Elliot's Birthday Interview

Here are a few pictures of our Elliot from the past year. He is a delight to have in our family, keeping us on our toes and laughing. His attention span and loyalty to his friends are both exemplary. 

Playing Up and Down the River on Grandpa's team (usually the secret to winning)

Elliot loves animals. His cousin-dog Dexter made him giggle for ten straight minutes this past summer

Elliot loves his friends, which includes his cousins. Elliot will hang out by himself and read for hours, but under the right circumstances he will sacrifice reading time for playing with friends.

Elliot's seventh birthday interview:

Where and when were you born?
In New York. October 21st, 2007. (It was actually 2006.)

What's your favorite color?
Green, black, gold, grey, orange, red.

What's your favorite thing to do?
Fun crafts. Like fishing with a magnetic thing on the pole and on the fish.

What's your favorite food?
Pizza from a store. Cheese pizza.

Favorite fruit?

A red apple, with no spots, all covered in red. With no worms in it.

What's your favorite book?
Comic books like "The Fearless Four"

What's your favorite toy?
A remote control vehicle

What's your favorite thing to watch?
Phineas and Ferb

What's your favorite sport to play?
Basketball!

Who are some of your favorite characters from books?
"The Whiner," Harry Potter, Hermione, Dumbledore, Ron, Fred and George, Mr. Weasley (Like after they had just driven his car he was like, "You did? How'd it go?!")

What do you like to do when you have extra time?
Have a party. 

Who are some of your friends?
Aiden, Jack, Tripp, Nate, Drew

Who is your teacher?
Ms. Mason.

Do you like her?
Yo.

Tell me about a good memory that you have...
Memorizing my part for the primary program. Wanna hear it? If I get any mistakes, I can not do it. And no hints. "Because of Christ's atonement, I can repent and live with God again and because he was resurrected, I will be, too. Jesus Christ is our Savior. He is the only one who has the power to save us from the eternal consequences of death and sin." Boom!

Do you remember anything from when you were little?
There was this awesome chess player on the street, I think his name was Ahmad, when I was three and we lived in New York, and every move I made I said, "Checkmate!" 

Do you remember anything from when we lived in Jerusalem?
I had a Hebrew class. I could understand my classmates and my teacher but I didn't know how to speak Hebrew but they did and soon I learned it. And one time I fell asleep just before recess and I woke up just as the kids were rushing in. Boom!

Describe yourself in one word:
Awesome!

If you could be any animal, what would you be?
A weapon-proof bird.

What would be your ideal allowance? How would you spend it?
400 bucks and spend it on a mini iPad.

What about the next week? What would you do with the next $400?
Another mini iPad.

And what about when you have enough iPad Minis, what would you get?
I would save up and, if my parents let me, I would get a Wii. And then I would save up and find something cool to get and get it.

Name two activities you'd like to do together as a family.
Have family night and do dog sitting.

What do you remember about Grandpa LeeR?
He was a pretty good handball pal. I liked to play handball with him. And he liked to play the alphorn. And he makes awesome pancakes and he knows how to flip them good.

Where did your parents meet?
Utah. Midway? Salt Lake City?

What's something that makes you happy?
Playing on the computer.

What's something you do really well?
Swim.

Finish this sentence: I wish there were a law that said...
...that every single scientist should work on making a ray that goes all the way around the world that makes everybody strong enough to lift up a house.

Where would you want to go on vacation if you could choose?
Disney World.

Describe your best day ever:
When we watched Avatar non-stop, a long time ago, while you were gone. It used to be on Netflix but now, somehow, it got cancelled. We don't know why.

What do you want to be when you grow up?
An inventor!

Anything else you want to say?
I am seven. My name is Elliot James Lambert Peters. I rock. I am awesome. I'm awesome at swimming. I like playing the piano. And when my brother watched Planet Earth when he was little and a wolf chased a deer he said, "No no, wolf, now you have to go to time out!"

My Birthday!

My birthday was a couple of weeks ago. It was on Wednesday the 16th but I decreed that it should be celebrated this year on Thursday the 17th since the kids would be on fall break and Ben wouldn't have to rush off to teach (he teaches MWF this semester). So Wednesday was a normal day more or less (except all the sweet "happy birthdays" from everyone. Libbie said it before she even opened her eyes when I woke her up for school.) But then Thursday, I got to sleep in until 8:00, when everyone came in my room singing and brought me this amazing breakfast in bed:

Aaron was the main architect behind the breakfast, even made the cooked spelt the night before so it would be ready for the morning.

They brought some wonderful presents along with the breakfast. 

Ben made me a sweet sign (which I didn't photograph), Aaron made (most of) the breakfast and organized the pantry and a few kitchen drawers for my gift. Libbie and Elliot made me books.

Libbie's is called "Adventure Girl." It's about a girl who goes on adventures. And then she grows up and goes on more adventures. Everytime she "reads" the book to us there are different adventures involved. 

Libbie has been gifting us books she's written the last year or so, partially influenced by the fact that her dad was often off writing his book. She feels bad, though, that Ben's book doesn't have pictures in it and has offered many times to be his illustrator. Hopefully that will happen somehow.

Elliot made this comic book for me. You may recognize some major themes taken from Captain Underpants (and maybe some other comic books?). He obviously ripped off several lines and general story structures he had memorized. So awesome though.

The Adventures of Captain Mom!

It was a time of darkness and despair for Planet Earth. Bad guys had taken over the streets and all of the superheroes were too old, too old to fight evil. 

"Ha Ha."

Then along came a new super hero.

"Tra-laa-laa"

"Look up in the sky. It's a bird."

"It's a plane."

"It's a egg salad sandwich."

"No way, I'm Captain Underpants."

But wait, it isn't Captain Underpants! It's Captain Mom!

Captain Mom was faster than a speeding wasteband, *zip*

More powerful than boxer shorts, *pow*

And able to leap tall buildings without getting a wedgie.

"tra-laa-laa"

One day at a nearby Elementary School, everything was pretty normal...
It was "Stinky Taco Surprise Day" at the cafeteria.
"Yuck!"
It was so yucky, everybody threw it away.

Then the cafeteria food came to life.

"I am the Inedible Hunk!"

"Help! The Inedible Hunk ate 15 folding chairs!"

"Oh no! Not folding chairs!"

"This is a job for..."

"Captain Mom!"

Captain Mom shot a lot of underwear at the monster, but it didn't do any good.

*zip* 

*munch munch*

So she fought him.

"Ouch!"

Which made him feel sweaty.

So she lead him to the toilet.

"Follow me."

Which he took a drink out of.

*glub glub*

So she flushed him down.

*Flush!*

Then she flew home to talk on the phone with her sisters.

The End

This made me so happy. I love that I go home and talk on the phone with my sisters. So accurate! I think my other favorite part is, "Oh no! Not folding chairs!"

After a morning like that, I was high on pure happiness. (Yes, I just wrote that, and I'm keeping it. I really was.) Then I found out that Ben was taking (most of) the day off and I somehow managed to get even happier. So we had a relaxed morning and afternoon. I took the middle kids to the Y and did a leisurely swim while Maya slept and Aaron stayed home to play with her when she woke up so Ben could work. I spent an hour or two in the afternoon catching up on some email and letters. Ben told me we were going out at 4:30 but I didn't know where. Some family friends showed up at 4:25, we got the kids settled, and Ben drove us downtown to Juniper. We got the waiter-recommended lamb and the famous "Duck Two Ways." So good. We loved both but actually preferred the lamb. Even the bread was amazing. We sat next to a really awkward couple. The guy was overwhelming and showy and she was almost completely silent. It made me even happier to have such an awesome spouse. Ben really is my truest deepest friend and will always be. There's nobody else in the world I'd rather spend an evening with. Well, I guess to be truly accurate I should say there's no one else in the world I'd rather spend every evening with. There are lots of people I might prefer to spend one evening with, as long as I could come home to Ben afterwards and every day after that.

After dinner Ben took us to All-Souls Unitarian church, where I was thrilled to figure out we were going to the "Literary Death Match" he had mentioned weeks earlier. We had never been to one, and weren't really sure what to expect, but were pleasantly surprised. Local writers sharing 7-9 minute stories. All were well done, but the guy who won was our favorite. I really liked the idea of the death match and I hope we go every year. Maybe a birthday tradition? We drove home and enjoyed the rest of our evening together. The only disappointing thing all day was that our favorite frozen custard place (Freckles, which is dangerously close to our house) was closed by the time we got there. Apparently we've never tried to go after 9:30 on a weekday.

I had a fantastic birthday (two days, actually!) and am grateful more and more everyday that I have such an awesome family. I don't feel sad that another year has passed and I am now thirty-three, but I am starting to feel the desperation that comes from realizing how quickly the years go by. My son is almost ten, and my baby is not really a baby anymore. I'm excited to see what will come to me in this new chapter of life. I get to keep figuring out what kind of person I will become, and these next few years could bring a lot of change and progression if I do it right. Stay tuned.