Seven

Isaac turned seven two weeks ago and I feel remiss for being late with a birthday post.  

Isaac has grown so much in the past seven years, it is nearly inconceivable.  To go from a little guy that can't lift up his own head, to a walking, talking, dapping kid is an amazing process.  I thought that I might just not notice, that living with him everyday might make me miss the small steps he takes, even to this day, but the reality is being a parent makes you attentive to another in a way that is impossible to replicate elsewhere.  I haven't missed how amazing the process is.  I am still in awe of it.  Just this week, we moved around the reading at bedtime so that I can see over his shoulder and in that time I have witnessed him tackle reading with so much more confidence than he had just a few months ago.  Reading is the key that unlocks modern society and watching Isaac master that key has been spectacularly fun, especially when cast against a background of anticipating his discovery of the  bigger world around him that reading unlocks.  

We think of people has having a static age--"Isaac is Seven" but the reality is that even as a adults we are always in the process of becoming someone new, someone with more experience and a better perspective.  For me, witnessing Isaac go through this process of development has been one of the singular gifts of my life.  

And so while he got a lot of nice gifts on his birthday, I have come to realize that birthdays for parents are about celebrating the gift their child represents to them--the every day gift of growing and changing and mastering the world around them.  In watching that process parents learn about themselves and the world with a fresh perspective.  And this is one of the many reasons why children are perpetual gifts to their parents.  Happy Birthday Isaac Anthony!