Double Digits.

I was not there the day that you were born. I can't even say that you were an inkling of my imagination.

I didn't ever change your diaper, never saw your first steps and have no idea what your first word was.

What I know of your baby years is only from stories and pictures, I wasn't there to be part.

I met you when you were already a little man. A chatty, adorable three (almost four) year old. You instantly befriended me. And wowed me with your smile and growing vocabulary.

Now you are ten.

You didn't get to pick me for your broomstick riding stepmother, but yet you have always accepted me and never once questioned me and my role in your life.

You have been unconditional with your love, with your grace and especially, with your hugs.

You are, as I've said before, a good brother bear.

You challenge me to open my eyes and see things in a new light, even when I don't want to sometimes. Where I usually am either black or white, you like things every shade of grey.

Now you are ten, and even though I wasn't there when your little life began I still wonder where all the time has gone.

Just yesterday it seems you were a toddler in a booster seat and now you're almost as tall as me.

I am reminded of a mother's day card you made for me that read:

My love for you just grows and grows.

Tyler, as you grow, and as the calendar flips yet another year before our eyes, as you turn ten, may you know that the love I, your stepmom, have for you grows very much, just as you do.

My birthday wish for you;

I hope you will have a wonderful year, that you'll dream dangerously and outrageously, that you'll make something that didn't exist before you made it, that you will be loved and that you will be liked, and that you will have people to love and to like in return. And, most importantly, that you will, when you need to be, be wise, and that you will always be kind. -Neil Gaiman

Happy 10th Birthday, T!