Seven Strong

Dear Ane,

Today is your seventh birthday, and I honestly can’t believe that it’s been seven years since you came into our lives.  It’s hard to remember that you were once as small as your brother Rerun, and now you are so grown-up.

This has been a year of real growth for you.  Not only are you a first grader now, with a full day of school and all the benefits that entails (two recesses, eating lunch at school, and taking the bus home), but your learning ability has increased, your attention span has improved, and you are beginning to show the maturity that I know you will be capable of someday.  I acknowledge that this last year has been a roller coaster for us all, and you have been an absolute champ about most of it.  You have adjusted beautifully to having a new baby brother, and you have been so helpful and devoted to him (sometimes a little too devoted, but you’ve gotten better about that).  You have hung in there while Daddy has been looking for a new job, and I know that you were very excited when he accepted his new position.

I also know that learning about Tad’s autism, and dealing with him and what has been expected of you, has been really hard sometimes.  Your Daddy and I want you to know how much we appreciate your efforts to play with him (even if you do get a bit rambunctious at times) and include him in what you do.  We know that this process has not been easy, and that you are trying the best you can.  Because you can be so helpful and willing, Ane, we sometimes forget that you are just seven years old – and then when you do act like a seven year old, we get frustrated.  I’m sorry about that.  I think we do expect too much of you sometimes, but I promise you that we will try and keep our expectations to what we think you are truly capable of.

You are capable of eating your vegetables, though.  Sorry.  You will not die a horrible death if you have to eat salad with your dinner.

The year ahead of you is full of many wonderful things, Ane, and I can’t wait to share them all with you.  You are strong, independent, sweet, helpful, sensitive, stubborn, inquisitive, and are finally beginning to develop a sense of humor that will allow you to laugh at yourself, so life can be more comedy and less tragedy.  You’re growing up so quickly, so I am going to make sure that I enjoy being with my big seven year old girl this year.

“May the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you…” 2 Corinthians 13:14

Happy 7th Birthday!

Love,
Mommy

This entry was posted on Monday, December 27th, 2010 at 2:23 am and is filed under Announcements, Children.
You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed and Both comments and pings are currently closed.