Yesterday, Elijah turned 9.  My boy who still gives me hugs when he first sees me in the morning, and kisses on cheeks, chin and forehead every night, is getting older.

He is one-of-a-kind.  Our lefty, who plays harmonica and trombone, whose favorite color is black, who asked for a unicycle and stilts for Christmas/birthday presents, who will (sometimes) go out of his way to choose the out-of-the-ordinary, just because.  He stands out in our family with his quick wit, quick feet, quirky drawings, and unique sense of style.

He struggles with maintaining a good work ethic, but what he learns, he learns well, and what he does, he does well.  I see some of myself in him in this, though I haven’t really figured out how to help him overcome the propensity to leave work undone.  So we just plug away at it, reminding, correcting, praising a job well-done, re-doing half-baked assignments…and he’s making progress, slowly but surely.

On the flip side of things, he is incredibly persistent when he wants to learn something, and rather than trying something for a short while, then giving up, he works diligently until he has figured it out.

He has a lot of wonderful traits, and more that still need to be refined and reined in.  He has his own special way of making me feel loved and valued as a mom, which is so precious to me.  I am beyond thankful for these nine years of his life and I treasure every day with my Buddy.