An Open Letter to My Son on His Birthday

Dear Son,

This week, while you have been excited about your future birthday presents, you have also repeatedly let me know that you don’t want to be six.

Maybe you are worried that you won’t be my baby anymore.  Or maybe you have realized how fast time really is, and you just want to stay little a little longer.

I’m not sure what has been going on in your head this week, but I do know what’s been going on in mine.

I am in awe of you.

This past year you have grown so much.

Yes, you have almost reached the same height of your older sister.  And you outweigh her by several pounds now.

But it’s more than that.

When I look at this picture of you from the first day of church school, I am amazed by how you have grown.  That day you walked to your classroom like you were walking to a death sentence.  Over the weeks you slowly grew more confident.  You stopped needing your headphones.  You couldn’t wait to whisper to me about what you had done when you met me at the door.  And when your teacher pulled me aside and told me you had participated in a game of “Duck, Duck, Goose,”  I couldn’t help the tears.  Through all the years of library story times and other outings, you had never played with the other kids.

But this year, you did.

I’m told you also sang during one of the last classes, and even did the hand motions to the song.  Oh, how I wish I had seen that!

Today you didn’t hesitate to play at the park, even though there were 6 other kids already there playing.  A year ago that wouldn’t have happened.

if you make a letter wrong on your paper now, you try to correct it.  A year ago a simple mistake like that would have sent you running from the room to hide under your bed.

When there’s a bump in your sock, or your shoe doesn’t feel right, now you just take it off and try to fix it yourself.  A year ago you would have thrown your shoe across the room, and you couldn’t get your toes in the sock by yourself.

This year you have begun to read!  Seeing the pride on your face as you sound out the words, that is priceless to me.

You climb, you jump, you try new things…  This year I’ve seen your confidence increase as you’ve discovered just what you really can do.

I look forward to seeing what new things you learn this year.

You see, being six is a wonderful age, sweet boy.

It’s an age full of imagination, with dragons to fight and rockets to fly.

It’s an age of reading about your favorite animals and driving Hot Wheels on the back of the couch and building blanket forts in the living room.

It’s an age of discovery:  finding new things you can do, exploring new places

Six is a wonderful age.

And so is seven, and eight and nine…

And no matter how old you are, you will always be my baby.

And I will always love you.

Love,

Mommy