7

Dear Hugo,

Wow 7. You are really not slowing down, are you? This whole having a third baby thing is not really working out the way I planned, what with you insisting on keeping on growing up and all. Good thing you’re so cute.

It’s really fun watching your grown into your own person. You look up to and admire your older siblings but you also have a really strong sense of self. You know who you are and who you want to be (and who you don’t want to be). And who you want to be is pretty amazing so far.

June

You might often be the littlest one in the crew but you hold your own with the big kids and you are just as happy to join in as you are to do your own thing. You get along just as well with the bigger kids as you do the kids closer to your own age. You like having older buddies and you loving have a good friend just 8 months younger across the street. You can get impatient with long board or card games but you are just starting to really enjoy playing games that are geared for your age, so family games is becoming more of a thing and it’s been really fun. You like Sleeping Queens, Moose in the House, Chef Cuckoo, and Spot It quite a lot and you will even sit through most of a game of Castle Panic and even sometimes Sushi Roll. You like playing soccer with your siblings but are just as happy with kickball or four square. You love staying to play on the playground after school.

July

We traveled a lot this summer and you were such a hero about it. You loved seeing family – many of whom you didn’t really remember meeting but enjoyed spending time with anyway. You can be a little slow to warm up in new situations but felt at home pretty quickly at all of the birthday and wedding celebrations this year. And you were great on the plane to see our friends in Seattle as well, especially since there were movie and screen and snack options.

August

You really like first grade. You really like school in general. I mean, sure, you prefer weekends and “veecation” but you really enjoy your classmates and your teachers. You like learning and you even like doing your homework. You’re really learning a lot and it’s so cool to see the work that you have been doing and how excited you get about it. You enjoy learning and doing math and you’ve always enjoyed reading, so it’s been really fun seeing you be able to read books on your own more and more. You love picture books and will read almost anything I bring home, but you especially love graphic novels. Your first grade teachers sent home a babysitter’s club graphic novel when we went home for quarantine and you and Calum loved it so much we ended up getting a whole boxed set. You also read a lot of Catstronauts and Witch Boy and 5 Worlds. You love to re-read books, which was helpful when the library was closed for a few months this year – you didn’t mind at all, you were so excited to read the books you love again and again.

September

You lost some teeth this year, much to your delight. You like yanking your loose teeth out and spraying blood everywhere and you like getting a dollar after. You like chewing on tooth pillows and wiggling your tooth and sticking your tongue in the new hole. It’s been a fun a gross journey to take with you.

October

You have been a little funny about food this year. You have become more picky about lunch and you’ve decided that you just don’t like smoothie anymore, so you have been fighting about that too You used to like pizza for lunch at school on Fridays until you decided that you didn’t anymore. Not even pizza not from school is on your list of good things. Ordering take out with you is a pain 🙂 You do still love apples, though, and Papa has to be careful if he is going to set one aside to take with him to work in the morning, because if you find it first, he will end up with an apple with a few bites already taken out of it.

November

You’re always up for an adventure and there is almost nothing you aren’t willing to climb up or over or jump down from. You like running fast and playing hard and you love making up outside games with you siblings. You love going to the beach and have started to get more and more brave about going into the ocean. You like building sandcastles and you like looking for hermit crabs and “sea pennies” and any other creatures that you can find. You really learned how to swim this summer and winter also, and you are really proud of that (we are proud of you too). You also absolutely love ice skating, which is great, because it’s such a great winter outdoor thing to do. And you spent many days this winter asking when it was going to snow so you could try out your new skis and sled. Sorry this winter was such a dud on the snow front, buddy.

December

You’re sort of helpful. You like being a part of things but you don’t really like doing chores (who does?). Still you are good at putting your dishes away and have been starting to get better at folding clothes and socks and putting them away. No one ever wants to clean up games after, but you will do if reminded (repeatedly). You hate to clean up the attic or your room but you actually really like when things are less messy so, with a little help, you are not always the worst about it. You love cleaning the mirror in the bathroom.

January

Of course, the really big news of this year was the pandemic happening. You’ve weathered it pretty well so far but it’s had a big impact on you too. You were sad to finish 1st grade without really getting to say goodbye to your teachers. You mailed your classroom teacher a note to tell her how much you really liked having her and were going to miss her. You mailed a classmate a letter back after he mailed a letter to you. You tried zooming with some friends but you were all still a little young and awkward for that sort of thing this spring. You really missed everyone during the first few weeks of lockdown but were a real trooper about wearing your mask.

February

We did a lot of hiking this spring because there was not a lot to do. You would frequently complain but then immediately run and find something to poke or grab or throw.You love hiking with sticks and almost stabbing people with them (although you would NEVER ACTUALLY). You like throwing rocks into water and at trees (and ducks) (poor ducks). You like balancing on logs and climbing big rocks. We spent a lot of time driving farther and farther out to find new places to have the same kind of adventure but you were a good sport about it.

March

There are a lot of things that you miss and that you look forward to. You would like to travel and see family again or even to just go in friends’ houses. You don’t mind wearing a mask too much but you would also prefer not to. You have been going a great job about mostly seeing your siblings but you would really prefer to see friends more. You sometimes ask, “After the pandemic, if we don’t die … ” followed by a request for something you would like to do. We talk a lot about the facts about what is happening and what we can do to be safe and what we don’t that would be unsafe. You don’t love all of the restrictions but you do understand. And you are doing a really good job of being safe. You’d rather the pandemic never happened or at least that it was finally over but you’re not letting it get you down.

April

Happy happy 7th birthday, buddy! I wish this could have been a better year for you (all of you) but I’m so proud of everything you have done and everything you are becoming. I hope this next year is a lot better and I’m so impressed with the way you’ve managed everything so far. Many, many birthday hugs and kisses, I love you.

Seven

Love,

Mama