Fifth Birthday⚓︎

Dear Jackson,

I feel like I say this every year, but I can hardly believe that you're five years old, and also that you've only been around for five years. You've been a cornerstone of my life and it's hard to remember a time when you weren't here.

This year has been huge for you, and you've accomplished so much. You graduated pre-k and have now started kindergarten. You've learned so many things - riding a bike (with training wheels), riding a scooter, learning martial arts, playing soccer, writing your name, recognizing and remembering so many things at home and out of the house, telling funny stories, drawing pictures of houses and becoming a coloring expert.

A few weeks before your birthday, you asked me if one of my guitars could be your guitar. Although it's still a bit too big for you to hold comfortably, I gave you my Fender Squier guitar, which was my first guitar. The look of pure joy on your face when I told you that it can be yours is something I'll never forget. The guitar had a broken string on it, and we sat down on the floor of my office and fixed it together. You took the back plate off the guitar and helped to thread the new strings through. I was so happy to be able to help you with this, and to see you learn and enjoy fixing it. To see the look of accomplishment on your face makes me so proud of you.

Of course, I'm not only proud of you when you accomplish something. I'm always proud of you when you get it right, and even when you get it wrong. The most important thing you can do is to try your best at whatever you're doing. I've seen that more than ever in the last year, and it's been wonderful. As always, I'm so excited to see everything that life has in store for you this year.

Happy birthday, son. I love you always.

Always & Forever,

Dad