The Awesomeness of Six

To our precious Tooter,
HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!!  In all your six year old awesomeness, you are equal parts ferocious love and a walking heart attack.  We are so proud of you for all you have accomplished this past year, and we are SO very much looking forward to seeing what you will be accomplishing in the year to come.

Oh, you are ALL boy.  If there is a couch to be sat upon, it must be addressed with a running jump or at least a flip over the back.  If there is a toy to be played with, it must be in an eternal fight to the death with the evil toy counterpart with whom it struggles.  (replete with sound effects, of course)  I, as your mother, am just now beginning to realize that you are not a crazy person, you are just a B-O-Y.  And I am SO glad that you're our boy!!

You still give THE best hugs ever in the whole world period.  Ever.  And you are still notoriously picky about eating, but you have branched out a bit in the past year.  Of course, eating in general has been hampered by our discovery of your allergy to wheat.  THAT has been a toughie, hasn't it sweet boy?  Having to eliminate some of your staple foods like pasta and pancakes and pizza has been a challenge.  And, there's just not a perfect substitute for those things.  At least, not right now.  You'll get to where you like the GF options, I just know it.  But, for now, avoiding wheat is helping us keep your eczema in a much more manageable state.  And that means less steroids, less infections, less bleeding.  Like we say all the time, you still get to sleep in your bed at night.  Not in a hospital.  It's a blessing that this is your health challenge.  The Lord has been so merciful!

You think I'm totally way prettier with makeup on.  So much so that you actually ask me "are you going to put on your eyelashes today?"  ::grin::  (For those wondering, he means mascara.  No, I'm not putting on false eyelashes just to hang around the house).

You have recently discovered Star Wars, X-Men, Masked Avengers, Superman, Spiderman, etc.  Your birthday gathering at the park was a blast today, watching you get things like a Darth Vader mask, Captain America awesomeness, huge growling dinosaurs, and Star Wars Legos!  Everything you opened was met with a "No WAY!!!"  ha!  It was so fun.  Like previously mentioned, you're all boy.  I'm very much looking forward to teaching you how to play Battleship!

You are still a superb sleeper, a great reader, and you are a wonderful student.  You really enjoy math and handwriting and you are getting better at your narrations every day!  I'll admit, your attention span is not like your sister's.  But, again, B-O-Y.  Right now, you're a very visual learner.  You need to see the words, see the math blocks, see the video.  Sitting and listening is the worst way to get information into your head.  But, we still work on that so that you develop an ability to do it!

You had an absolute blast playing soccer this fall, and you're still taking TaeKwonDo.  (You're a Tiger Cub Brown Belt at the moment).  You've told us that you want to play baseball next spring too!  I will admit that even though working in the soccer practices and working in the games was a challenge, I had a ball doing it.  And had SO much fun watching you!

I don't put you to bed very often; usually Daddy does that.  But when I do, like I got to do tonight, you blow me a zillion kisses and I have to catch them all.  :-)  I love that.  And I love hearing you pray, and I love your lisp.  (even though I do work with you on that because as cute as it sounds, you don't want to be 10 and still talking with it).

I looooove that you like to kill bugs.  Blech.  Including the big gross roaches.  ewww.

And, oh, your eyes.  Those sparkly, shiny, mischievous, loving, crystal blue eyes.  Those eyes that make me grin and remind me of your wonderful father all at the same time.

Sweet boy, we love you so much.  You make us proud, you make us smile, you make us crazy, and you make us so grateful to God for the blessing of having a son like you.  May God bless you so much as you continue to grow and learn and, we pray, seek Him first in your life.  Happy birthday sweetheart!  My sweet boy.  Our little Turkey Blessing.  :-)

We love you!!!