Yesterday we celebrated,Hamish’s seventh birthday!
I can hardly believe that this little boy with his fiery red hair, blue eyes and larger than life character is a whole seven years old already , wasn’t he just born yesterday?
However
As he keeps reminding me that he is a big boy now!
Growth
It’s been a good year and he has grown in so many ways, achieving all those little milestones and academic goals we set for our grade 1 kiddies.
This year especially he has learnt to read fluently and write by himself. With the reading being his biggest accomplishment. He’s managed well with his school year and has changed his favourite subject from Maths to Science.
He no longer needs help with small things like bathing, putting on shoes, tidying his toys, packing a bag for himself, making his own juice or sandwich and has become super responsible with his pets.
He rides his bike like a pro, can swim, he loves to drop kick a rugby ball, play soccer with his friends and has mastered the art of skating.
His play has changed and he gravitates to being creative and inventive with his Lego. He is still crazy about dinosaurs and animals.
He loves any outdoor sports and when indoors loves to play Minecraft.
The board games we play and the puzzles we build together have gotten harder and where once he hated colouring in, he now enjoys it.
Emotionally he has grown too. He is more sensitive and understanding of others and he is learning to sit still longer, focus for an age appropriate time and follow rules.
He’s mastered his table manners, doesn’t need reminders to be courteous and can loudly express his needs, emotions and likes or dislikes. He has also learnt that even young gentleman treat ladies and girls respectful, shake hands and tell the truth always, even if it means getting into trouble.
He knows how to be a friend, make friends and identify a negative friend. He loves playing outside with his friends and those kiddies he plays with are wonderful little beings, I never need to interviene as they all play together beautifully.
He has learnt this year that it’s better to be a leader than to follow the crowd and whilst I see small glimpses of those leadership skills coming out, I pray this is a skill he keeps for a lifetime.
That he always learns find his own path.
He’s also learnt to not need me around all the time and recently had his first sleep over, has gone to his friends house and I’ve left him in homeschool classroom activities without me.
These are bitter sweet moments but so essential for his independence.
Birthday
And so it was that we entered his 7th year….
The morning started with him climbing into bed with us and getting some morning cuddles before I rushed off to make coffee and tea. We then sat down and opened my phone to read all the wonderful messages he had recieved.
The very first one was from his Godmother, Aunty J, whom he loves and adores. She not only shares his milestones and moments with little messages and videos for him, but always includes such interesting bits of information about New Zealand for him to learn. Hamish is convinced his aunty J is cooler than his mom. Every little boy needs an aunty J.
The second was from his Aunty Angela, who checks in with him often and who he believes is magical. Aunty Angela holds such a special place in his life and she always shares interesting memes and things for him to see. Most importantly they share a love of Max the cat and she speaks dinosaur! ….important qualities for a seven year old.
Their messages was full of love and I am always so greatful to have a friends who loves this little boy as much as I do.
Most special as he gets older are the messages and calls from family and friends that he can now answer himself.
Next we checked our online spaces because so many of you are our friends, whilst we’ve not met, you’ve followed Hamish from a baby and share his moments. How blessed he is to have such a wonderful village to love and support him.
This year, he read each message by himself and was so excited. He even shared a video thanking everyone.
Watch it here
A day of fun
The day went rather quietly as he opened his action figures and tried his new watch and mom got a bit of work done before we headed to the Two Oceans Aquarium.
As you all know we bought membership in the beginning of the year, because this is one of our favourite places. Having unlimited access to your favourite place is a priceless gift and I honestly feel everyone needs Aquarium membership.
Hamish and I visited the seals first and then walked around the aquarium. There are some really great new exhibits and he quickly spotted those.
He spent some time discovering hermit crabs, crafting in the kids area and then playing the really cool digital game for kids. This reminded me of yesteryear arcade games and he was quickly joined by a group of kids who played with him.
All too soon, dad arrived to fetch us and we drove home for me to set up for the family party. The back seat was incredibly quiet, and we turned to find an exhausted Hamish fast asleep.
A family party
Once at home, Hamish woke up and rushed outside immediately to play with his friends.
I started blowing up balloons. Now, somehow I thought getting the words Happy birthday and Party would be a good idea …
I may have been wrong!
It took forever to blow them up …you use a little straw into a valve hole that on some balloons isn’t too clear so the balloon, made of foil may tear or in our case did tear and needed to be taped up.
Next I needed to string each individually blown up foil letter on a string to form the words Happy birthday Party. It was at this moment that I was ready to give up. I needed to string the words backwards in order for them to read correctly and magically forgot how to spell. It was time consuming, annoying and I eventually had a kitchen floor full of balloon lettering in its correct order so that I could get this right.
I’m just saying I have a whole respect for party planners!
I put out a few treats and a delicious cake, added a number 7 candle and we were ready to celebrate.
Hamish had see his big brother Dylan before the party and his middle brother Byron is getting married today and although he didn’t see him yesterday he saw him the day before so we were joined by his other two brothers Ronan and Shaun, his brother in law Dean and his sisters Tammi and Kerri.
With more birthday spoils, some monopoly and a lot of delicious treats he got to spend time with all his favourites as he blew our his candle.
He was also joined by two of his little friends and the kids had great fun chatting away on a picnic blanket with their plates of treats.
All too soon, it was hometime, and after a warm bubble bath he was tucked into bed and I started reading him Charlie and the chocolate factory by Roald Dahl, a birthday gift from his sister.
He needed no prompting to go to sleep and with a room now decorated with birthday balloons, his super heroes at his head and surrounded by his pets and fluffies a happy seven year old fell into dreamland.
