Category: M

Morrison turned 9 last month, and this kid is the epitome of 9 is fine!

He remains one of the happiest-go-lucky kids I’ve ever met, meeting every day and opportunity with an open mind and happy heart. Except when he’s bugging and fighting with his siblings, of course. Ahem.

He’s still an absolute whiz at math, scoring 99% (the highest possible score) on all his standardized tests this year, as well as 100% on almost every math test and assignment in his own class. He’s already looking forward to learning harder math next year in 4th grade, and I remember distinctly the thing he wrote as what he was most looking forward to at meet and greet for this year in 3rd grade – multiplication!

His favorite color is and always has been green, he loves playing baseball now until he can get into track and sprint his heart out and is amassing quite the collection of bats, his favorite food is sushi, he loves to play chess and board games and card games, he has become obssessed with Roblox since they were all FINALLY allowed to get it on their tablets the other day, he still loves to help out whenever and with whatever he can, and he will talk to you nonstop for hours on end when he’s with you one on one with zero sibling interruptions. He still always turns to wave and blow kisses whenever I drop him off somewhere, too, which I absolutely love and soak up as much as I possibly can while they’re still coming my way.

He is becoming an amazing athlete, starting with the aforementioned baseball. He’s taking a one-week baseball skills camp next week that I think he’s going to love, and I gave in and signed him up for flag football this fall. No real football, though! I want to keep his brain permanently intact. He runs faster then anyone I know, and one of the 4 things on his summer bucket list is to learn to ride his bike no handed for more than just a second. (the other 3 things are fishing at a local park, taking a family bike ride, and earning enough chores points to take his mini shopping trip. i’m confident all will be accomplished.)

Happy 9th birthday, Morrison John!! We love you so much, and proud doesn’t even begin to describe how we feel about you. You are and always have been an incredible ray of sunshine in our family. You’re the exact middle of the Rau kids, and you play your role perfectly. Here’s to a googolplex more wonderful memories with you, my sweet, sweet boy!

As always, the best part – year-by-year comparison photos and posts!

• 1 year old
• 2 years old
• 3 years old
• 4 years old
• 5 years old
• 6 years old
• 7 years old
• 8 years old

Morrison turned 7 last month, and I swear to you, every time I think of it, I keep thinking he just turned 5. WTF?! Seriously, my brain is swiss cheese.

But anyway, he’s 7! This kid is the biggest goofball with the biggest heart I’ve ever known. He is ridiculously athletic, and his dream is to be a track runner. I’m pretty sure we’ll make that one happen. He sprints like no kid I’ve ever seen, with his straight-hand arms going and everything. He’s currently in tennis lessons and doing great, and he passed level 2 of swim lessons just a few weeks ago. I wanted to get him into lacrosse with one of his best friends from school, but it was full. Hopefully we’ll be able to get him to run off a lot of his energy doing something or other this summer. If there was a parkour course near us, he’d be there constantly. Maybe he can just do his armpit farts and burps on demand for months on end. 😀

ETA: We had his 7-year well check on August 17, and here are his stats:

Height: 4′ 3.75″ (93%)
Weight: 59 lbs. 3.2 oz. (79%)
BMI: 15.54 (50%)
Blood Pressure: 96/58

He is constantly wanting to help, often doing things to clean up or put away or tidy unprompted. One of his favorite things in the world is helping his big sisters and winning their approval, and my heart about explodes out of my chest when I watch the 3 of them doing something together, each excited and happy to be working/playing with the others. Until someone starts bickering, then it can quickly go downhill, ha!

He is extraordinarily smart, especially when it comes to numbers. The nickname “stats” came to him a few years ago for his ability to recount scores, player stats, etc., with ease. He cherishes being part of whatever conversation is happening at the time so sometimes his information is a little off the mark, but I love that he still tries nonetheless. He really got into reading this year at school, too, and was in the top reading group in his class. He blew through chapter books like a pro. He loves Lego sets, video games, playing chess and other board games, and watching trick-shot stunts on his tablet. I started calling him “trick-shot boy,” because he’s constantly imitating all their moves, but he hated that. 😉

Happy 7th birthday, Morrison John! I can’t believe our first little boy is 7 already, but we could absolutely not be prouder. You are a friend to all, my sweetest sidekick, and I hope your desire to live right next door to me when you grow up never fades. Here’s to many, many more happy birthdays for you, my sweet boy!

Here are his past years’ posts, as well as his year-by-year pictures.

• 1 year
• 2 years
• 3 years
• 4 years
• 5 years
• 6 years

Morrison turned 6 a few months ago, and, for some reason, I cannot get it out of my head that he isn’t 5 anymore. I even titled this post “He’s five!” not 10 seconds ago.

We had his 6-year well check on July 27, so here are his official 6-year-old stats:

• Height: 49.25″ (96%)
• Weight: 53.9 lbs. (84%)
• BMI: 15.6 kg/m2 (56%)
• Blood pressure: 103/57

He is still the absolute sweetest boy I’ve ever known, and I feel so lucky and proud that he’s our firstborn son. His heart is pure gold, he loves his siblings like nothing I’ve ever seen and would follow them to the ends of the earth, and he would do anything for his friends. These past 2 years his teachers have all told me about his genuine care and concern for and kindness toward all the friends in his classes, and it makes my heart just about explode with pride. They tell me to keep doing such a good job raising him, but that’s all him and his beautiful little soul.

He is truly one of the smartest kids I’ve met, too. His sisters have always been smart cookies, but Morrison’s brain completely amazes me. He easily learned how to read early on this year in K5, even through fully virtual school. His math skills are insane, and the different ways and speed with which he solves problems puts my old brain to utter shame. I can’t wait to see where those smarts take him in life.

One of my uncles taught him to play chess this summer, and he took to it instantly. He loved it so much and got so into it, that my uncle even gave him the travel chess board he brought to that family gathering. Morrison was thrilled! He and the girls played it for the rest of that trip and all the way home in the car.

He is very athletic, always running, nay, sprinting, everywhere! I don’t think I’ve ever stood up and felt the need to literally sprint to my next destination, but he does. Constantly. I keep saying he needs to be a runner of some sort for his sport. He loves anything with a ball, too, and Ryan just got him a pair of sticky catching gloves that he immediately fell in love with. He’s also gotten really good at this track ball catching set Ryan got the kids, as well as lacrosse. He certainly didn’t get those genes from me. However, he did just move up to level 2 of swim lessons after only 1 round in level 1, so I’ll claim that one, ha! He was so proud of himself after leveling up, though, which made me so happy to see.

His current loves include Super Mario everything, Crafting and Building (the Android version of Minecraft we let them play), the color green, the Packers, riding his scooter, swimming, making movies and projects with his sisters, showing the twins how to do pretty much anything, and sushi.

This post has so many more pictures than words, because that’s just Morrison. His adorable, goofy little smile just sums him up. One of my friends calls him a gentle giant because he’s so much bigger than her son who’s only a few months younger, and that description couldn’t be any more true. Happy 6th birthday, my incredible Morrison John!! We love you so very, very much; we are prouder of you than you could even imagine; and we can’t wait to see all the wonderful things you’re going to do with this lifetime. As you and your siblings love to sing… and many moooooorrre!!!

Morrison turned 5 last month, and we just wrapped up his final celebration this weekend. He got Grandma as a surprise visitor on his birthday (our first overnight guest and in-person family member sighting since the start of quarantine/shutdown!); cousins from Ryan’s side of the family came down that same afternoon to shower him with silly string, a bull horn song, and gifts; and this weekend, Grandpa came up for a belated birthday visit. Lucky kid!

Here are his official 5-year-old stats:

• Height: 46″ (94%)
• Weight: 46 lbs. 1 oz. (79%)
• BMI: 15.3 kg/m2 (46%)
• Blood Pressure: 98/57

I really could not ask for a sweeter, more pure-of-heart, first-born son. His incredible little smile lights up my life, and he is definitely my mama’s boy. I always start to worry when he talks about sometimes he’s sad for no reason or just feels sad some days or doesn’t like himself for whatever reason (always his eyelashes, oddly) since we have a lot of mental health issues on both sides of our family and I try to be ultra-wary of early warning signs, but thankfully that’s about 1% of his days. He truly is a happy little kid.

He made me so proud this entire K4 year, his first year of school. His teachers constantly told me how hard working and kind he was and how he was such a good friend to everyone in the class. There was one special-needs friend in particular who he kind of took under his wing – he always made sure this friend was involved in everything the class was doing, always made sure to help this friend when needed, always went out of his way to make sure the friend was doing ok. This side of him often brought me to tears with pride, because I’d never seen it in action before.

He loves to run, jump, skip, scooter, cannonball into the lake, make art projects like his sisters, play outside, play with the twins (especially chasing through the house, much to my chagrin!), play video games (one of his newfound loves), and ask questions. Constantly. I always try to answer, though, because I know one day they’ll be done. He still loves Cuphead, Star Wars, the color green, and dinosaurs, too.

I like to watch him do stuff, because I really could not possibly love him more. Even when he annoys the crap out of me with all-day chattering and questioning, ha! He is ridiculously smart and has an amazing mind for numbers. The speed with which he does some of his math problems has always astonished me, even before he started school this year. He loves to keep track of sports scores and numbers, which led me to give him the nickname “Stats.”

Happy 5th birthday, my sweet Morrison John! You are a magnificently joyful spirit that I hope never fades. I absolutely loved my half days with you this year with morning K4, and I will miss you dearly when you start all-day school with K5. Never stop questioning, never stop playing, never stop smiling, and I will never stop loving you. We are so proud of you, my lovebug, and we all love you so very, very much. I can’t wait to see you celebrate so many more happy birthdays!