25 days of christmas

today's post is about my first born son, zaza! when i was pregnant with him, i wanted a boy so much. when i found out i was having one i was so excited! the entire pregnancy he moved around like he was breakdancing in my belly which i should have taken as a sign of how he was going to be! so anyway, the top ten reasons why i love zaza!

10. he is so full of energy it makes me tired just looking at him! he is ready to go from the minute his eyes open in the morning to the minute he falls asleep (usually in the middle of playing). when i get up each morning, no matter how early, he is already up and in a wonderful mood. he is usually completely dressed, hat, gloves and all.

9. he has the most active imagination. when he was three, we removed all his toys from his room because we couldn't get him to sleep at night. we heard him in there the first night laughing and talking. when i went to check on him, he had a stick and several small rocks. he was pretending they were people and cars and was happily playing. we realized then that he just doesn't need much sleep!

8. he wants to be just like his dad. he loves to help fix anything, although i'm not sure he's all that helpful:) he follows his dad around every weekend with his "work boots" and hard hat on just waiting for something to break!

7. he loves to play outside. when the weather is nice (and many times when it isn't) he wants to be outside from morning to night. i have to make him come in for food. i don't know what he does to occupy himself out there but he just loves it.

6. he's a good student. we had many concerns before he started kindergarten how it would go due to his extremely high energy level. but he has flourished at school. he loves his teachers and he tries so hard to please them. he's made friends so easily and loves to go. he asks to go to school on the weekends:)

5. he has such a tender heart. if you haven't spent much time with him, you may not see that. but he is so sensitive. most days of the week he comes home with a "treasure" for me in his pocket. it can be anything from a rock that is shaped like a tree to a plastic gem he found on the ground. anything he finds cool or pretty he brings home for mom.

4. he's almost always smiling and has been since he was born. he's such a happy kid. we can go on a routine trip to the grocery store and he finds the excitement in it. i wish i had more of that in myself.

3. he watches out for his sisters. even though they fight endlessly, when one of them is being bullied by someone else he is right there to protect them. when he was three or four, we were at a cookout with several other families. i overheard some older girls (nine years old or so) picking on the bean. before i could intervene, za went over and pushed the biggest girl and said "you're not gonna talk to my sister that way! come on bean, lets go play with nice kids". it never occured to him that those girls were three times their age. he just wanted to defend his big sister.

2. he can climb anything and has no fear. i really mean anything. he learned how to scale our doorways to the ceiling at two. he climbed out of his crib at 8mths. his life will never be dictated by fear. i admire that.

1. he is sweet, funny, smart, adventurous, talented, vivacious and full of life. i cannot wait to see the man he will become. i am blessed to be called his mother.