Nine
Where do I even start with this boy? He is one of a kind. When I was at the check out buying socks for his birthday present, the cashier chuckled about what 9 year old boy would want socks for their birthday. That 9 year old would be Maddox. Not only did he want mid calf black Nike socks, but a few other items on his wish list that didn't quite make the cut were a stainless steel garbage can with a flip lid, plant stand, flower pot, air freshener, hanging plant, double sided tape and a beach canvas print. He is an old soul. What he did settle on was a watch, insulated water bottle, pocket knife, head phones and a bath robe. His favorite hobby is on-line shopping and reading Amazon reviews, he read through dozens of reviews analyzing each and every water bottle until he settled on the best one. And my favorite comment from him was, "if you need me, I'll be on Amazon looking for robes...". I can confidently say that's a phrase not many other 9 year old boys have ever uttered. And then he continued to throw out words like, "plush", "double stitched" and "turkish". I'm just getting started, there are so many ways to count why I love him, starting with....the way he keeps his favorite fidget spinner in it's original packaging, taking it out ever so often to polish it but never play with it; the way he obsesses over a song and listens to it on repeat singing along to every word- his two current favorites are "Believer" and "The Fall of Jake Paul"; he does a front flip on the trampoline and asks me if he looked handsome and majestic while doing it; he begs to go to bed early and reminds me on a regular basis that the Mayo Clinic recommends that a boy his age needs to get 9-11 hrs of sleep; he insists on getting souvenirs wherever he goes; he will not go to bed or off to school without brushing his teeth; he obsesses about hand sanitizer and once on a road trip refused to eat his lunch and sat with his hands in the air for a full 20 minutes until we could find a bathroom to wash his hands since I was out of sanitizer; he gets so excited about the small things, like the time I surprised him with a canister of disinfectant wipes-it made his entire week; He loves educational shows and non fiction books, like when he casually brings up in conversation the book he is reading about friction; he is my resident botanist and plant sitter, I paid him $1 to water my plants when I was out of town for a week; in a letter to grandma on grandparents day he wrote, "I love you more than my favorite plant", and that is saying a lot; he declares Saturdays "Maddox Ryder Fun Day" and usually has a whole agenda planned, sometimes he has to bribe Ryder with candy to make him participate; he wears sunglasses and football gloves to recess every day; he commented the other day "I'm not Chinese or White, I'm just potato color"; he is the king of "would you rather" and can come up with at least 53 different scenarios off the top of his head at any given time; he saw a Lowe's delivery truck and in a whispered awe commented, "wow, they sure are getting a lot of plants...". I could seriously go on and on about this boy, his endearing quirks, his funny antics and his unpredictable obsessions. But mostly I am so grateful to be his mom, to be the recipient of the most unconditional kind of love, to have a front row seat to witness his caring heart and to be the one he trusts with his worries as well as his dreams. We love you Maddox, happy birthday!
His birthday always falls during Fall break, so we are usually celebrating on the road. This year it was Pinetop. We started the morning with donuts, presents and of course our morning hot chocolate date on the deck.
We went to dinner at Red Devil Pizza with the Romney's then came back for cake, ice cream and a hilarious game of Bean Boozled. Happy birthday, NaNa, you just keeping being you, there's no one that can do it better!
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