18 months old
1 year old
11 months old
10 months old
9 months old
8 months old
7 months old
6 months old
5 months old
4 months old
3 months old
2 months old
1 month old
2 weeks old
Dear Calvin,
Happy 8 years to you! We're so glad to celebrate with you on a beautiful, rainy day!
Here's a snapshot of your life these days:
- You keep up with your big brothers so well that we have to remind ourselves sometimes that you're not as old as they are. You have a premature middle-schooler sense of humor and crack puns and jokes with the best of them! Your big grin is such a brightener to our days!
- You did a great job in 2nd grade this year, keeping up with your heavier workload and excelling in any kind of presentations you're asked to give. You did fabulous with your independent reading and needed barely any help, even with some of the thicker books. It was great working through your language lessons (with Jemima). You rattled off your memorized poetry, preposition list, and timeline song with ease. You have a bright, inquisitive, eager mind. May the Lord continue to help you study as for Him and not for people.
- For some reason, you have come to be known as "CBK" in your church classes... standing for Calvin BOOM Katterson. How this happened, I don't know, but even the parents of kids your age call you by that acronym! It speaks to your high-impact personality...
- You continue to draw amazing, intricate pictures, largely of multi-headed dragons or highly-weaponized vehicles. You made a beautiful watercolor painting for me for Mother's Day, complete with a cut-out horse and pastel landscape background. It blessed me very much!
- I'm thankful for the ways you continue to be a gracious, accommodating brother to Jemima. You nearly always treat her with courtesy and deference, and you help her out, such as reading out loud the books for your "Summer Reading Challenge" bingo card. May the Lord give you a tender heart for others who are younger or smaller than you!
- You are also gaining some great athletic skills, and now you and your brothers have regular, rousing games of 2 on 2 basketball or football or cross-nets (or sometimes 3 on 3, when our neighbor friends come over). It can be tough when your body won't quite execute the elaborate plans your brain wants to, but you're also gaining the very valuable practice of being a good team player and having a good attitude even if you lose or don't make the play you were shooting for. That might be an even more important life skill to master!
- You are shooting up, but I love it that you'll still sit on my lap when I need someone to keep me company during Bible time or while I'm reading you a book. I'm glad you're not too big yet.
- Dad and I love hearing your big insights during Bible reading as a family. You are putting so many pieces together, seeing how even the Old Testament stories have pointers toward Jesus and how God's great love and grace make the difference. I pray that you continue to grow in trusting Jesus and seeing Him as your great Savior, King, and Friend.
This summer our family is working on memorizing Psalm 63.
Here's how it starts:
O God, you are my God. Earnestly I seek you. My soul thirsts for you; my flesh faints for you as in a dry and weary land where there is no water. So I have looked upon you in the sanctuary, beholding your power and your glory. Because your steadfast love is better than life, my lips will praise you. So will I bless you as long as I live, and in your name I will lift up my hands. My soul will be satisfied as with fat and rich foods, and my mouth will praise you with joyful lips, when I remember you on my bed and meditate on you in the night watches.
There are a lot of things we might find ourselves seeking or desiring. Sometimes we think we need something, but actually it wouldn't be good for us if we got it. In this psalm, David puts words to the kind of desire that is deepest and truest in our hearts. What do we really need? God. And what will really satisfy? (Maybe a package of Oreos?) God!
I pray that as you grow, you will seek after the One who can actually satisfy your heart and who you were made to worship. I pray that you will remember and reflect on God's goodness, generosity, faithfulness, steadfast love, forgiveness, and redemption in the middle of the night, as you go through your day, and in all the other cracks of time as well. Even though lots of other things might seem pretty interesting or fun or important, seeking to know and abide in Jesus is the one great pursuit that will bring meaning and abundance of life. As Jesus says in John 10:10, "The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly." May you seek and find true joy in Jesus all the days of your life!
I love you, big guy!
Mom
