When you first see a boy just days after his birth, it is hard to imagine what he will look like later. That’s the way it was with my grandson Sean.

Sean is now seven years old. Here he is during his visit to "Oma’s house" in Mobile. When I walked across a large parking lot with him recently, he looked up at me and told me: "Opa, I am seven years old now so you don’t need to hold my hand anymore when we walk together!" Sean reads really well for his age so he tells Opa what all the traffic signs say when we ride in the car together. From his seat in the back he can also see the car’s speedometer, so he also reminds Opa if the speedometer shows a speed higher than on the last sign he saw. (It’s too bad Sean wasn’t with Opa on my trip through Louisiana recently where Opa had to give some money to a nice policeman!)

Sean now likes to play board games with his Opa. For a couple of years we usually played Superheroes, with me being someone like Superman and Sean being Batman or some other character. Since he reads so well now he likes to play board games because he can read all the instruction cards. He reads Opa’s instruction cards for him, even though he knows that Opa can read. And Sean likes to play baseball, too, with Opa pitching. I wonder if he has been watching some big league ball, since he likes to watch how far he hit the ball before he starts running from home plate. At age seven, Sean is a lot of fun to be with. We’ll see what the next seven years bring!