Frederick is 7!!!

Wow, how time flies!!!!  I can't believe my "baby" is 7 today.  This birthday is really hitting me hard, but I don't know why.  I think because being 7 means that he's really "old". . .and, since he's my last, that makes me "done" with that season.  There's almost always sadness in finishing something good, even though there is so much to look forward to.

Thomas and Frederick this morning.  Thomas told me to take a picture and when I put it on the computer to call it "Frederick and his taxi".  Here you go Thomas :)

Each year we take a chair picture.  It started when Thomas (11 1/2) was one month old.  This was the chair my Aunt Susie gave me for my baby shower and we propped Thomas up and sent the picture out.  My mom said "you should do that every month". . .and. . .we did!!! Then every birthday.  Then every month of the first year of all of our children.  Yes, it's the one thing that I haven't let slip off.  My husband once asked me if I'm going to make our 16 year old children sit in the chair for a picture and I said "yes".  And they will.  I will bribe them :)  Oh. . . . . .one day they'll be parents and if they disappoint me in this arena I'll never let them forget it when they embark on parenthood. . .ha!

Right now this is where our chair lives.  In the beginning it was my "nursing chair" in the baby's bedroom.  Then we didn't have it for awhile (I forget why) and it was at my in-laws house. . .so there might have been 1-2 birthdays where the picture was taken a week or so out.  Now it lives in our bedroom and I love it.  I use it all the time.  Here's a shot of Frederick from last year:

And going back a little further. . .here are "the brothers" two years ago. . .

Still in our bedroom. . .just a different place.  And the brothers this morning:

O.K, here's one more.  But it's not from 2007 because somehow we have "lost" all the pictures from the second half of 2007.  Tom insists that they are *somewhere* and I hope he's right. . .I don't think I have hard copies of most of these!  But I did find this one from 2006, when the chair "lived" in my in-laws living room (we had just moved that summer and didn't have everything down here yet). . .doesn't he look so small????

He was three.  I remember that he got blue tennis shoes and a blue stuffed dog from his Aunt Kathy and his first bike and had a dog on his birthday cake.  I love that I have pictures to remember these details (although I didn't have to look at any pictures for that list. . .know that someday I will. . .and that kind of stuff is important).

Birthdays are special in our family.  That person is kid of the day.  And they get to pick out any restaurant for dinner.  Or sometimes they just ask for a special dinner.  Every-other-year they are allowed to have a birthday party.  This year is birthday party year, but Frederick decided he wanted to go to Dollywood instead.  Yea!  I *love* it when the gift is a memory.  (Parties or trips are instead of a gift.)  He will get a few phone calls, open his gifts after dinner tonight and tomorrow we'll spend the day together. 


I now look forward to this year.  Your soccer, your school, your swimming, and now scouts.  Yea!!!  Can't wait to see how you grow and change. . .we are so privileged to be your parents.