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Friday, May 1, 2026

August Turns 10

Dear August,

Today, you are ten whole years. My baby boy. My gentle soul. My perfect middle. It feels like yesterday that you came into this world so peacefully and you’ve never rocked the boat since. A friend to everyone. A brother to Oskar and Maren and a keeper of the peace in your sibling dynamic. 

You’re in 4th grade this year and moved into a new school. You made so many new friends and filled your party guest list with names I’ve never heard. You’re growing taller, taller, taller, and are still off the charts in your size every time it’s measured. You got braces this year, perfecting your little kid smile. Your hair is gelled, you started wearing contacts, you wear head to toe Nike. All of the pre-teen boxes checked. You’ve changed so much this year and every time somebody sees you they ask, "Has he grown a foot?"

You love sports. Your passion is football and you know every name of every NFL player and can rattle of stats going back years. You still sprawl on your bedroom floor and play with teeny-mate figurines, announcing made-up play off games always with the most dramatic endings.

You started playing Beadling this year and have grown so much as a soccer player. You were so proud to make the team and our rides to practices and games are some of my favorite time spent with you, playing your favorite songs and talking about your day. You quarterbacked your flag football team, learned to ski, played a season of rec baseball, and were a leading scorer in basketball. You won the championship in flag football on a team with Oskar and it will forever be one of my favorite memories for you.






The theme of August is slow but steady. Your pace is your own, but you always end up exceeding expectations. You work so hard for everything you have, and i know that ethic instilled in you will take you so far. I’m so proud of you for the hours you log at the homework table or at practices, all in pursuit to make you even better.

We read the Wayside Stories and Ben Yokoyama series together this year and you really liked both. Still a stats and figures guy, you’d rather flip through sports trivia books or read about the history of the Steelers.

You filled my Amazon cart with footballs, squishies, and costumes for your birthday. A goofy 10-year-old with just a little bit of kid left in him.

You’re still a night owl and listen to the same Big Nate audio books until way past your bedtime, even though you can recite every word.

We traveled to Italy and Finland this year with all of our family and made pizza, took water taxis to the coastal towns in Amalfi, and swam in the sun. We went to Mexico for your 10th birthday and made it the best trip ever for you. Your passport is filling up. You've now been to Denmark, the Netherlands, Scotland, Norway, Italy, Mexico, and Finland (many, many times). 

We held a friend party at your favorite Sportsplex where you played baseball, football, and kickball and got all the football cards you could dream of. I love seeing you surrounded by all of your friends, telling inside jokes and giggling for hours on end.

Your love to be out in the sunshine and thrive when you can throw a football or catch a baseball in the yard. You started having Hobbes field your balls, and it makes my entire heart explode watching you two playing together like the most picturesque snapshot of childhood you could imagine.

I’m a month late for this update for the first time ever, indicative of just how busy this season of life is. From all of the soccer practices, football, and guitar, sometimes I feel like our heads are spinning managing it all, but you really are thriving. My biggest wish for you is to be confident and brave. Your self-doubt can hold you back, but when you believe in yourself just a little bit, huge things happen for you. You are shining in all the ways right now, and I’m just so proud of you. I couldn’t love you any more. To my favorite boy—I adore you. Happy birthday.

 

Love, Mama

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Tuesday, March 10, 2026

Maren Turns 6

 Dear Maren,

Happy 6th birthday. You’ve had such a special year that it’s hard to be anything but thankful for where you are today.


You started kindergarten in August and have absolutely soared. A friend to everybody and adored by your entire class, your teacher said that you’re unequivocally the leader amongst your peers. You’re reading, working ahead in math, and pulled out of regular instruction to head to enrichment where you really shine. Your birthday party is coming up and you wanted to invite about a million friends. It makes me happy that you feel so loved by so many kids all around you.

Our bedtime routine has gotten so fun, flying through different book series that you just can’t get enough of. We finished Dory Fantasmagory, Junie B Jones, and are working our way through Pippi Longstocking, all of which make us laugh and laugh. I wasn’t sure a 5-year-old was ready for chapter books, but you are so engaged and ask so many pointed questions along the way—you never don’t surprise me.

You finished out several years of going to the Little Gym, moving ahead now to a real gymnastics class. Soccer is your favorite, though, playing on a team of your friends and following fully in your brothers’ footsteps. Your happiest place is still being outside in our neighborhood with all of the little girls that are like your sisters, mixing mud and leaves in pots and riding scooters around together. You play for hours until it’s dark outside in rain or shine. Whenever you’re in your imaginary lands far far away, you call yourself Mary, always telling me that I should have named you that.  

You’re losing teeth left and right, with all 4 of your front teeth now gone. One you knocked out in the snow while sledding and said you’d find it in the spring.

Within our family you are still closest with August, who has all of the tolerance and patience in the world. Oskar and you continue to butt heads, both as stubborn as they come. You also fight with Hobbes-the-dog since you’re both the same age (in dog years) and some days it’s quite obvious I have two kindergartners under my roof.

You’ve graduated from Peppa Pig and Paw Patrol to Super Kitties and K-Pop Demon Hunters, putting on solo performances of their biggest songs in a head-to-toe costume you wished for every day until it materialized.


We went to the Dominican Republic, Italy, and Finland in your 5th year, with Mexico, Switzerland, and Finland on the docket for the next. You love a vacation and are such a good traveler. There’s nothing cuter than a little girl with a huge bookbag, on her way to see the world.



It’s been a hard and heavy year to explain what’s going on politically. This presidency has been so difficult to parent through. You understand more than you probably should and are an outspoken advocate, wise beyond your years.

For your birthday, you want a unicorn pancake breakfast, to leave school just one hour early to make sure you get your crown and allotted birthday attention first, and then to celebrate the day away by going shopping, opening presents, and eating all of your favorite foods.


I think the hardest thing to describe on paper is how funny and witty your personality is. You miss absolutely nothing. I wish I could memorialize it forever right here and try to do justice the jokes, the one-off comments, the stories we tell about you all the time. You’re magnetic. May you always be this bold, this brazen, this confident. The world needs you.

Happy 6 years to our beautiful baby girl. Like you say at bedtime, “I love you to the biggest number in the world even though I obviously know there isn’t one of those.”

Love, Mama
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