Happy Birthday Little Man

Ah my little man is seven now.
Anthony, seven...and yes, a little man.
He is a wild and rascally seven year old, as all self respecting seven year old boys should be.

Today has been much anticipated and planned for….
precise orders on dinner and dessert and pleas for specific gifts.
It didn't land on the Super Bowl like some years (last year), which is just the pinnacle of birthdays in boydom...but it's still just a great bright spot in the winter of February.
It puts a smile on my face, knowing this boy and celebrating this birthday:

Anthony, Little Man, you came to us at three months old.
And I think I fell in love with you the moment I saw your beautiful sweet face.

You've been making us laugh and roar ever since.
You have a heart of sugar spun gold: sweet and good.
But tempered with a mischievous bent and a instinctual swift dive for the goofy joke.

You are a loving boy with compassion built in.

You race through your world like a comet.
You run fast and hard,
jump high,
laugh loud and easily,
smile big,
think deeply,
chew happily,
stay up late,
sleep in hard,
snuggle close.

You have developed, this past year, a really cool artistic side.
You have a great ear for music and already are fun to listen to as you play on the piano.
You sing in the car when you're happy; you did that as a toddler too and it's one of my favorite things.
You have a great eye for drawing, with terrific attention to design and talent to draw what you are imagining.
You have an eye to really see the world around you; to notice the details with an artist's appreciation.
This artistic blooming makes my art mom's heart swell with happy.

You love to play hard.
But you also love to dress snappy.

You are the most dapper seven year old I've ever known.

You have a temper to beat the band; it is almost bigger than you are.
You are learning to slow down that firecracker temper and find the gentle underneath.
It will be many years of lessons there.
But you will learn it, it's your nature.

You are so smart.
And this year you are taking off with your schoolwork.
You are becoming a terrific reader and that too makes your book loving mom proud.
Because reading is power and can open up the world for you.
You have big adventures ahead Little Man, I know it,

And so on this day, your birthday, you may be seven.
But I can still sing you your song from babyhood:
"Oh, my Anthony...
you're the one for me.
I just love you so, 
never gonna let you go."

Happy Happy Birthday Anthony!

We love you so!