My amazing son,

I thought last year’s birthday hit hard because 9 means “halfway to adulthood” but for some reason the double digits are hitting even harder! I can’t believe you have made me a mom for a decade! What a crazy and wonderful 10 years it has been.

It is hard to watch you grow up so fast and already approach some of that teenage behavior I’ve been nervous about since finding out I was going to become a parent, but the flip side of that is how fun it is to watch your individual talents and interests continue to come to light.

You joined band this year and were awarded for your helpfulness in this class. You also thrived in your school’s gifted program and it has been so great to watch your brain grow in a class that challenges you. You continue to love reading and simply devour books. We can’t get to the library fast enough to keep you in books. We have reached the point where instead of me recommending books to you, you recommend them to me! And we continue to work our way through some of my favorites for read aloud, but we switch off who does the reading these days.

We had a very special fall break trip together this year to celebrate your Every Kid in a Park pass and I loved the quality time we had just the two of us as we explored national monuments as well as the Petrified Forrest and the Grand Canyon. You really thrived with all the knowledge you collected to earn your junior ranger badges! It was such a great outlet for your curiosity and energy and a highlight of our year. You were so excited to tell you sisters that they had to work on their junior ranger badges too when we went to visit Joshua Tree this spring.

Speaking of curiosity and the outdoors, you continue to love Scouts and your first cub scout  camp last summer was a highlight of the year. You have so much fun and are learning so much with your pack.

This year had its challenges too. You continue to have a heart for social justice and to stand up for what you believe in. The world can be hard, and you were particularly distressed when your school was going to be shut down this year. You were the only student who stood up to talk in front of the whole school and the superintendent and his panel at the town hall held there by the district. You spoke about why you love your school and what makes it special. You were nervous to talk in front of so many people but you had the courage to do it anyway.  You also worked so hard to encourage your friends to write letters to the district.  It was hard for you to feel that other people didn’t care as much as you did. We don’t know the long term future of the school, but you did get to see some of your hard work pay off because it is staying open next year while all the other schools listed for closure did unfortunately end up closing. We hope that you know that even when the fight for good things don’t end up working the way we hope that they are still worth fighting for.

You have found some more common ground with your dad as you got very into gaming and especially Zelda this spring. When you have screen time you now prefer to use it gaming instead of watching TV and you have easily surpassed my very limited video game skills and are SO into researching tricks and Easter eggs. You also love other kinds of games and are looking forward to trying more table top options after designing your own board game for a reading project.

It is such a joy to watch you grow into this hilarious, smart, quirky, friendly, imaginative young man. I am so excited of what this next decade of life has in store for you!

Love you to the moon and back,

Mom