What's S'Happening with the Stockwells: Seven: Heaven

To my smart, spunky, sweet, spontaneous, sporty Adam on his seventh birthday (or several days thereafter):

Seven years ago, you stood me up. For ten long days, we eagerly awaited your arrival, and you JUST.WOULDN'T.COME. I should have known then just how you'd turn out - a boy who marches to the beat of his very own drummer and doesn't care much about schedules or timelines. But anyway, my point is that I guess I am finally standing YOU up in my delinquency in posting this birthday post. Please don't interpret my tardiness as a reflection of the depth of my love for you. Because I love you more and more each and every single day. And while I never would have thought that possible when I finally DID meet you seven years ago, it's true - I love my seven year old Adam even more than my six year old Adam, and infinitely more than I loved you back then.

Seven.  You are growing up my littlest boy! You have changed a lot in the past year. You've lost three teeth and have a Jack O' Lantern smile that is perfect for Halloween. Since your sixth birthday, you have learned how to throw a spiral, swim and ice skate and ski with confidence, do multiplication and division, and read fluently. You've grown several inches and feel heavy in my arms. It's getting harder and harder to carry you or to fit you on my lap. But you will always be my little boy.

At seven, you love Pokémon, Angry Birds, and Minecraft (yes, you have always been, and I suspect always will be, my video game junkie). Star Wars fever has swept our house and you cannot get enough lightsabers. You still love to dress up and play pretend, but your characters and play scenes are more complex. You are also creative, and love building things with paper, tape, markers, and scissors. I often curse the reams of paper I need to replenish and the scraps of paper I am constantly tripping over, but I love this creative side of you. I also love watching the wheels turn in your brain - you are a thinker, focused, inquisitive, and see the world in a different way.  You are athletic and strong, your favorite activities being wrestling, kicking, climbing, and tackling (all favorites of mine).  Like your brother, you are currently OBSESSED with football.  You have mastered the football carry and the hike. But for you, this obsession revolves primarily around the Sports page in the paper, and keeping a constant catalog of wins and losses in every division. Just the other day, you created a handmade spreadsheet categorizing all NFL teams according to their record.

You have always been my quirky kid. And I mean this in the best possible way. At seven, you have some adorably quirky habits. When you want to tell me something important, you raise your right index finger in the air, like an absent-minded professor might when teaching a lesson.  You sit with your feet folded under you for hours when you are hard at work, but yet you can't sit through a family dinner to save your life. Unlike the rest of our friends and family in Pats country, you are a rabid supporter of the Jacksonville Jaguars.  Jaguar swag was one of your favorite birthday gifts.

At seven, as always, you are a bundle of love. You still hold my hand and remain generous with kisses, "I'm sorry"s, snuggles, and handmade gifts.  One of the best gifts I have ever received from you was a note on my pillow that read "I love you MOM. Your'e the best mom evre." You wear your heart on your sleeve and feel big deep emotions. You crave attention and use some interesting strategies to get it.  You are social and popular, and your ability to trade football and Pokémon cards on the bus makes me a bit fearful for future professional leanings. You love your brother to the end of the earth, and will do almost anything for him. You sense that he is starting to seek independence from you and it makes you love on him even harder.

My biggest wish for you, Adam, on this seventh birthday and always, is that you know how very much we love you. I can't imagine our lives without you in it. You fill our home with energy (!), love, laughter, and spark.  You are the yang to our yins, a breath of fresh air, a challenge, a new perspective. We love you to the moon and back and beyond and beyond. I can't wait to see what your eighth year brings.