Oliver turns 5 on Sunday.

I remember standing in our kitchen on Ardmore St looking down at a positive pregnancy test on September 6, 2007 with a due date of May 13, 2008 (My late-dad’s birthday and my mom’s birthday, the book ends to his story). I excitedly told Jessica that “Mommy was taking a baby brother test!!” …

No longer a baby, this is my boy.

It’s an understatement to say we all loved him instantly. This son we had waited for was finally here. A Sun. We, the earth, that rotates around him.

I do have favorites. I have a favorite girl, she’s our moon. The supernova star in our lives. She is everything. She does this thing to my heart that no other human has ever done. She undoes me, winds me up, and ties me all around her spirit.

I have a favorite boy, too. Who once was a baby at my breast is now a warrior at our door.

All the things they tell you about time are absolutely true, but they’re not reality until it passes. And here we are, on the other side of baby: now a boy, watching him become a man.

Happy birthday, tadpole: you just got your legs.

Love,
Mom