Six Years Old ...

*written March 25th and March 26th

Dear Little Buddy,

In just ten short minutes, it will go from Mommy and Daddy's 12th wedding anniversary, to your 6th birthday.

March 26th.

I just snuck into your room and put a little blanket over you; more as an excuse to just see your sweet little self sound asleep than anything else.

You take my breath away little man. You are so sweet and precious and innocent and funny and fun. You try your hardest to make everyone laugh. You do these little 'lift your eyebrow' tricks with a side grin just to see if you'll get a chuckle or two.

A few weeks ago I went on a class field trip with you and I sat in the seat behind you and just shook my head and smiled the entire bus ride to the museum. You know why? Because you were on your "A" game little buddy. You were workin' the crowd. You were silly and goofy and getting the entire back half of the bus to giggle and throw their heads back in laughter. Kids from all over the bus were yelling out, "Jackson, what song should we sing or some random thing or the other" and you would start singing in a goofy voice and the giggles would start again. Over and over.

At the end of every school day, after you catch my eye and turn to your teacher and say, "I see my mom," you run toward me and jump into my arms, almost knocking me over, and then it begins.

"Bye Jackson."

"Jackson, see you tomorrow."

"JACKSON" {followed by a giggle or a hug}

And more "Bye Jacksons" ...

And you yell back each person's name saying, "Bye", and when you can you squeeze in a hug or you hug and lift a girl right off her feet, and the whole time I'm saying, "Jackson, be careful. Put her down you don't want to hurt her."

And even the 8th grade girls are ga-ga over you - they somehow know your name and you run up and randomly hug their legs and they say, "Bye Jackson" in this sing-songy voice.

Every day.

I look at you and you are definitely more big boy than little boy this year. You've grown a lot in height in the last few months; so much so that it seems your pants are expecting a flood. Every pair you own.

You are crazy about Greta. You are crazy about Dakota. And Desiree. You are crazy about just about every older girl you meet. You might cause a few broken hearts in the coming years. Mark my words.

You are amazingly good at little detailed things. Puzzles - you're all over it. Little crafts where you have to line up a little wee sticker on a line - you nail it every time.

You don't like to be rushed.

Or interrupted.

At times you still talk in a little baby voice or act like a little baby. {That secretly drives me crazy but shhh, I'm trying to be all positive on this post. We're workin' on that, though.}

If I let you, you would sneak into bed every night because you love to cuddle that much.

You still fight with your sister. Often. They say you will outgrow this. 

I hope "they" is right.

{You're not fighting in this picture. I fell over with gladness.}

This past year you went to all-day kindergarten.

And just last week, you came up to me with "Green Eggs and Ham" in your hands, you sat beside me and you turned the pages and you began reading. All on your own. Page after page. At first I thought it was maybe that you had it memorized. But you didn't. You would stop and sound out a word and say it and move on to the next.

Secretly, I think you've been able to read for awhile, but you so love to be read to that you've opted not to verbalize your skills. In fact, when I try to get you to read you will say, "Mom, stop pointing to the word and asking me if I know the word. I just want YOU to read."

Fast forward to end of day yesterday.

You had a great birthday. Six of you total - you have some super sweet friends.

We stayed at our house and did "old-school" party games. One of the kids said, "I normally don't like birthday parties when they are at a house, but this one is fun." I had to chuckle at that. I'll all about bringing 'old school' birthday parties back to life. At the expense of my sanity.

The party was right after school (3:30 - 5:30pm) so we had healthy snacks plus pizza, and then later some cake and ice cream. Totally easy.

You were in your element - being silly and making others laugh. You LOVED playing musical chairs, minus the chairs. 

You just wanted to silly dance with your friends.

And I love this next picture - blurry but SO perfectly fun and YOU and your friends. May you always approach life this way. Shake your booty and laugh with others - life is too short to not approach it that way!

Maddie was an unbelievable help before and during the party. She came up with some of the games and actually 'ran' them so that I could get food on the table, etc. She does love a good party and more so, she loves organizing and keeping things going. I wonder where she gets that? Hmmmm. Hello apple, meet tree.

I'm secretly in love with Tow Mater ... he makes me giggle non-stop, so I couldn't pass up the suckers with his teeth attached as a little party favor. The kids were hilarious with them!

Terrible lighting - very fun photo. Again, say the word "SILLY" and you get exactly that. Silly with a capital S-I-L-L-Y.

We'll go out later this week or next and get some actual "6th birthday" shots to officially capture this milestone.

You've promised Daddy and me that you're not going to get another year older. Please stay this little, okay?

You are a joy and a delight ... you make me smile every single day and more often than not, those smiles are accompanied by a good belly laugh. You remind me a lot of your daddy.

Happy Birthday, Buddy!