Dear Zane,
Today you turn eleven and what a wild ride this past year has been. You entered double digits in the heart of a global pandemic. You're turning eleven as the country begins to come out of it, heading back to some sort of normalcy. Over the past year I know you had to miss a lot of experiences your friends and classmates were able to have, as we tried to keep our family safe. Through all this I watched you mature before my eyes. I watched you make the decision to have a good attitude about all the lost experiences. I watched as began to understand the importance of keeping our family, friends, and strangers safe, even if that meant you didn't get to do what you wanted to. That's a level of maturity one doesn't usually have to have at ten, but I watched you display such empathy over the past year. I am so proud of you for this. Now, as we are able to start doing some of our normal activities again, I am watching you be grateful for each experience. You have been thrilled to be able to play baseball every night, go to restaurants, go to the movies, and most importantly have your friends over to play.
On Monday you, at long last, got to have a real friends birthday party at our house. You request this every year and every year it doesn't work out. Summer birthdays are hard, with people being on vacation and difficult to get in touch with. Then last year we weren't seeing anyone outside of our family. But this year you invited all your favorite people over, boys and girls, for three hours of non stop fun. There was kickball, a piñata, snow cones, cake, air hockey, foosball, and secret conversations away from your parents. You laughed a lot and sent your friends home on a huge sugar high. Your best friend stayed the night and I you woke up exhausted from all the fun. At the end of the night I marveled at your ability to pick amazing friends. Seven kids came over and each one was just lovely. They are all kind, polite, well behaved, funny kids. I hope this talent for picking good friends continues into adulthood. Surrounding yourself with kind, smart, funny, well behaved people will serve you well as you enter your teenage and adult years.
Next year you're headed to fifth grade. You got cheated out of most of your fourth grade year, which was very disappointed since you had two awesome teachers. I hate that you didn't get to spend much time with them in the brand new school building. At the end of the year your teachers awarded you the Future President Award because you are a natural born leader. This has been true since you were itty bitty and still remains true to this day. I pray you always use this super power for good, including others, and speaking up for those who might not be as confident as you. Your amazing math teacher this year helped you enjoy math more, which was the one subject you previously weren't a huge fan of. History remains your favorite subject, specifically WWII for some reason as of late. You still are a big reader, finally finishing all the Harry Potter books this past year. Your now in search of your next big series.
Your other favorite things remain the same, topping the list is baseball. You've worked so hard this spring season on pitching and hitting. You've excelled at both, ending the season with your first two home runs. I continue to love watching you play and practice, even when backyard practice ends in multiple broken windows. You also love watching the Cardinals play everyday and are looking forward to returning to Busch Stadium for a game in July. You have gotten back into Legos over the past month, doing harder sets and that was your main as for your birthday. Baking become your big love during quarantine and we had to back off from that a bit over the past few months because we all needed to stop eating cookies and cakes everyday. With that being said you still love to bake and cook and I love that you can easily make a meal for the whole family. You love to play with your new dog and sometimes you even like to play with your brothers.
This year your birthday falls on the Saturday before Father's Day, just like it did the day you were born. As we celebrate your sweet life today my prayers for you this year are that you continue to be grateful for all the normal experiences we had once taken for granted. I pray you remember how much you missed being at school everyday when those early morning school days return. I pray you that you continue to grow in kindness, choose your friends wisely, and continue to be a light to those around you. As I recall one of my prayers for you last year was that you can find it in your heart to get along with your brothers, that remains true this year as well. You are growing into such a wonderful young man. We are immensely proud of you.
Happy Birthday!
Love
Mom
