A special day

sweet young innocence
yet it's still freaking me out
how does this happen?

"Today was a special day because I got something no one else got," the wee one told me when I picked him up from school today.

"Oh, yeah?" I answered, thinking it was a sticker for good behavior or something like that.

"I'm going to show you, but it's a secret for everyone else," he said. He whipped his backpack around and pulled out a piece of paper. "It's from Natalie." Natalie is a girl at school he talks about a lot - her pretty hair, how fun it is to hit her at recess, etc.

The paper had a drawing on it of a boy and a girl holding hands. On the top, written in wonderful kindergarten handwriting, was a profession of love.

"I wish I could jump into this drawing," the wee one said wistfully. "I would flip dimensions so that I could kiss Natalie and then flip back really fast."

"Oh?" I asked, trying not to sound shocked.

He gazed at the drawing. "It makes me want to cry I like it so much," he said, closing his eyes and smiling.

It kind of makes me want to cry, too, but for many different reasons. I knew he was precocious, but this is (charmingly) unsettling, you know what I mean?

My five-year-old lothario. Good grief.

Comments

[Amanda S.]

I have a budding lothario on my hands, too. He's in love with a girl, and talks about her all the time. I get updates every day. "She was out sick today." "We played chase on the playground today." "Today she wore a brown sweater." Stuff like that. He told me that she kissed him on the arm one day, but that he didn't like it much. I told him that when he gets a little older, he will like it.

Can't they stay young and innocent a little longer?

[Stacy C.]

I think it is wonderful that your son trusts you enough to tell you about that. I learned at a very early age to keep secrets like that from my parents, which you might imagine led to all kinds of trouble during my teenage years.

But yeah...still a bit unsettling.

[Jooley Ann]

Oh my gosh, that is SO awesome. I think that's the coolest thing I've read all month. What a sweet kid!

[Ruth]

yeah - Josh manages to get the cutest girl in his class as his best friend every single time. I was wondering how his sixth birthday would work with four of his girlfriends at their at once. Happy to report not a ruffled feather among them.
Each one of them figures prominently in his drawings of the time. He used to claim each one as the one he would marry till I broke it to him that there was plenty of time and he could have a number of girlfriends before having to choose. He decided he'd have six girl friends and then go "Inky pinky ponky.." to decide which he would marry.
His current friend is very well behaved (and a great influence); however, her first behaviour warning at school was recently when she and Josh were "rolling around on each other's mats" during nap time. Sigh!