Monday, June 04, 2007

The Boy Is Three

Will turned three today. When he woke up, he asked me, "Am I bigger now?"

Will loves Spider-Man, Superman, swords, and clubs. He hits and pesters his sisters. He chases them with sticks. He pees outside sometimes. His favorite word is poopie, and the mere repetition of it is enough to drive him to hysterics. He's all boy, yet sometimes he keeps his action figures in little pink bags with hearts on them. He shares a coffee with me each morning.

He has grown up.

Yesterday at Mass he reached the pew before me and, with no direction from me, did his best to honor our Lord by kneeling. He's seen me do this, of course, but I've never directed him to do so. His kneel ended up looking more like a brief squat (with bowed head), but for our Lord, I am sure, it was the most endearing gesticulation of the day. Perhaps the most genuine as well.

I love this boy, though, at times, I want to strap him. I want to be good and strong when I am with him, a man of steel.

Happy birthday, Will. Today you are bigger.

3 comments:

owenswain said...

As a dad I want to be a man with a heart of flesh, like Ezekiel spoke about. I figure the rest will work itself out.

O
::thrive
luminousmiseries
onionboy.ca

MMajor Fan said...

How adorable! He's sweet and all boy! I hope he has a great birthday week.

I love seeing children at Mass. It's their place too.

MMajor Fan said...

ps. I can't resist sharing a funny "poopie" story. When my niece was young, she had a pet rabbit. In one of her grandmother's rare moments of hilarious humor, she explained to my niece that rabbits like Herbie supply the raisins in cinnamon bread through a special science fiction air gun ... you get my drift. Ha ha, my niece saw right through that and so she's not messed up lol, but it is one of the prized family stories. They love that subject at that age and that's fine. Odd when as an analyst I've had to tell 30 year old male patients that it was a funny subject BACK THEN too lol... as a child! Not so much when one is theoretically old enough to run for President!