Leander Roxas | 7 1/2 Year Old Update - Kara Abbey Photography

Leander's Half Birthday Summer Portraits

Every year, for the kids’ “half-birthdays”, I take them out & do some fun (typically “themed”) portraits of them. With Braelynn being born in January and Leander born in December, I knew that we would never be able to do “fun”, warm and glowy, outdoor “birthday” portraits – so I have simply compromised with “half-birthday” portraits every year. And it’s so much fun!

I’ve obviously taken A LOT of photos of my kids, but for some reason – this jump between 6-to-7 (coming up on 8) has been a HUGE one. I’m not sure I’ve ever taken photos and seen such a massive difference between years.

We obviously see our kids every single day and the growing and changing happens to slowly that our eyeballs don’t even register it – but then when you compare one year against the previous year – WOW. What in the world happened?

And that’s what I feel like this year.

So, without further ado, here is a little summer, half-birthday update on our sweet Leander Roxas:

I was telling someone recently: Leander’s personality is really starting to shine though these days (and it’s a lot of fun to see). He’s a great mix of funny, bold, and brave – while still having a shy, quiet, and slightly nervous side. I can’t wait to see how he continues to grow and become himself!
The kid LOVES to sleep (ever since he was a baby, he’s been a great sleeper), but the trick is: he now only really loves to sleep in the mornings. He’ll stay up until 11pm (or later), quietly playing in his room with his LEGOs and reading books, with zero signs of being tired. He usually stays up until Derrick goes to bed. But then, he will then sleep until 10 or 11am the next morning! He’s definitely developing into a little night owl (I’m just slightly concerned to see how he sleeps in when he becomes a teenager!)
Speaking of LEGOs, if you walk into Leander’s bedroom, you’d likely think you walked into a LEGO store. He has sets that he’s built covering an entire dresser, then he has a LEGO “house” set up on another dresser, and his nightstand is covered with his collection of mini figures and their accessories (he has them all built out on a board very organized). Plus, there’s always a mountain of LEGOs in the middle of the floor that he’s currently working on building from. He’s quite obsessed with LEGOs – and not just the building blocks, but the IP as well (Ninjago remains a steadfast favorite). We’ve now visited Legoland New York twice and Legoland California – and let’s just say: those are some of Leander’s favorite theme parks to visit!
Along with his LEGO obsession, he LOVES Star Wars, which obviously warms Derrick’s heart and makes him very happy. 75% of the t-shirts in Leander’s drawer are Star Wars themed. He’ll be Darth Vadar for Halloween this year (a costume he randomly puts on around the house – it’s hilarious to have Darth Vadar eating dinner with us or Darth Vadar unloading the dishwasher!). He loves the Mandalorian and Grogu most though and will re-watch those episodes over and over again. (Yes, we will be planning a Star Wars themed 8th birthday party coming up in December!)
Leander has officially started 2nd grad. He’s super smart when it comes to math and has no problem doing addition and subtraction in his head (which is very different from his sister). We introduced the kids to a game called Play 9 over the summer when we had (what felt like) a revolving door of extended family visiting, and he very quickly caught on not only how to play, but how to calculate his score (including negative numbers) too! He continues to learn how to read, is working on his handwriting, and loves joining Braelynn for history and science.
Speaking of games – don’t ask Leander to play spoons! He has a special strategy that typically gets him almost to the very end of the game (he doesn’t look at his cards at all, he simply passes them along and watches the spoons like a hawk so he’s almost always the second person to grab a spoon!) The first time I saw his strategy at play, I laughed so hard. I tried to explain to him that it wasn’t exactly a “winning” strategy, but he was just happy to stay in the game as long as possible. Point for ingenuity.
Leander still hasn’t been brave enough to try any “big” roller coasters (although the kid is SO tall and can ride almost anything at any park now!) We got him on a “larger” kiddie coaster at Knott’s Berry Farm when we were in California in August (it had a mini-launch in the middle) and as much as he says he didn’t like it, not only did we not force him to ride, but he then went on to ride it 4 times in a row. He definitely has a fear of heights – but Derrick just keeps reassuring us (and Leander) that he’ll ride when he’s ready to ride (he’s very similar to his father in that way).
At church, the group of kids that are Leander’s age are almost ALL boys (there’s just one girl) and so, you can imagine the mischievousness they attempt to get into. Jackson remains his best friend at church, but his cousin Layla clearly remains his best “cousin-friend” (he talks about her all the time and they instantly fall into cahoots whenever they’re together). Leo (who’s 4) has definitely attempted to upset Leander and Layla’s relationship though by being a really awesome BOY to climb trees, run around, and be crazy with though – so the cousin dynamic is really quite interesting to watch.
We found out a few weeks ago that Leander’s allergic to red-dye-40 (which is very common among kids – especially boys). We don’t eat a lot of things that include red dye, but we’ve been surprised at all the little things that do have it in it (including body wash and shampoo – go figure). Thankfully, the process of cutting it out hasn’t been all that bad (like I said, we didn’t eat a lot of things that had it in it to begin with) and Leander’s been really good at remembering that he’s allergic and being careful what he eats when we’re out.
Lastly, Leander loves to draw – mostly dinosaurs and dragons (and yes, they are most likely eating people). He’s also randomly starting drawing pictures of the sun attacking & eating people (and if you know anything about tiny Derrick, this will sound familiar!) I’m not sure if Derrick gave him the idea, or he saw an old drawing of Derrick’s somewhere, or if he came up with the idea all on his own – but it’s been QUITE hilarious to see the “epic” things he draws!