SEVEN!

Why does seven sound so much older than six? This boy who rocked my world is certainly growing up. Luckily, he still has simple pleasures like Cinnamon buns for breakfast. Yummy!



We've never intended on having birthday parties every year, but up until now, we've done it. This year Dan and I both had significant amounts of travel for work so parties were just too much. Instead, Tyler was told he would receive a larger gift. If you had asked me a year ago, I would have said that my children would not have something like an iPod Touch before they reached double digits, but of the two large gifts he requested, this seemed a better fit for Ty (after much research).

Here he is opening the touch. I have to say, it isn't as bad as I thought it would be. We've found games that he enjoys playing that force him to read and there is even an app to load his spelling words to prepare him for weekly tests. The app that identifies stars and constellations is very cool. Unfortunately Tyler has discovered that he can take video... he finds himself hilarious. And, yes, the whole family is currently addicted to angry birds... even Ryan.

Tyler was treated to his favorite diner at Moe's.

And then we headed downtown to see the tree lighting. Is this face what I'll have to endure with big boys?

After the tree lighting, we were treated to fire works. It was a nice start to the holiday season.

Finally it was time for cake. Much to my disappointment, Tyler wanted a store-bought cake. I suppose that from the perspective of a seven year old boy, a cake with a big Oreo cookie on it is pretty hard to resist.

Ryan was excited as well.

While we intended for the touch to be Tyler's only gift from us, there was one more thing that we couldn't resist... an old fashioned cap gun. Tyler loves shows like How It's Made and over the summer Wild West Toys was featured. They're right here in the U.S. and make these cap guns using vintage molds. This is the real deal... you can open it up, change the springs, the barrel rolls and has fake bullets. Even the holster is substantial. I have to say I was shocked when I saw it. I didn't expect it to be that big or look as real as it does. You can't even see the orange plug from the side! So, Tyler received two gifts for his birthday and neither is allowed to leave our house!

So far he's understanding the rules (I'm writing this 12/11). In addition to not taking it off our property, he's learned to open it a certain way and not to point it at people.

There are some parents who would cringe at what we allowed on this birthday. I know I would have a few years ago. But, I'm learning to back off a bit and trust my boy.

This birthday also brought a funny from Ryan. I was making something on the stove and wanted to distract Ryan who wanted to help so I asked him to go find out what Daddy was doing. He ran off and returned a minute later to exclaim "Mommy! Daddy is playing with Tyler's eyeball!!" Ha! I guess iPod is a weird word.