6th year in Review

Date: April 18, 2011 - My boy is growing -- growing too fast if you ask me.  Nearly all my life I've imagined having a son in which I was best friends with.  I pictured us doing everything together and he thought I was the greatest thing since chewing gum.  Well, unfortunately for me bubble gum is Bryson's favorite thing in the world, but we are best friends... I'll take it.

Bryson is now 6 years old.   For the first time in Bryson's life the sentiment of passing time consumed my thoughts when I realized that birthday morning his age had officially turned from 5 to 6.  I've always considered ages 3-5 the prime years of a small child.  I think I get that bias from my experience with my little brother, Brandon.  During his 3-5 years I connected with my brother more than any time since.  At the age of three, wrestling, human rocket launches, and shoulder rides became almost a daily occurrence.  It was so fun watching and being part of Brandon's world discovery and personality changes. I was the cool brother that he always wanted to play with.  We were like 'peas and carrots'.  When he turned 6 the shoulder rides and human launches became more and more infrequent and I quickly became less and less his world.  I'm sure a lot of the separation was primarily a function of my own life's circumstance, but I see a lot of comparisons with my role with Brandon and my role with Bryson during 3-5.  I know I shouldn't associate my experiences with Brandon to what may or may not happen with Bryson, but I can't help but fear that I'm only going to become less and less relevant in my son's life going forward.  Perhaps I will become less relevant as a friend/playmate, but become more relevant as a father... I don't know.  I do know that the last three years of Bryson's life have definitely been not only my favorite years of his life but my favorite years of my life.  I do look forward to what the future holds for my son and my involvement in it.  Man, I love my boy.

Looking back over the past year I'm amazed at the many 'firsts' Bryson has had.  To name just some:

• graduated preschool
• lost his first tooth (actually pulled due to cavity but the tooth fairy still came)
• visited D.C., Philly, Hershey, Niagara, Palmyra, Basketball Hall of Fame, and Disney World
• learned how to ride a bike without training wheels, blow gum bubbles (he's been trying since the age of two), front flips, dives, water skiing, snow skiing, ice skating, swimming
• started Kindergarten
• Bryson can now consistently make baskets on a 10 foot hoop (he's pretty excited about that one... ok, maybe his dad is more excited about that one).  

Check out Bryson's 6th year highlight reel.

Every year Angela puts on the most amazing birthday parties for the kids.  She seems to out do herself every year, and this year was definitely no exception.  I'm still working on putting video of Bryson's party together (watch for a future post) but I did manage to put together this short teaser trailer.  I was going for the epic movie feel with the music (score from Battle for LA).  I didn't achieve epic level, but its still fun to watch... heck, after finishing I felt deprived I never attended a party like this when I was a kid.