Thursday, February 23, 2012

Seven

Today my baby is seven.

The number is hard one.

Developmentally, Beh is two. When people ask me how old he is, my impulse is to say "two." Because it feels like he made it to two just fine but that when he made it there time started slowing down, turning days into years. He's growing and learning, but it's in slower motion.

For the most part, people didn't realize that he was all that different from other two-year-olds. He was small enough that my four, five, six-year-old two-year-old blended in with the other kids his age.

But seven--it's such a big number.

When kids hit seven, they aren't so interested in watching Sprout, playing with Thomas trains, and singing the ABCs. When kids hit seven, they start to drift off with their friends, mom watching from a distance instead of hovering.

When kids hit seven, kids who don't act like other seven-year-olds are labeled as "different."

I saw it with Noah. When he hit seven, all of the sudden other kids started to realize that he wasn't like them. That innocent ignorance of difference began to fade, replaced by the knowledge that one of these kids was not like the others.

Nick is seven. His life is about to change.