Ahhh . . . Stephen! Yesterday you turned nine. Nine years. You're still in as much of a hurry now as you were on that day you were born. A two hour labor, top to bottom--who'd ever heard of that! You left me a little tired, but fully able to just enjoy you. That still sums up who you are in our family. You are a bundle of extremes--either emotionally on top of the world, or having the worst day of your young life. You are either running at ninety to nothing, or you're asleep! You either talk my ear off, or have nothing at all to say. But even with the energy and emotions, you leave me always able to enjoy you.
We usually don't get to make a school holiday out of your day. It just falls too late in our school year, and so we're usually done with school anyway. But yesterday was the day. You and Josh worked all weekend on your schoolwork to take off. We served you the traditional breakfast in bed yesterday, and then let you open your presents. Then we just let you run the day. You started the morning listening to Hank the Cowdog CD's on your new stereo system (thank you Walmart, for the really good deal!). You told me all day how that was your favorite present. It made me kind of sad, not much in the way of toys this year for you. You're growing too fast.
Around the middle of the day, I gently reminded you that you would be upset if you didn't plan out exactly what you wanted. This happened a few weeks ago when we planned some certain things to do on a family day, but instead only watched Lord of the Rings. I didn't want your birthday to be a disappointment. You really struggled with the decision--choices are so hard for you! You finally decided on take-out pizza, rented videos and games at home. So that's what we did. In the evening you had your last Cub Scout Pack meeting, and went bowling at the bowling alley. You didn't bowl so well, in fact, I was worried about it ruining your day, but you pulled it off at the last minute and began hitting pins in the last few frames.
After bowling we came home and had ice cream cake and watched the rest of a movie. Now you are nine. We are still planning on having a celebration with some friends. You want a Redwall feast. What an imagination! The next few weeks will be busy with summer activities, so we'll have to do that in several weeks. I'm sure it will be interesting.
Stephen, you are the joy of our family. I love your heart, so tender and compliant. You have a tenderness for pleasing the Lord that . . . well . . . I wish I had! Yesterday you picked out the biggest ice cream cake I would let you buy, and today you were agreeing to share it with a bunch of friends. It is just like you not to keep something good to yourself. I pray the Lord will lavish all His best on you. I love you Stephen. It is a joy being your mom. I look forward to the next nine years and more!
Love, Mom
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