Little Man is Nine Today!

Dear Little Man

It feels like I only wrote to you for your eighth birthday two minutes ago – and now you are nine! You bring so much joy to our lives and as much as I loved your baby and toddler years, I am loving this bigger, kind, beautiful, knowledgeable boy you’ve become. Watching you grow and seeing you learn is one of my favourite things in life. It’s a pleasure.

This last year has been a pretty normal year. You have had the whole year at school after spending the year before with much uncertainty over the pandemic. And it’s been lovely having a routine again. You love school and are so glad to be back.

You know so much. You are constantly telling us facts, teaching us things and asking us questions to learn even more. You are so clever and have a real thirst for learning. I am constantly amazed by you and how much you know. Your love of learning will take you far.

In October you had Covid for the first – and hopefully only – time. You and I isolated in the loft room, trying to keep LP and Daddy safe from Covid but LP ended up catching it just after us – and your Daddy still hasn’t had it.

We spent those ten days watching TV, having cuddles, eating sweets and ice lollies, playing games and spending so much time together, just the two of us. You loved the sleepovers and despite being poorly it felt like such a treat for you. Thankfully you weren’t too sick, you just had a temperature that wouldn’t shift.

But, covid was short lived and we got back to normal pretty quickly. We had a few lovely breaks away over the last year – a week in Weymouth in the summer, a very wet week in North Wales in October half term and a week in Yorkshire at Easter. You love that we can have adventures again.

You’re still going to swimming lessons regularly and swim like a fish. You also started roller skating sessions this year and also learnt to ride your bike last summer. I was so incredibly proud of you and now you ride your bike whenever you can.

You do choir and art club after school and love that you can do clubs again. It felt like such a long time that everything stopped for the pandemic and you’re really making the most of clubs being back on. You are super creative, always drawing, and have a big love of dinosaurs at the moment, always drawing them and talking about them. You saw Jurassic Park recently which may have inspired this dinosaur love.

One of your favourite things is Star Wars much to Daddy’s delight. And it’s lovely seeing you and your sister have similar interests – Star Wars, Nerf gun battles and slapstick comedy. You both discovered Saturday Night Takeaway over the last year and absolutely love it. We’re also watching Britain’s Got Talent which you think is great and daft in equal measure.

You still read constantly and although you love books you also really enjoy magazines. You get the Phoenix Comic and Minecraft Magazine regularly and pore over them for ages when they arrive.

The stereotypically boyish qualities you found last year – loving farts, poo jokes and all things a little rude have gone up a notch this year. We can’t say the word ‘balls’ without you cracking up and bums are frankly hilarious.

Your sense of humour is infectious and I love how you spend time walking around galleries and museums, some of the most educational and historic places in the country, pointing out boobs and bits in paintings and on sculptures. Never change Little Man. You never fail to make us smile.

I still love getting woken up by you every morning, having a bed cuddle before getting ready for school. Your cuddles are one of my favourite things. You give me and Daddy cuddles constantly and you’ll give LP them on special occasions or when she really needs a cuddle. Other than that, you tend to keep cuddles to yourself – preferring to wave or smile at friends and family.

You still love pizza and pasta. You’re not that fussy with food but you have favourite things that you would eat constantly if you could. You’ve started having packed lunches at school this year and your favourite sandwich is either butter and jam – you call it a scone sandwich – or ham, cheese and mayonnaise.

Squares are your favourite crisps – usually the salt and vinegar ones – but you also love ready salted crisps. Really, you love packed lunches because you get to have crisps every day and that feels like a real treat to you.

You lost a couple of teeth this year and had a wobbly one for probably six months that caused us no end of trauma – including the dentist trying to pull it out without any warning! The pesky tooth finally came out, much to the relief of everyone.

You have size 3-3.5 feet and are in a mix of size 8 and 9 clothes. Your tops are all age 9 now but you’re so slim that size 9 bottoms just fall down on you. We always need to pick bottoms with an adjustable waist or drawstring!

You don’t use a car seat in the car any more and are over 140cm tall. You are shooting up and I can’t quite believe how fast it’s going. You’ll be as tall as me soon! We still have pick up cuddles every so often but they’re getting further apart because you’re simply heavier now. But, I’ll keep giving you picky uppies as long as I can.

Little Man, you are still such a sensitive little thing. But, we’ve been working on your resilience and I am just so proud of you. Things that would have upset you a year ago are now not as big an issue and you seem much more in check of your emotions. You know it’s fine to be upset, to be sad but you also know that we need to try and keep everything in proportion and you’re really growing up in that sense.

LP is still one of your most favourite people and you would have sleepovers with her constantly if you could. This is your last year at Primary School with her and it’ll be strange for everyone when she goes off to Secondary School in September. I know you’re appreciating these last months at school with her.

Ah Little Man. I could talk about you for days. You are an incredibly special little guy and we love you so much. You’re polite, friendly, helpful and just so kind. You are an utter joy and we are so lucky to have you.

Little Man, I’m so glad it was you who completed our family. Our space loving, toy cuddling, bum shaking, dino drawing, Nerf gun shooting, gorgeous boy. We could not love you more.

Happy ninth birthday Troy. Have the best day.

Love always,

Mummy and Daddy xx