Dear Branson,
I can’t believe you are going to be turning 8 years old in just a few more months. Dad and I look at you sometimes and just can’t believe our tiny little first born baby boy is growing up so fast. You are practically a young man now and such a joy in our family.
We love that you thirst for knowledge. Your favorite books to read right now are anything astronomy, or the National Geographic magazines Grandma and Grandpa give you every Sunday when we visit. You just love learning and you have deep questions and really think through things. Just this week you came to me one day and asked, “Mom how do our skeletons grow?” We got online and tried looking up some videos and researching how our bones grow but we didn’t find any great answers. So we asked Daddy about it and he found a great site where he was able to show you pictures and explain the process. You just love learning new things and seem to really enjoy expanding your mind in different ways.
You also really love reading other books like the Box Car Children, the Friend magazine, Amelia Bedilia books, Phineas and Ferb, Marvel Hero’s, and Captain underpants (which we don’t really care for). We can find you reading just about everywhere and we usually don’t worry about you reading 20 minutes everyday because you just always are!
Right now you really really love to draw. I’ve been saving all your drawings and taking pictures of them and keeping those pics on my laptop because most of your artwork is really really good. I keep thinking you should be an illustrator one day and create childrens books or something or encourage you to make your own books now because your drawings are really so so cute. We got you a little electronic art pad thing for Christmas and just now you are really starting to love it. It has little pictures that you can trace and you love using that to draw a picture of each of us in our family and give them to us. I get at least one or two art projects you’ve drawn for me each week and I love them.
Your favorite friends to play with right now in our neighborhood are Wade Hoover and Jacey Muir and usually you are out with them from the time you get home from school until dinnertime. You love jumping on Wades tramp, pretending you are super hero’s, or riding bikes up and down the sidewalk. I love that you enjoy being outside and will spend a good part of your day playing instead of wanting to be on the TV and computer all day.
Right now some of your struggles in your life revolve around making friends at school. Whenever you are having a bad day I ask if something is wrong that is causing you to be so angry and usually you will open up and tell me that someone at school said something mean to you (yesterday a 5th grader called you shorty) or that no one will let you play with them at recess. It breaks my heart to hear that others aren’t treating you kindly but at the same time Brans, YOU treat others kindly and that just makes my heart smile. A few weeks ago you told me a new boy was going to be coming to your class and that your teacher assigned him to sit by you. You immediately talked about how you wanted to be his friend and invite him to sit by you at lunch and play at recess. You know how it feels to sit alone and you wanted to make sure this boy didn’t feel left out or unwelcome. I love that about you.
You are such a great big brother, especially to your baby sister. You often will go and make up a bottle for me to give to Adalynn, and are always happy to play with her. Just yesterday you put her shoes, coat, and hat on and took her outside to play in the backyard. And the day before that when you were outside playing with your favorite friends Blake and Sydney (who were visiting their Grandma and Grandpa) you saw sister in the window and stopped what you were doing down in their yard, climbed all the way up into our yard and then made faces and tried to get her to laugh from down below. She just adores you and lights up when you get home.
You and Harry also get along very well and usually play down at Wades and Jacey’s together. Unfortunately though you and Dawson are STILL butting heads and usually there are lots of fights going on between you too because someone breaks someones elses lego creation, or won’t share a toy. I’m hoping someday you will be friends though and work through your differences.
Anyway Brans, you sure are a joy to have in our family and we are so blessed everyday because of your kind personality and strong desire to do whats right. You love reading the scriptures and remember the stories well. You love sharing your testimony and praying in the evenings. You are almost always the first to tell whomever prayed what you love about them, and usually have a good attitude when asked to help. We sure love you buddy! Love, Mommy Pants
