This morning I found Son O. stumbling around in the dark of my bedroom. I was already awake, but the sun wasn’t, and he somehow ended up in my closet. Today is a special day, so I grabbed him up and hugged him extra tight. He had on his solemn, serious voice.
“Is it August?” he asked.
I smiled. “August twenty-second!”
“Am I five?” he asked.
“You are,” I said.
And he is.
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Imagine how it feels when you only do everything once… Caroline is almost seven and it really feels like time is speeding up…
Oh, I bet it does feel like you can’t even take the time to blink your eyes or you will miss something! I hope you get to savor every moment, Sallie!
5 always feels like a big step, monumental birthday.
I was just talking to a friend whose youngest is 16, and she was always one who just loved her kids as their own little persons (not as her projects, which I can sometimes slip into). She looked nostalgically at my kids, but said, “You know what? This is good, too. My kids are my friends, and we have a great time together. It’s good. It’s good for them to grow up. They’re amazing people, and now they get to be my friends.” I felt so encouraged by her attitude; encouraged to build that relationship now, so I would be able to respond that way in time.
It’s ok to mourn the end of an era, though. My friend said all her kids were gone at various things for a week in the summer, and she spent the week grieving and crying, and that’s ok.
I feel like this has been the year {since knowing we couldn’t have more children} that I could finally say, “This is good, too.” It *is* nice to have big kids who can go to the bathroom by themselves, shower by themselves, buckle themselves in a car, etc. The early years are a lot of work! But it was strange when a friend brought her baby over and I actually felt *awkward*–we think we’ll never forget how to handle a baby, but apparently that isn’t how it works!
It is *weird*, though–we had toddlers around here forever. This? This is different.
Happy birthday, O, and happy birth day to you too, Mama. My youngest turned four the twenty-first. It is hard to say goodbye to those baby days.
Well, happy birthday to O, no matter what his age, will always be your little boy.
Happy Birthday! And a little sniffle too.
Happy Birthday, O-age-5! Enjoy!
It’s harder when the youngest is 6.
Oh, I believe it!
Happy Birthday to Son O!!!