Eight

After New Orleans we hightailed it to Florida, looking for some warmer beaches. Our first stop was Grayton Beach, where we spent Elliott’s birthday — in the white sands with afternoons warm enough to swim.

The sunsets were pretty spectacular too. We’d go down in the evenings, along with lots of other people to watch the sunset. Most evenings there would be at least four or five groups of people (not campers), often in identical clothes, who had hired a professional photographer to shoot family portraits. It was funny watching photographers trying to wrangle 10 people in matching outfits into a pose while the light faded. Made me feel good about my decision to abandon photography as a career back in college.

By the time Elliott’s birthday rolled around the warm weather had retreated unfortunately, but does any kid really care about the weather on their birthday? A rainy birthday is still a birthday. Your sisters will still descend on you before you’re out of bed, clamoring for you to open their gifts.

We’ve always let the kids start their birthdays like Christmas — giving each other their gifts in the early morning. It’s my favorite part of their birthdays, watching them be kind and generous and loving to each other. Elliott’s eighth birthday was no exception. He’s kind, smart, fun, strong, caring, adventurous, and the best little brother his sisters could ever hope for. I am biased of course, but I know some people think kids have to stay in one place to grow up well, and Elliott (and his sisters) is here to tell those people they don’t know what they’re talking about.

I am not crazy about how fast they are all growing up — a speed that seems to be exponentially accelerating too — but it brings me great happiness and joy to see how they’ve grown and I am excited to see what they have in store for the future.

You do have to watch him though, take one sip of tea and your whole army might get wiped out.

Despite my losses on the tabletop battlefield I did manage to get some cake.