To Timmy, at 10 years old

I cannot believe that you are TEN!  That number is so big!  That makes me so old!  As I posted on Facebook on your birthday, "No one has affected my life and heart as much as this one. Turning me into a mom and growing into a person I am so proud of I could burst."  You totally turned Daddy and I into the people we are today, into parents, into a family.  You entered our lives easily and nothing has been the same since.  I have not been bored since the day you were born.  I have not felt alone or lonely or without purpose or motivation.  My life is split into before Timmy was born and after!

You are a sweet, sweet kid.  You still love to climb into our bed and cuddle with us, you regularly slip your hand into mine while out in public, and you greeted me with a (awkward) hug in the middle of the cafeteria the last week of school, knowing that you wanted to hug me but that you would be teased, which you were.  You are a great friend and a fantastic big brother.  You are open with your feelings, telling people when you miss them and when you feel hurt.  I hope you never stop. You acknowledge the every day things, you will see me carrying the laundry basket and thank me for doing the laundry.  You wrote a 'story' about me in computer lab, it said, "She's nice and fun she always cares for me. She always comes to see me play sports. She works hard on everything she does."  You are impressed when Dad tackles a new project around the house, surprised he knows how to do whatever it is.  You notice how many hours Dad puts into Little League and miss him when he's at meetings at bed time.  This doesn't mean that you always show appreciation or make things easier on us though!  You might put baseball pants inside out on the floor, instead of right side out in the hamper, the same day you thank me for doing the laundry!  But I'm working on you on that, and it's validating just for you to notice, most of the time.

You have gotten so big!  You are officially taller than M&M and approaching Baba's height.  Your new tennis shoes are too big for me.  You are now 4'-9 3/4" and you've also filled out, you are solid and strong.  You are big enough for some new chores now too!

We got you your own phone, for various reasons but you can largely thank Movie Pass.  But you have started running home from school, walking Sonic, going to friend's houses from school, and being left home alone for short stints, so it was time.  It's worth mentioning just to share this video.

You continue to be a friend to everyone in your classes, but you definitely have your best friends.  The Three Doritos voted to add a 4th this year when Carson joined your school, but the three original members are definitely still BFF's.  

You and Caleb get super excited to see each other every chance you get, though visits are further between then any of us would like!

Your birthday party was an epic pool party again this year, there were at least 40 kids, mostly 4th graders with some younger siblings.  You had a blast and I loved seeing you smile all afternoon.

You are undoubtedly a baseball player.  Over the past year you have really taken pride in your playing.  Not to say that you don't have other interests, or that you never complain about going to practice.  But when you're on the field you own it.  We are wrapping up All Star season right now and there are few things I love more then watching you play third, hitting, and running the bases.  I recently overheard you telling Tyler that his upcoming season, moving up to AA, is when baseball will really click.  You have big plans to play lots of catch with Tyler this summer.  The second half of this season, and into All Star season I have seen a big change in your attention on the field.  I have regularly heard you being the first and loudest to respond, "Yes, Coach!" and you are the first to call out and charge at bunts.  Your running is smart and you have made some great tagging outs.  I have not heard a coach tell you to get into position or pay attention in months, you already are.

During your House season this Spring, there was a game that Dad had to leave early to attend a League meeting.  You had a fantastic game, great fielding, great hitting, great pitching.  On our drive home I was telling you what a great game you had, and you kept asking what time Dad would be home.  I asked you, "Why are you so worried about what time Dad is getting home?" and you answered, "Because I want him to congratulate me."  I let out a little laugh and you said, "What? I'm always working hard so he will be proud of me."  I told you that was a very honest response!

Pitching during said game

You had a big Spring activity wise.  The Warriors did a tournament in Dewey on Saint Patrick's Day  Weekend and in Manassas on Memorial Day Weekend, giving you guys a chance to have fun on and off the field!

You participated in Running with the Stars after school and ran a 5K with the club and Aunt Becky at the end of the season.  

Your House team won the regular season with an 8-2-1 record and you were a leader and star on the team.  

You also played flag football and that team won the Championship game as well, with plenty of plays by you helping to get them there, racking up interceptions and breaking up passes throughout the season.  (You missed the actual Championship game though, due to an All-Star game at the same time).   

Interception!

You have also continued with Piano Lessons, and you take pride in your friend's surprise when they find out you play the piano, you like that, "You wouldn't think from looking at me that I play the piano."  You did wonderfully at your recital a few weeks ago.

You had an absolutely fantastic school year!  It was the first grade that the classes had two teachers, moving between their classrooms during the day.  They were an amazing team and they loved your classes as much as you all loved them!  You actually cried when showing me selfies you took with your teachers on the last day, an emotion you haven't shown at the end of a school year since preschool!  Your grades were great, and you really started to shine in history especially.  We still need to get you on track with your multiplication facts, but you tested well enough in math that you were selected for AP math next year.  There was very little homework this year, which was great for our schedule, but I'm worried about getting you back into the swing of homework next year!

One of many field day victories sealed in this clip! (You're not competitive at all...)

If I didn't talk more about how you are with Tyler, I would be leaving out a huge part of your life.  You are still a great big brother 99% of the time.  You show frustration when you're asked to do more then him, or to run upstairs to get something for him, or to set a good example for him.  One night even ended in you sobbing that you didn't want to be the oldest and that we 'love Tyler more because he's little and cute.'  But the more typical Timmy loves waking Tyler up for school with cuddles and sneaking him into your bed when I've told him to sleep in his own.  When Tyler recently went for a sleepover at Grandad and Susan's you begged to go too, and went to bed early, bored, when I suggested Tyler get some time there to himself.  Just this week Tyler was overtired and missing me while I was at work, so you called me for him and let him talk to me, and when I asked you to give Tyler a big hug for me, you said you were already snuggling him.  You are both quick to defend the other when one of you does get into trouble with us.  And you are more then worthy of all of his admiration of you!  You guys turned your whole room into a fort the first day of summer and won't let me take it down, you've been playing in it and sleeping in it every night.

One more example of the great kid you are turning out to be: I was watching the 4th grade kick ball game on the second to last day of school, talking with your teachers.  You and Nate were on one team, Logan and Josh on the other, and it was very competitive.  You were pitching and Catherine came up to kick (she has multiple developmental issues, and has been in your classes since Kindergarten) and she kicked the ball right back to you.  Several of your teammates yelled for you to get her out, you shrugged and threw the ball... 10 feet behind her.  I almost cried, and both of your teacher's said, "Awww," and then made comments to me that knowing you, it didn't really surprise them that you had done that.  (And this was all you, not a mandated class rule, a few plays later one of your teammates got Catherine out as she was running to third.)

Just keep doing what you're doing buddy, you are on the right track!  We love you so much!

To Timmy, at 9 Years Old

Timmy,

Wow.  I am completely blown away by you at this moment in time.  Every day you are becoming more and more you, and you are amazing.

You are playing baseball constantly.  This Spring you played AAA in House, continued playing Warriors Travel (where you are playing up age wise), and then made the all-star team (which means baseball for practically 21 days straight, just one or two days off thrown in there!).  I don't know how Coach Dad is keeping up with you, but I love that you are spending all of this time together.

You are also getting private coaching lessons from Coach Pudge, a local high school coach who is also involved with RHLL.  Your skills have really progressed this calendar year, it's been so fun to watch!  You are still taking and enjoying piano lessons too, and you played flag football this Spring as well!  Sometimes I'm worried that you are over scheduled, but you have never once asked to stop any of your activities, never say you're tired, and only sometimes say you wish practice would be rained out as we're going over your days schedule in the morning.  When you're not scheduled you just want to be on your ipad, so I prefer having you scheduled.  To help remember this crazy season, your weekly schedule was:

Sunday - Practice with Coach Pudge, then practice with Warriors
Monday - Piano lessons
Tuesday - House Practice
Wednesday - House Game
Thursday - House Game
Friday - Football Practice
Saturday - Football Game followed by House Game

You've played in two Warriors tournaments so far, this hit was in the first tournament.  (I wasn't excited at all.)

Fueling up at a team lunch before a tournament game!

Your football season was fun to watch.  You had a practice position on offense and defense, and the first game of the season you played every down.  The coach told you that you had the highlight of the season with this play

Before your first game

Team Captain for the last two games

For the middle of the season you only got to play defense, and you were pretty good!  You got a lot of flag pulls and were great at staying in position.  The last two games you had a few more chances on offense, and these two plays are from the Semi-Final game, which you played against Josh, Preston, and Drew's team.  (Your house baseball team made it to the Semi-Final game as well; two strong seasons!)

You got past Josh on this run but then Drew got your flag.

The all-star season is not going the way we would want it to, but it's showing what great character all you boys have!  You guys are a really young team, there are definitely better seasons ahead of this team, and it's so great to watch your individual triumphs and improved play!  Here's one highlight for you during a scrimmage.

Your school year was a little rough this year.  You didn't like your teacher from the start and that never really improved.  (For the record, we agreed with your most of your opinions.)  You did start coping with it better eventually.  You really got into reading, you flew through chapter books at school, and brought some new series home to read with Tyler and I.  I believe you finished off the Magic Treehouse series, as well as all of the I Survived books, and most of the Diary of a Wimpy Kid and Captain Underpants.  Your great memory still serves you well for studying for tests in history and science.  You are fighting memorizing your times tables and it is slowing you down a little in math, but you understand all the concepts.  You still love writing stories, but you've gotten low grades because you don't use capital letters and punctuation, and you're rushed handwriting is awful.  When I told you that it was just laziness and rushing you were highly offended, but it's been such a repetitive issue this year that you've lost electronics privileges multiple times over it.  Electronics are a priority issue for you so when we remove them from your day, you slow down and do what you're supposed to do.  Your end of year project is to make a playground for the 5th graders ducklings out of recycled materials and you are loving working on that.  You've learned and grown a lot this year, it's just been harder then it needed to be!  A bunch of fads raced through elementary school this year and you were into all of them; this meme sums them up!

Dabbing, Bottle Flipping, Making Slime, and Fidget Spinners

You are so helpful around the house, and usually with a good attitude.  In the morning I can count on you to get yourself and Tyler 100% ready for school.  There have been a few mornings lately when I've gone to work before you're even awake, and Daddy has said you are both walk-out-the-door ready when he's come down.  When asked, you clean the basement up, with very little stashing, all by yourself.  I'll load stuff up on the stairs and you run it up to the right rooms for me.  You jump out of the car to bring the trashcans up the pipestem for us when we get home.  I still can't get you to use the hamper on your own, or heck, half the time you don't even use it when specifically reminded to put your clothes in the hamper as you are heading up the stairs for your shower!  I have to call you back to your room to do it when I go to check.  Same for your baseball clothes drawer, you will get ready for practice and practically empty the drawer looking for something, and then leave all the clean clothes strewn around your room!  You do not really do this with your regular clothes in the morning, so I don't know what the deal is with this!  95% of the time you are an excellent big brother.  My heart melted a few nights ago at bed time, when I turned around from putting some clothes in your drawer and saw this:

You probably do 85% of the work of taking care of Sonic, as far as feeding him, letting him in and out, chasing him when he escapes, and getting things from him that he shouldn't have.  You enjoy chasing him around the main floor of the house and playing fetch with him diving into the pool.

You are a great friend, and your friendships with Caleb, Nate, and Nathan are as strong as ever.  We were all hopeful that the Pavlus' would move to Fox Mill, you house shopped and got your hopes up every time you saw a for sale sign go up near us.  Unfortunately they moved to Ashburn instead, but you are excited for him and like his new house.  Caleb was on our baseball team again this Spring so you've seen plenty of each other lately.  We will be sure to get you lots of time together to keep your friendship strong.

The Three Doritos are still a thing, you guys have a blast together. (And you finally decided to start riding your bike!)

You call me on my phone sometimes, and I love it.  I'll be at work and my phone will ring and it's you!  You're usually asking me if you're allowed to do something that you're grounded from, or looking for something and hoping I know where it is.  It makes my day to hear from you in the middle of work!

You've gotten into a new app called musical.ly where you can make short music videos.  It's really user friendly and you can easily cut scenes and time things out to the music.  It's fun to see your creativity and how much you enjoy watching your friends' videos too.  This is one of your earlier ones, they keep improving every time.

Watching you grow up has been one of the most amazing experiences of my life.  Keep doing a good job Tim-Tim.