Eli's birthday

Eli turned 9 a month ago.  Eli is so easy to please.  I love it.  One of my favorite things about Eli is that he still has such a great imagination.  He still is just my little Eli who likes to imagine and play and it's so sweet that his isn't too old for kid things yet.  Eli wanted a dinosaur robot and some knight's armor.  He asked for hot wings for dinner and he wanted a brownie pie.  I had never made a brownie pie but he said all he wanted was a brownie mix inside a pie crust.  Easy.  

I find so much joy in watching Eli grow.  Sometimes I watch my boys and see the changes they make from year to year and I'm just so impressed by who they are becoming.  I love the way that Eli likes to work.  He doesn't always love to do school work (he needs a lot of breaks!) but he finds satisfaction by working with his hands.  When we have projects to complete outside, Eli jumps right in and is often a harder worker than his two brothers.  He loves to serve others and be useful.  Eli has such a sweet singing voice.  For Mother's Day he wrote and sang a song for me.  It was so sweet and so cute.  The girls love Eli.  Piper follows Eli around like his faithful puppy.  She tells everyone that she is going to marry him.  He is so good with her.  She is always devastated when he tells her he "needs some space" and "can [he] please have some time alone?"  Felicity can be calmed down in seconds when he rocks her while singing.  

I could go on and on about how cool Eli is.  He has his challenges but he is working to overcome them and I'm proud of him.  I honestly can't wait to see what he's like as a teenager.  (I just don't want that time to come too quickly.  I'd like him to stay as he is for as long as I can keep him that way)