Lucky Number Seven!

Buddy turned 7 on Sunday!  I will post later about the weekend's festivities, but first I wanted to highlight what an amazing boy he is.

His likes:

• Playing outside
• Playing with friends
• Reading
• Going to school
• Harry Potter
• Monsters
• Animals and birds
• Going out to dinner
• Swimming
• Rocks and minerals
• Getting presents
• His family

His Dislikes:

• Tomatoes
• Satan
• Going to bed
• Public speaking
• Contention or competition

(I asked him his likes and dislikes and a few of the above answers are from his own comments.  Can you decide which are from him and which are from me?)

His Talents:

• He is a peacemaker.  He can't stand contention and never picks fights, fights back, or reacts in anger.
• He can sure argue, though.  He generally thinks he's right and his way is best.  He is very articulate and uses that to his advantage.  The longer we spend with him the more we realize, more often than not, he is right. It's infuriating, actually. 
• He treats his brother like gold.  I have hardly met anyone as patient as he is.  I keep waiting for the day when he gets tired of giving in, sharing, having his stuff ruined, or being copied -- but I doubt the day will come.  He sincerely likes having Sambo around.
• He is so smart, it's starting to worry me.  He's on the verge of being smarter than me and that is NOT good.  He loves science and loves to read.  Math at school is really fun, so he's starting to like that a lot too.  He's not very creative in his writing yet at school, but he's working on it and in all the practicing he's been doing, he's developing excellent spelling and punctuation. 
• He is friendly and loves his friends.  He makes new friends wherever he goes, particularly with boys his age, boys older than him, and babies. 
• He is confident in his faith.  And speaking of faith, his faith is enormous.  He wrote a book at school about the things he is most thankful for.  To summarize, he's thankful for his parents, his brother, himself because he's a "son of God" and for God himself.  He has started reading the Book of Mormon and his insights make me think for days.  G and I have had our best gospel discussions from our entire marriage in the last few weeks discussing the things he's brought up.
• He can talk people into just about anything.  He comes home from school with trinkets and presents from different people every day. And he's been known to come home from a neighbor's house with new (to him) shoes, toys, candy, ice cream, you name it.  There's been a steady stream of neighborhood kids in our backyard for the past six months putting slugs/frogs/snakes/salamanders/mole carcasses in his animal cages.  Everyone knows that if they find a cool bug or animal (or set of bones) they should come put them in our backyard.  (Much to my dismay.)
• He is still full of energy and life. He runs everywhere and climbs on everything.  He makes messes wherever he goes. 
• He is funny and clever.
• He is a hardworker. 
• He is a great leader and a good example. 
• He is spontaneous.  This is often a problem at school or when it's time to calm down and focus, but it's a huge part of his personality.  Therefore, we're trying to find a good reason for this "talent."
• He loves and respects nature.
• He has developed a very tender and cuddly part of his personality.  He was not cuddly as a baby or toddler, so we have loved this new development. 

G and I love him so very much.  We asked each other last night if there is a more loved child on this earth.  It's really interesting because he struggles to realize just how many people love him.  It's so frustrating considering the huge amount of love me, G, and Sambo have for him, our extended family, his birth family, Sambo's birth family, and his huge circle of friends.  He is loved, that's for sure.