Happy 8th Birthday Blaine

It will never fail to amaze me how time has flown. And I remember those early days when I thought time was standing still. Those days when I would walk my colicky, crying baby back and forth across my house SWEARING that time was standing still. That he would simply NEVER out grow this phase, and I would be put into a mental hospital. Fast forward 8 years. Yup. EIGHT YEEEAAARS. It's like I blinked and we got here somehow. I was so challenged with your birth Blaine. Wondering if I was doing the right thing or not. Seems I would continue to be challenged with you. You are my 'spirited' child. My child who challenges not only me, but the world at large, to give you more and better of everything. While it drives me up the wall, I hope you NEVER lose that spirit. I hope you ALWAYS demand the world give you more and better of all the things you love. Blaine, I'm so proud of you for your skating lessons lately. Not because you are the best in the class. But because you NEVER EVER GIVE UP. Even when I earned the world's worst mother award the first week for not bringing mittens for you, you kept falling, hands on the cold ice, and getting up again and again. Never stopping. You've been doing Kumon lately to improve your math skills. Not ONCE have you complained that you have more homework than Parker - cuz you totally do. Again, that spirit inside you - the one that made you so colicky, the one that pushed back on anything and EVERYTHING we said, I believe that spirit is keeping you driven. Keeping you from never giving up and demanding that the world pay you back for your efforts. You are the most proud and protective big brother I have ever seen. I dare say, better than Parker and Derek are to you. You love and care for Kiefer like no one else in our family. You are always there with support and love for him and it makes my heart burst with pride for you. I love you more than words can ever say. I wish that there was some way there was no school and no work and we could discover the world together. I believe you would teach me so much. And I believe you WILL continue to teach me so much. Happy Birthday baby boy. You are growing into a man - it's still a little ways away - but I can see the beginnings starting to sprout - and what a man you are going to be.