I can't wait until I'm eight!

Happy Birthday today to my baby K~. He’s a little big for me to call him that, but he’s my youngest so I’ve warned him he will always be my baby.

Eight years ago today I gave birth to my smallest child, K~. My doctor laughed at me because when she told me he was only 8 lb. 15 oz. I said, “Finally, a tiny eight pound baby!” We never find out what we’re having, but I knew he was a boy and he was a sweet one at that.

He was one of my best eaters and sleepers too (although the sleeping part is relative). He quickly put on weight and had the cutest little pudgy cheeks–just like big soft peaches–and feet. I remember one day I was holding him in the hallway at church and someone came up to me and gave the little fat pads on the tops of his feet a squeeze and looked at me and said with a smile, “Now that’s just criminal.”

K~ is very loving and affectionate. He loves to cuddle good night and again first thing when he wakes up in the morning. Still. This is a blessing and is compensation, I believe, for my currently having to deal with the joys of three teenagers at the same time.

When he was learning to talk he would love it when I played rhyming games with him and we would make up silly sentences with the same rhyme time after time. It was sublime.

As K~ grew older he developed a love of reading and used to insist on a bedtime story no matter how late it was. And he would want to read the same book over and over and over. Now he likes to read the comics with me every night before bed.

He is fun to cuddle and I often say to him, “Can I keep you?” And he usually tells me, “Yes.” He takes after his mother and is a bit of a social animal and he loves to roam the neighborhood looking for someone to play (that you have to look is the downside of being the youngest and having older siblings four years apart). He seems to do alright for himself, however, and has had a steady girlfriend since he was about four.

He looks a lot like his big brother Z~ and it to no end amuses me when someone who has grown up and moved away from the neighbohood comes back and sees K~ and calls him Z~. If only time could hold that still, especially when there are little ones involved.

Currently K~ is captivated by all things Star Wars. This is a new interest in his life after three solid years as a devoted Spiderman fan. He just got a Darth Vader mask and microphone for his birthday, so we spend frequent moments on the dark side these days, but whatever makes him happy.

K~ recently got his own e-mail account. The following is a sampling of his correspondence with his mother:

Subject: bad news

my fish died. we had it for a long time.

Subject: hi

I love you. Did you have a fun time. Can I get a game cube. Can i have five buces.

From me (in the same room as he is, but on another computer): Happy Easter to you, too! Did you get lots of candy? I can’t
believe you ate it all already!

From K~: yep

From me: Did you even get to taste it?

From K~: yep

From me: Can you say anything more than “yep?”

From K~: nope

I look at him now and then and wonder where my baby has gone. But I am thankful that I knew enough to enjoy his babyness while I could. Now I am trying to be patient enough to sit back and watch who he will become.

Happy Birthday K~!