When Will was a toddler he was a holy terror or maybe he was just being a boy. I’m not sure but he wore me out.
Then all of a sudden he stopped and that kid could entertain himself for hours. He would go in the basement and you wouldn’t see him until dinnertime. Down there with his Playmobil and Legos he’d be building and tearing apart and building again.
He’d make roads from construction paper and scotch tape them all over the floor. I started to hide the tape from him and dole it out on request because I could never find it when I needed it.
Once when we were at a doctor’s appointment for his asthma we waited in the examining room for well over an hour. I thought they forgot about us and was getting antsy but Will entertained himself the entire time with a paper clip.
When he was about twelve and in the basement he discovered that one of the local radio stations played jazz on Saturday night.
He became a jazz fan in the 6th grade. Sometimes if I were picking him up from somewhere he’d say, “Let’s turn on the jazz, Mom.”
Today our jazz fan, interior designer, charming, funny Will turns 23 and it has gone by so much faster than I would have liked (except for when he would climb on the table and swing the light fixture back and forth).
Happy Birthday Will.
Watching you discover and march to the beat of your own drum has been my joy.
