Happy Birthday Kyle

Today is Kyle's 12th Birthday. He was born when Andrew was in his last year of graduate school and just finishing up his PhD. Shortly after he was born we moved to New Mexico.

Kyle was one of those challenging babies. It is amazing we were brave enough to have any more after him. As an infant he needed to be in constant contact with his mom or he cried, and cried, and cried, (really, screamed, and screamed, and screamed). We had much sympathy for our neighbors. He would not nap for more than 3 minutes if he was not being held. He stopped napping totally at 18 mos. He didn't believe in binkies, bottles or being fed solid foods.

Kyle is a very determined individual. This is both good and bad, depending on the situation and the mood of those around him. For the most part he pushes himself to be the best. Currently he is the most advanced math student his teacher has ever had.

He is a very creative writer, and I am truly amazed by his abilities. He always goes way beyond on school writing assignments, when assigned a paragraph, it becomes a whole essay, a short story is several pages long. In first grade he was very proud of himself for writing the longest story in his class. It actually had a plot and made sense. In middle school his stories rival the books that he reads. (ok, maybe I am a little biased here)

In our family he is known for his incredible insights. Once while travelling we asked the kids why they just couldn't be good. Kyle's response was "We are being perfectly good, just not from your perspective."

And Cammie says that sometimes he is good and nice.

(meditating before opening presents)