No matter how I tried to not think about it… no matter how many times I told you to “never grow up,” you continue to grow. You laugh and say “I can’t help it, Mom! I’m growing!” And so you grow, and here you are, age 7! Age seven-plus to be exact, because this mama has gotten very far behind in her blogging to-do list lately! So… here’s a few things I want to tell you about yourself as you traveled from age six to age seven (seven and one-third to be exact!).
You love to be hands-on. You are creative and crafty, and I will never forget all the paper cutouts you have made over the years. Your paper projects celebrate themselves in so much confetti scraps across the floors. I am forever wiping up a stray shred as I go about the house, and I tell myself, This is good, because someday my floors will be clean… and I will wish you were still here, sitting cross-legged on the floor, creating another paper pirate beard. I will wish it so hard. So I try to enjoy the paper mess while you create.
And you don’t just make paper costumes. You love creating of all kinds. Like these paper lanterns we made last year to celebrate the end of school. Or that robot mask made out of your Tinker Box supplies. Or the time you got to make a cardboard harp at the Wadsworth Atheneum’s Second Saturdays Christmas event (2016). You just strummed those rubber band strings for all you were worth. I have paper cut out animals and hearts and even a poster taped above our bed. I can’t bring myself to take it down… just yet.
And here’s another thing about you. You are an explorer. You love our family and homeschool field trips, want to climb trees and mountains and sail ships. I pray your imagination and your strong body take you all over the world someday…
because another thing about you is that you love to give. Oh, you’re a little shy, and want me to come with you, but you love giving things away – toys, drawings, plants… you do not yet hold the things of this earth tightly, and I pray you never will.
At your core, you are like most six/seven year old boys though – you want fun, excitement, and play. You are so very playful. You love to swim, run around outdoors, in our basement, play LEGO bricks, and jump in leaf piles. Honestly… these truly are your halcyon years, my boy, and I wish I could keep you right here… strong, and young, and untouched … I pray you always keep this sense of fun in your life. 
Your imagination will take you far, I think. You are very willing to enter into the world of make-believe as we read and play. You love to imagine characters, and love when I invent stories – I wish I had written more of those down for you. At least, you have the Legend of the Tooth Pirate… which you did begin to question the other day after losing tooth #5 and the pirate not showing up on time. But for now… I think you still believe that MAYBE he IS real!? 
At age 7, you have learned so much! Both through our Classical Conversations program – where you devour geography, have flourished at presentations (also WITH a flourish!), and through our homeschooling where we love to craft and create and try to get ourselves outside and on adventures as much as possible. You enter everything with eyes and arms wide open to discovery. Your energy rarely flags (only when you’re super tired!), and you happily work on whatever I put before you – you are the model student, that is for sure.
Oh there you are below, enjoying creating a Cranberry Bog in a Cup at this year’s Cranberry Classroom field trip! What a great time that was!
And you read. OH how you love to read! I am so very grateful, above all that both my boys love books and reading. But it’s beyond what I could have imagined I’d be blessed with – after all the horror stories I’ve heard about boys being a challenge to get into reading, I admit I was a little nervous to teach you how to read. But… our home has always been filled to overflowing with books, so I should not have worried. You might even surpass your Mama in your love for books and reading one day.
Your reading level has soared this year (thank to this program), and you are a voracious reader who will curl up with a book at a moment’s notice. You’re reading far above your grade level: Hardy Boys, Little House on the Prairie, Nate the Great, and Beverly Cleary books. I am astonished at your enthusiasm for reading, and your recall and retelling is excellent. I’m excited to begin extending your critical thinking of novels as you grow in your reading repertoire!
Also, over the past year or so, you’ve become much more snuggly and expressive of your feelings. You love to cuddle your stuffed animals and lovies (although those have now been relegated to a memory-keeping frame! Sniff!) and your brother, of course. And I can usually expect you to sidle up to me for some quick hugs throughout the day.
I can’t believe I haven’t yet mentioned your silly faces! I don’t think I have a great picture to share here, but – you ADORE making goofy faces!!! They are hilarious!
And yes, I’ve mentioned your love of make-believe. You still enjoy a great dress-up playtime, and getting to play spy this past year has been one of your favorites. Of course, there was also the time when you had me cut your old sweatpants into “pirate pants,” so no item of clothing is off limits for you! 
You are curious about things like iPads, and fidget-spinners (okay, we did relent on this one!), and Minecraft… and while we’re not as strict with TV time as we used to be when you were a baby and toddler, we still keep you mostly screen-free. And I promise you, you are not missing anything by not having those things just yet. Trust me… you’re going to look back at these years as the best ones of your life!
Here’s a few places you went during age 6-7 (reverse order):
- Myrtle Beach (SC)
- On TV with mom (Better Connecticut – met Jacques Pepon!)
- Mystic Aquarium (homeschool classes) (CT)
- Wheel-view Farm (Massachusetts, beef pick up)
- Day Out with Thomas (CT)
- Roger Williams Park Zoo (RI)
- Stepping Stones Museum (CT)
- The Big E (and a landfill!) (MA)
- NYC (Cranberry Classroom)
- Quick trip to Bloomsburg, PA (birthday party with mom & dad’s friends)
- Camping at Emerald Lake (VT)
- Visited a honeybee farm at Red Bee (Weston, CT)
- Walked the NYC High Line (NYC)
- Saw a PawSox game in Providence, RI
- Spent spring break in Florida with relatives
Here’s a few milestones of your past year:
- Learned to swim!
- Learned to ride a bike (no training wheels needed!)
- Lost your first tooth (and 4 more!)
- Started learning Spanish
- Finished Kindergarten… started and finished 1st grade by the time I got this post done! LOL!
- Had an army birthday party to celebrate turning 7 (and yes, I am behind on that post too!)
Here’s a few fun things I’ve shared about you on Facebook over the past year
I usually pop those up on my wall for safe-keeping until I can get around to writing these birthday (belated!) posts:
February 2017: First, you know what you said to me when I asked you what you wanted for your 7th birthday?
Me: Asher, is there something you’d really like for your birthday?
Asher [thinking]: well, there is something I’d really like….
Me: and…?
Asher: it’s YOU!
#lovethisboy
January 20, 2017: On Inauguration Day:
Showing the boys some of the Inauguration Day videos… after awhile they lost interest, and I said, “Boys! This is a historic moment – don’t you want to watch?!”
You give me this knowing look and say: “Mom, it’s not HISTORY, it’s just TODAY!”
May 10, 2016:And your logic – it’s hilarious sometimes:
little brother: what do you do at the Dollar Tree!?
You: you buy DOLLARS!
April 8, 2016: Your inventiveness strikes again:
Trying to convince you that the rules of hangman are that you have to supply REAL words. But you’re having too much fun stumping us with his fake words. Lol. His giggle is cracking me up!
February 29, 2016: You really take Bible lessons to heart. After a Wednesday night object lesson at church about how to “fill up our time” with the “God-stuff” first, then with our own stuff…
I was talking through our morning plan with the boys, and mentioned how we’d do our Bible lesson first. Then the rest of our schoolwork, then play. You pipe up, “Yeah because if you put YOU first all the God-stuff won’t fit!”
And from the very beginning of being six, you had this wisdom to give me – and I am trying to take it into your 7th year too:
Me: so, I’ve never been a mommy to a six year old. How does this work?
You: Mommy! (Laughing) you just teach me the same stuff all over again!
We love you so much, YOU, at age 7!!!
Son, you have been a blessing to both your father and I time and again. I’m sure we are not wise enough to appreciate the amazingness of you, but we’re praying God daily will give us fresh eyes to see in your childhood the man God is already shaping.
Here is what I know and see so far: You are kind. You are smart. You are important to both of us. You are eager. You are sweet. You are creative. You are gentle, forgiving, diligent, and helpful. There are just so many adjectives I could use to describe you and yet I know I will discover more about you as you grow.
This is the miracle of motherhood.
