Kyle Turns 5

September 3 was Kyle's birthday. He turned 5 years old and officially became a boy. No longer does he resemble a baby, toddler or even little boy. He is a boy. Tall, handsome, intelligent and mostly sweet. Kyle has an enormous capacity for love. He amazes me with how deeply and truly he loves the people in his life, from the most important to his mere acquaintances. The title of most favorite person is still Todd. Kyle will let Todd do, say or have anything with little to no complaint. In return, Todd adores and idolizes Kyle. I can only hope they remain so close as they get older. Even now Kyle still sleeps in the bottom bunk of their bunk beds because Todd is not allowed on top and Todd insists on having "my Kyle" each night.



I believe God gave me Kyle as a way to teach me the most important things in life. Kyle and I have not always had an easy road. He and Kevin get along much better, pals really. But I have learned and I still learn from Kyle each day. He is my biggest and most precious challenge in my life. I think in some way we get each other...it just takes us awhile of arguing to get there. When I say argue...I mean that literally. Kyle and I can argue about anything. For example, he was looking in the sky at night and said, "look mama, I see a star." I responded, "great, but that is not a star it is a planet." (Which in fact it was, he was looking at Venus) Of course Kyle responded with "no, star." I then responded "no, planet." And we go down from there.

I think really Kyle is here is teach me humility, when to back down, how to have a great capacity for love, do not worry about the small things and go for whatever you want no matter what. No matter what people think of you or might say about you. Kyle does not care one whit what people think of him...he is totally comfortable and confident with himself. This does tend to make him a teeney bit bossy (and overbearing)...but really, in my family would you expect any less from a first born?

I love that Kyle is confident, that he loves and cares so deeply, that he thinks of other people, that he understands and appreciates fairness, that he loves his family, that he adores his younger brother, that he has no fear when doing something, that he is so intelligent, that he is so silly and goofy, but most of all I love the person he is now and will hopefully be as he gets older.

I ask that God let me have the strength, patience and understanding to let Kyle continue to blossom without crushing his spirit under the weight of what society thinks he should do or how they think he should act.

We had two great parties for Kyle on his birthday. One was with his friends at Mike Greenwells. Yes, the same place we had Todd's. Kyle insisted on the go carts. I am telling you, I think this child just might be the next great NASCAR driver. He got to hang/play with his best bud from school Finn and Finn's sister Addie, along with the rest of the usual crowd. He had a total blast and loved every single minute. He thanked us as we left and told us many times he had a great day. Party number 2 was at Paige's house with just family. Pappi drove down and we all had dinner. Paige was kind enough to get him another cake. One thing about Kyle he LOVES chocolate. I mean really LOVES chocolate. I had to make his first birthday cake...chocolate cake with chocolate frosting (some strawberries in there too). Paige also got him a chocolate cake. Seriously...the child is a chocoholic and I have no idea where he gets it from. Kevin is straight vanilla all the way (just like Todd) and I like chocolate but not like that. So, lucky duck Kyle is he got two cakes and two parties. The only reason for this is because his birthday is always around or on Labor Day. We have to have his party early and we just cannot let his actual day go by without doing something. We actually did the same for Todd too. I just love birthdays and parties and celebrating. I am very thankful we are able to celebrate with our kids this way.

* One little side note...Kyle also got cupcakes to take to school for his birthday compliments of Auntie Paige. And, you guessed it, the cupcakes were all chocolate. I brought the cupcakes to school and got to watch him pass them out at lunchtime since I was there to eat with him. Very cute!