Happy Belated Birthday!

Dear Mikey,

This year you turned eight while we were on vacation.  This meant a lot of things.   You didn’t get a birthday party because we don’t know anyone in Florida.  Happy Birthday was sang over instant oatmeal and bananas.  You didn’t get a special birthday dinner.  It also means that you didn’t get a birthday letter.  It wasn’t because I forgot, it was because the nonstop amusement park vacation exhausted me.  Though I didn’t physically write you a letter, I’ve been writing this one in my head for the last few weeks.   So, belatedly but definitely without any less love, Happy Birthday.

Today you turned eight.  It amazes me that you are eight.

I can remember being pregnant with you.  I remember the day that you were born.  I remember the very first time I held you.  I remember how perfectly you fit in my arms.  I remember looking down upon you feeling incredibly blessed in every way.  Even though my life was falling apart in every other way, you made everything absolutely perfect.

Every day since then, you brighten my life.  Even on the days when there is more crying and yelling than hugs and kisses, I wouldn’t trade you for the world.   As cliché as it might be, it is the truth.

Though being the middle child is hard, I believe that you really have the best of both worlds.  You are an amazing brother.

You have perfected being the little brother.  You are very talented at annoying your older siblings.  More than once you’ve frustrated Marshall to the point of tears with your constant soundtrack of machine bullet gun shooting and army lingo.  Often you enrage your sister with your amazing ability to tattle on every small slip she makes.  Secretly, I know how much you adore them.  If all of the flapdoodle that you take from them isn’t proof, I don’t know what is.

I think that all of the ways in which your older siblings fail at being an older sibling, you’ve remembered and vowed to be a better big brother.  I am awed at what a patient, kind, caring big brother you are.  You not only help Nathaniel and Jacob with all of the struggles of being the smallest, but you play with them as if they are your equals.  Never do you treat them like “babies”, you include them in all of your games and army play.

I love your optimistic spirit.  More often than not you can find the bright side.  Like in Kindergarten, you were the bully on the playground.  You would climb up the slide and proclaim yourself king of the slide.  After several warnings you were banned from the playground and only allowed on the blacktop.  Instead of moping about the fun you were missing out on, you convinced everyone that they didn’t want to play on the slide.  Exasperated your teacher told me, “It doesn’t matter what the punishment is.  If I won’t let him play on the playground, he convinces his friends to all play on the black top.  If I make him sit at the picnic tables he convinces everyone to sit out recess.  He can make everything look fun!”

My response:  “Awesome!”  (another reason why we homeschool, I’d hate to crush that)

This is how you have always been. Happy.

More than any of my children, I can not see you get older.  Every day, I know it’s happening.  You are discovering new things and growing. One day, you won’t be eight anymore, and then I’ll wake up one day and you won’t be 15 anymore.  Before I know it, you won’t be a little boy, you’ll be a man.  But always, no matter how old you are,  you will look exactly the same to me.  It isn’t that I want to keep you little forever.  Because more so than any of your siblings, I am excited to see what God has in store for you.  I am excited for the adventures that you will take and the travels that you will go on.  I am excited to see you grow into a wonderful man.  I can’t wait to meet your wife, because I know that you will bring me an amazing daughter.  I know that you will make an extraordinary husband and father.

Mike:  I don’t think I’m going to get married.

Me:  Why?  I would be sad if you didn’t have a wife to love.

Mike:  Well, I want to be in the army and I think in the army I’ll probably be gone for a long time a lot.  I wouldn’t want to leave my wife home with all of my kids because that would be hard for her.  And I wouldn’t want to leave my kids because I would love them so much.  I would be so sad to leave them.  But I would love being an army guy.  So I don’t think I’m going to get married.  It wouldn’t be fair.

This is how I know that you will make a great husband and dad.  Already at 7, you are thinking about your future wife and children.  What kid at 7 is that insightful?

Happy Birthday my dear, sweet, boy.  Thank you so much for being a great kid!  Thank you for sharing your happiness with me.

I love you!

Mom