Lucky Seven

Today is Elijah's seventh birthday. I am not going to delve into all of reasons why this is incredible to me. I won't talk about how old I feel or how time flies or any of that. In fact, all you have to do is re-read that first sentence over a few times and get the same effect that I got. Nausea. Today, we celebrate the anniversary of our becoming parents. It's pretty amazing, really. I cannot remember much about life as a couple before Elijah came along. It's as if we were brought together to be parents. Wow, that's deep... It's true, though. I've learned more in the last seven years than I did in the previous 32 years combined. Our lives became enriched when Elijah arrived. Our purpose was established and we began this unpredictable journey of adventure known as parenthood.

It's amazing how parenting became a little easier with Hannah and then Sadie. We knew what to do. We knew what to expect. We were able to diffuse situations before they happened because we had been through it already with Elijah. Sometimes I feel bad because Elijah is still the one going through everything first. We are still going to take all of the mistakes we make with him and correct them for Hannah and Sadie. He's never going to be able to benefit from our experience as parents. Kinda sad, in a way. However, on the flip side, we've made many good decisions with him so it seems we have not made all THAT many mistakes! :-) Props to us!

These days, Elijah is going through testing for placement next year in school. He's had to take tests on the last two Saturday afternoons for that. With every passing day, he gets more and more logic infused in his behavior. He tests us daily. It seems he is jockeying for position with his sisters and it's a struggle for him every single day. We feel for him. Although we scold him for bad behavior (sometimes daily), we feel terrible about it because we know he is learning his way in the world too and it's hard for him. In many ways, we are learning together with him.

Perhaps the best part of this seventh birthday was the surprise visit from Abuela! She arrived on Friday afternoon. Deb picked her up at the airport with Hannah. Deb told Hannah that they were at the airport to pick up a package for Elijah's birthday. Hannah told Deb that "the airport was to pick up people, not packages!" Deb explained that some packages are just too big for the mail and need to be picked up at the airport. Just then, Abuela walks up to them and Hannah saw her. Her very first sentence was, "Hi Abuela! We are waiting for a package to come for Elijah!" So damn cute.

Elijah's reaction was similar. I picked him up from school and drove him to the house, where Abuela was waiting. I had him knock on the door and Abuela answered. Elijah shouted, "Abuela!! Guess what - I BEAT the Playstation game that you bought me last time!! Wanna see it?" He was freaked out for sure.

So Abuela has been here all weekend and she is leaving tonight. We had Elijah's birthday dinner last night at The Mayan and had a great time. Elijah opened some gifts and got Star Wars Lego II for his Game Boy from Abuela and Grandpa. He's seriously psyched. So is Deb because she gets to play it when he goes to sleep. He also got this really cool pentop computer called the FLY from Bobe and Zeide which actually has a brain in it. You touch the pen on things and it tells you facts about the object. It scares me. There's all sorts of cool software out there for it and it's a PEN!! Very cool.

Elijah's party is next Saturday at the Dojo. He gets to cut his cake with a real Samurai Sword!

So Happy Birthday Elijah, Lij-ee, Scooby, Scrubby, Scrub the Deck, Scoobishvat, Lijah-Lo-Von-Bankie, etc. We love you and look forward to learning with you for many years to come.