Taylor, Matthew & Brayden: Brayden is 11

B-man,

You are 11! What a year it has been. I have seen so much growth in you over the past year. You have overcome your health battles and are in inspiration to so many! Your love for Jesus has grown. Your personality continues to shine, and I see your confidence growing day by day. You are a good student, a rule follower, and you have an insanely curious mind. We just adore you. You are as unique as they come!

A few observations as you enter your tween years, in no particular order:

You have the sweetest little face with freckles and big teeth. I know you will grow into your teeth over time, but they are so cute and big right now. I love it.
You still have crazy, wirey hair, but we found a barber who knows how to cut it.
You are still super lean. You have gained weight since your hospitalization in 2011, but you are still skinny with boney little legs. At your 11-year well check appointment, you weighed 68.9 pounds and are in the 22nd percentile for your age.
It remains to be seen if you are taller than your brother as an adult. You grew 3 inches over the last year and were 57.8 inches at your 11-year well check. You went from the 53rd percentile at age 10 to the 67th percentile at age 11.
You are obsessed with electronics. It's bad. Like, you wake up in the morning and immediately come downstairs for breakfast with your iPad. You play on your iPad, Nintendo switch, and Xbox/Playstation a LOT. It is such a struggle for me. I do not want you on electronics as much as you are, but if I take them away then you want to do something with me... and I have so many demands on my time. Ugh.
You still love to cook. Over the summer, you loved making peas for us when we had friends over. It was so cute. Brayden's famous peas... just boiled peas and some lime juice. :) Aside from peas, you are pretty competent in the kitchen. It's funny because if I am out running errands and need someone to start dinner, I will call you over Matty or Taylor for help.
You are my Bible buddy. What I mean by that is you are always up for going to church, you love to read the Bible with me before bed (safe to say you love reading anything before bed to stall the bedtime process), and you have even started praying out loud. We were all surprised (and proud) when you offered to say the blessing before dinner at grandma and pop pop's earlier this month.
Your best friend is still Owen. He's been a constant in your life for so many years now! I love your special friendship, and I love that you two are in class together this year. Other favorite friends include Jack, Tyson, Drew, Eli, Graham, Noah, Evan and Jimmy. We had all of those boys over for your birthday party yesterday. You are a good group of boys! It has been a slow start, but it is fun to see you finding your people and feeling part of a friend group.
Your favorite food is Asian food. In fact, you commented recently that you wish you were Asian because you love the food so much. You also love banana bread.
Your favorite restaurants are Aji, Tokyo and Chipotle.
Your favorite colors are green and yellow.
When you grow up, you want to do something sciency. I asked you if that means you do not want to be a meterologist anymore, and you said that you are not sure. But science is definitely your jam!
Your favorite subject is Social Studies.
Your favorite vacation spot is any ski resort.
Your favorite sport is soccer. You have really loved playing rec soccer this fall and are playing indoor soccer again this winter. You and dad have been to a couple of Sounders games this season, and we even planned your birthday party around watching the Sounders' MLS playoff game against the LA Football Club (unfortunately, they lost and are out now).
You are insanely loud. When you play video games, you put headphones on and yell/scream/laugh so loudly. Your dad loses his mind when you do this because your bedroom is right above his office. Whenever I hear you cackling and screaming with your friends while playing a video game, within a second, I hear dad yell up to you to BE QUIET. It makes me laugh.
You were on a robotics team this fall and have a competition next weekend. I have gone to a couple of your meetings to help/observe, and you are the unofficial leader of your team. All of your teammates look to you for help and advice with programming the robot and drafting your innovation project. I know you are going to be a leader when you grow up. You don't seem to have a fear of public speaking (which you will have to do at your competition next weekend) because you just tell it how it is!
We still go in for blood work at Seattle Children's Hospital about once a month. You hate it but go without fighting. When I see what you go through - the needles and jabs and urine samples - I marvel at how brave you are. I hear stories from friends whose kids lose their minds over a blood draw, and I think to myself, Brayden does that regularly and barely flinches.
Your kidney function has been stable for about a year now. We praise God for this miracle because I am not sure your nephrologists thought your kidney function would be stable for this long. We still tinker with your blood pressure medication regularly - with every BP med there is a downside (lower hemoglobin counts, etc), so your nephrologist made the recommendation last week to take you off of your immunosuppressant medication. This is HUGE. No more 8:30 AM and 8:30 PM alarms for mycophenolate! And now you can get caught up on your vaccinations while you are on a "chemo holiday."
You have an amazing sense of humor. I am trying to figure out how to articulate your sense of humor in writing and am coming up short. But just know that you can make others laugh with your quick wit and funny one-liners.

Gosh, B, I know there are endless stories to share about you. You are just a wonderful and joyful little boy. I am so blessed to be your mom. You have taught me so many things about resilience in your 11-years but more so in the past 18 months. I love you to the end of time.

Happy Birthday!

Love,

Mom