9.5 years old!

Although I definitely am making progress in moving back towards feeling "normal," I definitely haven't arrived there yet. For example, I had zero desire to take our traditional wearing green pics on St. Patrick's Day this year, but I did take a Memorial Day picture of the boys wearing red, white, and blue. Well today it hit me that I missed Ian's half birthday two days ago. Yesterday I received some unpleasant news, and when that happens I typically take a break from blogging, but when I realized I was two days late in writing about Ian, I didn't want to be any tardier than I already was. Considering for years I used to write a post about each child far more often than twice a year, I'm not ready to cut back to just once a year. I looked through the post I wrote about him six months ago. Most things haven't changed - Legos and stuffed animals are still his favorites.

Since Uncle Maurice passed away, he's been playing on Maurice's Nintendo Switch instead of the iPad. He still loves Magic Tree House and Imagination Station books, but

lately his favorite author has been Dick King-Smith. He's also read Paddington Bear books and books by Andrew Clements recently. One other thing that changed from the list is that his favorite food at lunch these days is a bologna sandwich on honey wheat bread with mustard. He likes the sandwich to be warmed a few seconds in the microwave. He still likes peanut butter and marmalade sandwiches or hotdogs, but bologna is his current favorite. Over the past six months his typing speed really improved, and over the last school year he learned to write in cursive. He's switched to wearing sneakers that have shoe laces (no more Velcro); he's doing well with tying his own shoes. Although his fear of heights still pops up now and then (ex. refused to try the zipline last month), he's making progress as he did climb all the stairs up to the crown of the Statue of Liberty and he also climbed farther up the rock wall than he ever had before.

I can't believe in just six months he'll hit double digits. EEK! Although Oliver loves snuggling just as much as Ian does, of my

three kids Ian is definitely the one who is "Mommy's boy." He'd be content to just stay home with me most of the time. The other two have much stronger desires to be with other people and be out and about. He'll be spending seven nights at Camp Susque for the first time later this month. Hopefully he'll have a great time. He has a beautiful voice, and I'm hoping that he'll continue using that for the Lord for years to come. He hasn't been baptized yet because he is intimated by the interview (that is shown on video prior to the baptism). Hopefully he'll overcome that fear as well. I love our middle child to pieces. I treasure every day I get to spend with him. When he says he wants to live next door to me when he grows up, I don't argue with that! Heaven knows what will actually happen, but living close to my children when they are adults sounds lovely to me. Happy belated half birthday, Ian! We shall see if Ian starts saying he is 9 1/2 years old. Oliver certainly never says he's 6; he always says he's 6 1/2 years old. That 1/2 is important to many kids!