My Baby Boy is Six

Porter is 6.  My baby boy is 6.  I can't believe it.

In honor of his favorite activity (building legos) and birthday gift, we threw a small, family, lego-themed party:

I'd say that the birthday party highlights including watching you and Ansley play in Porter's new Wild Kratts outfits, and listening to the concert put on by Emma Rose and Caroline:

The morning of Porter's actual birthday, he was set on going to the zoo, but we woke the kids up at 4:45am and took them to the airport.  Porter was irritated and the ridiculousness of getting on a plane to go to the zoo, so we finally had him open up his present at the terminal:

We took the kids to San Diego to visit Lego Land for a couple days!

We spent the first day at the beach in Carlsbad:

We enjoyed a birthday dinner with Uncle Bryce and Aunt Julia, as well as cousins Kennedy and Jackson:

After dinner, the kids watched seals on the way back to our condo:

The next two days were filled with LegoLand extravaganza!

The kids got to pick out a present on our way out of LegoLand, in a giant shop of lego sets.  Bryce and Julia gave each of the kids money to spend there - Porter picked out Chima shields and swords, and Emma Rose picked out a pet puppy that she named "Axl" 

On our way back to the airport, Porter lost his first tooth after the kids played with the swords:

Our flight was cancelled, so our quick flight home turned into 24 hours of driving, starting at midnight.  The kids, fortunately, slept for a good portion of the drive, Porter using his new shield to block the sun from his eyes:

As always, I wrote Porter a letter reminding him of the joys and adventures we've had this year.  Here is part of it:

Oh, Porter,

How can you already be 6 years old?  You are an incredibly intelligent, curious, quick, funny, happy, and caring little boy.  Raising you fills my days with so many smiles, surprises, interesting facts, frustration at your stubborn will, and more than anything, joy at both your curiosity and your effort to be kind and good, even though you are bursting at the seams with all-boy energy.  

You just finished your first year of kindergarten and it has been so fun to watch you become an absolute sponge of the facts and ideas that have been thrown at you.  You started to read this year, and man have you taken off!  I couldn’t believe the night when you sat in my lap and read 2 pages of my own novel to me off my ipad.  You love to read “National Geographic” Discovery books about penguins and sharks and turtles and more, yet you still look forward to the evenings when I read to you - you LOVE for me to read you Jack and Annie’s “Magic Treehouse.” (In fact, just last week you were annoyed that Emma Rose named a prong-horn sheep statue at the rec center “Snoopy” and wanted to hug it.  I told you that your sister is kind of like Annie, and you said, “Yup, and I’m like Jack ‘cuz I’m super-smart!”)  Your favorite TV show is Wildcratz, and only recently you have changed your career aspirations from being a concrete worker to becoming a wildlife conservationist.  You are so curious about animals and are constantly repeating miscellaneous facts that you pick up from school, from your readings, from the zoo, and more.  You are also picking up math so quickly.  You love to solve math problems, and are already teaching your sister how to subtract using her fingers.  You are constantly teaching her about the world you live in.  I love watching you two grow up together.  She adores you and emulates everything you do, from “flying” around the house to fake-shooting to pretending to have a loose tooth.  Still, she is your little sister and you pretty regularly find a way to taunt her, but we’re always working on it; then out of the blue you are incredibly kind and sweet to her.

You played on a Real soccer team this year and really started to take off!  You went from only being concerned about hugging and high-fiving your friends (regardless of the team) to beginning to dribble.  You’re just about the biggest kid on the field, and your long legs are useful when you run from offense to defense to save your team from being scored on.  You also are an amazing skier!  While you took off last year, this year you whipped through the trees at a rate that absolutely terrified me.  You especially love skiing with your daddy.

You also started going to AWANA this year, where it’s no surprise you had no problem memorizing verses.  I have loved hearing you teach Emma Rose what you have learned about the Bible, and how Jesus saves you from sins.

Everywhere you go, you make friends.  Most often, you are quick to befriend older girls, and you tend to lead the pack on which adventure game you play.  I’ll never forget the night that we had the four Culver kids over for the evening, and the 7-year old girl, Kaitlin, became your first real crush.  You called her “babe” all night and put your arm around her and told me that you never want to get married but you’d take Kaitlin for a wife.  I also love the story that nana repeated this year- which is just so “you!”  One day at Chick-Fil-A, when some girls were blocking Emma Rose from riding down the slide.  You went to the top of the slide and said, “Here’s the deal: You girls have 5 minutes up here and then it’s going to be my sister’s turn.” Then you turned and yelled, “NANA!!!! Can you tell me when 5 minutes is up?” You are a young man of justice and you always stand up for what is right...

In addition to LegoLand, we’ve had quite the year of family travels!  We took a trip to visit Aunt Jenny and Uncle Justin in Oregon where you toured a flight museum, played on a freezing beach, and took a hike to discover snails and banana slugs.  In July we went camping with the Garcias.  We went to Keystone both over Thanksgiving with Grandma and Grandpa, and over spring break!  We also went to Costa Rica for two weeks to celebrate mom and dad’s 10 year anniversary.  It was pretty awesome...

...You are growing up so very fast, and I am really proud of who you are becoming.  I admire your quenchless curiosity, and your ruthless commitment to truth.  You try so hard to be good and though you are cautious, you really live life as one big, fun adventure.  No matter how big you are, you will forever be my little boy.  Thank you for making my life more rich and full than I could have ever imagined.

Happy Birthday, sweet boy.  I love you to the sun and back.  And then some...