internet was really cute.

Best.day.ever!

We continued to party hard by heading over to Urban Air after the movies to meet up with some friends. Alecia was so sweet and picked up donuts for the kids, so the sugar rush continued!

He definitely had a perma-grin all day long!

That evening, Wes picked up some fish and made us dinner to celebrate at home. Before dinner though, B wanted to open his gifts from us! He had been waiting patiently all day!

I think the video speaks for itself.....

He was thrilled! This was another gift he had been wanting since the very first Target flyer came out!

Finally, his very own sno-cone maker!

Complete with cups and all the syrups.

Some new shoes are exciting to a second child as well, clearly!

Wes even made him a cake while we were at swim practice.

Dream big, little one

One happy boy!!

I think it was safe to say, he had a good day (along with his brothers). I know I enjoyed it and slept really well that night, too!

I tried to take his measurements, but wasn't too exact. I do think he was somewhere between 48-49" as he is now 50" which makes him about an inch taller than Ryan was at that age. I think it puts him around 91% in height. As for his weight, he's right around 50 lbs. we think.

He wears a size 13/1 in shoes, 7 in tops and 6 in bottoms. They go to bed around 8:30 at night and he still gets up bright and early at about 6:30 for school in the morning. He's definitely tired by the end of the day, that is for sure! He's starting to become a better eater. He's really good when it comes to proteins. He eats all things meat. Steak, chicken, hamburger, fish, shrimp, you name it. He eats most fruits and we're starting to work on vegetables. He'll eat carrots, spaghetti squash, sweet potatoes, and most recently broccoli without much complaint. We're trying to catch him up to his brothers in this department. He's still skeptical when trying new things and just likes what he likes, but he realizes to get strong (which is of major importance to him) he needs to eat better foods. He LOVES milk. Probably our only child to actually like milk outside of milk and cookies; he drinks a glass every morning and sometimes with dessert at night. He's been known to skip dessert more often lately, and I truly believe it's because he wants to be healthy and get strong. The muscles on this child are insane. We'll catch him working out upstairs doing burpees, push-ups, jumping jacks, etc. It's hilarious.

Here's the list of questions I try and ask the boys at least once a year without any prompting.....

Favorite color: Orange
Favorite food: Pizza, hamburgers, Oreos with milk, mini muffins, chocolate milk, carrots (if he had to pick a vegetable), oranges, and strawberries
Favorite toy: iPad, big rocketship
Favorite show: Miraculous Ladybug, Hotel Transylvania 3
When I grow up I want to be: Candymaker (still going strong)
Favorite thing to play: soccer, baseball, making arcade games out of cardboard, playing school in their classroom
Favorite animal: Crocodile 
Favorite thing to wear: Swim tie-dye shirt from TNT, Aftcos

Favorite book: Pete the Cat reading books and Dr. Seuss

Best friend: Barrett and Zachary and Braylen all from Mrs. Gipson's class
What you sleep with at night: his lovey :)
Favorite song: Shipwrecked songs from VBS last year
What are you really good at: swimming, drawing, playing games (and pretty much all sports)
Favorite thing to do with mom: Going to the Mother/Son dance, watching movies together 
Favorite thing to do with dad: Go on a boat, build stuff together (most recently the planter box), drive the golf cart
Favorite sport to play: swimming and baseball 
Favorite place to go: Container park, park down in Fairhope, the cabin in TN, and Great Wolf Lodge

Favorite place to go out to eat: Don Carlos, El Rancho, and Moe's Southwest; apparently he only wants to eat Mexican food which I guess I'm not mad about!

We love you more than you will ever know, Buzz. You keep life fun and interesting!!