11: A Balanced Number

November is well behind us and the spotlight is clearly on December now, but I can't let the story of November end without including this guy. We celebrated another birthday for Andrew, one that pleases him immensely because his number is "balanced" again. Single digits were good, but 10 (a 1 and a 0) was not quite right. The digit 11 is visually balanced and he is happy again. Unfortunately, he will have to wait another 11 years before he reaches the next visually balanced number of 22.

Does this make sense? It does to him, and I totally get it. He's not a complete obsessive compulsive type, he just notices details and appreciates order and symmetry. He is attuned to simple aesthetics and balanced design. Arrangement and precision are important, and he is especially fond of "tiny" things. It will be interesting to see what he ends up doing. With his work ethic and determination, I have no doubt he will carve out an interesting path.

I saw some tiny gingerbread houses at Anthropologie last weekend, and I immediately thought of him. Tiny houses are his thing, and he has the precision and patience it would take to assemble and decorate little Christmas houses.

He is my Andrew: Fun, appreciative, patient/longsuffering, affectionate, kind. He is all boy, but he has a tender spot inside. He loves his one day of school per week, but still prefers the comforts and flexibility of our school days at home. He loves gaga ball at lunch time, and casually tells me how often he won in between describing an experiment in his Weird Science class. He is still not sure he wants to marry someday; today he said it would be good to have a job that could "pay for" (support!) a wife before he was ready for a girl anyway. He is very logical.

His birthday fell on his school day, so I brought him and his buddies some cupcakes at lunch time. He was so pleased. Such a simple thing to do, but it meant so much to him. And since he loves most things Asian, we went out for sushi for dinner. He loved the rice, but wasn't so sure about the sushi! A couple days later, we had his friend over and I made BBQ chicken pizza and the requested spice cake with brown sugar frosting.

Andrew. He is my brownie. Dark chocolate eyes and charming dimples. Delicious!

I am so thankful for this boy, this precious life!

~Katherine