Nine Years

Tonight I laid beside Talmage in his bed and read him excerpts from my first journal entry after he was born. To quote a favorite author, I penned "I cannot say the smallest part which I feel." And here I am, 9 years later, a mother who could not be more pleased with or honored by her 9-year-old son.

Talmage...

...loves to read (the top AR reader in his grade two years in a row).

...chooses homemade pizza for his birthday dinner and mud pie for his birthday cake.

...would rather have his soccer team's mascot be an evergreen elk than a dragon.

...tells joke after joke.

...has had one violin lesson and one soccer practice.

...has gone swimming on every birthday except today (unusually cold.)

his first birthday

today (sporting new goggles, trunks, and shin pads)

somewhere in between

As a postscript, Bryant tied his shoes for the first time today, and Sariah did the monkey bars for the first time. Both were extremely proud.