Dear Holden,
Happy 8th birthday to the sweet little boy who I
fell in love with from the very first moment. Not even the first moment I held
you or laid eyes on you, but the first moment I knew you were there. I knew you
were a boy without a doubt (although your father didn’t believe me) and I was
so excited to meet the very best surprise gift of our lives.
Watching you grow and change this past year has been nothing
short of wonderous – 2020 has been A YEAR. Almost a year into a global pandemic
that is still going strong, I’ve been so surprised and amazed at how well you’ve
all handled the upheaval in your lives (far better than many adults to be
honest) – being out of school for six months, playgrounds closed, no summer camp,
going back to school with masks and restrictions and distancing. Not seeing all
of your friends, not doing karate, not hugging your grandparents for MONTHS. No
movie theaters or escape rooms or indoor play spaces or summer vacation or
Great Wolf Lodge. But through it all, you just keep smiling. You adjust and you
embrace what you are allowed – you snuggle in close under the blankets and hug
your cats and snowskate or snowboard with your father and love watching movies
with your family. You play with your friends in class at recess and read Captain
Underpants books in your bed and draw sharks over and over and tell us all
about the great facts that Mystery Doug teaches you.
I am so proud to watch you grow – it’s hard to believe that
it was already eight years ago that you calmly entered the world, in spectacular
fashion befitting a Christmas Eve birthday. But on the other hand, it’s so difficult
for me to remember a time when we didn’t have the magical little boy that completes
our family. I am sorry that this year’s birthday celebration won’t be quite as elaborate
as I usually aim for – no big family dinner, no birthday party with friends.
But as you said “It’s still going to be a fun birthday with my family!” – we’ll
still order sushi and have cake and open presents and let you be the star of
the day and I’ll retell your birth story and we’ll look at pictures of the
giant baby that I somehow grew all those years ago.
Keep on smiling with those freckled, dimpled cheeks that
melt my heart every time – and please don’t ever stop being my little boy. No
matter how much you grow, you will always, always be the boy that forever stole
my heart.
Love,
Mama
