Fwee Yee Olt

Oh, Braden.

On your birthday in 2008, you asked me to let you sit in a “big” chair for the first time.

You didn’t want your highchair any more. I was torn: pride, awe, amusement, and sweet sadness tumbled and mixed inside of me as I watched you try to be as big as the chair you were sitting in.

You never sat in your high chair again. But that is the least of it.

Steadily for the rest of the year, as children are wont to do, you just kept getting bigger and bolder. You got cuter, wilder, and funnier.

More difficult.

Infinitely more wonderful.

You just keep developing at a break-neck speed and you always seem to be at least two steps ahead of me.

My boy is charging through life.

I’m helpless to stop it.

Which is cool, because it’s awesome to watch.

Every day, you learn new things.

And because of you, so do I.

Thank you. I love you.

Happy “Fwee Yee Olt!” Birthday, Braden.

As you said this morning, “It’s party time!”