Jake is 7.

Dear Jake, 

You turned 7! Seven! Seven feels like such a big deal because all the cells in your body regenerate on different schedules but every 7 years ALL the cells have completely regenerated. That means you have your first "new" body since you were born into my hands. So amazing to think about. 

Seven years have flown by. But these past 6 months have seen an amazing jump in your reading abilities. You have loved reading the Secrets of Droon series, have started to get into the Hardy Boys, and graduated from the 'High Five' magazine to 'Highlights'. You also love anything related to Angry Birds.

Another area where you "graduated" was 1st grade - below you are with your English teacher, Mrs. Moore. You had Sra. Krekorian as your Spanish teacher and liked her but "she's strict" as you said. However, your ability to speak Spanish and mimic which ever Spanish regional dialect is being spoken to you is extraordinary. 

You love, love, love games. You ask Daddy and Mommy to play with you whenever we can - which is not as often as you like because you have a little brother who thinks it is the best thing in the world to come in and scatter the game all over. But when you do play, you love Sorry, Monopoly, Uno, chess, checkers, Apples to Apples Jr. version, and others. Guthrie taught you how to play farkle, and with that game you've shown how good your math is with all the counting and adding involved.

For your birthday dinner you wanted sushi. And you loved it. You also graduated to using adult size utensils during the months prior to turning 7.

You are such a sweet boy, as you always have been. You are well-loved by your classmates and always ready to play with friends and include those with you.
At home you continue to be a snuggler, and still like it when I sing you to sleep at night while running my fingers through your hair. I am aware that my days of you wanting me to do this are becoming numbered, so I savor this bedtime ritual.

We look forward to continue to seeing you grow. We love you so much, Jake.