Happy 6th birthday Benji Boy

Oh Ben.  It's hard to believe you're already six years old!  You've grown so much this past year!

You are still my very tall boy and you're still built just like your daddy.  I need to measure you to get your height but you went through a spurt this year where you grew at least 2 inches in 2 months.  Your feet are a size 13/1 and you wear a 6/7.  I have to tighten your pants as far as they will go because you're so skinny, but you need the length.





You are all boy.  You love anything that makes noise and you always have food on your face.  Always.  If there is a toy around that makes noise, you will find it and want to play with only that toy.  And if there isn't a toy that makes noise, you beat stuff on things to make your own noise.  You also LOVE music.  You are very interested in the piano and playing Mary Had a Little Lamb or the songs the piano automatically plays.  I need to get you into music lessons because I think you'd really enjoy them.  When we took a tour of your new school, we passed the "string" room and it really caught your eye right away.

You are such a shy boy.  You are pretty reserved most of the time, unless you are upset, and then look out.  You can still throw some epic fits with screaming and yelling and your feelings get hurt VERY easily.  I think you are more of an only child stuck in a big family sometimes.  You like your time and your space and you fight like crazy with both Abbie and Jamison.  They know how to push your buttons and you know how to push theirs and you do it to each other quite frequently.

Josie on the other hand - you LOVE your Josie.  I am pretty sure you view yourself as her protector.  You are so good with her and no one makes Josie laugh like you do.  You can almost always get the big belly laughs out of her and I think she can sense your good heart.

Right now, you are our challenging kiddo.  You have a very negative outlook on pretty much everything.  If things don't go exactly your way you use the word "never" a lot.  "I'll NEVER get to do it."  You don't like to help me (or anyone) with much of anything and when I ask you to help you always say "I'm not a good helper."  If we ask you to read something or a question you don't know you say things like "I'm too dumb."  If we get on to you about misbehaving you say things like "I'm a bad boy."  Or "I'm not good."  Or "You don't like/love me.".  We are kind of at a loss as to how to handle this situation.  You won't ever say "I love you" back to us when we tell you we love you and there have been many times I've wondered if there is some diagnosis of something for you.  Other times you're perfectly fine.  I'm not exactly sure what's going on but we're going to figure it out.

You can be the sweetest boy ever.  You have an infectious smile and the best belly laugh ever.  Daddy can really make you laugh when you guys wrestle.  You LOVE video games and were introduced to Minecraft recently.  You are also very very smart.  Your first kindergarten teacher, Mrs Marks, told us that you were, by far, the most advanced student in her class and that you understood concepts that most other kids in her class couldn't.  You are starting to read and sound out words and you show a lot of interest in math and science. 

I love you, Buddy.  You are such a mystery to me sometimes, but I hope that you always know how much I love you, even if I don't exactly understand you at times.  Here's to our next year of growth together!