My littl'un is nine

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Today marks nine years of this incredible boy... and as I do every year, it's time to sing his praises. Not hard to do.

We celebrated him yesterday, Sunday, by having our by now traditional first BBQ of the year. The grandparents, some old friends and some newer friends from church as well as our friend Daniel (who's become their honorary uncle) came over to celebrate and D had the best time. Gifts are definitely one of his major love languages, and he felt very loved! Daniel put the cherry on the proverbial cake at the end of the celebrations by presenting him with the biggest birthday card ever, which featured not only D's face - which he couldn't stop laughing about for minutes! - but also a poem he'd written just for D. What a gift!

Look carefully at the front of his huge card...!


Just brilliant

Gifts!!

Today, we visited Legoland, which has also become a birthday tradition by now and much looked forward to. 





So - let me talk about the boy.

At this point, he is a bundle of extremes, and often contradictory ones. He is the kindest boy I know, who will insist on giving his last sweet to dad if Mr. makes a joke about wanting some too; he is affectionate and will hug me throughout the day, run to us after any time away and jump hug us, his heart is wide open and with us, he wears it at his sleeve.

The flip side of that is an explosive, violent kind of anger that sees him break pencils, work up a headache from the tension and grinding of teeth, and screaming out his frustration at us. He is mercurial. Today at Legoland, he assured us at one point that it was the best day of his life; and a bit later, at the frustration of lego pieces falling to the floor in the car, that it was the worst birthday ever. He lives in extremes, and we just walk him through it back to an equilibrium - which he gets to eventually.


He's extremely athletic, runs rather than walking, climbs trees and ropes and continues to squat instead of sitting. A friend recently, seeing him in swimming trunks, mentioned to me how incredibly muscular he is - and that is true. Yet, he does no sports: he hates any hint of competition or time pressure, not just in sports but in any arena. For example, they did junk modelling at the home ed co-op recently and the kids were told to build something specific in 10 minutes; and while that motivated some and helped them focus, it stressed D out no end and so the challenge was modified to be open ended for him.

D continues to think literally, specifically, and rigidly in most aspects. It's how his brain works. 

He is not a fan of being told what to do, as a general rule. Group learning, particularly with other kids, is often both stressful (due to the 'chaos' he perceives the other kids to generate) and boring (because the subject matter moves too slow for his liking). He felt that way about the children's liturgy at church, which N(10) loves for precisely the reasons he dislikes it! And so he asked, towards the end of last year, if he could be an altar server instead. He has since been serving every week, is becoming competent and confident in it, and has even served at the major Masses of the year at Easter! I do love seeing him do this; it keeps him engaged in the Mass, as he can't space out and daydream.


He's exceptionally bright, and tends to focus very deeply - obsess, I would almost call it - on certain things. His deep focus this year has gone through The Minions, Ninjago, Minecraft and Sonic the Hedgehog... all of these having left their mark in his bedroom, because he uses all his pocket money on toys relating to the obsession of the month. 

While these deep focus phases come and go and sometimes overlap, there's one interest that never goes away: animals. As we speak, he's got: a pond in the garden filled mainly with water snails; and in his bedroom, a plastic container with caterpillars in the process of becoming chrysalises, another plastic container with a furry caterpillar found in the garden (with leaves it can feed on), and his fish tank that we started at Christmas which now contains 15 creatures - frogs, fish, even shrimp. He's into bugs mostly at the moment but loves all animals, of all sizes.



With our hound

With Auntie A's dog in Vienna

What more can I say about him? He's funny, often making up his own jokes (dad jokes mostly, he's starting early!), he's intense, there's never a dull moment with him around. Life is an adventure and I'm there for it.

Happy 9th!

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