In the middle

With three siblings both above and below you in age, that's exactly where we find you, Tyden. Smack dab in the center, the youngest of the older kids/the oldest of the younger kids. You have long been and continue to remain our most intense child ((by far!)). I often wonder if your position in the family - middlehood - has anything to do with  that.

Your laughter is positively infectious. When you start, you laugh hard making everyone around you laugh also. Our family's class clown, you are clever, quick witted, and sharp as a tack. You understand concepts and retain information effortlessly, and you hold an uncanny ability for recounting exactly what you've learned.

When I find bits and pieces of disassembled objects lying about the house, I know my Tyden was near. Always, always, always, ALWAYS fidgeting with whatever you can find to hold in your hands, you have an absolute eagerness for taking things apart...but not always for putting them back together. ☺ You can spend hours on end playing Legos, complete with the most amazing little boy sound effects. A techie at heart, you are forever asking if you can do chores to earn computer time. It's calming to you. I know that from one day very soon forward, I will be calling on you to solve all our technological issues. I have no doubt you will teach me to use my electronics.

Not usually the most confident in a social setting, you have a strong desire to be liked, invited, included, seen, heard, and will often sit out on the side, alone, unless there is someone there to guide you along, pull you out. 

A man of rituals, each night, before bed, we have our routine you must do to usher you off to rest. A prayer, a hug, the sound machine turned on, the night light plugged in, you telling me I'm the best mom in west and you love me from here to the Appalachians to the Himalayas and back again 67 gazillion trillion million billion times, you asking me to tell dad he is the best dad in the west.

Tyden, I am so glad you were born. Getting to know you, with all your wonderful idiosyncrasies, has taught your dad and I so much about life and love and personality and people being exactly who they are. Daily, you are showing us about working with, valuing, embracing, understanding, what is innate. You are a unique gift to us. We are confident in you, our sweet son.

You're the best boy in the west and I love you from here to the Appalachians to the Himalayas and back 67 gazillion trillion million billion times, my baby boy.

Happy 8th year.