Roland and I go through the age old conversation between parent and child;
Me: I love you baby.
Roland: I'm not a baby.
Me: But you are my baby.
Repeat 2 and 3 over and over.
Truth
of the matter is, I can't believe he is already 7 (and due to the
delayed posting, pushing 8). That is crazy talk. As with all of our
kids, Roland takes me to the brink of sanity and makes me scream and
look like a lunatic. Roland has always survived by loving his Mama
something fierce and thereby weakening my defenses. But just when I
thought I couldn't take it anymore, Roland turned into this mature mini
grown-up.
Roland is very competitive (Shane who?) and
sometimes that is good and sometimes it is bad. Some days there are
entirely too many, "Did I do better than Duncan?"s. Or the "Who do you
love most?" - which I usually answer "Duncan," just to instigate
things. My favorite is "Who did you love first?" cause I can answer
that one. With Roland and Duncan the relationship is different.
Whereas Roland is a lot like Shane, I feel like Duncan is a lot like me.
So while I enjoy the the similarities that I share with Duncan,
sometimes it is a challenge to put up with yourself. With Roland, while
sometimes it is a challenge to put up with little Shane, I do enjoy our
differences and feel like we have a great friendship.
Roland has a beautiful memory (clearly NOT from me) and seems to be following in his Dad's math footsteps as well. Roland loves to learn and while school isn't always all we would like for it to be, I am excited that he is clearly absorbing so much and likes the material, just not the monotony of it all.
Unlike
our experience when Duncan was born, Roland is a fabulous big brother
to Henry. I often wake up to find the baby out of the crib or in some
other place or position and I am like, "How did he get here?" Roland
always pipes up and says, "I got him out" or "I put him there." While I
worked nights over the summer, Roland was in charge of the household
until I got up. That usually means ice cream for everyone, but it is a
huge help to me.
I love that Roland still wants Shane
and I at every school function, every party, every event, to jump on the
trampoline, to play ball, to play the Wii and just to be part of every
aspect of his life. I also love that Roland gets up from doing his homework and comes to find me just to give me a hug, and when I am drying him off after his bath he always hugs me and says, " I don't know why I always do that." We hope to enjoy that as long as possible.
A Happy 7th Birthday to my biggest baby.
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