I can't believe Eli is 7!

Words have escaped me as I sit here trying to wrap my head around the fact that my baby is now 7 years old.  It hardly seems possible that he could be growing so fast and yet I feel like he has been a part of me my whole life.  Or rather my life did not really begin until I had my kids.  Each stage Eli has been through has been an amazing adventure.  Although they seemed scary at the beginning, they have all turned out to be my favorite at the time.  Eli has always been a good listener which he started the day he was born on July 22, 2003, his due date.  It took only 6 minutes from the time I got in the hospital for him to sweetly answer his mother's prayers to get out of me.  He took his time talking though, boy has that changed.  He has gone from squinting to glasses to contacts. Walking when he was nine months old to full head-first dives now.  He is a rather picky eater, video game addict who stills knows how to melt his mommy's heart only now he is too old to call me mommy.  "It's just mom, what do you think I am a baby or something." He wouldn't sell his first lost tooth because he said he would miss it.  He begged me to get him two legos for his birthday so that both him and Donald could have the Prince of Persia swords. He told me today that since it was his birthday tonight he was going to grow and it would make his legs hurt, but he knew it would be ok because he knew I would rub them until they didn't hurt anymore.  Each part of his life has been a learning experience and as soon as I have a phase understood he moves on to the next one.  So what do I do when he moves on to one that doesn't involve me?  I need a slowmotiononator so the next seven years will not go by as fast as the last seven years have.  Regardless though, I love him more than life and I could never live without him.  He has that third piece of my heart, which I am sure he keeps in some random plastic bin with assorted legos, but I wouldn't have it any other way.  I love you Eli, Happy Birthday!