My sweet boy,
ELEVEN! You now require three hands to show your age (or two hands and a foot, but let’s keep toes out of this celebration), and your poor mom just needs a minute to come to terms with this. I keep joking with you that because you were so good at being 10, we’re gonna keep you 10 one more year (Pep said the same thing to KK and me every year), but you weren’t a fan of that plan. But even if I could keep you 10 another year, I wouldn’t. I love watching you grow up. And I love documenting your favorite (and not-so-favorite things) …
Top 10 Favorite Things:
Legos
Reading, especially Keeper of the Lost Cities and Harry Potter
Natalie (mainly wrestling with, jumping on, sitting on, and teasing)
Your friends
Saturday errands with Daddy
School (on Mondays; your feelings about Tuesday through Friday school are a little iffy)
Trucks
Dude Perfect, Veratasium, Smarter Every Day on YouTube
Older (ie: good) country music, specifically George Strait, Alan Jackson, Travis Tritt, and Charlie Daniels
Carbs and sweets - pizza, sushi, fried rice, pasta, bread, ice cream, pie, cake
Top 10 Least Favorite Things:
Bugs and dogs (7+ years strong)
Chaos
Unkindness
Not knowing a surprise but other people do
Your retainer
Writing summaries for your English class
Anything (tests, games, chores, etc) that’s timed
Saucy foods, spicy foods, soup, casseroles, chili, potatoes, tomatoes, beans, blueberries, cauliflower, cooked fruit
Losing teeth
Gooey, gross things, especially paper mache
Top 10 Things You’re Good At:
Building practically anything out of Lego
Math; your brain is very mathy (making fun of my made-up words is also something you’re good at)
Ripstiking
Ice skating
Following the rules
Bankrupting your family in Monopoly
Praying; you continue to have such heartfelt prayers
Being a snazzy dresser
Encouragement
Making people laugh (but don’t forget that I’m always gonna be funnier)
Top 10 Things You’re Not Good At:
Forming sock-balls with your socks in your drawer
Having joy in your heart when you lose a game
Driving a stick shift
Getting something wrong (you want to be good at everything right away)
Leaving your Lego creations alone (you tweak and re-tweak a hundred times)
Trying new things
Organic chemistry
Putting periods at the end of your sentences. Like, it’s a big thing around here. I hear it drives your English teacher crazy.
Knowing when to stop teasing Natalie
Open heart surgery (This was your addition to the list)
This was a huge year for you! In January, you discovered your love of reading after Natalie suggested you read the Keeper of the Lost Cities series. Up until then, you’d read for school but you were never excited about it. It was something you tolerated but never loved (or even liked). Enter the KOTLC series. You read the first book and you never looked back. In the past 10 months, you’ve read through the whole KOTLC series - minus the latest one which came out yesterday ( some of those books are as thick as a dictionary) and about 20 other books.
You also entered a Lego contest at the Nashville library in February. During this process, I realized that while you’re an extremely talented builder, you do not like to have restrictions on your build. I saw you stress out as you were trying to come up with the perfect idea. I saw you come up with ideas that sounded cool (castle; football game; monsters) but they weren’t things that you naturally enjoy building (cars; trucks; speeders; weapons). I saw you approach the contest as a chore instead of something fun. And just when I was about to suggest that you just skip the contest, you scrapped all of your ideas and created the Master Sword from Zelda. It was big and creative and detailed (you hid a dagger in the sword’s hilt - even though the judges would never see it, you added it because it was cool). And lo and behold, you won 2nd Place in the 3rd-4th grade division. And you also won Crowd Favorite. You were so excited - and I loved that you were successful doing something you love to do.
You lost a few ounces this year when you got your braces off. You did not like the process of getting them off but you do love getting to bite into apples again. And you do not like wearing your retainer, but you are glad that you only have to wear them until you lose a few more teeth. And let’s not talk about how you do have to have another set of braces put on in a few years.
One of the sweetest moments from your 10th year was your decision to get baptized. It’s been something you’ve wanted to do for a long time. You were going to get baptized over a year ago when our church had planned a BBQ and Baptism at a local lake. Not long after we arrived, the weather lost its everloving mind and every single one of us at the picnic was baptized by the deluge of sideways rain. The next opportunity came when Daddy was out of town, and there was no way you were going to do this without him. Your turn finally came in May, and it was amazing. Daddy was there when you accepted Christ, so it seemed fitting that he was the one who got to baptize you. Watching him pray over you and speak about your character and heart filled my own heart to overflowing.
That’s a common theme with you. These past 11 years have filled my heart to overflowing on many occasions. You’re a natural protector and helper; you have a sensitive heart and a rascally gleam in your eye. You’re funny and smart, shy (around strangers) and loud (around your buddies), you’re funny and inquisitive. You’re a deep thinker and cute as a dang button. Watching you grow in stature and grow in your faith is the wildest, most precious ride. The Lord was so kind to give you to us.
And Natalie would think you’d be so kind if you sat on her a bit less.
Hugs and smooches,
Mommy & Daddy
