To Sprout

My sweet little complicated, particular, loud, loving, smart, wonderful boy. I can't believe you are old enough to start Kindergarten in just a matter of days now.

You are the child who constantly keeps me on my toes. Who is a whirling bundle of energy one moment and the softest loving boy the next. You are always surprising me with the new things you figure out and say. Right now I love it when, if you don't want to eat something, you'll say, "But I can't use that. I'm not hungry to it." I'm sure that they'll teach you the correct ways to say that in school, but for now I'm enjoying your little idiosyncrasies.

You've been my constant companion these last five years while your sister and brother went off to school. Now it's your turn to try your wings, and I am filled with the conflicting mommy emotions of equal parts dread and excitement for the new opportunities that will open up for you and will eventually take you further and further away from me. This will be a new chapter in both of our lives. I will have to get used to going to the mailbox by myself instead of waiting for you to wrap your skinny little arms around me and take our daily trip together. You will be off to explore new adventures every day. I will fill my days with busy work too. We will both adjust to it, surprisingly quickly I suspect, and maybe even wonder what we ever did before.

But for now, I am holding on to these last days of your babyhood with all my might.

To quote you, my precious son, "I love you lots and lots and lots".

For Always, Mom