Happy Birthday, Z-man!

Our little Z-man isn't so little anymore! He is officially 7 years old now. Or 7 years and 6 hours old, he would like you to know:)

I usually relive my memories of each kiddos birth on their birthday but I have barely had the chance to think today and it's still so hard for me to wrap my mind around his age! He was the cutest little baby, with his full head of dark hair and his little triangle-shaped nostrils:) He was loud, too!

And....that hasn't changed!

Since he is getting a multi-day birthday celebration and this is is off-year for a party, I wanted to do a little something to make him feel special today. Ben and I decorated a birthday chair for him and blew up 7 balloons!

He came down to his "throne" and a special breakfast of mini chocolate chip pancake muffins, OJ and scrambled eggs! A good start:)

He is so darn cute! I think he looks so grown-up in this picture! He used to be SO chubby and he has gotten so lean, which is pretty amazing, quite frankly, considering how much he loves to eat! haha. Such a sweet boy.

After school, I had his presents from Grandma waiting by his throne and he was very excited to open them!

This is a classic Zakkai face right here, folks. This means he really likes something! He's a goofy kid, alright!

A few things about our Zany Zakkai:

*He loves his name! And it really suits him, too. Only one random person ever tried to shorten it to "Zak" on purpose and we quickly nipped that in the bud. But people most often glance at his name and call him "Zachary" or "Zakkaia" (with an "a" sound on the end).

*His favorite color is red. He decided that a long time ago when he realized Samuel's favorite color was also red. Samuel tried his darndest to get Z to change it to orange (which is Z's 2nd favorite color!) but red stuck:)

*He is crazy about reading! His top favorites are Magic Tree House, Diary of a Wimpy Kid and information books. We started reading to all of our kiddos at very young ages (2 months old) regularly and we have always encouraged it and make regular trips to the library. I think it's rubbing off!

*Zakkai is insanely and mysteriously good at figuring out how electronics work. He is naturally mechanically-minded and at Christmas time, he was the one who was able to help my grandparents figure out how some of their own electronics worked! He has a snap-circuit set we got him for Christmas last year and he just adores it. It fits him to a tee!

*Zakkai is a master at the coolest Lego inventions! Probably because of his engineering mind! I will have to take pictures sometime of his inventions. Maybe he will invent something for real someday...

*Z adores math! It just blossomed this year. We found out before Christmas that he was in the highest math class and we had no idea! He is in Math Club right now and it's too easy for him but he loves it:) He finished his first math book for the year last week and got a brand-new one yesterday. He talked about it for days, he was so excited. I was never excited about math so this is foreign to me!

*He loves to be tickle tortured by Daddy. He would not admit it to you and often cries wolf and screams like you wouldn't believe! But he always comes back for more and his giggle is heart-warming!

*Z is very bossy. Oh yes. He figured out the one person he can boss around is Little Sister and he takes full advantage of it! We call him our "policeman" and often have to crack down on him and get him to be gentler with his words and less "daddy-like" with her. He means well....

*His favorite foods are spaghetti and chocolate! He very very recently stopped calling it "pasketti" because Samuel kept correcting him. He loves the sauce most of all and lots of it! And every birthday without exception, he asks for a chocolate cake:) That's my boy!

*His least favorite foods are peanut butter (never tried it and refuses to!) and potatoes. Excepting french fries:) He didn't believe us for the longest time that french fries were made out of potatoes but we finally convinced him. All other forms of potatoes cause a serious look of disgust on his face and he can barely choke them down.

*Zakkai talks in his sleep and we can get him up to go to the bathroom and have conversations with him and he never remembers a thing in the morning! He even fell out of bed last week and called for me and tried really hard to tell me something and had no idea it happened.

Zakkai is smart and funny, vibrant and spunky, sweet and eager to please. We are so thankful for this person who brings so much life and joy to our home. He may give us some gray hairs sometimes but we wouldn't trade him in for anything in the world! He is a special one-of-a kind boy and we adore him!

Happy Birthday, Zakkai! We love you!