Happy Birthday Aaron

When my 4th little boy was born I recalled my 17 yr. old self telling a witness that when I got married I wanted to have all boys. (I'm thrilled that I ended up with 2 daughters also.)  It looked like my wish was coming true and what a beautiful boy he was.

Okay, when Aaron was little he was so cute it makes me cry.

  But, looking through pictures in preparation for this blog post pulled up a wide variety of photos.  I'm not saying he's not photogenic, but sometimes the pictures come out with this smile:

This does not warm my heart so I found pictures that show the sunshine in his soul.

Now that we know his cuteness I want to talk about what he teaches me.  He teaches me compassion.  When he was little he brought me gifts...raspberries, flowers, etc. and he melts my heart with love texts and "Thank you, Mom" that brighten my day

He knew this little brother was bored, so he read him a book.

He also took care of real babies.

Even though he had his own problems (black eye) he fed this care bear a bottle (bead toy).

When Aaron was 2 he went around the house helping, he emptied the dishwasher, killed flies, took out the garbage, vacuumed.  When he was a little older he asked his dad for the Stoker roll recipe.  He wanted to make sure he had it written down so he could make them for his family.  He teaches me to work at the skills I want to improve.

Andrew (Aaron's brother) saw a baby picture and said, "Aaron always looked like he was thinking about things."  Well, frankly he was.  He is smart.  Okay I said it.  When he was a toddler and I was talking on the phone, and he thought I'd talked long enough, he'd climb into the cupboards and start eating candy.  Doesn't that scream "Genius?"

It takes some high level thinking to get yourself into your mom's dish water.

Anyone who can stand on a book, with a measuring tape around his neck,
a toothbrush in his mouth, carrying a hoodie is bound for greatness.

From Aaron we also learn that sports are everything.  Well, maybe not everything, but they're important.  We always joke because Paul  asks if the people that the kids are dating play volleyball.  Aaron said, "We act like that's funny, and not everyone needs to play sports, but I love sports.  Shouldn't I marry someone who likes sports too?"

The last thing I learn from Aaron is don't be afraid to have fun.  He's so good at this it may appear that he doesn't take life seriously.  He takes life very seriously, so seriously, he needs some serious breaks from his seriousness.

Aaron was here

Happy Birthday awesome boy.  I love you.