William: Ten Years!

So I haven't made any final decisions about this, but I'm thinking that ten will be the last year of birthday updates for my boys on my cozy little corner of the internet. I like to think that my children don't run the risk of being tracked to this blog by their peers, and I try to make a point not to share anything distasteful anyway, but I also know the preteen and teenage years can be rough, and I don't need to run the risk of exacerbating that by something I might put on here. Plus--let's be honest--I'm always behind on them anyway and it's something I could afford to start weaning off my plate sooner than later. And to my sister-in-law who might be reading this and worried that she won't have as many pictures to use for the family calendar--I'll try to do better about texting you a handful throughout the year. You just might need to remind me at first. 

What is your favorite color? Blue

What is your favorite animal? Cheetah

What is your favorite book? Alcatraz vs the Evil Librarians

Fairly typical William--book in hand (although not Alcatraz--this was taken shortly after he flew through the six-book Alcatraz series) and annoyed with something I'm doing (taking his picture, in this case). Teenage years are going to be fuuuun with this one

What is your favorite song? Old Church Choir

What is your favorite sport? Soccer

Soccer may be his favorite sport, but piano is still a favorite pastime. Nothing like knocking out a few songs on the piano before a 9AM soccer game!

What is your favorite thing to do with Mom? Play catch

What is your favorite thing to do with Dad? Play kickball

If we hadn't JUST been at the lake and playing kickball the week before his birthday I daresay he would have answered this question differently. Or maybe not--I suppose there's a chance he doesn't like having to share his Christmas gift with Daddy because Daddy also likes solving logic puzzles 

What is your favorite thing to do outside? Play soccer

Where is your favorite place to go? Air Madness

I know he SAID Air Madness, but I'm going to throw the challenge flag. This picture and the one below were taken almost exactly four years apart, and train shows still excite him like they did when he was a little kid. It's a crazy expensive hobby that I really don't want him to get into, but man does he love all things model trains 

What is your favorite fruit? Pear

What is your favorite vegetable? Cauliflower

What is your favorite cereal? Lucky Charms

What is your favorite treat? Eileen's Colossal Cookies

What is your favorite meal? Beer Cheese Soup

What makes you happy? Cake. No, wait--solving the Rubix's cube from memory

Not a Rubix cube, but. In August, when I was in MSP running my triathlon, Darrell and the boys stayed with my cousins, and William convinced my cousin to let him take apart and reassemble his 600+ piece Lego jeep

Which, thanks to an unplanned layover in Minneapolis due to weather after our Thanksgiving trip to NC, he did. And man, was he excited

What makes you sad? When people tell me lies

Who are your best friends? Aiden, Zoey, Bennett

His friend Zoey was one of the performers in a local production of "A Christmas Carol" and I loooved getting to take William (and Garrett) to the performance. Live theater is the best

What do you want to be when you grow up? Astronomer

What was your favorite part about last year? Beach Week

All smiles. All week. Beach Week is the best

What is one thing you want to do this year? Go to a Vikings game

Hopefully the Vikings excite a little more than they were in this picture (although let's be honest, it's the Vikings, so that's probably unlikely), but for his (belated!) 10th birthday outing, we are in fact going to a Vikings game in September. The countdown is on!

Honestly, I don't even know what else to say. Not only am I so far behind on this post, but there's just so much to say and yet so much that feels repetitive of previous years that I wouldn't even know where to start--or where to end, for that matter. So, pictures it is, along with probably far too lengthy of explanations.

Music is a huge love language for this kid. It's all very mathematical and precise for him, and I doubt he would do well in a jazz musician situation where he had to ad lib, but reading notes off a page and turning them into music is something he is exceptionally talented at doing. And yes, even when we are on an airplane without an instrument in sight, he's still pulling out music and air playing

Braces! Just four across the front, and he also had an expander in place to help widen his jaw to make room for said front teeth. He only had them on September to March, and there's a good chance he'll need them back on (plus more), even with the retainer he has to wear nightly, but he tolerated it all pretty well, so hopefully that will continue

He's made plenty of comments about preferring the warm weather to the cold, and seventy degree weather days are "perfect" days according to him, but when we manage to find the right kind of cold-weather activities for him to do, it makes me feel like I have just a little bit of hope for keeping him at least somewhat close to the Midwest when he gets older

Not only is William well on his way to driving the pontoon on his own at the lake, but he's desperate to drive the lawn mower independently as well. Mom is not so thrilled with that, but fortunately he's content (for now) to just ride along with Grandpa (or Uncle Mike, or Uncle Nick, or Dad, or whoever is driving)

So William has definitely been more affectionate with Theodore--my sister's youngest--than he really has with any of his other cousins/brothers when they were infants, but it's also progressed into more tolerance/closeness with some of his other cousins. It doesn't always happen, but he also doesn't always brush them off immediately and sometimes even initiates cuddliness with them (of course, Rose isn't actually sleeping here, but still) 

I know I alluded to his swimming confidence last year, but honestly, most of it was just heard second-hand because I never really got to see his swim lessons last year. This year, however, I was there for most of his lessons and while he certainly won't be winning any races, it was very enjoyable to see how comfortably he could swim the length of the pool (I don't know that I'll ever be ready to let him ditch the life jacket at the lake though--the water is just so murky!)

Not only is he usually pretty willing to play piano for an audience, but he also seems to have very few issues with public speaking (which I feel like I've probably already mentioned, but whatever). This was from Palm Sunday when he was part of a reader's theater message sharing the passion story and he barely flinched through the whole thing (I think I was more nervous listening than he was reading!)

Can't believe you are ten kiddo and so glad I get to call you mine! (And yes, that is an eye ball cake. Matthew had a garbage truck cake and Garrett had a dirt and worms cake, so William decided he needed a gross cake too. We'll see if Connor continues the trend in September--or more likely November when I actually get around to posting his update!!)