Year Six - Year End Review

Dearest Birthday Bear,

You've been counting down your birthday since practically August. I'm both flabbergasted that you're six years old and relieved that the Great Birthday Countdown has finally stopped (until your Half Birthday Countdown starts up in a few months).

Here are your Thank-Heavens-You're-Finally-Six Top 10 Lists:

Top 10 Things You Love:

1. Natalie
2. Legos
3. What's Inside YouTube channel
4. Snack food (specifically Cheez-Its, chips, pretzels, and string cheese)
5. Phineas and Ferb (for what it's worth, this would be on my Top 10 list, too)
6. Cheese pizza and cheeseburgers
7. Going to church
8. Babies
9. Wrestling with Daddy and Natalie (but not with me; I'm too delicate for that fool business)
10. Opening and holding doors for people

Top 10 Things You Don't Love:

1. Many foods (including beans; veggies that aren't orange and yellow bell peppers, cucumbers, green beans, and broccoli; casseroles; bread where you can see the grains/seeds; cooked fruit)
2. Scary parts in movies
3. Emptying the dishwasher (cry me a river)
4. Putting your laundry away (again, boo hoo)
5. Coloring
6. Big dogs
7. Disappointing people (you're a huge people pleaser; we're trying to harness that for good and for it to not give you anxiety)
8. The dark (you've slept with the lamp on since you were one)
9. Spiders
10. Losing a game (we're still working on teaching you how to lose both graciously and gracefully)

Top 10 Things You're Good At:

1. Math (you instinctively knew to 'count on' - like, when you first started adding a problem like 4+3 in your head, you naturally started counting at 5 and adding 3 more as opposed to counting up to 4 then adding 3)
2. Building Charlie-original Lego designs, usually vehicles
3. Reading letters that aren't there. I'm super impressed with the progress you're making with reading, but sometimes you assume you know what the next word or letter will be. So you say it, only to find out that, sadly, you're not an awesome assumer. 
4. Apologizing (you always want to make things right, but you take after your momma and sometimes apologize too much or apologize when it's not needed)
5. Throwing a Frisbee
6. Writing your letters (I'm a sucker for pretty penmanship and I'm doing my best to have your handwriting be legible)
7. Helping Daddy (I love seeing the two of you in the garage doing 'guy stuff' together)
8. Making people laugh (you're welcome for your awesome sense of humor)
9. Being charming (thank Daddy for your awesome sense of charm)
10. Praying out loud

Top 10 Things You're Not Good At:

1. Keeping your Legos organized. (Does it bother you? Not in the least. Does it make your mother super twitchy to see bins and bins and random Lego pieces? Without a doubt.)
2. Hanging up your button-down shirts on a hanger. Without fail, you'll come to me with a completely baffled look on your be-dimpled face while carrying an unbuttoned shirt and a hanger. You show me how IMPOSSIBLE it is to hang up, usually with the finesse of a hapless infomercial star when she tries to open up a carton of milk and manages to spill it all over the counter. THERE'S GOT TO BE AN EASIER WAY. I button up a few of the buttons and hand it back to you. You put it on the hanger and realize that the buttons keep the shirt securely on. IT'S LIKE MAGIC.
3. Saving money (the second you get money, you want to spend it ... everything in the store becomes The Coolest Toy in the World and the Very Thing You've Been Wanting for Years and Years)
4. Quantum Physics (just like your sister ... lazy bones)
5. Waiting your turn (eh, you're six ... it comes with the territory)
6. Keeping surprises a secret (you're a professional Bean Spiller ... it's like it causes you actual pain to know about a surprise but not be able to tell someone else)
7. Doing your schoolwork without decorating your pages with a various assortment of stick figures and doodles. It's sometimes hard to see what you wrote through all the smiley faces and random shapes. It's infuriatingly adorable. Or adorably infuriating.
8. Putting in Lego arms. I insert no fewer than one set of arms into empty Lego torsos each day.
9. Sleeping in. You're a great sleeper but you have yet to realize how delicious it is to sleep in on Saturday morning. You do find it positively amazing to jump on Daddy and me on Saturday morning, however. It's a good thing you're cute.
10. Sweeping. (if the goal was to fling or to scatter, you'd get an A+; as it is, you need some improvement)

I can remember the instant my midwife handed you to me. I was hopelessly smitten and absolutely terrified. A son. I had a BOY. But I didn't know the first thing about what to do with a little boy! What do I say? What games do I play? What places do I take you to? I was stumped. But my heart was so full of newborn sweetness that I didn't care. Who knew that all I'd need to keep you happy was six hours of hair dryer noise at night and lots of cuddles during the day? And that when you got older, you needed no hair dryer but that you still liked cuddles during the day. And that you're perfectly content with a near-steady supply of cheese, carbs, and Lego time. The Lord was so generous when He gave you to us. He knew that my heart longed for you before you were even born. 

You like to use big words. It's understandable - I, too, have an incredibly smart older sister and I did my darnedest to keep up with her. Sometimes in your haste to go toe-for-toe with her you'll throw out gigantic, $10 words. I've been impressed with your correct usage for many of these words. But then there are those times. Those times when you throw out a sentence like "Look at my hair, Mommy! Do I look like a negotiate?"

Speaking of your hair, you're quite particular about it. You style the front in a specific swoopy way that makes you look like an adorable businessman. Who has a penchant for Captain America t-shirts. 

My sweet boy, you bring an ease to our family, a particular playfulness that leave us in stitches, and a soft heart that leaves us wishing the world were kinder but that by simply being you, the world is automatically kinder. You're respectful, silly, sensitive, excitable, and talented. You're incredibly friendly and extraordinarily thoughtful. Everyone who meets you is smitten by your mischievous smile and carefree attitude. 

There are two verses that I pray over you often:

Joshua 1:9 Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be frightened, and do not be dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.

Philippians 4:8  Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.

These verses speak to me about a few of your natural, God-given strengths (kindness, respect, and protection). I pray these continue to grow as you get older, always seeking out ways to look out for and serve others. I also pray the Lord would develop and grow the areas of your life that are currently marked by scary thoughts at bedtime. I pray that you will learn to train your mind on good things, on lovely things, on things that He has created. One of the ways to do this is to realize and to remember that He is with you always. There's not a moment He's left you or forgotten about you. You are immeasurably treasured to God, my darling.

And you are to our family as well.

Hugs and smooches,

Mommy & Daddy

October 2017 - Recap

My sweet angel,
You've seemed awfully grownie here recently. I was commenting to a dear friend about how you look so different from October 2016. I look back at our family Halloween picture from last year (when we dressed up as the Batfamily) and yesterday (when we dressed up as a 50s Family) and the difference in you is startling. And when I combine yesterday's picture with the picture of almost-two-year-old you also dressed up as a 50s girl, I have to take a deep breath. As I've said many times, I've never been one who mourns each passing stage because each new stage has been better than the one before it. But looking at your toddler sock-hop-y picture and seeing you yesterday makes me realize just how quick seven years has passed and what an amazing person you've grown into. I've loved getting to witness this growth first-hand.

You've always been artistic but you've been uber-artistic this month. We found a channel on YouTube that's full of cartooning tutorials and you've been working through them at a steady pace. I'm incredibly impressed with the smattering of cartoons you've drawn. It took a few months but I'm glad to have finally found a good art channel to supplement our homeschool curriculum.

Speaking of homeschool, it's still going great (and all the mommas said AMEN). It's fun to teach you in a grade when I specifically remember being in that grade. I loved my teacher; I loved learning what the word satchel meant (my teacher called them satchels instead of backpacks and it took well into the first day of school before I figured out what she was talking about); I loved math; I didn't love social studies. In fact, I got my first C in third grade - my final six weeks grade in social studies was a C+ and I thought that meant I wasn't going on to fourth grade. I was sobbing at my desk on the last day of school because I thought I failed the third grade.

One of the things I distinctly remember learning in the third grade was multiplication. We spent days and weeks and months going over multiplication tables. Then we spent a week or two doing 100-problem worksheet drills to test our speed and accuracy. One of my few claim to fames is that I was the only student in my class who could correctly answer 100 multiplication problems in five minutes. It took three or four tries (it took that long for me to remember that 7x8 was 56 and not 54), but I finally did it. And my reward was that I got to play with clay (like actual artist's clay, not Play-Doh) during the next day's math lesson. Which was awesome. Except that squishing and kneading the clay to where it would be soft enough to actually play with took the entire length of the math lesson. So, awesome but kinda not. However 30 years later, I still remember that 7x8=56. Boo yah.

So I'm passing on the 100-problem torch to you, my dear student. And you couldn't be more thrilled or excited to carry on this time-honored tradition. Ok, so maybe thrilled isn't the right word. Maybe eye-roll-y tolerating is more accurate. We've only done two worksheets so far but you went from missing four to only missing one (8x6 is definitely your version of my dreaded 8x7 ... psst, it's 48 not 46). And you've shaved five minutes off your time. Another boo yah.

I love being present for each of your boo yahs.

Hugs and smooches,
Mommy & Daddy

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Headlines for November 1, 2017:

• NYC Attacker Followed ISIS Playbook, Planned Rampage for Weeks
• Navy recommends sweeping changes after ship collisions
• Team U.S.A. Prepares for the Winter Olympics
• Fellow soldier, intel analyst defend Bergdahl
• Harvey Weinstein banned for life from the Producers Guild of America