The last day of six

Lil E is celebrating with his dad and other grandparents, the last of their early birthday partying that has lasted four days. Our celebrations have not yet begun. For now, I just want to relish the hour or so I will have with him before bed, while he is still six.

He will rush through the door and up the stairs, gushing with details about the gifts he's gotten, the games they played. We will scurry about to finish up his first-grade birthday project, which he has titled, "The Story of My Life: Danger! Dont Read This Book! Its To Awesum".  And you know, he's right. It is pretty awsum. (The googly eye smack-dab where the "o" belongs in dont underscoOoOores that, dont you think?)

It's the ten-page booklet of a boy who smiled within minutes of his birth, who began talking only months in, who only weaned and walked and used the big-boy potty when he was absolutely ready. It's a few lines that tell a much big story of a kid who took to golf as a toddler, developed an undying curiosity about dinosaurs, became a Star Wars expert, learned to love Legos so much that he could spend hours and hours building alone in his room or under his tiny breakfast table, and then took up Tae Kwon Do with a fierceness and seriousness and sense of awe that made a whole family swell up with pride.

I have loved every age. Through the seemingly endless teething and crying it out and poopsplosions and sitting on sidewalks watching construction and stomping and screaming and occasional locking in and out of rooms, there have been moments that I have been completely, madly in love with from 0-3 months to 6T.

Sometimes I miss the little bug of baby curled up on my chest. Once in a while, I long for the days he'd let me carry him on my shoulders or strap him into a sling. But this year has been just as, if not more, amazing. 

Lil E has become so...himself. I tell him every year on the night before his birthday that he was born and his spirit immediately filled up the room. This year, he's become so much more confident, it's like that spirit doubled or tripled in mass. I feel it stronger than ever before.

Maybe it was becoming an assured reader and rattling off addition and subtraction problems. Maybe it was skipping a couple of belts last testing cycle in Tae Kwon Do. It could have been a sudden ease in swimming. Or possibly, it was making his way (and mostly, with joy) through kindergarten, trying on new friendships, seeing what it was like to choose time alone, asking big questions with a box of markers and broken crayons. The tweenager attitude and sudden need for closed-door privacy may have fostered it.  Maybe it was taking to the stage at theatre camp for the second year. It may have been that he stood up for himself, found his voice during some challenging situations that once rendered him passive, forgiving, quiet. Likely, a big growth spurt, being able to yank open the refrigerator door, use my keys to unlock and lock up the house, wanting to try to reach things before he asked for help, all pushed that confidence along.

  Of course, it was probably all that and thousand tiny other moments that all add up to one happy, inquisistive, quickly growing kid. I've tried to capture as much of that as I can on video and with the camera phone I feel like I'm always waving around. But with an hour or so left, it doesn't seem like enough.

Surely, lucky seven will be this...and more. Before we glimpse in, sing the happy happy happies, I'm all teary and grateful and gooby inside for this one boy at six.