11 years old. Wow. I remember when you were just learning to stand up at our coffee table. My goal every day was to make you giggle, you had the best giggle. You still love to laugh and make other people laugh. You are a naturally happy calm person. Sometimes the things you say at dinner make me laugh out loud. You are pleasantly surprised when that happens because you usually aren't even trying to make me laugh. You do try to make TJ laugh, and boy do you succeed. You and TJ find the silliest pictures or drawings hilarious and laugh and laugh together.
You were excited to have a little friend birthday party this year. You chose swimming as the activity, and you wanted donuts instead of cake. We planned to do your party on Thursday Jan 2nd since everyone was still out of school. It seemed like a good thing to do on a cold boring day! So on Jan 1st at 7 pm we went to buy discounted donuts, and the store was closed!! We forgot that they may close early for the holiday. So we changed plans and had brownies with friends after swimming. 1 friend was sick and 1 didn't want to swim, so you had 3 friends and your siblings at the pool. It wasn't super crowded and you guys had so much fun, swimming for 2 hours:
Your birthday was on a Monday, the first day back at school after the winter break. You weren't super happy about that. You said that school all day and homework that afternoon made it feel like any other day. But then you got to open more presents, go out to eat to celebrate Grammie's birthday, and finally get your donuts, so it turned out to be a pretty fun night:
You are really excited about your new bike. It has handle bar breaks, gears, and front shocks. You can't wait until it's warmer and drier and you can take it outside for a real ride.
Hammer, at 11 years old your favorite foods is still sandwiches. You also love burritos, ketchup on your pizza, and you dip everything else in mustard. You don't like celery or squash or "chewy meat" that takes too long to chew. You love broccoli and brussel sprouts and tomatoes.
You still love to write books. They are developing more intricate plots and you have an amazing vocabulary. Your spelling isn't perfect, but that kind of adds to the charm of your books. You often have TJ illustrate your stories because his drawings crack you up.
You love to take pictures and videos on your camera, especially if they are funny and/or involve Pluto.
You are shy in big groups. If you are called up front in primary then you get this nervous smile on your face and walk up to the front with stiff legs. But you know what? You are shy but you do it! You get up there and do what you need to and it makes me so proud. I was always shy too. The important thing is to not let it stop you from doing anything that you want to do, and so far you're rocking that!
You are the best at vacuuming. You don't' miss a spot!
You are really good at piano and have great rhythm. You don't love practicing though.
You're still quietly stubborn when you don't think you're getting a fair deal or being listened to. I can tell you're growing up though because you have been so awesome about just getting your chore and homework done without a fight. You realize that it's just part of life and if you get it done then you're free to move on and choose whatever you want to do!
When you have free time you want to either finish writing a book on the computer, play Nintendo, play outside, or beat the marble game on the Kindle. If technology is off limits and it's cold then you like to do marble run or plan a party, like a dance party or a book making club. These parties are complete with posters around the house to announce the starting time.
I think you're enjoying school a lot. Math doesn't always come easy to you, but you're working hard at it! You seem to be better at focusing this year and are turning most of your assignments in! So this is good progress. Your teacher appreciates how you follow instructions and you're a friend to everyone.
You are a blessing in our family and we love you so much.
Love you my handsome boy,
Mom
