Doodlebug - Tally Mark 120

Rie Rie,

You are finally 10!  What you thought was never going to come has arrived and you're so excited!  You've been working on your list for a couple of months, making changes, adding links, making sure I've sent it to people, etc.  You asked for two pairs of Jordans, a custom baseball bat, a gift card for PlayStation so you can get The Show '24, a weighted blanket, and some hats.  I hope you love what you got!

Your time as a fourth grader is coming to an end.  This year you learned about California Missions and the Gold Rush.  You have a field trip next week to Coloma, where gold was first discovered.  You're excited because you get to be partners with your friend, Connor, which means you'll be together the entire time of the field trip and you get to sit with each other on the bus.  While you two are friends, you're also extremely competitive.  Both of you ran in Cross Country this school year and he was FAST (always came in first).  You would get really down on yourself because you weren't coming in first.  This motivated you to want to push yourself to try and beat your previous time each race.  You never beat Connor but you finished the season off stronger than you started.  You also didn't want to initially do Cross Country but you were open to trying something new.  Way to go!

Not a surprise, you still play baseball.  We switched travel ball teams this year and you still play on the 10U team.  You also played Majors for Fall & Spring ball.  It was intimidating to play with boys so much bigger and stronger than you but you've held your own.  In fact, you were nominated for All-Stars this year and you made it!  Your coach told you that you should have made the team last year but it was his fault you didn't.  He's excited to have you on his team this year.  You're not super excited because you thought you'd have two practices a day but so far, that's not on the schedule.  Regardless, you're going to do great!  Baseball comes naturally to you.  You flow so nicely on the field, always knowing what to do and where you need to be.  Catching is your forte but you also pitch and play shortstop.  You make amazing plays and definitely earned your spot as an All-Star.  Your nickname as the Silent Assassin still rings true as you can usually be found on the bench, waiting for your at bat rather than being super vocal and cheering your team on.  While you aren't the cheerleader of your teams, you definitely set the tone for the other players and so many people look up to you.

Do you know what else comes naturally?  Pretty much everything.  While it doesn't create good habits, you never study for your tests but you still get amazing grades.  You hate public speaking but you aced your San Diego Mission oral presentation.  So much so, your teacher went home that evening and raved about how fantastic you did to her husband (their son is on your baseball team so we get to talk to them often).  You never give up and you always try your best, even if you're not super keen about doing something.  Each week, your teacher sends home a progress report for each kid.  I can't tell you how many times she's written how much she loves you and loves having you in her class.  Your class hasn't been the easiest this year for her but she's told me how you make her job easy.  Thank you for being kind and respectful, especially to your teachers!

You got braces in October since you got my teeth and Daddy's mouth.  You're about halfway through your first treatment and once all of your permanent teeth come in, you'll start your second treatment.  After the initial placement, you were definitely in pain; lots of Jell-o, pudding, and yogurt were consumed.  When you get them tightened now, you refuse to take medicine to help with the discomfort and you just push through.  Honestly, you worry more about what color bands you'll get rather than how much it'll hurt you.  You need a little help brushing and flossing but you got a compliment last week from a boy in your class.  He asked you how you got your teeth so white with braces because his are always yellow.  You came home quite proud of your dental hygiene regiment.  

YouTube still gets all of your attention.  For some reason, watching other people play video games excites you.  You often ask if you can get new games on the iTouch but I always make you delete some before you can get new ones.  Then a week goes by, and you ask for another new round.  You asked me the other day to try and guess a YouTuber based off their voice.  I assured you I didn't know any YouTubers except for FazeRug.  You insisted I would know.  You turned on the clip and, you were right, I knew who it was.  It was Ryan Trahan!  We loved watching his summer challenge for the last couple of years.  We'll have to see if launches a new one this year.

For being so sweet, you definitely like to talk back.  You use the excuse that you don't know what talking back means so you just keep talking.  If I'm being honest, I'd much rather you act like this with me and Daddy but, still.  We know you can follow directions and behave at school and baseball.  We just can't figure out why you can't always behave at home.  Sometimes groans and whines come out of your mouth when we ask you to do your chore or feed Aksel.  If we ask you to do something, you have to ask if The Lime did what we asked him to do first.  Everything has to be fair and we have to remind you to worry about yourself.  One day you'll understand what talking back is, I hope.

You prefer I drive you to school every morning, and Aksel always joins us.  You don't tell me you love me back after I say it to you, but Aksel always gets lovies from you before you leave.  I'm glad you are able to show love and emotion to someone/something.  It's hard for you to be vulnerable, and you have an especially hard time complimenting people or apologizing.  I'm not quite sure where this stems from but we want you to know it's okay to say something nice to someone, or to admit when you've made a mistake and you need to ask for forgiveness.  It's something your teacher has had everyone work on this year.  I think we just need to practice more.  

For your birthday meals, you want Cane's for lunch (we've never been) and Panda for dinner - pretty much chicken since we never get to eat it.  You still love chicken wings and still eat lunch at school every day.  You sleep in our spare bedroom because you say your bed is uncomfortable.  You are obsessed with Jordans and have them as your roller skates and baseball cleats.  You finally moved up to a size 7 in shoes.  I had you clean out your drawers last month and you still had size 6 clothes in there.  We got rid of all of them and you're a M/10.  You eat bread and Nutella every morning for breakfast.  You tried dragon fruit and mango for the first time this year and you love both.  You even tried planting dragon fruit seeds but I'm not sure anything will come of them.  You still have the same haircut (long middle, shaved sides).  When we shave your sides, they act like velcro and the long part of your hair gets stuck in the stubble.  You loved going to San Diego earlier this year, especially to the Padres game.  Fernando Tatis, Jr. is one of your favorite players.  You love Coca Cola.  You tried paddleboarding this year and love it.  You just wish we'd let you go out further than we feel comfortable doing.  Talking/yelling in your sleep is not as prevalent as it used to be but it still happens every once in a while.  You're usually the first one up in the morning on the weekends.  Sometimes you let Aksel out of his crate and feed him, sometimes you go straight to the computer.  You say you don't like music but you chose Notorious B.I.G. as your travel ball walk up song.  We also paid you to pick Careless Whispers as your little league song.  You were so afraid people would make fun of you but everyone loved it.  

And just like they loved your song, everyone loves you.  It isn't unusual for us to go somewhere and hear someone yell out your name with excitement.  While not a social butterfly, people know you and want to be around you.  Keep that up, bud.  We love you so much and love being around you.  We can't wait to see what 10 year old Rie does with himself this year!

Love you so much,

Mama

The Lime - Tally Mark 168

 Dear Freddy,

As I hugged and kissed you goodnight last night, I savored it being the last time I'd do it to a 13 year old you.  Since you're way bigger than me, I have to stand on my tippy toes to hug and kiss you which gets a little awkward.  What isn't awkward is that you aren't embarrassed to say you love me when you leave each morning and your friend is standing right there.  You make sure to tell me you love me every time you leave the house to go ride your bike and you text me every time you're on your way home so I know when to expect you.

That's right...you finally got a phone.  You were convinced you wouldn't get one until you turned 18 and moved out.  But when it came to Christmas last year, all you wanted was a Super 73 or $500 shoes.  Neither one was going to happen.  So Daddy and I pulled the trigger and decided it was time.  The look on your face when you saw it next to the Christmas tree was priceless.  For a second, it felt like you thought it was a joke.  Its main purpose is for you to be able to communicate with Daddy or me while at school or out with friends.  When you're with the family, we prefer you not be on it.  You've fought back a little bit with the rules but for the most part, you've gone along with it.  You much prefer to just listen to your music or play Pixel Gun.

I was a little worried once you got the phone, that's all you'd want to focus on.  I've heard stories about kids that spend all of their free time in their bedroom on their phone.  You still prefer to be outside riding your bike at one of the various dirt jumps we have around here.  You sent me a video the other day of you doing some jumps and they were so high!  I was 1) glad I wasn't there to see you in person because I'd probably tell you not to do it and 2) glad I wasn't there so you were brave enough to do it.  You get so excited to come home and tell me about the jumps and berms you build.  You ride with Jackson and Bryce the most, and sometimes Jacob and Riley.  You get nervous that someone is going to call the cops on you guys for building the jumps, especially now that the police department has SxS vehicles to patrol the open areas.  Thankfully you're all good kids and people tend to let you be (except our former neighbor who laid into you guys one day).

School is not your favorite thing and you'd much prefer to be with friends riding bikes.  Unfortunately, the C Boys on YouTube have not been the best influence (they're a group of friends that get to have fun all day).  We had to bring you back down to reality a couple months ago, letting you know what you see on YouTube is not always reality.  But you're not convinced you'll use anything you're currently learning at school in your adult life so it's a waste of time.  We reiterated that you don't need to go to college and get a degree to be successful.  The most important thing is that an effort be made, no matter what you do.  And that starts now.  Whether that's buttering your bread, folding clothes, pitching a baseball, signing your signature, completing a book report.  As long as your best effort was made, we'll be grateful you tried.

Baseball starts up again soon with tryouts being next week.  You'll still be in Juniors and are hoping to be on your friend's team (his dad is coaching).  You and Arturo met at school and have become good friends.  You both got almost the exact same Christmas presents and share a lot of the same interests.  You pitched a lot during fall ball and take pride in being the only one who was able to strike Arturo out.  First base is still your number one choice but you also like playing shortstop.  The outfield is a struggle for you because you get distracted easily.  A loud car goes by and it's all over.

The same thing happened as you umpired for spring ball last year.  You loved the opportunity to earn money and you got your own bank account with a debit card.  Lots of trips were made to the grocery store for Arizonas and Little Caesars.  Your money definitely burns a hole in your pocket.  Every day you would show me a new pair of shoes you wanted.  Thankfully, I didn't let you buy any of them because I knew your preference would change within 24 hours.  You also had a hankering for Ethika underwear.  The trend last year for teenage boys was to have short shorts so the bottom of the Ethikas would show.  You tried your darndest to let yours show but I threatened to have the bottom of my underwear hang out of my shorts to match you.

You are somewhat influenced by trends but you also march to the beat of your own drum.  You cut a mullet right before 8th grade started.  That was an adjustment for everyone!  You like to wear Rhone because nobody else wears it.  We've tried to instill in you that we don't care what anyone else thinks (this was repeated constantly when you thought you were the only student at your school without a phone).  While you are confident in who you are, you are still a teenage boy and don't want to be labeled as weird.  But a lot of people look up to you and several kids have recently gotten the North Face slippers after you wore them to school (everyone else seems to wear Uggs).  

Speaking of not caring what others think, you've started going roller skating with Doodlebug and me.  You put your earbuds in, listen to your music, and zone out.  I appreciate that a now 14 year old boy intentionally chooses to go roller skating with his mom and younger brother every Thursday night.  There aren't a lot of other boys there your age but that doesn't deter you.  I know baseball will hinder our time skating in the next few weeks so I'm soaking the moments up while I can.

You eat dry cereal for breakfast every morning unless we have doughnuts.  For lunch, you eat salami & crackers.  You inhale Taco Bell which gives you heartburn.  McDonalds is also inhaled but doesn't impact you the same way.  Daddy has to remind you to slow down often, the food's not going anywhere.  You wear a size 11.5 shoe and M adult clothing.  You love cars and I'm always amazed by how much you know.  You and Daddy were talking last week about fixing up the Falcon so it's ready to drive by the time you're 16.  You think you'll be a good driver because you know how to drive the golf cart at Emily & Dustin's.  But after riding on Uncle Tommy's 4-wheeler with you, I'm grateful you have two more years to fine tune your skills.  You kindly pick Doodlebug up from school every day it's not raining.  You look up to Uncle Johnny and would go to Utah for every vacation if you could.  When we're in Utah, you insist we go to Brick Oven Pizza even though we've all decided it's not the best pizza.  You love Sprite so you can mix other drinks with it.  You earned a fake Stanley cup in your school's fundraiser a couple of months ago and you're always drinking water.  You take a piece of my gum every Sunday after Sacrament meeting.  Whenever you're sitting on the couch, you have to have Lucifer and a blanket with you.  You sleep without a sheet on your mattress no matter how many times we try to put it back on.  And you have to have a fan blowing on you.  You've improved your mile dramatically in middle school.  I believe you're at about 6:42 with a goal of getting down to 6:30 before the end of the year.  You have a tiny mustache that random people call you out on.  You refuse to shave it.  All of your teachers love you and commend you for being a good kid.  

You are a good kid.  In fact, you're a great kid.  I'm so grateful you joined our family 14 years ago and we get to be with you forever. Daddy and I were snuggling the other night and you said, "Well, looks like we're all snuggling!" and you hopped on the dog pile.  While you are definitely growing up, I still get tiny glimpses of little Freddy.  It's fun to see both versions of you.  I can't wait to see what 14 year old you gets to accomplish this year.  So much, I hope!

Love you tons,

Mommy