A Letter to My Son

Dear Ryan,

As your mother, I feel that is important to warn you.   After nine weeks of life with us, you have likely figured some of this out on your own, but I will begin to outline what you should expect from life here at our house.

We are an active family.  Your father and I were active people even before your big brother Thomas showed up on the scene.   He slowed us down a little at first, but we quickly whisked him into the fun and we'll do the same with you.

We will expose you to many sports and activities and hope that you latch on to some.
Recently, we took our family to the West Point Golf Course driving range and putting green.  Thomas loved hitting tons of balls.  You, my dear boy, slept most of the time in our favorite tool, the backpack carrier.

You will be dragged to many sporting events.  Hopefully you love attending, just as Thomas does.  In addition to the many Army athletic events we attend, we'll seek out other cool sporting things to attend.  The Pittsburgh Penguins held a practice at West Point last weekend.  We were thrilled at the opportunity to see Sidney Crosby and the NHL players.  Thomas Sidney was excited to see "Thomas McCollum Sidney Crosby" and you, Ryan, watched for almost an hour before eating and zonking out.

"Sid the Kid"---incidentally, that's a dasher board Dad sold

We let you try out highly supervised tackle football.  Thomas loved letting you tackle him.

We will likely sway you toward the frugal (and sometimes cheap) way.   Two examples of recent note are collecting balls at the driving range when no one was there instead of buying a bucket and attacking the raspberry bushes at an orchard that were "closed" that day.

The Culprit: Dad

The Ringleader: Mama

I'll enlist your help in our kitchen.  Your brother is a ready and able sous chef and has set the bar high.

We will take you to fun places.  Two weeks ago, we all loaded up and went apple picking at a local orchard.  We took turns pulling you around in a wagon, but we'll look forward to the time when you can enjoy the experience and run around yourself.

Thomas insisted on pulling you first

Two thumbs up for the Empire State's apples!

I will dress you up in crazy and cute clothes and take picture after picture of you.

I'm sure that you will enjoy learning other things about what it means to be part of our family.  For now, I will only assure you that the most important thing you know is that we will continue to love you like crazy.

Love,
Mom