Today The Boy Child has completed another spin around the sun and turns twenty two.
How did that happen?
He was the child that wore me out. He climbed on the back of the recliner, stood on the very top of its back and tried to rock back and forth. He would climb onto the kitchen table and swing the chandelier back and forth. He would pull a chair up to the electric stove and turn all the knobs on until one day he burnt every one of his fingertips. He’d wake us up in the morning by standing in his crib and banging it back and forth against the wall. He helped himself into a neighbor’s house while they were playing outside, all the while we were frantically looking for him. If a storm produced enough water in the gutters he’d be out all afternoon with a boat. His kindergarten teacher was sure he had ADD. Reading was a complete mystery to him and so we’d spend most nights working on homework and flashcards.
Then he calmed down.
Don’t ask me how. He just did.
Last year, he and I were talking about an acquaintance who was rolling her eyes at the career path her kid was choosing. Mark my words, the mom said, she’s going to hate it.
“You know what, Mom,” Will said later. “There was never anything I ever said I wanted to be that you didn’t think I would be good at.”
Well……….despite your best efforts to break me, I always believed you were born with an imagination destined to take you wherever you wanted to go.
Happy birthday my wild child.
