Settling into Seven

Is AJ really seven?  Seven??  How did that happen?  We had his friend party this weekend and in the span of the two short weeks since school ended, AJ and his soon-to-be first grade buddies suddently seem much more grown up.  No one's parents stayed for the party (one mom told me she prefers to stay but her son asked her to leave, saying, "Mom! You're not going to STAY, are you??")  When I gave AJ his birthday card at home on his birthday, it was signed "Love, Mommy & Daddy" and he promptly informed me that he would prefer it if we would refer to ourselves as Mom and Dad from this point on.  And then when I asked AJ what he hopes to do when he is seven, he thought and said there is only one thing, to climb a mountain using a rope, a pickax and some other tool.  I think he saw this on a Looney Toon cartoon, but Auntie Nicki awesomely took his request very seriously and told him he could do this the next time he comes to visit her in Colorado.  Somehow seven is light years away from six.