Seven Years Old Today...

My baby boy is seven years old today!  Seven!  It seems like just yesterday he was turning 1, and now he's a first grader reading chapter books by himself and losing teeth left and right.  Where has the time gone?  If I could slow time down, I would.  It seems like every day he wakes up taller.  The jeans we bought him at the start of the school year were too short before we hit Christmas.  He has a "real" Bible now and wants to read out of that one at bedtime instead of his Children's Bible.  He is super crafty and loves to create on paper or with legos.   Who knows he may be an artist or an engineer with how his mind works!

One of my favorite times with him is at bedtime.  He still likes to snuggle, so I get to lay down next to him and that's when he tells me about his day.  That's when he told me how he got teased by some girls in his class because he said he liked Snow White.  He told me he learned that day that boys aren't supposed to like princesses or they get teased.  That broke my heart to hear him say, but what got me even more was when he told me that it happened at the beginning of the school year and he didn't tell me because he didn't want me to get upset, so he waited until now to tell me.  Why do kids have to be so mean at such a young age?  I, of course, told him that it was okay for boys to like princesses and we would never tease him for that (and in my head I wanted to go all momma bear all over those girls for hurting my son).

I love that he is gentle and caring and loving.  I love that when he hears about people or animals in need his first desire is to give up his own possessions and allowance.  Last year when the tornadoes hit just south of us, he and his sister donated many of their toys to the kids who lost everything and I found Noah in his room taping money to those same toys so that the kids could use the money to buy food and clothing (then Buster came into his room and ate the money off of the toys- no joke).  His school just collected money for families who need food and Noah gave all of his allowance he had been saving up, which Ryan and I then matched, because he didn't want any little kids to go hungry.  He has a good heart and my hope is for him to stay that way.

Happy Birthday, my Ray of Sunshine!  I love you to the moon and back!