James is 7

It took FOREVER for his birthday to arrive. So he got his presents in the morning.

Ever since James saw an Imaginext Dinosaur at his cousin's house, he wanted one too. I found one for sale on the classifieds in another city and took a drive for my son.

His brothers pitched in to give him more dinosaurs

All day he was happy with the Spider-Man Legos he got, but lately he's been telling me he actually wanted the more expensive Venom Mech Lego set and has gotten grumpy about it. I work so hard every day to be patient with this boy's big emotions and big feelings. I praise his curiosity and creativity for building new accessories and creations from the Lego bin that can go with his current sets.

We got to celebrate with Phin at the Richards house.

(If you want to see cute pictures of them as babies together, go back into the June 2013 archives on the right).

James gives great hugs and can go go all day then fall asleep as soon as I can get Andrew to be quiet. He can be so cute with Millie and also try to squeeze her cheeks the next moment.

He likes to think he's the same age as the older boys and therefore differences are "not fair!" He has specific foods he loves and many he hates. We had been telling him he needed to try new foods because he would be eating all kinds of things on his mission, and he wailed, "Then I don't wanna go on a mission!" So we are working on making meal times less of a battle as we encourage him to grow with confidence.

He's pretty much the same size as Andrew. I'm giving away clothes super fast as he grows out of them. And his toes were poking out of one pair of shoes. Ride hard, play hard!

Here's our kissing picture, taken by Max. With a photo bomber.