Jayce at Seven

 Jayce, I don't know how it happened, but you are seven.  

It seems incredible to me because that seems like the age of a kind of "big kid," which I guess you are now.

Just this week you lost an important tooth.  It was not your first tooth, but I think we all know that there is something different about losing those top middle two and them being replaced by two adult teeth.  Kids inevitably look so much older when those big teeth come in, particularly when they are a little too big for your face as they always are at first.  It will take a little bit of getting used to. 

I don't know how to put this that doesn't sound insulting, so I hope this doesn't sound that way, but I think that in my mind you are still around your sister's age even though I know that you aren't.  So when you stand up and I watch those long legs unfold, or you tell me some interesting facts about something while we are walking home from school, or you blow my mind with your excellent reading it still startles me a little bit. 

 Your relationship with Hannah is the same as many older boys with their slightly younger sister.  She is your chief tormentor although not for the same reason as two years ago when I would say the same thing.  It's just that she adores you.  Everything that you are doing looks cool, anything that you are looking at is interesting, everything that you are playing with seems amazing.  She just wants to be in on it with you, but you just want some space (and for her not to mess up things that have been meticulously put in place) and that is okay.  

 That said, you still take care of Hannah. If she is sad you can always be the one to make her feel better, if she is stubbornly resisting something that I am requesting you can persuade her easily.  Sometimes if she gets hurt and you rush over to give her a hug or kiss a boo boo it makes it better almost instantly.  I still love that I was able to get a few pictures of you valiantly carrying her over this pebble walkway a few months when we were taking pictures for Stylo and she had already tossed her shoes.  I am going to pretend that it is because sometimes you do nice things, although I will admit that your dad and I had already cast a haze of bribery over that day knowing that there were lots of pictures to take and you both would likely be over it before I was finished.  But no one asked you to go get her, you rand over, picked her up and carried her across this path and she was just as pleased as punch. :)  Good job buddy.

Legos are still your first love as far as toys are concerned.  Actually, there is nothing else really, aside from Minecraft sometimes on the weekend.  They cater to your creative mind, your love of setups and symmetry, your incredible attention to details.  I know I've said it before, but it amazes me at how well and how quickly you can put together an advanced set.  You have an endless amount of patience for that sort of thing and still find it just as satisfying to make up your own sets or your own versions of sets that you've seen but don't have.  

A few months ago you decided to build your own series.  You told me how each theme has several different sets within the theme: usually a few smaller sets, a few medium sized sets, a large set and a really big set.  So you decided to design sets for your own theme.  You worked on it throughout the course of the week, bringing them down to me periodically to take pictures.  The details are always so well thought out and executed.  I love it.

You are our sensitive child.  You don't like to be scared, you like small animals, and you have been trying for over a year now to convince your dad and I to adopt an endangered animal, which we haven't.  A few weeks ago you paused the tv, dragged your dad into the room, and replayed a commercial for adopting a snow leopard for him to see.  You and I have talked on a few different occasions on the walk to school about it.  Most recently I pointed out to you even if we did it we don't actually get a snow leopard, and you pointed out to me that it's okay because we would be helping to save it's life because it's in danger, and we would get a stuffed snow leopard.  I'm wondering now if the whole thing was a ploy to get you a stuffed snow leopard which we could accomplish relatively easily, but we will see.

You are my favorite boy and I'm so glad that you are mine.  Happy 7th birthday buddy!