10 Years

Wow, I can't believe my little boy turned 10 years old today! He is so excited to be in "double digits." We're very glad that we have McKay in our family. I know he feels a little outnumbered frequently but he usually puts up with his sisters pretty well. :-)

When I asked him what kind/theme of cake he wanted this year, he thought for quite a while before finally saying "I don't know - maybe a computer?" (Apparently he doesn't have a very strong preference like the girls usually do.) So this is what I came up with:


He requested pizza for dinner (as he does every year!), which we had to eat a little early because he had to go to Scouts tonight. After dinner was time for presents and cake.


This is the first present he opened:


You would think a 10-year-old boy wouldn't be so excited about a lullaby CD of Christmas bedtime songs. But, as I've said before, McKay doesn't always fit the "mold" for a typical 10-year-old boy. I got him this CD because he loves the other one we have (Primary songs for bedtime). He listens to it every night as he falls asleep. The girls frequently complain that they've heard it too many times, but he always wants the same one. So when I saw they also had one of Christmas songs, I thought he might like it. And he did.

This was his main present from Mom & Dad:



It's labeled as a Walkman, but it sure isn't like the Walkman I used to have. :-) This one is an MP3/video player for his long bus rides.

We also gave him a set of 3 books (by Andrew Clements) and then he was excited for this big present from Grandpa & Grandma and Uncle Tyler.


He can't wait to try it out on our property!

Our friends the Roberts came to pick him up for Scouts and brought him another present:


Yes, McKay has finally joined the Star Wars world. :-) It's taken him a while, but he started watching some of the new Clone Wars animated series on TV and then wanted to watch the movies. So far he's watched the original trilogy (which are still my favorites) and then he's watched the first one, plus part of the second. In the past he's always been too scared to watch more intense movies like this, but now he seems to enjoy them.

We had cake and ice cream -- and several attempts at blowing out the candles. I think he pretty much got one candle per blow. :-)



McKay is definitely his Dad's buddy. He absolutely adores his dad and wants to be doing whatever it is his dad is doing. He also has his dad's engineer mind, I think, because he is very logical and does well with math and science. He loves learning about how things work and taking things apart. His favorite TV shows are on either the Discovery Channel or the History Channel. He usually prefers to read non-fiction over fiction. He does well at school and I get lots of compliments on how well-behaved he is.

McKay is learning how to play the piano and enjoys playing sports to a certain degree. He is probably the most shy of our kids and takes a bit longer to warm up to people or to speak up. He can be a great helper when I need him to be. We love having him in our family!

I was going to try to pick out some personality shots of him over the years, but it's getting too late and I have way too many pictures to sort through. :-) So I just pulled one from around his birthday each year to see how my little boy is definitely growing up!

1998...


1999 (age 1)...


2000 (age 2)...


2001 (age 3)...


2002 (age 4)...


2003 (age 5)...


2004 (age 6)...


2005 (age 7)...


2006 (age 8)...


2007 (age 9)...


2008 (age 10!)...