Aschermanns: Birthday Time

Maddox,You are four years old. You are a great friend to all your little buddies. You are the most empathetic 4-year-old I have ever met. You still have dimples up by your eyes, because ones in your checks wouldn’t be enough. You love tractors, your brother and sister, and legos. You like to play on your ipad, but are also equally content watching Milo or Liesel play a game. You call Liesel, "Siso" because you can't always say your "l"s. We are starting to work on your speech. And though I know it is time for developmental reasons, I have to admit I will be sad when you loose the great lispy nature of the way you talk. You often give random declarations of love; “Mom, I love you”, "Mom, I love you in my heart", "Mom, I love to the moon and back and the sun and back." Almost every day you ask how our days are. You love when we share our favorite parts of the day during dinner. Your answer is always, “seeing my whole family”. You love to help cook. You make weekend breakfasts with Dad and dinners with Mom.

Milo,I cannot believe that you are eight. You still really like school even though this year has been harder for you. You continue to be strong at math. You are working on becoming a better reader, but it isn’t coming as easily as you would like. You sometimes get frustrated, but when you sit down with a good attitude you do a great job. We found out this week that the last time you got new glasses they put the wrong prescription in. This might have something to do with the challenging school year. We will see as the year progresses. You have started to take a pretty serious interest in baseball. This might because one of your best buddies, Jacob, is really into baseball. You are still playing Hockey and you made the Mite Advanced Gold Team this year. You love a good card game. Your favorite game is "Chase the Ace". You always make our house guests play it with you. You are a great big brother. You still fight with Liesel and Maddox frequently, but I have started to see you playing more of a protector role lately, which warms my heart.

Liesel,You are in Kindergarten and are thriving. Last year during preschool you would often through a fit when you had to go. You are always excited to go to kindergarten. You have lots of friends in your class and you come home almost daily with a letter or a drawing from one of your friends. You are picking up sounds and letters so fast. You love to write notes. The hardest thing for you with writing is that you have sooooooo much to say. Instead You still love to pretend you are any kind of animal. As of late, your favorite has been a jaguar. You have lost one tooth and another one is days from coming out. These may have been loosened prematurely when you were playing with Papa. As I understand the story, you were pretending to be a dog and had a rope in your mouth. Papa was playing with you and pretended to pull on the rope which pulled your two front bottom teeth loose. I hope you remember this story so you can continue to give Papa a hard time 😉.

Scott,
I decided to do a letter for you this year. I am not going to describe to you what you are like at this age. You haven't changed that much. You continue to be strong-headed and never wrong. But mor importantly, you are also a great father and a wonderful husband. Thank you for being an unbelievable partner. Thank you for joining me in watching the lives of the three above. They are the wonderful beings that they are because of you. Well, mostly me, but a little bit of you too. Just kidding. I already see the confidence, courage, independence, and deep love of family in all three of our kids. And that is a contribution directly from you. Happy Birthday. We love you!