Happy Birthday to My Baby

Justin turned nine on Sunday. I still can't believe that I am a mom and that have a nine year old. Justin loves to hear stories about himself and from our childhoods. He is an artist and has said so for at least seven years now. Justin was such a fun baby. I loved spending all my time with him. He did a lot of things early, although I had no idea at the time. He said Mama at six months and then crawled the next day. He crawled straight to the couch and stood up, then walked around with one hand on the couch. He walked at 10 months and ran on his first birthday. He also had all his teeth by his first birthday. Justin was really funny, he would say a word once and not say it again for months. Then around his first birthday he started speaking in full sentences. Of course we thought he was brilliant, but not too unusual... until we had Emma who didn't talk until after she was 2 1/2. Although she was probably a little more unusual.

Justin has always had a great sense of humor. He loves to laugh and make other people laugh too. He is a wonderful brother to his sisters. He used to complain a lot about wanting a little brother. I told him we were done having kids, but even if we did have another one it could be another girl. He said he would move in with his friend down the street. Justin's favorite color was orange for a long time. Now it is black and red. I sometimes think he says black just to irk me. When he was in preschool he came home really upset one day. He said he was asked what his favorite color was and he said orange and then pink and blue and every color. The other boys teased him about liking a girl color like pink. He didn't understand and wanted to know how there could be colors for boys and colors for girls. He loved every color. Justin also made me a bracelet in preschool and used some alphabet beads on it. It had an F and a U. I cried trying to hold back the laughter. It was a lot like a mother's day card he made me in first grade. He had cut out a hand holding a bouquet. He glued it to the card, but the middle finger didn't get glued and was sticking out. He seems to have a thing for gifts for me because when he was around 3 or 4 he made me a mother's day card at church that said "my mommy likes to lick me." I was entertained by this card, but also confused so I asked his teacher why I got a weird card. She said "oh, I thought that is was just something that you do." My response was something sarcastic like "yeah, I lick my kid." I always look forward to gifts from Justin. He loves to give gifts and make people happy. I love my Justin and am so happy to have such a wonderful son.