Six Years with Tiger

My mighty boy Tiger. Today you turn 6 in this transformative year. In the last 12 months, you tried new things like performing on a stage at your Kindergarten play, swimming the butterfly stroke across the pool and spending "Saturdays with Daddy" at your piano, golf and tennis lessons, while you shunned others, absolutely refusing to go onto the soccer field or singing Christmas carols at the retirement home. You conquered fears, stepping into the unknown ocean to try out surfing and now you’re finally watching movies, even attentively sitting through the scary parts of Wizard of Oz and The Little Mermaid.

At home, you continued to lead the pack orchestrating your favorite activities like elaborate marble runs, lego towers and domino trails. You're intensely competitive- a drive that pushes you to do second grade math workbooks for fun, to pick up your bike again and do helpful things just for my "bonus points". You've even learned to cope with this aspect of yourself, opting to be the referee or the wheel spinner when losing a game would be too bitter to bear. 

You invented nicknames, Azelle, or "Little Cutes" is your object of desire - you love to jump into her crib and read her books in the morning, help her escape, organize her hiding spots and relentlessly pick her up and shake her around. You play beautiful imaginative games with Arrow, or "Airsies" selling tickets to the  "comet shows" you put on for Daddy and I with LED lights and star projectors or scootering around our home while blasting your favorite songs. And your dance moves are insanely adorable!  

You've loved spending more time at home with me this odd year, and while you continuously push my limits, and my buttons, you've become my best friend. I love every minute in your powerful presence, that you share the inner-workings of your thoughts with me, that I get to trace your face and scratch your back every night before you drift off to sleep and that I get to watch you grow and thrive. 

I love you forever, Mama