Lucky # 7

Wow. This growing up bit is some real crazy stuff! I tried a little exercise this week of looking at Jack and trying to connect his big boy self to my memories of his brand new baby self or the little guy I see in the pictures on my wall. It was hard if not impossible.

First, let me document that Jack's 7th birthday had some definite mood swings, grumpiness, and rude behavior. How charming. He'd been planning for days to stay up until 8:38 p.m., his official moment of birth. Well by 8:33 p.m., I was torn between wanting to yell him up to bed "right now!" and not wanting any part of sending my birthday boy to bed in tears. We held out and the day ended well. In fact, I was snuggling with him and Cora in a twin bed (something we are definitely past as we could hardly fit) and Jack whispered in my ear "I love you.  I'm sorry I was kinda rude today." Bells chimed! My sweet boy! It all ended so well! But the happy ending was brief as the rudeness was back the next morning. 

How do I describe Jack at 7?

He's our earliest riser. 

He almost always enters our room in the morning with a book in hand.  He usually also has his clothes in hand as he knows the routine and can be counted on to follow it. He may grumble, but he's our rule follower child. 

Those clothes will NOT have any buttons on them or else he will be stomping in and full on snarling at us. "I hate buttons.  I will NOT wear buttons" are things we've heard often. On his "rage" list at school buttons was near the top.

Buttons can be negotiated for Sundays and very special occasions only

He asks to have the biggest bowl of oatmeal in the morning and is always open to eating more. I think he'd probably always be eating if we didn't set limits.

That's not an exaggeration. When out of close supervision + under lenient rules at his birthday play date, he ate somewhere between 7-9 satsumas + 2 grilled cheeses + dessert.

He's a hard working first grader known for his passion for a topic. He loves to read and is very independent according to his teacher, happy to follow his own interests. He loves getting to work on an iPad at school and likes to share work with us through the SeeSaw app.

At Big Papa and Grammy's house, he discovered the newspaper.

Numbers come easily to him and he gets great practice at adding during his solo football games in the driveway. He is always up to go outside and play two teams in his head, running back and forward, intercepting, passing, kicking field goals and bursting inside to update me on the score.

He's a football aficionado and has an impressive knack for recounting stats. He loves to watch full football games on the weekend but he doesn't like to cheer for the home team. Meaning he cheers for whoever the Saints are playing.

He's always interested in having me or Jacob play with him. First born. Soccer, chess, Monopoly, or football? Want to play? *For the record, I have designated Jacob as the chess player. I prefer driveway soccer and Monopoly.

I made him baseball figures for his birthday present.

In the car, Jack loves to have headphones on and be listening to a book on CD. Recent favorites have been Mary Poppins, Bunnicula!, Ramona Quimby, Age 8, and Peter Pan.

We have an orange tree in bloom. Could life be any better for Jack?

It is World War Jack &Cora. We have resorted to a sticker chart to try to draw attention to the need to be both more agreeable and more kind to our sibling. In week 1, Jack earned 17 stickers for being agreeable....and 1 for being kind to Cora. Cora was right there with him: 14 for being agreeable and 1 for being kind to Jack. That about sums things up.

A reading detente

Jack is a voracious reader. He goes through several chapter books a week and starts and ends his days reading. He's read the full Magic Tree House and A to Z Mystery series and many Jake Maddox sports books. He worked through the first 9 chapters of Harry Potter before putting that very difficult book aside for now. He's reading his third Who Was/Is... biography and I sense a new series match. He still loves to have a Reading Party (ending the day with a pile of books in our bed and the chance to both read and be read to.)

He's been a major confessor to me this fall. There was a period where I felt like his priest as he seemed to feel the need to share every thought he'd had and nudge he'd given throughout the day. A friend helped remind me how special this was and I do love how close we are and how much he trusts me.

Medically, his heart is great and he's overall a healthy guy. His struggle these past 2 years has been his sinuses. We are switching to a new ENT to see if we can figure out a way to clear up his constant congestion.

Jack is smart, sensitive, curious, focused, passionate, energetic, and hopefully will still be willing to be my baby for quite a while longer.

Luke is lucky to have Jack as his big brother.

I hope # 7 gives you the luckiest, happiest year yet buddy.