Each year Zach and I write special birthday messages to each of our children on their birthdays. Here is my birthday letter to 5 year old son in honor of Spear’s 5th birthday.
My sweet Spear,
I cannot believe we are celebrating your fifth birthday! Five is such a big milestone age – a whole hand old – five years old. My last baby is now such a big boy.
As always, this has been another wonderful year as your mama. I never take the opportunity I have to be your mother for granted.
I am so beyond thankful that Mama E entrusted me with you and that I get to have a front-row seat in the story of your life.
And what a life it already is! You truly LIVE it. You experience it, embrace it and find adventure all around you. It may wear me out at times, but it also helps keep me young 😉
This was a year of many exciting things in your life. A special milestone in travel! You flew on an airplane for the first time. Got to see snow for the first time. And went skiing for the first time on our trip to Colorado.
While you may have cried a whole lot at ski school, you have nothing but happy memories of our trip.
You talk about Colorado all the time and let us all know you’re going to live there when you grow up. (I’m hoping you change your mind on that one!). Daddy and I loved having our entire family together on a big trip like that and are excited for the many fun family-filled vacations to come in the years ahead!
There is an entire whole world out there that I can’t wait to have the good fortune of experiencing with you!
This year was also a big milestone year for you. We said goodbye to diapers forever as you were able to stay dry and clean through the night.
You also ended your half-day preschool career as Daddy and I decided to enroll you in full-day preschool at the same school as Britt and Tess!
You were ready and excited to be at school for the full day and the girls were so excited to get to have you with them at their school as well as on the bus.
The adjustment was very smooth for you. I think it was harder on my mama’s heart than it was for you!
You love school and love learning and have so much fun with your friends. But – the bus ride is your favorite part.
While I miss you while you are away, I also think this has been the best decision for our family unit, and love that when you get home in the afternoons we can have more quality time together than we had to rush home from the half-day preschool to get you in the bed for naptime!
It was truly time to drop that mid-day nap as you rarely fall asleep at home for it anymore and at school you NEVER fall asleep at naptime. You keep your teachers busy!
While you are a more active child, you balance it so well by being such a smart boy and such a sweet child.
You love to snuggle. You give Mommy alllll the kisses. You are kind to everyone and bring so much joy to every room with your adorable smile and bright eyes. As I think of you growing up and getting older I know I will miss your soft hands and sloppy kisses and how you want Mommy to sing to you every single night.
It’s interesting because I have both you, my little one, and Kye, my now teenage son, and by having him I can also see your future a bit too. It helps me embrace the little moments you and I share because I see how quickly this time will pass and how quickly you will be a teen too!
There are many great things about each stage of parenting and so many good times to come in the years ahead.
This was the first year we did Disney for your birthday instead of hosting a birthday party. Turning five is a big deal and where else could we better have a 5th birthday celebration than at one of our favorite places doing all of our favorite things together?
You loved getting to wear your birthday button and sharing your 5th birthday wishes with Britt as we also celebrated her 11th birthday! It was the best thing seeing you both have such a very happy birthday celebration together.
I love that Disney is such a special place for you. I always think about five years ago when you went to Disney as a 12-day-old little baby. I love that you’re growing up going to the parks and I hope it’s a magical place you and I always share.
While it’s easy to get a bit sad about you getting older, there are also many things that make you being such a big boy so fun! Like being old enough to go on a day trip to Atlanta to visit Monster Jam!
I know we will have lots more mommy-and-spear moments filled with so much fun together as you are growing up and better able to go and do and be flexible with your schedule.
Speaking of big kids, this has been a big year of growth for you in your relationships with your siblings. Kye especially! He was SO thrilled when you were born that he’d finally have a brother after having two younger sisters. But babies are not so exciting for older kids!
You’ve reached the age where you can truly play with him and enjoy similar things together and it’s just precious to watch that bond develop. I see lots of love between you both and know his influence helps you not only be the coolest 5-year-old but will also help shape you both as a darling boy and wonderful young man someday!
I know five years from now you’ll be idolizing him and I know he’ll continue to set that great example for you to follow.
Our most special time together is our Sam’s Jams. I learned when you were little that going and doing with you was the best way to bond as the shopping cart helps to keep my little wild thing contained and you love to shop the aisles together.
I love the snuggles you give me while we shop. Often times I can barely see because I’m covered in one of your big hugs. The decision to send you to all day school was a tough one because it meant losing our Sam’s Jams mornings together.
Oh how I miss those mornings. On our last school day Sam’s run I cried and cried and cried walking the aisles pushing you in the buggy. I cried so much that a random stranger even stopped to pray with me!
The ending of Sam’s Jams hit me harder than the transition for you going to big boy school – it was an end of an era for me of having little ones at home and I am forever grateful for these years that I got to spend so much quality time with each of my babies at home!
I know though that even though you are getting older – you still look at your mama like she’s a little princess. You always want to be near me and I soak it up and love it so much.
Out of all of our kids though I think you have the best bond with both Daddy and I equally. I truly do believe it’s because you were bottle-fed as a baby – I think it helped you bond closely with Daddy right from the start and I love that you adore him and are always following him around ready and eager to help on his next project.
You are so much like him in many ways. I remember G-Mama telling stories about how when Daddy was little he’d take things apart in order to figure out how to put them back together and you do the very same thing.
Sooooo many of your toys end up broken but you truly aren’t trying to be destructive, you are trying to “figure it out.”
I can see your little brain at work. While you are “wild” in many ways, you are also very, very observant. You are watching. Paying attention. Soaking it in.
I am so excited to see where life takes you as you have so many natural talents. I pray Daddy and I can help you foster them!
Along with soaking things in, you’re also very quiet. Sometimes it can be tricky because when it’s quiet I know you are probably getting into something! Your calm nature and fierce independence can mean Mommy needs eyes in the back of her head 😉
Being the youngest of four kids you have always had others speaking for you. Tess is your “second mama” and she tends to do this the most.
She jumps in and is quick to help you, cater to you and spoil you! You are THE BABY for sure and have us all pretty much wrapped around your finger.
It is always a gift when I get one on one time with you. It’s when you open up the most and really get talking. It’s almost like you become more of a little kid when around your siblings and more of a big kid when you’re just one-on-one!
A BIG sigh of relief mama moment this year happened when I finally bit the bullet and took you to an ENT dr in a different town. I’ve been so frustrated year after year having you fail hearing tests at the dr to then take you to the local ENT and be told you’re fine.
Finally, an ENT listened to me and gave you the evaluation you needed. I remember when you were just a few months old you had SO much drainage and I felt like it was an abnormal amount. You’ve always been a loud sleeper as well.
You had a speech delay and every speech therapist we had said they thought you had some ear drainage issues – your little voice even sounded congested and like you were underwater.
We discovered you have ear issues resulting in partial hearing loss in one ear. We are set to have tubes put in as well as to get your tonsils and adenoids out. I’m so eager for the surgery.
Naturally, I’m a bit nervous about it, but I’m also just SO encouraged that you’ll finally be able to fully HEAR, and for all the new things you’ll be able to better understand with this issue resolved!
This year has been a lot of changes with all-day school as well as with our decision to build a new home for our family. To be honest, the idea of moving isn’t something I’m personally excited about.
However, I know this will be SUCH a wonderful thing for YOU.
I believe a lot of Daddy’s reasoning for wanting land is because of you. You just thrive outdoors and having this property will be an amazing space for you to grow up.
You LOVE it out there and when I feel frustrated with the building process or overwhelmed by it all I take you out there and it helps remind me that it will all be worth it!
You are such an answered prayer in our lives. The perfect last piece of our family puzzle. You are loved and simply adored by each of us and we never take for granted the blessing to get to have you in our family unit.
These five years have been the best part of my life. Having my family complete and whole. As I sit here celebrating your special day and wishing you a happy fifth birthday I am also thinking of Mama E. How grateful I am to her. How much she loves you.
As you have gotten older you have a better understanding of your birth story and I pray my role in motherhood is that I’m able to raise you in a way where you respect it and that you have nothing but contentment in knowing that she loves you so completely. And that we love you so completely.
As you eat your birthday cake and toss aside your happy birthday card filled with 5th birthday messages to open all the fun birthday gifts know that you are surrounded by people who love you so much and will always support you, lift you up, and be here rooting for you through life!
Yes, my beloved son, sometimes life will have hard times. Good things may not always happen. Every single day won’t be rainbows and fairy tales.
Even if it’s not always the best day – I pray that you always know that I am proud to be your mom. You are a fantastic son. My little bundle of joy. I
will love you forever and ever and ever and cannot wait to see the bright future ahead!
Happy 5th birthday my sweet boy, my greatest gift, my little boy. I’ve loved you for 1,000 years and will love you 1,000 more baby boy! I hope you have a great birthday and I can’t wait to see the amazing things to come next year!
Love, Mommy
In addition to my fifth birthday wishes letter to Spear you can look back on past birthday letters of heartfelt messages here:
- Happy 4th Birthday to my son letter
- 3rd Birthday quotes letter
- 2nd Birthday open letter
- 1st Birthday celebration letter
- Spear’s Birth Story (Blog post by Mommy!)
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