-- Mark Twain
Dear Carter Christopher,
When I see pictures of you these days, I have to catch my breath at how grown-up you appear. You're seemingly a foot taller than anyone else in your class, and those glasses. They still get me every time.
You are losing teeth all the time, and it was one of the Lord's great mercies that none fell out when I was on babysitting duty earlier this summer. I might've quit.
This year's obsession was sports teams of all kinds. Who knows how many notepads you went through, filling pages and pages with team logos, ranking charts, statistics and records.
Speaking of sports, you had a couple of big firsts this year. You attended your first Georgia football game in full gear.
And then you completed your very first March Madness bracket and got to see some live action. Never mind your ludicrous picks, because this is a matter of family legacy and you have to start somewhere.
When your mom and dad think back on this year, here are some things they'll want to remember:
I'd describe Carter's personality with these few words:
mom: Friendly, bright, inquisitive.
dad: Brave, aims to please, curious.
Carter is happiest when he is ...
mom: Outside playing with his dad.
dad: Outside.
Carter is most grown-up when he ...
mom: Talks. There are things that come out of his mouth that make him sound so much older than he is. He asks good questions, always reminding us that his mind is hardly ever idle.
dad: Reads to himself in his bed first thing in the mornings.
My proudest moment as a parent this past year was ...
mom: Sending him to school knowing he loved it. He would wake up excited and say, "I wonder what we're going to learn today!" I hope that excitement to learn never leaves him.
dad: Watching how excited and motivated he was to learn during first grade. He showed so much confidence and pride in what he had done.
Carter's best qualities are ...
mom: He is our gentle giant. He is so sweet to babies and younger children. They seem as drawn to him as he is to them. He loves his family well and shows affection readily. He loves to be snuggled and still holds my hand when we walk to school. He loves to laugh! He also has an affinity for awful knock-knock jokes in the hopes of making others laugh too! He is bright! We realized this summer he knew nearly all the state capitals. No one taught him. He just had a map in his room and must have taught himself. And he never forgets anything. Both elementary school teachers have commented on this.
dad: His creativity, his gentleness, his laugh, his honesty.
My heart broke a little bit this past year when ...
mom: His closest friend moved to Germany. Our families are very close, and it has been a tough adjustment. This week he asked his dad to drive by her old house because he missed her.
dad: We realized how much of his hair he was losing. And when he had to say goodbye to his friend, Bella.
The hardest question Carter asked me/us this year was ...
mom: "Why do I have such a hard time falling/staying asleep?" Part of having a mind that is rarely idle seems to be sleep issues. Things that worry him or make him scared seem to take up a lot of brain space at night. It frustrates him a lot, and he is never satisfied with the answers we give as to why it might be happening.
dad: "Is Satan still alive? Can he hurt me?"
After his eighth birthday, I'm most looking forward to ...
mom: Watching him grow into who he is meant to be. Seeing what piques his interest next. Watching him handle challenges.
dad: Carter developing new friendships.
Two years ago, I wrote you on the eve of your first day of kindergarten. Gosh, I was afraid for you. Afraid that you wouldn't make friends. Afraid that you'd hate your teacher, or worse, hate learning. Afraid for the unkindness you might experience.
Of course it was all fine in the end.
But today was your first day of second grade, and I get to tell you a very different story about what I wasn't afraid of.
I wasn't afraid that you wouldn't make friends. Even though your closest buddy moved to another country, what we know now that we didn't know then is that you can make good friends.
No one feared that you wouldn't enjoy learning, because mercy, you never stop. You've proven to be a spelling wizard, you look forward to school, and you're forever seeking answers to all sorts of questions.
If I'm being honest, I'm still afraid of the unkindness you'll experience one day.
But I'm not afraid that you don't know what kindness is, because it's coming to bear in you.
When Lukey was getting tubes in his ears, you wanted to hold his hand. You asked to buy him a gift with your birthday money. And when you were meeting your friend Ruby for the Georgia game, you wanted to "do something nice for her," so you drew her a picture.
When you were a baby, I asked your mom one day what she most wanted for her kids.
To be kind, she said. More than happiness, or brains, or skills, or talents, or friends, she hopes for kindness.
I think she's seeing some promise.
