13!!

YOU ARE A TEENAGER! It's so exciting and scary at the same time- thankfully you're still a cuddly love bug and super non-teenagery yet :) I have a hunch that you'll always be the sweetest boy, no matter your age. You're in 7th grade, and doing amazing! You're still in band, and you actually were skipped up to symphonic band (8th grade) because you do such a great job! You were also placed in all advanced classes, and accelerated math where you'll do both 7th and 8th grade math in one year- if you do well at that, you'll be in high school algebra in 8th! You are so far beyond the type of math I understand, but thankfully I can use the internet to teach me, or ChatGPT to teach both of us. I suppose ChatGPT is new this year too- it's an AI chat bot and you can literally ask it anything. I haven't found one thing that it can't do! There's actually talks in the government about the potential dangers of AI in the future, being used for bad things- it's crazy. Covid is stilllll a thing, but we are all vaccinated, boosted, and mostly living like normal again. Daddy had covid, and uncle Jon, but you and I haven't, nor have Oma or Opa, as far as we know. Uncle Jon is staying with us until around my birthday (mid-Feb), and we all just love that so much. We are in our new house as of December, and we are super excited about that! You're doing so well in all areas of your life, actually- it's so awesome to sit back and watch you grow! You're going to be taller than me very soon, and probably taller than daddy before long. Over the summer you went to Colorado for your Glenwood trip and had a blast, it's so nice that Oma can take you to do that! You decided you didn't want to ski, worried about getting too cold. This spring break, you're going on a school trip by YOURSELF to Washington DC!! I am so nervous but excited for you. I am not going, I could have, but they had a good point about how great it is to let the kids go on their own and have some growth and responsibility. So exciting- it's only a couple of days, so even if you don't love it, it won't be for long enough to get really homesick. You've made a lot of great friends, your puppies Buddy and Nya are doing well. Oma, Opa, Dadd and Uncle Jon are doing great- we're all just plugging along, sort of living a bit more adventurously than we had been the past 2 years. Doctors don't think covid will ever really go away, but there are the vaccines and boosters now, and more in the works. Going to go for now, see ya next year- I can't wait to see how much you grow!! You're so amazing <3 Love you to the moon and a million stars and back, Mommy