Happy Birthday, Cortlan!

Last night, as I tucked Cortlan into bed, I could tell that he was fighting tears.  We said our goodnights and I love yous and then the tears began to fall.  "What's wrong, buddy?" I asked him.  He cried harder as he tried to get out the words.

"I am sad that this is my last day to be five!"  

It was hard to know what to say.  To be honest, I was a little sad, too.  But, to be clear, I didn't let on to that fact at all.  Instead, I gushed about how cool it is that he is going to be six and all of the great things that are going to happen.  I asked him what he thought was going to be good about being six.  "The tooth fairy."  What else?  "I will be able to play Beyblades with Cayden."  Yes!

Yet, the tears still fell.  "Buddy, I love you tons.  What is wrong?"

"I wish I would have made a list of all of the things I did!" he sobbed.

"A list of all of the things you did?  You can still do that!"

"No! It would have to be today because I am five today.  I won't be tomorrow."

"You will still remember things about being five tomorrow...we can still write the list tomorrow if you would like.  But remember, we have lots of pictures that we took and things you did at school that we kept, right?"

"Yes."

"And if you want to keep a journal when you are six, you can."

He responded with an "okay" and gave me a big, teary hug.  He was trying to calm down as I left the room, but I had to go back into his room once more before he stopped crying.

This morning, when he woke up, the first thing that Cortlan said to me was, "I stayed up a really long time last night so that I could be five a little longer."

I may have one of the most nostalgic kids in the world.  He wants to keep every memento and scrap of paper, every picture and every piece of schoolwork.  He loves memories and wants to stay little forever.  He writes me love notes:

It is hard to believe that he is six.  I am going to miss these days, too, but I am happy to see him growing up. He is becoming more independent.  He is learning to read.  He is getting better at math.  He is gaining confidence.  He loves building Legos.  He wants to play the violin (but will settle for the piano for now).

Cortlan is such a tenderhearted, sweet boy.  He is so loving.  He is a great big brother.  He is a great son.  I will miss the five-year-old, but I am confident these things aren't going away in my new six-year-old.  

I will help him write down the things he did this year, if he still wants me to.  I will help him keep a journal if he is interested.  But what I am really looking forward to is making more memories with my six-year-old.

Happy Birthday, buddy!