fisher eli turns six!

Sep 18, 2010

My red-headed cutie-pie is turning six years old this morning. This little boy is pretty much my favorite thing ever.

Fisher is his father’s boy. He runs like him, he is shy like him, he curls up in a ball when attention is given him (yeah, Richard has to fight the curl-up-in-a-ball temptation!), he is gentle and patient and kind and tender, he is always thinking of others and putting their needs in front of his own.

Sometimes it makes me giggle inside when I think of how nervous I was to have a boy because this boy brings me so much joy. He snuggles with me and kisses me and loves to have me read to him. He is constantly thinking and pondering how to create something new. He loves animals and is quite skilled at sneaking up on them so, so quietly to catch them.

Fisher is a tender little soul. If I look at him with any hint of sternness in my eyes, he withers. I am far too exuberant for him and have to remind myself about 400 times a day to be gentle with him. He becomes attached to his things and wants to take them everywhere with him. This year, he has been taking a giant tiger or an oversized rainbow trout with him wherever he goes.

Present time at our house is a treasure hunt. We hide presents all over the family room and the birthday person has to find them before they can open them. Fisher found all of them super-quick and had a huge smile on his face the whole time. His grandma gave him some snakes and a Thornton W. Burgess book (which hasn’t made it here yet, so he doesn’t know about the book part yet). Keziah made him a card. Richard and I gave him a bright orange lizard (toy, not real), his birthday book, and….a FISHING POLE! His very own pole to catch rainbow trout with. This boy has been planning a fishing trip for his birthday since about March and he is pleased as punch to have his very own pole. I wish so badly that this child’s joy would show up on camera, but he shrivels up inside whenever I try to take his picture and none of the light in his eyes comes through his forced, uncomfortable, picture-taking smile.

Fisher’s birthday book is:

I had the hardest time finding his birthday book this year (for those of you who don’t know, we buy our children a special book each year for their birthday and write a letter to them in it. Then, when they are all grown up, they will get to take their books with them). None of them spoke to me. I spent an hour at Barnes and Noble searching for the perfect book for him. I looked at Deseret Book, Book City, Seagull, TJ Maxx, Wal-mart, and of course, Amazon. Nothing.

Then I went to Hastings. Hastings has a fabulous children’s book section! Who knew? I found this book and instantly knew it was THE book for this birthday. It is about a little boy who keeps asking if his mother will love him if he is dirty or comes in last or breaks things and she keeps reassuring him that she will and she does. Then, she raises her voice at him when he will not listen to her and he is sure she doesn’t love him. She explains “sometimes you make me mad, and sometimes you make me sad, but no matter what you say or do, I will always love you.”

Then she makes a crazy face at him and he laughs and laughs and says back to her “sometimes you make me mad, and sometimes you make me sad, but no matter what you say or do, I will always love you.”

This is the reality at our house right now. If I so much as ask him more than once to put his shoes away he starts crying and saying I don’t love him. I hope as we read this book on a regular basis he will come to know deep down inside that love isn’t related to what he is asked to do or how loud my voice gets.

Happy Birthday Fisher Eli!

We are off to catch some big ones!