seven trips around the sun

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Untitled, a photo by kristin~mainemomma on Flickr.

kellen
my sweet boy, in a few short hours you will wake all FULL of excitement to greet your birthday day. no one loves holidays and celebrations as much as you do sweet one. daddy just got home with a really great bday gift for you, i know you will love it. and your baby sister even picked her very own present for you this year, wrapped it herself, i am sure she will wake just as excited to give it to you first thing in the morning.

we will wake and have breakfast, you already asked for bacon and eggs. your cupcakes for school are baked and perfectly decorated by you. i love that you chose "spring" as your theme this year. it says so much about who you are. you are, and always have been, my nature boy. you are giddy at the sight of spring flowers and new leaves. so when you asked for a cake with spring on it and drew me the green and purple cake with flowers and a butterfly on it, it was just so perfect.

things i will remember about six:

* how you learned to read independently.
* you joined boy scouts this year
* you took swimming lessons and even jumped in the deep end of the pool on the last lesson. that was a very huge step for you and i am so SO proud.
* the summer of 6 was the summer you fell head over heels for the ocean and boogie boarding. you would be blue and shaking but we had to pull you out of that cold water.
* it was also the summer of frogs and bliss in vermont.
* you LOVE honey nut cheerios right now and pb&j (which is funny because for a long time you were the only kid i could name that did NOT like pb&j) but then you will also eat anything we place in front of you. you have a palette beyond your years. heck beyond most grown ups years!
* you love to play soccer, play army men, and card games like go fish and war. you LOVE your computer time and games. (apple did not fall far from your daddy's tree there)
* you are still so very tender and loving. you cry instantly if one of your sisters is in trouble.
* you feel so deep.
* you are so well liked by your teachers and principal. this was the "dress for success" year at school and you have embraced that beyond what anyone thought. you dress yourself in a suit coat and tie almost every single day! :)
* you fall asleep easily and wake with the birds! such an early riser you are.
* you take showers now, solo.
* you still love to draw and make art.
* your old soul reveals itself in many ways but 2 significant ways this year is when you told us you did not want to grow old you want to stay a kid forever. most kids want to grow up, and fast! not you. and second, you keep telling is this year you are going to ask santa not for any presents, but for him to make you magic like he is so you can live forever and make everyone you love live forever. oh my. your heart is big kellen, so so big for this world.
* you lost your first 2 teeth.
* you sledded the big hill and LOVED it!
* you danced in a dance show at school and took down the house! (shy you became a dancing fool! it was the best ever.)
* you still have and love your blanket.
* purple is still your favorite color. tulips are your favorite flower. you love the sound of the spring peepers.
* you tend to the flowers and plants outside, never wanting to pick them, only wanting to save them and help them grow. you tell me all the time one day you will have a huge garden. i do not doubt that.

i am sure i am forgetting some big things. i will think more on it and write this all in your journal. you are such a love kellen and a role model for us all. i truly mean that. your kindness and gentleness really touch and teach me every day.

happy birthday my sweet boy.
momma really wishes you could stay small some days, this is true, but i also marvel at watching you grow and discover and learn and come into yourself more and more each new day.
i love you so.
xoxo
momma