Are you ready for your Top 10 lists? Well are you? ARE YOU?
Good.
Top 10 Things You Love:
- Natalie
- Soccer
- Pizza, noodles, rice, cheeseburgers, and any and all things sweet and dessert-y
- Babies
- Legos
- Sonic Dash on the Kindle
- Your school
- Dude Perfect YouTube videos
- Things. Quality things, cheap things, free things - you like things.
- Your suit. (Ladies love a sharp-dressed fella).
Top 10 Things You Don't Love:
- Anything that doesn't fall into the Pizza, noodles, rice, cheeseburgers, and any and all things sweet and dessert-y category. The same boy who can take 40 minutes to eat a cup of broccoli can inhale a cup of ice cream in mere seconds.
- The dark
- Being alone upstairs when it's dark
- Bugs and spiders (The Great Yellowjacket Infestation of 2014 has convinced you that every living thing smaller than your thumb has a killer agenda)
- Dogs (The Scary Dog Encounter of 2015 has convinced you that all dogs are terrifying)
- Coloring (anytime I give you a worksheet that requires you to color, you immediately melt down in your chair until you're a giant boy-sized puddle under the table)
- A harsh tone. (Your sensitivity is one of your best qualities)
- Unfairness. (if Natalie get a few minutes on the Kindle while you were playing Legos, you immediately complain that you didn't get the same Kindle time. If I've said it once, I've said it a trillion times - IN THIS HOUSE, FAIR DOES NOT MEAN EQUAL)
- Hot weather
- Doing your laundry (too bad for you; clean clothes are delightful)
Top 10 Things You're Good At:
- Encouragement (More than once, I've seen you help up a fellow soccer player, regardless of what team he/she is on. And more than once, you've come over to me and patted my back when I've had a migraine. You're a natural, kid.)
- Getting sweaty regardless of the temperature (your poor pillow has a permanent sweat/salt halo around your head while you sleep ...)
- Math (Again, you're a natural)
- Handwriting (even though you complain about writing so much, you have really nice handwriting. You're welcome, by the way.)
- Putting an outfit together (you put the rest of us to shame on Sundays ... we wear regular clothes and you come downstairs in a three-piece suit. Like, literally. You're stylish to the point where you've asked for suspenders, a top hat, and a pocket silk for Christmas. I've even seen you check yourself out in the bathroom mirror and declare, "Man! I look GOOD!")
- Driving your poor sister crazy
- Praying (your prayers always include safe travels for Daddy, if we end up eating dinner before he gets home - and prayers for kids without any mommies or daddies.)
- Winning games you have no business winning (you've bankrupted the three of us on more than one occasion in Monopoly ... what makes it worse is that your business strategy is deciding to buy properties based on if you like the property's color or like the way the name sounds, not if it makes good financial sense ... and you land on Free Parking a freakishly high number of times)
- Hoarding your treasures. (Your bedside table is full of rocks, old phones, a few leaves, a broken action figure, the top of a plastic water bottle, some string, a battery or two, a hotel room key. And if I suggest that maybe you clean out your drawer, you're all, "No! This is my good stuff!")
- Making people laugh (you = big ol' ham)
Top 10 Things You're Not Good At:
- Hanging up your shirts neatly. (it's one of those things that I don't feel is a battle worth fighting. Your shirts are on a hanger; they're just not evenly spread out over the entire hanger.)
- Problem solving (because it's more fun to come to me and announce that you can't reach the potato chips instead of just dragging the stool over to the pantry so you can reach the shelf with the potato chips.)
- Losing (Oh, the pouting! And the whining! And the tears!)
- Staying focused on any task that's not building Legos or eating anything that doesn't fall into the Pizza, noodles, rice, cheeseburgers, and any and all things sweet and dessert-y category.
- Nuclear Physics. I really thought you'd have nailed this by age seven.
- Keeping your tongue in your mouth when you do anything athletic.
- Not sounding like a high-pitched fire alarm when you get tickled. (For the love of our ears, please lower the decibel level.)
- Taking the time to look for a specific Lego piece. (I hear everything from "I lost it" to "I must have sold it" to "I think I left it at church")
- RECOGNIZING THAT THE FOOD I COOK IS DELICIOUS, DARN IT.
- Slam-dunking on a regulation hoop
Oh my boy, how I love any excuse to celebrate you. You exude joy, silliness, and kindness. You love both people and solitude. You seem just as content to play with your friends as you do to play Legos by yourself. Speaking of Legos, you're remarkably able to think of an idea and, within mere minutes, produce the Lego-fied version of that idea. Your creations always have stories associated with them - the minifigures all have names and back stories; the houses are always thoughtfully designed to appeal to its children occupants; the vehicles are usually on an important mission.
You come up with some of the best, most random questions I've ever heard. I've compiled a list of some of my favorites that you've asked throughout the year.
- What if there was a restaurant that just served pickle skin?
- Is there a bathroom in heaven?
- What if someone built a bridge that could hold 100,050 cars at once?
- Do fish have tongues?
- How many kilograms are in a second?
- What if there were bathrooms in elevators?
- What if a crocodile played Pie Face?
You're growing like a weed, and if I were a bettin' lady, I bet you'd surpass your sister in height before you're nine. This obviously displeases your sister greatly, though SHE WILL ALWAYS BE OLDER (anytime she says that, she hollers it, hence the all caps). I'm often asked if the two of you are twins or if you're the older one, and this infuriates Natalie to no end. She can't fathom how people could think she's the younger one. You're both blessed/cursed with my baby face, so you both should get ready for an incorrect estimation of your age for the rest of your life.
I often pray that this ol' world wouldn't harden your sweet spirit. Based on my unprofessional opinion, being a boy in 2018 comes with some unique obstacles. BE TOUGH, some say. Or, TOUGHNESS MAKES YOU A NEANDERTHAL; BE SENSITIVE. Or, ONLY MEN KNOW ANYTHING; GIRLS ARE HELPLESS, SO TREAT THEM AS SUCH. Or, GIRLS RULE THE WORLD; BOYS ARE THE SOURCE OF EVERYTHING WRONG WITH THE WORLD.
Oh, how I pray these skewed messages don't seep into your heart and mind.
Manliness is not simply being tough and athletic, nor does the presence of sensitivity mean there's an absence of manliness. Manliness also looks like comforting someone when they're hurting or sad. It looks like holding the door for your momma and sister. It looks like helping when you see a need. It looks like working hard. It looks like being courageous. It looks like being protective of the females in your life. It looks like feeling the big, sad feelings without feeling ashamed, and it looks like acknowledging that not every little hurt requires a giant response. It looks like humility. It looks like love.
It looks a lot like you, my darling boy.
Joshua 1:9 Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be frightened, and do not be dismayed, for the LORD your God is with you wherever you go.”
I can't wait to see what the Lord has in store for you, and how He'll use your unique combination of qualities to be a light in this world.
I love you tremendously, my seven-year-old Bear.
Hugs and smooches,
Mommy & Daddy
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Headlines for November 9, 2018:
- Ginsburg 'up and working' after fall, says nephew
- Ty Pennington opens up about home improvement craze: ‘I’ve been told I’m an OG’
- Florida governor's race could be heading to recount
- California bar shooting victims include police officer, aspiring Army service member
- Southern California wildfire threatens 30,000 homes, forces evacuations
