Dear Franklin,
You are EIGHT years old.
This makes for your eighth trip around the sun. The big EIGHT means you are just two years away from turning double digits. The next two years will fly by.
A brush stroke upon an art canvas strikes quickly, precisely, and concisely, allowing for a brief drying time before another stroke is made; this is how life is, because life strikes just like that--sometimes expectedly, and sometimes unexpectedly. In the past year, your canvas of 7th year is masterfully painted with so many textures, and colors with assorted brush strokes etched across, overlapping, crisscrossing, and divergenting into parallels. Up close, it appears to be a senseless mess, created out of madness and exhilaration, and it is anything but. Upon inspecting the canvas from afar, it is becoming evident that the chaos has created something beautiful. This is how your mind function.
You are absolutely hilarious. Your humor consists of physical, and bodily references. Farting, pooping, anything smelly, falling down, slipping on a piece of something, food being smushed in own's face, animals being goofy on Youtube, and anything of slapstick nature. More often than not, what you find to be funny become infectious, and we can't help, but laugh along with you. You love reading Dogman, Bird and Squirrel, and SpongeBob graphic novels. SpongeBob is your THING. You love SpongeBob. You find that yellow sponge to be downright hilarious, much to Mama's puzzlement. You remind Mama to just find small things in life to laugh about, and not to be always so serious. Sometimes, this does mean your head is lost in the clouds! Mama and Daddy could call for you multiple times only to have you to be SO LOST in your own world. It can become a bit nerve-grating at times, especially when you are needed, yet at the same time, it is just in your nature to go on adventures into your own world, and need a gentle prodding to bring you back to ours.
You finished out the year with Mrs. Henning saying farewell to the first graders at Hillcrest to go on her own sailing adventure, and entered second grade with Mrs. Zoll. You were reported to be organized, tidy, and focused on your work. You made sure that you completed your tasks, and carefully reviewed your assignments. Your interests remained aligned with both math and art. You read at 3.5 grade level, and your mathmathemic abilities hit near to 4th grade level. You loved word problems, adding, subtracting, and now multiplying! Much to Mama's dismay, you often made her take your math quizzes, and graded her accordingly. You made it clear to her that she was unable to use calculator with your quizzes, and it definitely made things funnier. You enjoyed playing Go Fish, Memory card game, Crazy Eight, and Chess with Mama or anyone who was willing to play against you.
Your biggest passion continued to be art. You loved drawing, painting, crafting, and creating. You were often found sketching whatever emerged in your mind onto the paper. Your artwork often littered the kitchen table until they were hung up on the walls to be shown off. Mama called that FRANK's GALLERY. You often enjoyed making gummy bears, and designing food. When you had an opportunity to show off your artistic abilities, you often took it, and the outcome were always amazing. The art nook was often haphazardly left behind as you became lost into your world. You often loved it when someone joined you to create art with you. Your most recent project was creating a Minecraft board for Star of the Week, and it turned out incredible!
You can be quite stubborn. Oh yes. Stubborn as a mule! Sometimes, it can be difficult to work with you when your stubbornness overtakes everything. Stubbornness is what will drive you. It will enable you to be persistent. It will give you the grit when things gets hard. At the same time, do remember that it is okay to let down your walls, and to hear what others have to share with you. We can't always do things by ourselves, and there are things we have to do even if we don't want to.
You can get frustrated easily, especially when you are tired, and it does show. This is where Dad and Mama often try to guide you through your frustration to be able to express yourself safely. You don't like being left out, or be told you can't participate. You get your feelings hurt easily, because you give so much of yourself to people, and not all people are big-hearted like you. It is a painful lesson that you have to learn, and to guard yourself a bit more--not too much that you are closed off, but just enough to not be so wounded at times (easier said than done, after all, I do understand for that I also have a soft heart myself).
You do not like gore, blood, and violence. Your soul is beautifully sensitive, which is something Mama and Daddy always want to preserve from you, and you prefer to see the good over the ugly. Horror, and psychological thrillers are not your cup of tea. You do not like WWE smackdown. Anything that involves fighting, or hurting people or animals turns you off. When you see your siblings get hurt, you rush to give them condolences, and hugs...as long as there is no blood! You just want to see the funny, comedy, love, and goodness in everything around you. It is a wonderful thing to possess, because without the light, dark can be too overwhelming, and love is what always prevail. You are what is good in the world. People like you are what keeps many of us going even in the face of darkness.
You love comfort. You like soft blankets, warm towels, athletic pants, gym shoes, and nothing too tight against your body. You like cuddling when you are tired. You love running into a warm house after playing in snow for hours, and drinking a cup of hot chocolate with whipped cream (A LOT OF IT)! You still love Baby Yoda, even though your interest is starting to wane in it, and you enjoy Minecraft. You love to play on switch, and games on Ipad. Even with this, you prefer strongly to play outside until you are asked to come inside.
When it comes to food, fresh is what you appreciate, and love. You love fruits of all kinds; strawberries, blueberries, cherries, raspberries, bananas, apples, and oranges. You reach to any of those first before you consider eating junk food. You don't have much of a sweet tooth! However, you love hot chocolate drink, and always ask for that the minute air becomes cold! You love pineapple on pizza, steaks, and snacking on pepperoni slices. You also enjoy popcorn.
You are signing a lot more these days! Your confidence is rising, and you are more encouraged to take an initiative to sign. You also fingerspell quite a lot, which lines up with the fact that you are learning more vocabulary from reading, and writing. The more you read and write, the more you feel comfortable fingerspelling words that may be challenging for you. Daddy often smiles, and gives that knowing glance at Mama when you approach her to tell her about something exciting that happened during your day.
You enjoy playing baseball, and flag football. During your games, you often exhibit a great sportsmanship by helping others, and often prefer to give up your position so others can get to play. You don't get angry when your team loses, and remain humble when your team wins. It is just about having fun for you. You love it when Daddy and Mama come to cheer you on during your games. It's a bit of a different story when it comes to your board games! You can be quite competitive, and want to win. You're funny like that. When it comes to just yourself and playing individualistic activities, you can be quite competitive, but when it comes to teamwork, you're all about cooperation. How cool!
You are very family oriented. When asked about what you are thankful for, you often say family. When asked what is one of your favorite things in your life, you often say family. You are always kissing and hugging Fiona. You love playing around with Fox. You enjoy gaming with Forrest when Forrest opens up his world to you. It can be a bit hard to see Forrest leaving your realm of interests into his own, and having him distance himself a bit. So you cherish your time with him when he does spend time with you. You do truly get the best of both worlds; enjoying activities geared for kids your age or younger with Fox, and sampling what older kids enjoy with Forrest. You love to leave notes for Mama. You enjoy hanging out with Dad while fishing, or playing mario go kart with him!
You are well liked. You get along with your classmates, and are often invited to birthday parties! You enjoy playing with neighbor kids, and they often find you to be easy to get along with. You are rarely in middle of conflicts, and when you do, you often find a way to abate them. You do not like when people fight, or argue. You often prefer when there is harmony, and kindness, because then that means you get to have more fun. You love walking or biking to the park with Forrest, or with your friends.
Mama and Dad are so excited to see you continue to grow into an amazing human being that you are. May year 8 bring an abundance of blessing, happiness, humor, and love to you, sweet Franklin.
Love,
Mama, Dad, Forrest, Fox, and Fiona
