Huston - December 2015

Huston,

We have big news. Since my last blog you have finally lost a tooth! Two actually. To you this was far more exciting than Christmas, birthdays or learning to ride a bike. You also learned to tie your shoes and the way you are reading and doing addition just blows my mind. I see flashes of a teenager and less of my baby boy every day. Every year I think that this is my favorite age and even though I miss my squishy baby, boy do I love this age even more. Seeing how smart and caring you are becoming makes me so proud of you.



The Pokemon craze has hit. You are totally obsessed with cards and can tell me all about each one. You go to the YMCA after school program now and have found other friends who like to trade and it amazes me what all that has taught you. You do your research to know which ones are the "good" ones, you have learned to compromise and when to say no (and tell me the whole story every day on how you got each one) and you've learned the value of saving up your money so you can buy more. One morning you woke me up telling me you vacuumed the living room, made Nolan breakfast and offered a back rub...all as "chores" because you needed money to buy a pack :)

We did the Westwood Running Club this Fall and it was so much fun to spend that time with you. I got to know a lot of your friends and the other parents and it really made me feel a part of your school. I love being your homeroom mom but it was fun to meet people from the other classes as well. You were very proud of your toe tags that you earned each week and we ended with a color run which you thought was the coolest thing EVER.

You have added some pretty big words to your vocabulary and have picked up some funny expressions. It's alway fun to hear you use them. Some of my favorites are "holy smokes", "seriously", "actually", "appropriate" and for some reason you love the word "jalepeno" even though you would never actually eat one. Weekends are "home days" which I think is absolultely adorable. You also like to call me M-O-M (spelled out) and will occasionally slip in "old lady" or "Lisa".

One thing I have to brag on you for is how much of a helper you are becoming. You clean up without fighting me at all, you are working on your patience with your brother and you are becoming more thoughtful of others. During the mornings when I'm getting ready you will help your little brother get dressed. This is a huge help to me and it makes his day and he always shouts "Momom, brother help me!" He adores you so much.

I guess I should have known with your love of dancing that the music would follow. And although you love some classic stuff, you do not like country at all. But you LOVE pop music. Specifically Katy Perry. I don't know what to do with this. Nothing like that is in my library so we just YouTube it and play it for you.

You are starting to figure out fantasy/make believe and real life and have lots of questions. You are also playing with "what if" and making up stories. I can usually tell when you've added something to a story by the look on your face but we've had to start talking about what a lie is and how it's wrong. Figure starting early can't hurt. One thing that concerns me is that you are very concerned about what your friends think. So much to the point that your teacher has even brought it up. I hope you always know that your thoughts, ideas and feelings are just as important as everyone elses and that you are always yourself and not who you think people want you to be. You are such a sweet, fun, smart and caring boy and I hope you don't ever doubt that. I love you so much. Just the way you are.