Bryce turns 9

Last week Bryce celebrated his ninth birthday.  Even he couldn't believe he was so old, saying, "It just doesn't seem real that I can already be nine!"

To be honest, eight was a challenging year.  The second half was significantly better than the first, but I'm still not too sad to be kicking eight to the curb and starting fresh with nine.

Since his birthday fell on a Sunday this year, his celebrations stretched out over the week prior.  As is our tradition, he got to choose all the dinner meals for his birthday week.  His selections included: au jus sandwiches, pizza, chicken burgers, tortellini, and tacos.  At least he prefers foods that are super easy to prepare!

On the Wednesday before his birthday, all the Cub Scouts got to make and decorate a cake for Pack Meeting based on the theme "Our National Treasures."  Bryce chose to make a Grand Canyon cake.  He loved getting to make the batter! Makes me realize I need to get him working in the kitchen more.

He learned that frosting a cake is a lot harder than it looks!

He was quite pleased with how the cake turned out.  He was even more pleased with his excellent idea to make "rocks" by melting chocolate chips, then putting them in the freezer, then breaking them apart.  He insists that from now on, he wants to try to decorate his own birthday cakes.

On Friday night, Bryce chose to go out to eat at Habit Burger.  He insists it's his "Happy Place." Mark said it felt like going to the restaurant was becoming a habit. Aubree joked that it was Bryce's natural habitat.

On Saturday, Bryce had a choice to make - go to his scheduled soccer game, or go bowling at the annual NOAH (National Organization for Albinism and Hypopigmentation) Bowl-a-thon.  He chose bowling, and had a great time supporting his cousin, Dallin.

His good feelings about his choice were bolstered when he bowled a strike his second turn.  Getting a couple cupcakes didn't hurt either.

Sunday, Bryce completed his birthday celebrations by opening presents and having neighbors over for pie and ice cream (despite his stated desire to decorate his own cakes, he actually prefers to have pudding pie). 

 

For gifts, he received walkie talkies and a new bike (that he will get to help choose).  He's made good use of the walkie talkies with his neighborhood friends.  They're also quite convenient when he wants to go out to play without Mark or I supervising.  In those situations, he leaves one of his walkie talkies behind, and we can easily check in with him. 

It's such a joy to celebrate this boy!  Though he has his struggles (the baby talk is an ongoing issue), he's intelligent, loving, thoughtful, helpful, and hard working. 

He is currently fascinated by all things technological, especially computers and robotics.  He wants to understand how they all function.  Recently, he devoured short biographies of Steve Jobs and Bill Gates.  He's also spending a lot of time reading books about programming, coding, and how computers work.  Thank goodness for books and libraries, because I know exactly nothing about all of these topics!

Bryce also has a big imagination and big dreams.  He and Thane have been plotting with neighborhood friends to build their own helicopter.  All the other kids think about it when Bryce mentions the idea, but Bryce makes plans every day.  I snapped this picture of him working on his "helicopter stuff" and asked him to explain what he was doing.  Here's what he said: "We're planning to build a helicopter. I've been cutting out advertisements of pictures of things we want for our helicopter.  Then, I glue the pictures onto poster boards.  I label the every single picture with a code number, G7 for example.  So far, we've gotten to R18.  Each letter goes up to 40."

He definitely has an engineer's mind!

Bryce loves friends.  He always has a girl or two that he finds extra enticing.  Recently, he's begun caring a little more about his appearance, and when he knows he'll be seeing one of these friends, he makes sure his hair looks just right. Yeah.  Teenage years are gonna be awesome.

Overall, I'm thinking nine looks pretty good on him!

An Interview with Bryce:

Favorite Color?: "Green."

Favorite Candy?:  "Charleston Chews and Kit Kats."

What do you want to be when you grow up?: "Pet store owner or a robot designer at Boston Dynamics.”

Where do you want to go on your mission?: "California, because maybe I could visit the restaurant run entirely by robots."

Favorite Primary Song?: "'Come Follow Me' and "As a Child of God'."

Favorite Animal?: "Otters and Beavers and Wombats."

Favorite Movie?: "'Dreamer' and 'Cars'."

Favorite Thing to Do?: "Probably playing Helicopter and playing with my friends."

Favorite Food: "Au Jus sandwiches and tortellini."

Best Friends?: "Emerie, Asher, Brock, and Charlotte."

Favorite Book?: "Who Is Bill Gates?."

Favorite Toy?: "My walkie talkies."

What makes you happy?: "Playing with friends."

Favorite thing to do with Mom?: "Go out to dinner."

Favorite thing to do with Dad?: "Go on Father-son outings and play board games."

What do you do really well?: "I do my hair really well.  Cleaning.  I have a good brain for planning stuff."

What makes you laugh?: "Aubree tickling me."

What’s the best time of day?: "When the Kerby's come home from school and I get to go get the mail."
What's your favorite day of the week?: "Probably Fridays, because I don't have to do very much school work and they're just fun days."

What are you afraid of?: "When people say 'Boo!' only when I'm not expecting it.  Or, when I'm in the garage and people open the garage door unexpectedly."

What do you like to do with your family?: "Play board games on Sunday nights."

What do you love to learn about?: "Electronics."

What is your favorite class/subject?: “Probably cursive, because it's an easy, cool thing to do and you get to do a lot of loops.”

Where do you like to go?: "To Farelli's and to my friend's houses.”

If you had one wish, what would it be?: "To be a billionaire, because then I could make all my plans actually happen."

What would you do if you had $1,000?: "Buy helicopter stuff."

What is your favorite song?: "'Sugar You', by Oh Honey."

What do you hope you can do before your next birthday?: "Earn at least $100 in chores." 

What's your favorite Super Hero?: "Batman and Green Arrow."