My favorite bear,
You, my baby, are two-hands-worth-of-fingers years old. Pretty sure you were two-fingers-worth-of-fingers years old just last Thursday. But maybe my calendar is off.
Ugh. Time is such a thief.
Here are your Top 10 Lists for your cute, little double-digit self.
Top 10 Favorite Things:
- Legos
- Natalie, including (but not limited to) annoying her, sitting on her, drawing with her, being read to by her, wrestling her
- Zelda
- Star Wars
- Carby foods - pizza, pasta, cake, cookies, donuts, etc
- Cool cars, specifically trucks and sports cars.
- Music
- Doing dude-stuff with Dad. Working in the garage, looking at cool cars, watching engineering videos on YouTube, etc
- Playing with your buddies
- Secrets of the Seven book series
Top 10 Least Favorite Things:
- Saving money
- Being the younger sibling and watching Natalie do fun, older kid stuff
- Jumpy dogs, big or small (solidarity, kid)
- Bugs and insects
- Fighting (fighting with swords and lightsabers is ok, but you definitely don’t like watching people fight with their fists)
- Being up on stage (again - solidarity, kid)
- A fairly small but very specific list foods - beans, cooked fruit, mushrooms, onions, veggies that are cooked to the point they’ve lost their texture
- Losing a game. Everybody hates to lose but you, like, hate it-hate it
- Super hot weather (so much solidarity)
- Timed games
Top 10 Things You’re Good At:
- Building Lego creations, specifically vehicles. The things you can come up with without using instruction manuals continue to blow my mind year after year.
- Math
- Navigation Reading a book in the car gives you a headache, but you can look out the window and look at the GPS without a problem, so you’ve become very knowledgeable about how to get from Point A to Point B
- Mowing the lawn
- Sweating. You’ve been sweating like a man since you were a toddler. The tradition continues.
- Helping
- Praying. Your heart is so tender towards God and towards others.
- Reading
- Knowing the name and backstory of every character in Zelda (but forgetting where you put your water bottle)
- Following the rules
Top 10 Things You’re Not Good At:
- Pairing up your socks when you do your laundry. How does it not annoy you that your drawer is full of singleton socks?
- Working at a slow pace when doing your math. A+ for speed; B- for accuracy.
- Juggling flaming batons
- Remaining calm if you’re not in the know about something fun
- Remembering where you put your water bottle
- Playing Mozart’s Concerto in D Major No.2 on the flute
- Sleeping in on the weekends. Once you wake up, you have a hard time going back to sleep. You’re a great sleeper but sleeping in has never really been something you’ve done. But I imagine Sleeping in ‘till 10 may appear on the Top 10 Things You’re Good At list in a few years.
- Lying. Your lying face is adorable.
- Staying four years old. I thought Dad and I made ourselves clear when we told you to stop growing up.
- Being still while watching your bowling ball roll down the lane (since you were a toddler, you jump up and down like a bunny while waiting to see how many pins you knocked down)
You were, are, and continue to be such an amazing kid - I'm so glad that the absolute lunacy of 2020 and 2021 didn't diminish . You were a happy baby (except when we made you go to sleep); you were a cheerful toddler (except when we limited your cheese consumption); you’re a delightful 10-year-old (who loves sleep and has developed cheese portion control).
You’re shy around unfamiliar people; you’re a giant goober once you get comfortable. You’re quizzical, sensitive, and a deep thinker. You’re funny, creative, and clever. You’re a protector, an engineer, and a helper. You love one-on-one time. You love knowing things that Dad, Natalie, or I don’t know.
You’ve always been someone who appreciates cool stuff. When you saw my friend use a hatchet to chop wood for a fire, you became super interested in hatchets. When you found an antique pocket watch at a thrift shop, you wanted to learn about watches. Your current favorite things are cool cars and trucks. You have very strong opinions about what vehicles are cool and what vehicles are not. The shape of the hood matters; how lifted a truck is matters; the color of the vehicle matters; the placement of the headlights and taillights matters a lot.
You and Dad went on a fun excursion a few months ago - you guys went to test drive trucks. Are we in the market for a truck? Nope. Do we need a truck? Irrelevant. What matters is that Dad knew you like trucks and wanted you to ride in a cool one. You went to a local dealership that specializes in high-end vehicles (ie: not the kind of place we would normally shop). According to you guys, the salesman was awesome and loved the idea of you getting to ride in a cool truck. He essentially tossed some keys to Dad and told you two to enjoy the test drive. This wasn’t just any truck, nosiree. It was a 2021 Ram TRX. Which, to me, didn’t mean much. But apparently this truck was a 700hp, $98,000 beast. And you fell in love. Obviously.
You said that riding in this truck was the second best thing you’ve ever done in your life. Visiting Legoland earlier this summer clinched the #1 spot. (Though test driving the truck was free. And Legoland was super not free. So to me, test driving the truck takes the #1 spot.)
Dad and I are in awe that God would bless us with you. You’ve completed our family in the most wonderful way and our lives are richer, fuller, and better because of you. Our lives are also sweatier and filled with random Zelda facts because of you, but that’s neither here nor there.
Hugs and smooches,
Mommy & Daddy
PS: after you read this recap, you typed the following. It shall stay in your recap for perpetuity.
I love you!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
