Dear Sawyer,
When I think about you, the first thing I think about is your laugh. When you think something is funny (and that something often involves potty humor, haha), you emit peals of laughter that are so full of glee that they always make me laugh, too. If something is *really* funny, you even fall out of your chair as you erupt into a fit of giggles. Over the past 10 years, I have delighted in your laughs so many times and today, on your 10th birthday, I wish you a long lifetime full of laughter. Happy birthday, Baby Bear!
I can't believe that I have already been your mom for an entire decade. "One decade" sounds like such a long amount of time but this past decade with you has been anything but. I still vividly remember the night you were born . . . being able to cradle you with one arm . . . watching you pull yourself up to standing for the first time . . . taking pictures of you on your first day of nursery school . . . feeling so proud as I watched you learn how to ride a bike. And now you're this independent kid. You get yourself ready for school, you do your homework on your own, you don't need me to fill up your water bottle or pack your snacks. And yet, you're still my little boy. You still hold my hand when we go out. You still like to do our nighttime routine every night. You still ask if we can hang out together. Life is busy and we don't always get a lot of Sawyer-Mama time, but I'm grateful when we do and that it still means a lot to you.
When we do get to spend time together, you like to play Trivial Pursuit and Life. You also like to go hiking and biking with me. With Daddy, you like to watch Mets games (the two of you have even traveled down to Florida the past two years to watch spring training) and work in the garden. With your siblings, you like to set up a "town" in the play attic and pretend you run different shops. When you're on your own, you like to build Lego creations, work on jigsaw puzzles and read, read, read! You have read all of the Harry Potter and Percy Jackson novels, like the City Spies and Spy School series and have spent many a night reading and rereading old Calvin & Hobbes comics (those always get a bunch of laughs out of you!). You also have a subscription to The Week Junior, a kids' newsmagazine that JieJie also used to read, and you like it so much that you sit down and read the whole thing from cover to cover as soon as a new issues arrives in the mail!
I am so proud of the person you are. You are considerate and always ask me how my day was or if I slept well the night before. You are helpful and often ask me if I need help around the house. You are thoughtful and do things like hold doors open for people and share your snacks with your friends. You are intelligent and always interested in learning about new things. You are insightful and good at analyzing how things could be instead of just how they are. You are creative and make really cool builds out of Legos and Keva planks. You are artistic and draw amazingly detailed pictures. You are funny and love to tell Dad jokes. You have so many incredible qualities and I love being your mom.
Happy birthday, my sweet Sawyer! I love you so much!
Love,
Mom
