Happy 8th birthday, JD

Oh Johnny or should I say JD, since you are asking me to call you that, my baby, here you are turning 8.  I often ask myself where does the time go, why is it going so fast.  Here we are celebrating my baby boy turning 8.  I want to wish you the happiest of birthdays.  I know you are excited, that once again, you get to play baseball, your most favorite sport, on your birthday.  Last year we lost, but we will get that win for you this year! (Yay, we got that win!!) I love you so much and am so proud of you.  You are an amazing boy who is so loving and caring.  You are all boy, with your sports and dirty fingernails, but you LOVE to cuddle with me and I enjoy every minute of sitting on the brown chair.  Please don’t grow as fast, I will be so sad when we both don’t fit in the chair.  Don’t ever lose your sweetness and keep those compliments coming, I can always go to you to make me feel special.

Your favorite food is still TACOS.  Holy moly, I wonder how many you could eat in one sitting.  One day you are going to turn into a taco.  You also love Swedish meatballs, meatloaf, burgers, hot dogs, pancakes, cereal, donuts, caramel/cheese popcorn, chex mix, BBQ Pringles. And so much more.

You are so creative with your books that you make and your drawings.   You love to play sports, read, cuddle, and draw.  You are on the 8u Huntley Red Raiders Travel baseball team and you love every minute of it.  If we aren’t practicing or at a game, you are outside playing catch with one of us, whoever you can get to play.  Your favorite position is catcher, which you are doing really well and having fun!  Last year, you said you really liked playing catcher, well this year, you already made a few plays at the plate and got them OUT.  Woot woot.  Remember the triple play?  Batter flies out to Lukas (3^rd base) who throws to Anthony (first base) for the double play, who throws to you (catcher) for the tag at home.  Woot Woot!  We were all cheering.  Another time at Little Wrigley you made that diving catch as catcher, it was A-Mazing! You had some great hits too.  I will always remember your Home Run at Little Wrigley, it is ingrained in my heart.  I just love watching you play, it makes my heart happy.  You love playing football and basketball too.  You are so active and so full of energy, can I have some? 

You love to play video games with daddy and Austin as well as watch You Tube Videos.  You have a love for Bryce Harper on the Washington Nationals and I hope you like the jersey we got you.  You have a love for the Cubs and Bears and of course Michigan!

You know how to make the world smile, whether it’s with you be caring, nice, complimentary, telling a joke, or talking to the team letting them know where to throw the ball or letting us know how many outs the team has.  You truly are a gift, my special surprise and I love you so much.

Happy 9th birthday, Austin!

Oh Austin, happy 9^th birthday,  I love you so much and want the world for you.  You should have a wonderful time on your birthday because we are on vacation.  We will be living it up at the pool and beach. 

What have you been up to for the past year:

Favorite foods:  you still are a great eater, but one thing you do not like is Tacos and you’re not a big fan of cereal.  You went through a burger phase where you would eat burgers every where we went, but then you had one at Olive Garden, yes Olive Garden, you know where they specialize in Italian food like Spaghetti, and it was awful, it was like a sausage burger you said.  Since then you haven’t really ordered burgers until recently.  You love Hot Dogs, Shrimp, Chicken, Steak, Spaghetti, Pancakes, Muffins, Flaming Hot Cheetos, Fruit, Ice Cream with Cookie Dough or Sprinkles, pop if we let you have it (which is very rarely).

You love sports!  You love playing, watching and playing them on video games.  You know ALL of the STATs, it’s quite impressive.  You love collecting the cards and know an awful lot about it.  You wake up in the morning, turn the TV on, click C on the remote and check the stats from the games the night before, you know who is playing at what time and who is playing who.  Maybe one day you’ll be a sports broadcaster or sports analyzer?  You love Stephen Curry and GS Warriors.  You want them to win the NBA Championship. (Which they did, woot woot in 4 games)  You have a love for the Cubs, just like your dad and love the players too.  You went to your first Cubs game this year and will go to another one in the summer with your dad.  You also love anything Michigan, just like daddy, he taught you well. You had fun playing football this year and were a great receiver.  Remember that one play, where John the QB had a long pass and you caught it in stride and took it for the TD only to have it called back because one ref, not both, said you stepped out of bounds.  Who cares, it was an amazing catch and run!  You rocked it in Basketball, you learned to ball handle really well, and you had a lot of great shots, you fouled a lot too 😉  Pushing, 14, Pushing and you even had a technical, oops, never throw the ball after a call made by the ref, even if it’s a bad call.  Oops.  Lesson learned, right buddy.  You signed up for basketball camp to get better and even got your mom and dad to buy you $100 Stephen Curry basketball shoes.  (This is a one or two time deal, at least until your feet stop growing).   Your bowling high score is still at 140, which is still amazing, but you have decided to stop bowling.  I’m okay with that, and am so thankful for bowling.  I think it really made you step out of your comfort zone.  Once we started bowing the other sports came and know you are excelling all around.  Maybe you will decide to bowl again, you were amazing, often scoring in the 100’s.  That’s not easy, especially when you are 8 years old. 

 

Your grades are coming along just fine as long as your take your time.  When you rush, that’s when it falls apart.  There is no reason to be the first done or the first in line.

Austin, you are a happy, friendly, silly boy who likes to make people laugh.  Your smile is so sweet and your love for Brady and Buster is/was so contagious.  Brady doesn’t let anyone cuddle with him for long, but he doesn’t mind when you lay on him, he often stays like that for a long time.

Austin, I think you are absolutely amazing.  I’m hard on you, so you say, because I want to make sure you are the best you can be.  My job is to teach, guide and help you to be the best you can be.  One day you will understand just how much I love you.  It’s beyond infinity.  Make your 9^th year the best yet, work hard, play hard, have fun and love. 

Happy birthday A-Man and enjoy your least year in the single digits.