Eight years old! I cannot believe this precious boy has been with us for eight years. This year his birthday fell on Easter Sunday. So here he was with his best buddy on his birthday.
And here was his lemon cake with edible glitter, as he requested:
So another year has passed us by. While some days Thomas can be a bit of a challenge, most of the time he is a sweet-hearted boy who loves his brother dearly (when he's not fussing and bickering with him!).
Thomas likes to think of himself as "the funny guy" and the class clown, and he usually wants others to see him that way too. He's not really our risk taker, but he loves to do what he wants to do, when he wants to do it.
He is in second grade this year and it has been a good year for him. He still excels at reading, but math has been a bit of a challenge for him. It's not that he's truly struggling in it, he just gets frustrated because it doesn't come as easily as reading does for him. As he builds up his confidence in his math abilities (i.e. timed addition and subtraction tests) he is doing much better. Essentially though Thomas' greatest enemy is his own laziness! His handwriting is sloppy because he's too lazy most of the time to put for the effort to be neater, and math is much the same. He's doing fine though and his teacher this year has been PERFECT for him. She's pretty strict with things like handwriting, but she is exactly who he needed to have this year. She's been working with him and recognizing his strengths and weaknesses and I've been incredibly thankful for her. I've been able to participate in a few classroom events this year and he really does seem to have a great teacher and a great group of kids in his class. Here he was when I went with him to see the play Annie last December at the Dock Street Theater.
I can't believe I don't have a picture ready of him reading. I guess I see him do it all the time and at some point I stopped taking pictures of it. He leaves books basically anywhere he might need to sit for more than a minute and he is always picking up a book and reading (at the table, on the stairs when we put on his shoes, in the car, in the bathroom, etc.). It's so interesting to go back and see how he has truly had a love of books since he was big enough to hold a book up for himself. He used to just stair and the pages and try to remember the words as I had read them to him, and now he just reads and reads and reads. He'd stay up until midnight reading every night if we'd let him. I don't know how he never falls asleep reading but he doesn't. It's crazy. I wish I could read like he does!
In addition to reading, he loves being outside and doing anything (playing "war" with his neighborhood friends, riding bikes or other wheeled vehicles and playing sports like football). While we don't let the boys play video games all that often, when they do (particularly when they get to go to a place with larger video games), he does love them. He especially loves the ones he can "drive."
During the winter time he was a bit obsessed with his dream of some snow and despite several forecasts that seem to indicate it would be possible, we never really saw any enjoyable accumulation. His best chance was during a fake "snow" event held as a charity fundraiser in Mt. Pleasant. I've never seen a boy so happy to have a "snowball."
As I was looking for photos to share from my phone, I found this one and thought I'd use it as an opportunity to talk about one of his biggest changes this year. He here he was months ago playing with one of his favorite foods -- a piece of cheese.
Unfortunately, that favorite snack has been removed from his diet. When he was a baby, even though he never tested positive for a milk allergy, it became quite clear that he could not tolerate it (it caused eczema and GI issues -- spitting up). He was about 3 when he was finally able to have (cow's) milk, and by then he was so used to soy milk that he didn't like the cow version. But he did like yogurt and cheese and most especially PIZZA. But soon after, we realized he was having a new type of GI issue. Also, I guess somewhere along there, we started noticing he had dry patches of skin that would sometimes bother him and become itchy. The allergist would treat the eczema and sometimes it would be really bad, so we finally saw a dermatologist. He prescribed more treatments and ointments for the eczema. He continued seeing the GI specialist for those other issues.
To make a long story short, we saw a new GI nurse practitioner after the return of some of the more serious GI symptoms late last year. It didn't take her long to offer her opinion -- he never really outgrew the milk allergy/intolerance. She said it would explain all of his symptoms. She sent us back to the allergist for more testing. And now a little more than a month later, we have found that his symptoms almost disappear when he doesn't have milk. Also, the skin testing at the allergist revealed a negative to cow's milk, but a positive to casein (the major protein that makes up cow's milk). Then he had a second round of blood tests and while I have not been able to fully discuss with the allergist, the blood test showed a negative to casein, but a positive (very slight) to cow's milk.
So what does this mean? It means he is most likely allergic or intolerant of milk. We hope he will outgrow it, but in the meantime we have turned to a daily smoothie to get a heavy dose of daily fiber, calcium and other nutrients -- without the dairy.
He misses pizza and we allow him to cheat every once in awhile, but it really is making a difference. Oh, and in related news, the allergist wanted us to further investigate his peanut allergy to try to determine the severity of it. The findings weren't what we really hoped for, but not too surprising either. His peanut allergy has worsened to the point that it is highly unlikely he will ever outgrow it, and he is at an increased likelihood of having a severe reaction if ever exposed to peanuts. Sigh.
In other news, he's pretty busy this season with sports. Even though I kind of tried to talk him out of it, he wanted to play soccer again (he played it in the fall as well). He's not the star of the team, but he tries hard and he is improving. He also asked to be on his school's tennis team (even though he had never picked up a racquet in his life!). He's having fun with that.
He will be starting swim team in a couple weeks, and he also is still active with the cub scouts. This year he placed first among the wolf scouts in his pack at the Pinewood Derby. He just missed out on a trip to regionals with his fourth place finish overall. He was mighty proud. :)
He is a sweet boy and while sometimes he gives us fits with what I am sure are normal growing pains, in the end he makes us proud more than he makes us crazy. He has handled his new diet restrictions very well. One of the things I love most about him is how much he takes care of little ones. He sometimes tries a little hard to be cool around his buddies, but he is good about looking out for the little ones. He is funny and charming and I love him so.
Happy birthday Thomas. Thank you for all the joy you bring into our lives. Just try not to let the next eight years pass by so quickly!
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