Aaron, My Best Friend

Yes, after all these years, you are still my best friend. If given the option I think you would snuggle next to me all day. Sadly for both of us, snuggles are a rare thing these days. Between Elijah and Elise there's not much room for Aaron on my lap. 

Thankfully you have recently decided that games are lots of fun and will happily play with me or your siblings. Your current favorites are Exploding Kittens and Zeus on the Loose. 

At your 6 year old check up in October, you were 3 ft. 9 in. and 37 lbs.  I was shocked that you were in the third percentile for weight--that's something I expect from Catherine! Guess you're going to be a skinny mini, too. 

For several months we were obliged to participate in daily (often hourly or minutely) sessions of the Aaron "Would you rather?" game. It goes something like this:

-"Would you rather have a ruby or a diamond?"

-"Would you rather have a million dollars or a million rubies?"

-"Would you rather have an iPad or get your arms chopped off?"

Etc., etc. etc. 

Another favorite Aaron-ism: you singing "Baa, Baa, Black Sheep." Instead of the line, "Have you any wool?", you sing "D'you have any wool?" It's the best. I made sure I got it on video for posterity. 

Best Aaron story ever: It was the evening of Trunk or Treat and we were getting ready to go home. We'd taken both cars, so Dad drove his car and I drove the van. As I was loading you in, you kept asking if you could eat your candy. I said I didn't care, but Daddy said, "No. You've had plenty already." You kept asking and I kept saying yes, while Dad said no. The whole way home you agonized over eating your candy, despite my assurances that I was fine with it. Finally, as we pulled into the driveway you burst out, "The prophet said to listen your parents, but I don't know which one to listen to!" Timmy and I were dying of laughter. 

Another day you wanted to do an "experiment". For some reason, all experiments at our house must involve water and food coloring. You also asked for some black beans. When Dad questioned what exactly you thought you would get by combining red food coloring, water & beans, you answered, "Umm, red, wet, beans??"

I can't even remember what this was from, but it shows your sudden interest in writing. In true Aaron form, you went from zero writing to "nothing but writing" in the course of one day:

From a social media post in October: 

"Last night I asked the kids to each grab a bedtime story for me to read. Elise and Catherine happily grabbed some Halloween picture books. Not Aaron. He returned with this book and his Mohs Scale of Hardness chart. We snuggled up and read all about gems while he charted each one on the scale. His love language is still numbers."

In a similar vein, you've been taking spelling lessons with Sister Bente once a week. Because she's amazing, she's been using gems to help you learn. She even bought you a geode to crack open! 

You were very disappointed that none of the gems inside were worth thousands of dollars and quickly lost all interest. Luckily Elise didn't care about the market value and was happy to keep your rejects:

Smashing up a tiny geode piece:

You earned 30 "attitude points" for school and were so excited to go on a date with me. You picked Red Robin on your big siblings' recommendation. I loved getting to chat with you and watching you quickly snatch up all the mushrooms and blue cheese that fell out of my burger when I took a bite. You have excellent taste in food. 

You still love math and are only about 6 months behind Catherine in your comprehension. It makes my life easier because then I can just work on multiplication with both of you! 

You love finding out new facts about numbers. Current obsession is with ever-decreasing intervals of time (seconds, nanoseconds, microseconds, picoseconds...). 

I sure love all your Aaronisms (especially your crazy hair)!