Last Year for Single-Digit Birthdays

Today marks the last year that anyone in this household is celebrating their birthday with a single-digit number.

Lucas is nine. I can't believe that next year he will already be in the double digits. I can't believe that he's nine already. Kayla was just nine!

He still enjoys Legos, reading, making things out of cardboard boxes, and soccer. A few other hobbies he's picked up are chess, Minecraft, and metal-detecting.

He still has an appetite for learning and such a kind heart. If a classmate isn't there on the day they spend their 'school bucks' at the 'school store' he buys something for them with his school bucks. We still have a jar on our counter that we put lose change/money we find in and he donates to a rotating list of charities.

He's had a wide variety of career ideas: race car driver, teacher, chef, restaurant owner, environmentalist, to now expressing an interest in being an inventor of products that will help people. He used to be adamant that he wanted to live in the jungle, now he's decided he just wants to visit.

I just can't believe he's growing up so fast. I was giving him some bedtime cuddles a few nights ago and mentioned that in a couple of years he won't want those bedtime cuddles. He insisted he would. I told him that when he's a teenager at 13 he won't want his mom giving him bedtime cuddles! He thinks he will.

He has a sense of humor, too, and I wish I could remember to write down all the funny things he says.

One of the commercials that aired during the Super Bowl was for an anti-aging cream and it started off with, "Maybe it's DNA ... Maybe it's Olay..." and Lucas says, "Maybe it's plastic surgery." It's never a dull moment!

Happy 9th Birthday, Lucas! May you continue to be a kind, caring, inquisitive, funny, creative individual who wants to save the earth!

I'll always love you more! :)