an open (love) letter to my son on his third birthday

my love,
dear lord.  what happened this year? i just wrote a letter to you.  you just turned two.  heck, you were just born.  no? my heart aches with joy and happiness at the boy you have become.  you are everything i dreamed you would be and more.  you are my heart. 
in a year...
you have managed to speak complete, complex sentences; potty train yourself in a week, make new friends, be the life of any party, memorize every tool catalog ever brought into our home, be your dad's best buddy, slide down slides too high for my boy, and show me what mothering is really about. you rode on a ferris wheel for the first time.  you rode in a dad's new tractor for five hours. you went to school for the first time.  you started doing chores and earning an allowance. you went from a baby to a boy.  you are the love and the light in this house.  no one gives better hugs than you.  no one is as kind to animals as you.  your imagination and story telling abilities are spellbinding.  your humor and dance skills are second to none.  you can drive a tractor and farm like nobody's business.

in the coming year, you will be on a team and playing soccer for a first time.  you will learn to swim better.  we will make even more friends, go on an adventure to massachusetts with your mommy, go fishing with your daddy, and continue to amaze me with your intelligence, humor, and kindness.
it has been a joy and an honor to be your mother this year and always.  it absolutely breaks my heart that you are getting so old so fast.  i hope you are always a momma's boy.  i am not sure if my heart could handle it if you weren't.  every once in awhile i can close my eyes and it is march 13, 2009.  you and i are sitting in sun filled, hospital room talking with our nurse.  you are laying on the bed in your over sized onsie and i am telling the nurse that you look exactly as i had dreamed.  hendrix, you are better than any dream.  you are better than anything my meager imagination could of come up with...you are what true love is, my boy. 
your father is and has always been enamored with you.  you and him talk about  how to spell words, what different tools do in your stihl catalog, and what bobcat you think he should get.  he wakes each day and tackles each day to make life better for you.  he once told me that he never wanted you to grow to be cynical like him. he wants you to have more faith in people and life.  with him as your father...i have no doubt you will grow up to be a kind man with immense faith in others and yourself.  he has only wanted the best for you since forever.  you are a source of immense pride for him and always will be his little buddy.  you are his right hand, farming man. please always listen and learn from your father.  he is what all men should be made of.  all he could say when you first saw you was how beautiful you were.

you are the greatest thing we have done.  we wish the world for you.  we wish you great happiness.  we wish you had any inkling about how much we love you.  happy birthday, my heart.
love,
your mommy