Nine going on Nine

Nevermind that it's a month and fourteen days late... a birthday letter to my boy... 
Merry Christmas, y'all!



Happy 9th birthday, sweet Hud.

Unlike your big brother, you really are nine at nine. You act nine, look nine, and play with kids and toys like I think a typical nine-year-old boy would. You get excited about nerf gun wars, drawing a really good picture of an eagle, completing the entire math minute on time, and reading good stories. You beg to be the one Basden reads to at night, and actually offer to help me in the kitchen. You enjoy slicing and sauteeing as much as you enjoy throwing a football (well, almost).

I love watching your intensity and leadership on the baseball diamond, and was caught off guard this fall with your tackling tenacity in football. I love seeing your maturity with your older brother, that while you remain his shadow and want to be where he is, you’re learning to stand up to him, to ignore him when appropriate, and you’ve shown him that you’re just not as affected by his provoking antics as you once were. It makes our home more pleasant, and it’s taught Bran to leave you alone. Most of the time.

Hud, you might always be a germaphobe. Daddy and I laugh that not only are you the only one who washes hands without being asked, you actually scrub in. Eight minutes with hot, soapy water. I love that you love to work with your hands. Over the years it’s been legos and drawing and magnetix, but more recently you’re into balloon twisting and oragami and anything else where you can use you hands to make something of nothing. You are not only creating paper and rubberband guns, but modifying the design into an improved creation, experimenting to make the guns shoot further and faster (sound like anyone else we know?)

   But I love, love, love your tender heart, and that it’s full of compassion and love for strangers and friends alike. It’s a gift to have a heart like that. Most people can grow their heart to be selfless over years of discipline and sacrifice and learning to put others first. But yours is a gift. God gave you extra measures of gentleness and love and patience and compassion. And I recognize it perfectly, because your Daddy has the same heart. And while it makes you a precious son and brother and grandson and cousin and friend right now, it will one day prove you an extra-incredible husband and father. 




 

I’m so proud of you, Hud, and I’m so thankful I get to be your mommy. So thankful. I love you with my whole heart - happy, happy ninth birthday to my sunshine!

Comments

Krista Sanders said…
Oh precious! Great letter. We love that boy too.