A letter to the birthday boy

Happy 6th birthday gorgeous boy

So today you turn six. Wow. Six!

It still makes me feel incredibly emotional when I think of the day you were born. I looked at your face and fell instantly in love with you. I think my heart grew that day, it doubled, tripled, multiplied by 100 in size with all the love I felt for you. You were mesmerizing. Ten fingers? Check. Ten toes? Check. A bouncing baby boy.

"Hello gorgeous" were the first words I whispered to you, as you lay in my arms, just minutes old.

And now you're six. Six!

You have an innate sense of empathy that regularly brings me to tears. You were a sensitive soul right from the start, an old soul for sure. But sometimes, you have this insight into other people's feelings that I'm sure we never taught you. It just comes naturally to you. Never lose that. It makes you a delightful person to spend time with. But as you grow older, temper it with your own wishes, dreams and desires. Always putting other people first is lovely, but please don't miss out yourself.

You were an only child for what felt like a very long time, but now you're a big brother. You've shared your bedroom, your toys, your time, very graciously over the past two years. For that, we're deeply proud of you. You're growing into such a responsible, sharing (sometimes) boy. But please stop trying to change your brother's nappy. It's a lovely gesture, but the aftermath is always rather unpleasant and necessitates industrial carpet cleaner.

But boy do you still know how to have fun. You can be crazy and loud and silly and giggly and I love it. It may not always look like I love it, but I do. Hold on to that sense of fun my beautiful boy. You've inherited my infectious laugh and you can light up a room with your smile. Use that talent wisely and it will smooth many a rough path for you.

Not only do you have a thirst for knowledge, you have an insatiable hunger for it too. You seem to absorb facts about geography and the natural world merely through osmosis and the confidence you display in sharing this knowledge is a joy to see. You're so confident and sociable. Few situations really faze you – you just take it all in your stride.

Stay amazing. Stay true to yourself. Stay happy. Stay my loving, sensitive, joyful boy forever. I know you'll morph into a smelly, grumpy teenager one day but we'll deal with that when it happens. For now, I plan to enjoy spending every moment I can with you, making laughter and memories.

Happy birthday my darling blue eyed boy. I'm so glad you chose us.