Dear Caleb,

Today is your birthday. You’re six! HOW?? did that happen? It seems like just yesterday daddy and I were going to the hospital to get ready to meet you.  You were a week overdue and you were perfectly happy staying warm in my tummy. I have to remind myself that day wasn’t yesterday it was six years ago, six years!

You sometimes wake up before me now.  Something that has started to happen more over the last few months. You used to always jump in bed with Daddy and I, do something silly (or annoying) to wake us up.  When you were smaller you needed us to turn on the TV, now you can do that all yourself. How independent you’ve become. Morning snuggles have turned into IPAD arguments to turn off YouTube, and calm quiet mornings have turned into the hustle to get you out the door for Kindergarten. I miss those silly, annoying moments. I miss the morning snuggles.

This morning at breakfast you told me to throw your last official spill-proof sippy cup in the garbage.  You said you’re too big for that now.  I obliged.

I’m not totally and completely sad for you to be six. You look the same as you did yesterday, except today you show your age with an additional finger on a new hand. I think that you are the most awesome kid, I think that you are even more awesome than when you were five or even three.  You can do more now, you can understand more now and you are certainly way more fun now.

You have two adult teeth and a wiggly one, you love to play basketball and are on the brink of mastering dribbling between and around your legs, you’re obsessed with hockey and working so hard to master the art of stopping, you play goalie like a boss.  You can’t get enough of your hot wheels, Magna tiles and play stix, racing and building the most interesting designs.  You are a master artist, reader, and mathematician.  You’re so smart, so silly and like to wiggle your butt every chance you get.  You love your stuffed animals and find comfort in having every animal in your bed.  You chase after your kittens but call them your sisters even if they only let you catch them every once in awhile.  You really are the best thing that daddy and I have ever done. You love us fiercely, your friends and your family too. Everyone that meets you thinks that you are just the best.  

Happy Birthday Baby Boy, My sparky, My Baby, My Shmaleb, My C, May you accomplish everything you want in life, and may you one day follow your dream to invent a shot that doesn’t hurt.     

I love you,

Mama