Me: What’s today?
7 year old: My birthday.
Me: How do you know it’s your birthday?
7 year old: Because Mommy told me this morning.
Me: Did I actually tell you?
7 year old: You put on a birthday song to wake me up.
Q: Where are you?
7 year old: In Italy.
Me: Where?
7 year old: Venice.
Me: How many seven year olds spend their birthdays in Venice?
7 year old: I don’t know.
Me: Probably all the Venetian ones, huh? How will you be spending your birthday?
7 year old: I’m going to a glass-making place.
Me: What do you like to do these days?
7 year old: Singing and dance.
Me: What kind of dance?
7 year old: Ballet, tap, maybe hip hop
Me: What are your favorite books?
7 year old: American Girl Doll books. The Best Friends series.
Me: What are your favorite things to watch?
7 year old: Shake It Up. Craft Wars. Cupcake Wars. Oh yeah. Project Runway. It’s so hard to remember them when you haven’t watched them in a long time.
Me: What are your goals as a seven year old?
7 year old: To stop chewing my hair. And to grow my hair long without getting much haircuts.
Me: What do you want to be when you grow up?
7 year old: I don’t actually know.
Me: What are you looking forward to in 2nd grade?
7 year old: The Japanese unit.
Me: Any grand pronouncements?
7 year old: No.
Me: Anything else?
7 year old: I think that’s good.
Happy birthday, Pie Pie!
To Pie:
Happy birthday and be careful crossing the streets – they’re full of water.
Love,
Peter Brown