HAPPY BIRTHDAY CHRIS!
Ten years old?! Where did the time go? It seems like just yesterday I was holding your tiny body against mine, wiping spit up off your chin and changing your dirty diapers. (Hey, if I get to embarrass Drew, I get to embarrass you too!)
You have matured so much in the last year. I am now seeing glimpses of the man I know you will someday be. You are still very competitive and as you get older, this drive to win makes you try and try until you get it right. Unfortunately this competitive streak runs through everything you do.
“Mom, I can beat you at Wii Mariokart.”
“Yeah, like that’s a challenge. Your five-year-old cousin can beat me at that game.”
“How about basketball, Mom?”
“Ditto the five-year-old cousin remark.”
“I can beat you at chess. I can swim faster than you. I can stand on one leg longer. I can drink my milk faster….”
Finally, I just have to concede that you are the victor so we can move on with life. And while the drive to win can wear on my nerves, you also work hard at everything you do which means you’re doing very well in school. You won’t go outside to play until all your homework is done and you’ve memorized every pertinent fact for any upcoming tests.
Besides being studious, you’re also very kind to animals. This summer when we went to Hilton Head Beach, you found a starfish washed on shore. The poor starfish was missing an arm and struggling to live on the sand. You captured the poor creature in your sand bucket and carried it back into the sea where you carefully placed it back in the water so it could live.
Five minutes later the starfish washed back onto shore again. You found him and put him back into the ocean. This process must have repeated itself ten times and with each sighting, the creature appeared more and more lifeless. Finally we didn’t see the starfish again. You were so pleased with yourself for “saving” its life. I complimented you on your humanitarian efforts though I was secretly sure the thing had washed down tide to die in peace.
You are also kind to people. When your great-grandma died, I sat all three of you kids down in the living room and tried to tell you that Grandma had gone to heaven. At least that’s the way I’d planned it. We were going to have a nice chat about her dying and we were going to talk about what a nice place she was in so we wouldn’t have to be so sad.
Things didn’t go as I’d planned. I sat you three down and got as far as the “Grandma” part of my planned speech before I started to cry and no more words would come out. But you didn’t need me to be the one doing the comforting, you took on that role. The tears had barely started falling from my eyes before you were up out of your seat with your arms around me in a big hug. You were the one who patted me on the back and told me Grandma was in heaven. You will never know how much your kindness that day meant to me.
I feel so lucky that you are my son and I can’t wait to see where life will take us in this next year. Happy Birthday Chris!
