Nine

Nine

Nine years old.

What is nine like?

What does it feel like?

What does it look like?

 What does nine think about?

What does nine do?

Nine is nearly big.

At nine you are in upper school,year five,

no longer with the younger members of your school,

instead you are mixing with the big year sixes,

you are classed as the older children of your school

and the expectation is that you should behave accordingly.

Whether or not that happens I'm not too sure but still,the expectation

 is there.

You qualify for a pen license and you go to the infant school

to do transition work with their year twos.

Nine,
Elements of independence are creeping in and a
want to know more about the mysterious world of grown ups.
Don't bother trying to delve into this realm,little one,
believe me its not that great.
The ability to stay up later and watch the second half of the
footy matches and to buy whatever sweeties you like does
not outweigh the worries that grown ups sometimes have.  
Trust me on this one.

Thankfully,you still have a wonderful sense of boyishness.
You do not care one bit about getting wet in the puddles that
 congregate on the school drive or wading through sticky mud when we
are out on one of our infamous walks.
 You laugh as you squeeze through the space between the lamp-post
and the street sign on your way home from school,
as you grow,the space gets tighter and it doesn't help that you insist
on wearing your school bag to preform this stunt.
One day you will get stuck and then what will we do! 

With this kind of play you do not have a care in the world.
I like this....
Keep this as long as possible,sweet boy.
We are too long grown up to lose this just yet.
We have a washing machine for your muddy clothes
and a shower for you - go play without a care,little boy.

Due to your mothers unswerving persistence,you do know
quite a lot about nature and woods,trees,ducks,rivers etc.
You will notice things like sunsets,you know the names 
of different types of ducks,you point flowers out.
I love this and I hope that it will never disappear.
If I have taught you just a teeny bit about the
greatness of nature and the outside world
its a job well done,no matter how hard 
the fight was.

This is written with a very wry smile because my opponent in that fight was
technology.
In this world of computers,Wiis,Nintendo,ipads and the almighty king of
most nine year old boys - the xbox,this has been a hard fight.
You adore technology,absolutely adore it.
Yes technology grabs you and I pull you away.
Hence the battle.
I do appreciate that both things are important in life -
its all about balance I guess,
the bright instant gratification of the screens and sitting and watching
compared with
the soft gentleness of nature and walking and doing.
Both are applicable in the world today,lets try to find a balance,Chips.

Along with technology,you love sport.
It would not be a lie to say that you live,breathe and eat sport.
Any sport really.
Your favourites are F1,then Motogp,then football.
Oh and lets not forget tennis,darts and any Olympic sport you may glance upon.
You swim each week and you have started at the school footy club.
Anybody that knows you will end up knowing a bit more about sport,whether they like it or not!This is a fact.
And your knowledge of sport is incredible.

Your other big love is books.You are a bookworm.
There is never a time when you have not got a book by your side.
You read as you walk to school and you fall
to sleep with a book on your face sometimes.
A good thing to love,books and reading,I hope this
stays with you forever,I don't doubt that it will.

At nine you are still young enough to marvel at rainbows
and hailstones and ice,you walk to school and talk about the 
different things you see,the world around you is still interesting at nine.

Your hair is still blonde,the ringlet curls now are turning to soft waves,
I love your hair,its very you.
The boy with the curly,twirly hair.
And the biggest grin in the world.
You are a bundle of a boy,soft and gentle,kind and loving,
talkative and noisy and very,very funny.

Nine.... my boy at nine