My big 7 year old

Otherwise known as how can this sweet little thing be 7 years old?

Seven years ago today I went into the hospital around 6 in the morning to be induced, a week late I might add. After a quick labor, including me wanting to push and the nurses saying, no don't push the dr's not here yet. And then at a little after 2 in the afternoon Alex made his world debut. The dr. barely managed to get there and catch him. He was in a hurry to see the world I guess. He was a big boy then, although you'd never know it now.
This is Alex's first trip to Lakeside. He was a whole month old and grandma already had him fishing. We're at the lake today too and Alex can't wait to fish this week. I guess that's what happens when you start them out early.


Alex was such a smiley baby. This is his first Christmas in his exersaucer. He loved to bounce in the exersaucer and spent most of that Christmas bouncing everywhere he possibly could. He never stopped moving or smiling and he hated being held. He couldn't see what was going on if you were holding him.

Once again here is mister smiley sitting in Grandpa's big chair checking out the world.

This is by far my favorite picture of Alex as a baby, unless you count the naked ones with this hat on. But I'd never put those pictures on here. That might be embarassing. Then again, maybe next year.

I loved this hat on him. He got it for Christmas and it was just the cutest thing. Of course what you can't see here is the deep lines it was cutting into his head, because he'd already outgrown it, but mommy wasn't going to let that stop her from getting a cute picture with it on.

Isn't he such a doll. He always smiled for his pictures. Now he grimaces for his pictures. Nothing like a fake smile. He was so cute he even was a model for Kohl's and was in a couple of adds. That was always so fun to see. Our boy in print.

Now to the present. This is a picture of him at Kindergarten graduation with his teacher. He absolutely loved school and had an amazing teacher this year. I can't believe he's going to be in first grade this year. How can that little boy be this old already.

This year we too him to a Brewer game and he loved it. It helped that he's playing baseball and is starting to understand what is happening. Although, he was a little ticked off that we had to leave before the end of the game. Little brother had had enough and daddy had a barbeque to go to and was already late. Oh well, maybe next year we can stay for the whole game. Alex loves being a helper and here he was in charge of carrying all the drinks to the car.

This is our budding tennis pro. He took tennis classes for the first time and loved it. Did I say loved it. He's really hoping to get a tennis racket and is totally disappointed that he didn't get one before we came to the lake. He's just going to have to use one of daddy's to play while we're here. Little does he know that his Uncle Brian got him a racket for his birthday. Boy is he going to be a happy camper when he opens that one!

Can you tell how much he loves to play. I haven't seen him grin that big in a while.

This last picture is of my boy running home during the relay race for his last day of baseball. He enjoyed it, but wasn't excited about it. Although he's already said he wants to do it next year. We'll see how he feels next year.

Now that I've done the smiley pictures and the sports pictures I wouldn't be telling the whole story of Alex if I didn't include that my boy is a huge, and I mean huge reader. He just spent several days trying to read one of my books, yes an adult book. And was doing a pretty good job of it. He's was getting the jist of the story, but didn't quite get the bigger words. So, I pulled the plug and said we'd work on reading it together. I'm sure I'll have quite a few pictures of him this week sitting in the hammock or on the swing reading.

So here ends my story of Alex, somehow I don't feel as if I've done justice to the amazing boy that he is. He has such a kind, loving heart and is growing so fast, sometimes it blows my mind.

Happy birthday, Alex! We love you!