The King

I have decided to write a blog for my son Riley each month, a sort of letter to him. It will remind me what he was like at that moment in time, the things that flipped his lid, the name of his current girly friend.

While he has been growing up there have been so many days that I have beat myself up for not keeping a journal. I know I will remember most of it, but I didn't always chronicle the important things on paper, the day he got his first haircut (and I bawled, mostly because I gave it to him), the day he lost his first tooth, the first time he said "Mama". I know I have a lot of these moments saved in the 50 rolls of photos I took in the first year of his life, and I will be able to look at those dates for reference, but I think it's important at his age now, when he will really remember all these times himself, to let him know what I thought at the time too. And how proud of him I was at every step of the way.

Dear Riley,

Yesterday you came home with a part in your 2nd grade play at Horace May. You are to be The King, in "Cinderella". You only have a couple of lines, but you will have to sing, and dance with the queen. I am so excited for you. I am glad that you didn't get my horrible shyness that I had when I was eight, and would hide behind Nana's leg when she was talking to someone I didn't know. You have been singing since you could talk, in the back seat, in your crib, and now in your queen size bed that you graduated to at our new house. And I so love to listen to you.

The latest "thing" y0u are into is "Webkinz". Cute little stuffed animals, that come with a numbered tag so you can adopt them on their website, and then provide them with a home, and a yard, and feed and bathe them. Your Auntie Kristi bought you your first one for Christmas last year, and you have been infatuated every since. Even in the middle of packing, you drove me crazy asking to go to the store to get another one until I finally broke down. Of course they were having a buy two, get one free sale, so we couldn't pass that up. How fun.

I want to tell you how proud I am of you for being such a good guy while we were building. I know you got so sick of going out to the house every night, and eating dinner late, and missing out on cuddle time, and listening to Daddy and I trying to get everything organized. You are such a trooper. I keep telling you to look ahead to this Spring when you will be able to run with Belle in the yard, and look for bugs and frogs, and watch for bears. You are a little hesitant to be outside in the big yard by yourself, and you told me the other day that you kept hearing funny noises. Honey, that's just the sound of quiet, with a few trees rubbing together for good measure. I am so glad we could find such a nice spot to start a new part of our life, together.