Happy Birthday, Lucas!

Dear Lucas,

You are five!  I feel like this year has flown by and that I haven't had much time to really enjoy you as a four year old...and now that opportunity has passed.  Just this morning, as we were walking in to school, I suggested to you that you just go back to being four for a while longer, and you said, "You can't change me, Mama!  I'm five now."  I started pretend crying, which made you laugh, which made me feel a little less like real crying.  You have grown so much in the last year, it's a little hard for me to handle.

You've mastered so many things this year.  Mostly, I'm so impressed that school is no big deal for you this year.  A year ago, when you turned four, you were starting preschool for the first time, and music class and being in the gym, and just about any other new situation (like children's church or Sunday school) made you nervous - and often cry - without me there to help you see that you'd be okay.  This year, you weren't afraid at all to go to school, and you've grown a lot more outgoing in new situations.  You talk to new adults much more freely (after, of course, you know that it is safe).

You've also started reading and you're already doing it SO well.  You got several new easy chapter books as birthday gifts and even this morning, you'd already picked one up and started reading the whole thing without needing help.  You read aloud and your inflection is perfect and your comprehension is amazing.  I am continually and legitimately amazed at how smart you are.  It makes me wonder if someday you'll be valedictorian like Papa was.  (Not that I will love you any less if you are not, but right now it seems like that might be the kind of thing you will try to do.)

You are a fantastic big brother.  Both of the babies love you so much and you make them laugh a lot.  You're so good (most of the time) at sharing and letting them just be babies.  You  sometimes get frustrated when they break your train track or knock over a tall block tower, but you don't stay mad long and you don't get mean ever.  It makes me very proud and happy that you are so gentle with them most of the time.  You do wish very much that they would be ready for wrestle-type games and I have to remind you that they aren't yet, but I know you're just looking forward to having playmates who can do silly things with you.  If the time it took you to get to five is any indication, they will be ready for all those things far sooner than I would like.

This summer, right before Papa left, you discovered American Ninja Warrior and now you love to jump (on the furniture, much to my consternation and reminders that it is not okay with me!) and run and pretend to flip like a ninja warrior.  I think, perhaps, we will start gymnastics or something for you when we move to Texas.  You would love that.

You are so, so dear to me, my firstborn child.  I love the big-little boy you are becoming and I am so proud to be your Mama.  I tell you all the time that even if I sometimes don't like what you are doing, I love, love, love, love you every second of every minute of every day.  And I do.

Love,
Mama