This Boy of Mine

...to my boy, who hides under covers with me during a thunderstorm, just me, him, Pete the Cat, and a flashlight, giggling in hysterics every time he flashes the light at Pete's face.  He should have been sleeping, but I was wound up and felt like an adventure.  And my Cruz is always up for one.  

...to my boy who wears summer so well, all tan and handsome in his baseball cap, putzing ten feet behind me as we leave the pool, his hooded towel casually draped over his head, kicking rocks and talking to himself about rainbow ice cream.  

...to my boy who listens to the "Go Cubs Go" song on Beau's phone over and over again and refers to the Cubs as the "Chicago team."

...to my boy, lover of cottage cheese and pancakes, the color red, and Five Minute Marvel stories before bed.  

...to my boy, with owies all over the place and band-aids that last long after the scab falls off.  

...to my boy, who corrects us when we say 'hate,' or 'stupid,' and says 'sank you, Mommy,' without being prompted.  This morning, Beau asked if his pants look stupid and we heard this faint little, "we don't say stupid" coming from the living room.  They're always listening... 

...to my boy, who loves his sister so effortlessly.  Watching them interact in the smallest of ways are the happiest moments of my whole life.

...to my boy, who speaks a language all boy, with dinosaurs and space ships, super heroes and their arch enemies.  The other night, he woke up in the middle of the night and came downstairs to tell us he lost his triceratops.  There we are, at 2 o'clock in the morning, looking under pillows and behind bed frames for a tiny plastic dinosaur.  We found him under the Doc Ock book, go figure.  

...to my sociable one, whose newest gesture is to casually ask strangers for a high five in the most random of places.  The other day, we went for a walk on Main Street and got a cupcake.  Cruz decided to wear most of his and was a sticky mess as we made our way back to the car.  Mila was tired and ready for a nap and things looked a bit crazy.  Just then, a very fancily clad woman came out of a neighboring store, dressed in black with lots of gold jewelry.  Cruz immediately threw his sticky hand in the air, smiled his mayor smile, and commanded, "high five!" with a smile on his face.  The woman didn't know what to make of him at first, but persistence won and she eventually high fived his little hand.  Oh Happy Day cupcake and all. :)

...to my boy, who started saying, "atta boy" completely out of the blew, at all the best times.  I finally asked him where he learned to say that and he smiled and said, "myself."

...to my boy, who writes his 'Cs' backwards and always skips the number 14.  He's content exactly where he's at and loves without hesitation.  He's my boy, growing up so fast and becoming a smarter version of the sweet free spirit he's always been.

My bronze boy two years ago this month...