6 Today

He’s 6 today, something he’s been waiting for for a while now.

“My birthday is coming soon!” he used to shout in April, May, June. No matter how often I told him that October was a pretty long time away, it never put a dent in his enthusiasm.

Well, today was D-Day and he woke up with a big smile, ready to savour it.

I spent some time looking through his old pictures last night and got a bit teary eyed seeing how much he has grown over the past 6 years. It’s that eternal mummy-struggle — wishing your kids would grow quickly to be more independent and yet wishing that they’d stay your little babies at the same time.

He’s no longer a baby really, all lanky and stretched out, full of interesting observations and randomly astute remarks. I knew it that day a couple of months back when, at the Botanic Gardens, he asked to go read some displays some distance away and I let him. As he walked away it hit me with a pang that he had grown up. I didn’t need to go with him to read him the charts, or make sure he didn’t go the wrong way or wander into the path of some cars, and most tellingly, I didn’t need to go with him because he wasn’t scared. For my somewhat clingy boy, it was a significant thing.

Today, I’m staring at time slipping by and really feeling it. Today I want to say stop. Tarry a while, and be my baby for just a bit longer.

My dear boy, how ever did you grow up so fast?