Seven

The 22nd of August marked the 7th birthday of my oldest child, The Boy. I cannot believe how quickly time has flown and how big he has gotten! I remember right after Little Girl was born how huge he looked to me and the realization of the fact that he would never be little again. He would continue to get bigger and bigger and eventually he would leave. I locked myself in the bathroom and cried for a good long time. :) I partially blame that episode on post-pregnancy hormones and lack of sleep, but for the most part the feelings were genuine. It still amazes me to this day how huge he is and how young I feel to have such a old kid! But what an awesome kid he is! So in honor of this occasion here are 7 things I love about my little boy:

1. He is always willing to help me with anything. In fact he asks me often if there is anything I need him to do!

2. He is extremely kind and patient with his younger siblings and with younger kids in general. I have people telling me all the time how great he is with their kids. He a pretty mellow guy.

3. He is super smart and loves numbers. He can memorize most anything he finds interesting and continually tells me all the things he has learned in school. He also picks up things pretty fast and it isn't very long before he has things down perfectly. ( like a new video game, or rules to a board game.)

4. He very independent and wants to do things for himself. He always asks, "can I do it?" and I have to be better at letting him! :)

5. He's extremely sensitive and cares about the feelings of others. He is also very obedient and loves his family and Heavenly Father. He often tells me that he had prayed for something in the middle of the night, whether it be that he felt sick and wanted to feel better or he was scared and asked for comfort.  I wish I had half the faith he does.

6. Hes a very good artist and loves to draw. He has great imagination and the details in his pictures always blow me away!

7. He loves his mommy and daddy very much and constantly tells them out of the blue: "mommy? or Daddy? I love you!"

What A great kid!! I love you buddy!

We had his party on Saturday and here are a few highlights:

Soda rocket blasters

Ooblick

Mentos and Diet Coke (which didn't go so well, we'll have to try that one again!)

And lots of friends, presents and cake!

It was a pretty awesome day!

How to be alone

I came across this video today on one of my favorite blogs. I think one of the reasons why I love this specific blog is because I feel if I wasn't who I am or if I hadn't come from where I did, she is probably a lot like who I would be. That might only make sense in my head and thats ok because Im sure a lot of you out there who read this blog probably don't really know much about me anyway and for those of you who do know me...well you still might not get me sometimes. Which is ok too.

A long time ago I started blogging to keep in contact with my family and to create a sort of journal for my thoughts and the things happening in my life. But long before the blogging world, I started writing.

 I liked to jot down the occasional story, but my real passion was for poetry. It became my escape from the world, the place I could be honest without judgement and where my feelings of love, hope, fear, sadness and all my teen angst could go to be safe. I would shut myself away in my room, press play on one of my favorite songs and let my creativity flow. I felt that when I was alone I could be free.

To this day I write when I am alone. I blog when no one is around, my best ideas come from the quiet or the feelings a song inspires within me and I rarely let anyone look at it.  Its funny to say, but I get embarrassed if I know that The Man has read something I have written, especially if its something of substance and importance to me. Its an emotional investment and I would hate to have someone not like what I had to say or think it was silly. (not that The Man has ever thought that...)

When I saw this video it spoke to me, connected with something inside that I had long since forgotten. (rarely do I get to be alone these days!) I love the words to this poem. They are so universal and inspiring. I think its good for everyone to have moments of being alone, to not fear it. We have all experienced loneliness at sometime or another and I believe its how we perceive our worth in these moments that truly shows us who we are.

Would you be brave enough to take yourself out to dinner or dancing alone?

Let us all work toward embracing who we are and learn confidence and peace in our moments of being alone.