Seven years old! Where does the time go?

Seven years ago today, I was in the hospital giving birth to Alex. Today, he is proudly wearing his dinosaur 7 birthday shirt and talking about the dinosaur exhibit we are seeing this weekend. Tonight we will go out to dinner at his choice of restaurant. Today, we celebrate 7 years of this amazing boy.

Every year, I find that I am looking back on him over the years and seeing how far he has come.

When he started preschool at 3 ½, we had a hard time understanding what he was saying because he was skipping sounds in words. It was cuh instead of cup, saa instead of snack. When he talked, it was nearly impossible to understand because sounds were stringing together into nonsense words. It’s taken a lot of time and effort, frustrations and tears, celebration and rewards, but now his speech is a lot better. We still have days where we need to make him repeat a word correctly, but they are far fewer than the several times a day it used to be.

With his ADHD diagnosis at 4, I was not sure what to expect. His teachers have worked with him and worked with us and we have found a lot of triggers and coping skills for his hyperactivity and impulse control. When it got to the point where we needed more than just coping skills, we looked into adding medication. It has made a difference for him, both on and off the medication.

The one thing that has not changed, and hopefully never will, is how sweet, caring, and full of love he is. He asks us often if we are proud of him (always yes), tries to help where he can with laundry or dishes, calms his sister down when she is upset, and stands up to bullies when they are mean to his classmate. His favorite phrase to say is “I love you” and his favorite activity is anything that includes the whole family.

I feel so blessed to have him as my son and I can’t wait to see what the future holds for him.