Tucker's 9th Birthday Photography

Ahhhh... somehow I am now the mother of a 9-year-old boy!  I can't believe it.  I feel ill equipped for this job.  Where is the training?  It wasn't the past eight years because I spent that time learning how to take care of a baby.  Now he is big and fast, he can actually catch me when we play duck duck goose, not that he ever wants to play it.  His preadolescent clothes look only slightly smaller than mine, and he eats more food than I do.

I feel like I've really gotten to know Tucker this year while homeschooling.  Spending day in and day out with your child kind of does that.  It is crazy to see him grow and learn.  He can multiply and divide and do other things that don't seem like little kids tasks.  

Tucker loves that he is the oldest child.  If I ever don't feel well or just say that I want a rest he love stepping up and taking care of things.  He will make everyone breakfast or lunch and loves that he can do that.  I hope he stays that way, although I know that isn't likely.  I'm prepping him for when he can babysit his younger siblings.  The sooner that days comes the better!  I honestly think he could do it right now, but I'm going to wait until he is a couple years older still, just to be on the safe side.

With the new star wars movie that came out this year Tucker has been obsessed.  He didn't watch it, but it is everywhere in the media and he loves it.  Bob also watched the older Star Wars movies with him and Tucker thought that was pretty awesome.  In fact Tucker got the piano music for the Star Wars theme song and he plays it nonstop!   Bob told me that when he got the Star Wars theme music on saxophone he played it over and over again.  Funny how these things come back.

Tucker also really likes to read!  I remember struggling teaching him to read and then forcing him to read everyday.  After he could read comfortably we let him stay up past his bedtime to read and because he wanted to stay up so badly he would actually do it.  But this past year he has really grown to love reading.  It makes me happy to see him sneaking away to read in his spare time.  When we go to the library he reads the whole drive home, and spends most of that afternoon reading all the new books he got.

Tucker also loves legos and screen time.  I let him do legos all he wants but I do limit how much time he gets to spend playing video games or watching tv.  Some days he gets about 30 minutes, some days and hour but a lot of days it is none.  He loves it so much I don't think he would ever get bored of it.  I'm sure he could go days without wanting to do anything but watch tv and play computer games.

Here is is looking "cool" in his sunglasses.

Tucker is pretty energetic and so we took this picture of him getting ready to run.  This was another pose he came up with on his own.

I love Tucker and am happy he is in our family!