Nine years old!

The shirt says "Birthday Boy" and features Mario!

On this day nine years ago Ian Alexander joined our family! The first three years were tough one due to the urological surgeries, endoscopies, eosinophilic esophagitis, and feeding issues, but thankfully almost all of that is a thing of the past at the moment. At the present he's only allergic to tree nuts, and the only other thing that causes him to regurgitate (not counting when he has a stomach bug) is if he laughs too hard. Meal times were such a struggle for many years. He still needs reminders to stay focused on the task at hand (or a meal can easily last longer than an hour), but in general he's continuing to make wonderful progress.

In general I think it's preferred to have a birthday in June than December because it means you get gifts once every six months instead of one month a year, but one perk of a December birthday is we take the day off of school. Oliver and Nadia's birthdays are in the summer (when "school" isn't in session), but Ian's birthday translates to one day off of school. Actually this

Nadia loves Ruby!!

year due to our trip to Great Wolf Lodge last week his birthday translated to three days off of school!

Birthday celebration #3 (today - his actual birthday) involved drinking apple juice (I don't usually buy any juice), having donuts for breakfast, opening his presents from his parents, having pizza for dinner, having chicken nuggets and goldfish crackers for lunch, and spending about 4 hours at Micah and Isaiah's house for a birthday play date. The kids also watched a DVD from the library that they had never seen before, and this evening they went caroling at Warrior Run Manor with the AWANA club. He received birthday calls from my dad, my Aunt Janet, and my Aunt Tina. I wasn't able to talk to any of them on the phone because I have laryngitis. I also had to miss the caroling for the same reason, and I usually love to sing Christmas carols. There were two activities today that didn't relate to his birthday  - all three kids got their teeth cleaned at the dentist, and all three participated in a 30 minute Spanish class at the library.

This was the first year I wasn't able to sing Happy Birthday to Ian on his birthday. Thankfully I was able to sing to him on Monday night at his party. So today concludes the birthday celebrations for Ian's 9th birthday, and it means yesterday was the last day the three kids were 2 years apart in age (until Oliver turns 7 next August). Now my kids are 6, 9, and 10 years old (until Nadia turns 11 in June).

Here are nine descriptions of my precious middle child....

1. His favorite toys are still Legos and stuffed animals. The dining room should more accurately be called the Lego room. Even for his birthday dinner we squeezed eight people around our kitchen table (which is really only meant for six) and Paul used a tv table as there were nine of us eating dinner together on Monday night. I have already warned the kids that they *must* remove the Legos from the dining room table before December 27 because at that point there will be twelve of us, and there's no way 12 people can eat dinner in our kitchen! His most favorite stuffed animal is also his smallest one, which he has named Squeakers.

2. He loves to play on the iPad. One of his favorite apps is Minecraft, and he asked for a Minecraft themed birthday party this year. Sometimes he chooses to use the Wii instead, but most of the time he picks the iPad. His two favorite educational apps on the iPad are Duolingo (for learning Spanish) and Stack the States (for learning the capitals, locations of the states, abbreviations of the states, state flags, etc.).

3. His favorite books are either Magic Tree House or Imagination Station books. He flies through those. If I ask him to read something else, it takes him a LOT longer to finish the book.

4. He's the most introverted of my three kids and the one who enjoys staying home the most. If we ever suggested our kids should go to a Christian school instead of being homeschooled, I know Ian would be the one to object the most to that notion.

5. He will be finishing his third grade math textbook before Christmas. He's about half-way through the fourth grade spelling textbook. Although he started piano lessons two years after Nadia did, he has almost caught up to where she is in her piano books. He's not efficient at getting his work done. Nadia always finishes long before he does because of his issues with focusing and staying on-task, but schoolwork comes pretty easily for him most of the time, and he generally has a good attitude. He doesn't get frustrated easily and is willing to persevere. Ian has an amazing memory for almost everything (one exception would be the sentence dictation portion of spelling); his listening skills could definitely use some improvement.

6. He loves to tell jokes (puns in particular), change the words to songs to fit a different topic, and he does an amazing job imitating different voices and sounds.

7. He loves to snuggle, cuddle, receive hugs, and be given piggy back rides. I savor those moments!

8. He loves to draw.

9. He wouldn't mind having a hot dog with ketchup and mustard on it every single day for lunch. When we don't have hot dogs, he eats a peanut butter and marmalade sandwich. He eats a wide assortment of things for breakfast and dinner. At lunch he also eats half of a golden delicious apple cut in three slices (with some peanut butter) or grapes, when we have grapes. He hates to wear socks; he takes them off as soon as we come home.

I love him ever so much! I pray he'll always want to give me hugs. He loves to spend time with Nadia. I hope that continues for many years to come, and in time I hope he also loves to spend time with Oliver. Thank you, Lord, for giving me Ian nine years ago!