This year, Max asked for a slumber party instead of a weekend trip or a regular birthday. He invited three friends over, and they all spent the night eating pizza, playing video games, watching movies, and singing songs together (yes, it turns out that boys do that too!). At one point in the night, one of his friends got a little overwhelmed and nervous because the others wanted to play on the Wii U, but he didn't know how, so he hid up in Max's room by himself. Max was so kind to him! He kept going upstairs to check on his friend and play with him a little bit, then coming back down to play with the other two for a couple minutes, then going back up to check on the boy upstairs. Max didn't pressure his friend; he just offered his company, understanding, and encouragement, and eventually his friend came back downstairs, and before too long, he was playing the Wii U and doling out high-fives with the others.
And that's our Max. He might have a blind spot when it comes to his brothers, but when it comes to everyone else, Max is insightful, understanding, and so so sweet. He really cares about other people, and makes an impressive effort to understand different points of view. I'm no expert on child development, but to me he seems kind beyond his years.
In other news, my stubborn hope from last year has finally come true: Max LOVES to read! I'm going to offer a lot of the credit to Max's fourth-grade teacher, Mr. K. Regular readers will remember that last year Max wrote a persuasive essay about why he shouldn't have to do homework, and one of his main supporting points was that he already knew everything and the work was too easy for him. Well, this year Mr. K. took Max at his word. At the beginning of the year, they worked together to make a list of things Max wanted to learn that were outside of the regular fourth-grade curriculum. Some of the things on the list were pretty typical, like doing harder math problems and equations, but then Mr. K. proposed picking one area of study with many applications, so Max could do a sort of independent study thing as class time allowed. Given his love of calamari and Aunt Popi, it seemed like a no-brainer that Max would choose Greece as his main theme and branch out from there (studying plants and animals, food, architecture, etc.), and as it turns out, Mr. K. is also an avid fan of all things Greek and has even studied the language! It's been a perfect fit. Max has delved really deeply into Greek mythology, which led to me buying him a couple of books on the subject (which he devoured), which led to him reading the Percy Jackson series of books about a young demigod ... and just like that, we have another reader in the family. His current project is to take everything he has learned about Greek mythology and (along with two of his classmates) consolidate it into a presentation for his class. He has been showing us the slides as he finishes them, and we have been so entertained. Maybe when it is done I will be able to figure out how to post it here so you can all enjoy his wit and wisdom for yourselves.
This really has been a year of great joy for Max, and for us watching Max. Aside from reading, this has been a year of adventure for him: He took his first flight, which was also his first flight without us, when he went to California with Grandma Barb. He discovered that he really likes hiking, and took a 10-mile hike in Gatlinburg with Uncle Matt. He's been to Ocracoke and DC and San Diego and Gatlinburg and Naperville. He's spent time doing fun things with cousins, aunts, uncles, grandparents, and even his great-grandpa. And he seems to really appreciate all of those things, and to understand how precious it is to have so many opportunities and so many loved ones.
Tonight, we're having dinner at a steakhouse with Aunt Bethany, Aunt Loni, Uncle Craig, and Lilly and Jack. Friday night, Max is spending the night with my parents, and later in the weekend he'll spend time with Barb and Kevin. So if nothing else, someday Max will look back on his 10th birthday and know that he was surrounded with love.
Happy birthday, Max. You are loved.
No comments:
Post a Comment