I’m thinking about working on this design… honest
J is five today.
Cliche alert - yes it does feel like yesterday that Sue and I were footloose and fancy free marrieds with no kids with tons of money to piss away on dinners in Toulouse and London and not a care in the world. And here we are with these three little people living in our home with opinions and demands and mood swings. And a planning horizon that extends beyond ‘where do you want to go for dinner tonite.’
Five sounds like such a big number. He’s just about ready for The Hobbit, Harry Potter, Captain Underpants, a big map of the World (from National Geographic of course) on his wall, trips to the planetarium; staying up late with Daddy to listen to the BBC on shortwave. In short, all of the cool geeky boy stuff.
And five feels like a big number, as in I’m old enough and far enough along in life to have a five year old son. Short hop there to a 15 year old son I guess.
But he still gives me a big wet kiss every morning before I go off to work, and even if I’m dropping him off at nursery school he says ‘I love you daddy’ with no awkwardness between us. And I still get the Daddy Dance from the three of them when I get home each night.
It took me a while to grow into this part of my life. But I’m overjoyed to be here.
Happy birthday sweet boy. You changed my life is so many wonderful ways I don’t even know how to begin to tell you. Don’t grow up too fast or you’ll make your old man sad.
Nah, it’s not a cliche. And I’m looking forward to taking Gert out with the telescope. She’s too short to reach right now.
And today’s my wife’s birthday too! So this day has a good record.
Aren’t children just the best?
I can remember staying up late with my dad, listening to the BBC on the shortwave, and Radio Moscow. Tuning through the bands to see what came in, and finding all of these far places on the map. Those were great times. Maybe the girls’ll want to relive them with me.