Kelly Ripa's youngest is officially an adult!
The Live with Kelly and Ryan host, 50, posted a video on Instagram for Joaquin's 18th birthday on Wednesday, sharing a sweet montage of photos of him growing up.
"Joaquin 18!!!! ♥️💕🎂🎊🎁💥💙" she wrote. "Happy birthday to the light of our lives! You fill everyday with joy, and make everything better! We love you to the moon and beyond 🌕💫."
Joaquin is the youngest of three children whom Ripa shares with husband Mark Consuelos. His older siblings are Lola, 19, and Michael, 23.
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Earlier this month, the proud mom opened up on her show about Joaquin's college decision and the hard work he put in to get there. She explained that Joaquin has dyslexia and dysgraphia, the latter of which affects a person's writing abilities.
"Joaquin is trying to decide on a college right now, and he's got lots of options," Ripa said on the show.
"Mark and I were FaceTiming the other night. … Mark got very emotional, and very choked up, because he said, 'You know, I never thought he would be able to go to college.' Because he was profoundly dyslexic and dysgraphic," Ripa said.
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The actress added that "through hard work, determination, [and] remediation," Joaquin was able to overcome the "misunderstood learning difference" and said that for their family, dyslexia and dysgraphic has been a "blessing."
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"But, kids with dyslexia learn how to read the room, they pick up on social cues … their other skills become [stronger]," she said.
Last summer, Consuelos told PEOPLE that Joaquin had been spending time in quarantine studying for the ACT and SAT exams and working on college applications.
Ripa added at the time that their youngest "sparks all the debates in the house about anything — political, social, environmental, poetry."
While Ripa said Wednesday that she never doubted Joaquin would be able to go to college, she's not planning on being an empty nester even when he does move out of the house.
"They keep coming back," she joked about her kids.
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