The Besh Moments In Life

I know that every year will bring more excitement and complications to your life, but it seems like this year was a huge one for you. 

• Isaac.  Well, this started off with a bang, right?  This time last year you had a 2 week old little brother crying in your house, not sleeping, interfering with your already fragile sleeping habits.  Flash forward one year later and, well, you now have a one-year-old little brother crying in your house, not sleeping, interfering with your still fragile sleeping habits.  It’s been amazing to watch you turn into an amazing big brother.  You completely blew us away with how much you loved Isaac and how he responded to you–for the first 6 months or so I think you were the only one who could make him laugh.  And you still can do it easier than anyone else.  When we pictured the future we never imagined you two would share a room (still a year or so off), but now you’re insisting on it and I think Isaac will do the same when the time is right.  I know your relationship with Isaac will change over the years, but it has so far been worlds better than we ever imagined.
• Your eye surgery.  This time last year we were still patching, keeping a watch on things to make sure they didn’t turn south.  When your original doctor revealed himself to be, what shall we say, less than competent?  The second opinion revealed we needed to do more, much more, and so you had surgery on both your eyes.  It all happened so fast and we were so focused on the surgery itself that we didn’t realize how difficult the recovery would be–the heartbreak on your face when we told you that you couldn’t dance for a month was harder to bear than the physical marks of your surgery.  And the frustration you feel over the patch-wearing or the glasses–we feel it too.  But you’ve done an amazing job coping with a difficult circumstance–difficult for any age, let alone a four-year-old!
• Dancing.  Seriously, where did this come from?  I mean, between your mom and I, it was almost a foregone conclusion that you’d like (or at least be overly exposed to) theater. But we never expected the dance part of it to connect with you, and for you to start taking lessons and become so enamored with a skill set that is sorely lacking in both your parents.  I mean, we’re Jewish–our people’s idea of complicated dancing is to hold hands and walk around in a circle trying to remember the other line to Hava Nagila.  We knew you were loving your lessons, but then came The Recital where we knew it was going to be a bigger part than we imagined. (For anyone who hasn’t seen this yet, you can watch some of the first part if you want, but go to the last minute to see what I’m talking about. Oh, and in case you can’t tell, Besh is the boy in the video.)

  Link to the Recital Video on Facebook

• Star Wars.  More of a Dad milestone than your own, perhaps, but it’s been an absolute joy seeing you get to experience Star Wars and comics and video games–the things that were so much a part of my own childhood.  But nothing was better than the first time we were sitting at the dinner table and Mommy laughed at something–you turned to her and said “Laugh it up, fuzzball!”  Nothing, and I mean nothing, is better than hearing your little boy pull out a Star Wars quote on his own for the first time.
• Your growing awesomeness.  Beyond all the specifics, you’re just an awesome kid.  You’re funny.  You’re sweet.  You’re discerning.  In short, you are everything we dreamed of and quite a bit more.

So happy birthday, not-so-little man.  Always remember this past year–it may be the last year of total innocence if you keep asking to (and I give in and let you) see the Star Wars prequels.