This week was a special one around the Sharp house as our Zoologist went from being a 6-year-old who knows more about animals than I do, to a 7-year-old who knows more about animals than I do.
On our way to school the day before his birthday I wanted to talk to him about life, and what he anticipates for the future with this big change. But before we could talk about what I wanted to talk about, he had some things on his mind that he wanted to discuss.
First, he had decided that he didn’t want to go to a baseball game for his birthday, despite saying that he did for almost two weeks. Given that the tickets had been purchased days ago, and I have no intentions of just eating the cost of baseball tickets, I was curious about this sudden change of heart. As best I could tell, he had gotten it in his head that going to a baseball game on your birthday meant everyone in the stadium was celebrating you, and that many people celebrating his birthday made him nervous.
Second, after I convinced him that the whole stadium wouldn’t be watching him instead of the baseball players, he described to me his plan for catching a snake and putting it in a box in his room, explaining that it could stay in his room because he knows I don’t like snakes. I held fast to the Sharp family rule about snakes. Snakes are not allowed in the house, the yard or within five miles of the house if we can help it.
After all of the baseball and snake talk we were almost to school, but I managed to ask him a few questions about what he thinks it will be like to be seven.
The Zoologist anticipates that seven will be a good age because he will be taller, stronger and smarter. I’m a little concerned because he felt that being smarter would help him to, and this is an exact quote, “Sneak around more.”
Of course, even 7-year-olds have cause for concern. The Zoologist is quite concerned that with all of the height and strength coming his way he will be tired a lot. He is also a little worried that his sisters will try to get him in some way. This could be due to an accurate impression of his sister’s character, or due to his own guilty conscience and realizing they may be out for revenge. I think probably a combination of the two.
I dropped my growing boy off at school with his backpack, lunch and cupcakes. I watched him bound off to his classmates, and for just a brief moment I wished that time would stop and I could just live in this moment for a couple of hours.
I pulled out of the school parking lot very happy at my many blessings, a little sad that time is moving so fast and a little nervous that there was a snake in my car.
