My newly-minted 7 year-old is keeping things close-lipped in these pictures, but if you saw his grin, he’s missing his two front teeth. His favorite things now are sports, sports, and sports. After his birthday party, he told me that his favorite part were the races—not the treasure hunt, obstacle course, cake, pinata, balloon fights, etc… Anything that lets him run as fast as he can, and preferably win, is Tucker’s favorite right now. He has decided that he wants to go to UVa and run on the track team for college, because you can win more medals and trophies in a sport like track than in a team sport like basketball, though he does plan on playing basketball professionally when he grows up. One great thing about Tucker is that he does love to practice and doesn’t seem to mind putting in the work. He loves to go out to the shed and workout with Austin. It took awhile, but Tucker is now a competent bike rider who likes to go fast (I do appreciate that he remains risk-averse…). (Molly is thrilled to have Tucker’s smaller cast-off bike with training wheels.)
Tucker sometimes seems so old, but on his birthday he went to bed wearing new superman pajamas, clutching a helium balloon, totally excited about $20 worth of Matchbox car plastic tracks. It made me thankful he’s not THAT big yet.
In terms of his party, I tried desperately to get him to take us up on an expedition to a UVa football game, or a waterpark, or a trampoline place (all offers included a friend) rather than doing a full-out party. It didn’t work. But we agreed on inviting 7 friends since he’s 7—of which only 5 could come. Perfect number. He had a great time, and I wasn’t scarred like last year. But maybe next year the non-party option will be the winner?? I can hope, right?
