Baby Boy

“I’m not a baby” he sings. As I say come here baby, and wipe his nose. “You’re wiping too hard, Mommy.” “Sorry baby,” I respond. “I’m not a baby!” He reminds me once again. And it’s true he is not a baby anymore. My Eddie is growing up. He will be four this year; he was two when I started this column. Eddie is much taller, inquisitive and confident as an almost four year old.

He likes to wear cool clothes. “What are cool clothes, Eddie?” I just had to know. So I listened as he explained, cool clothes are shirts that are green (green being his favorite color) and they have to have a collar. Cool pants are jeans, not corduroys which I think look adorable on him. Cool jackets are jackets with a hood, if it doesn’t have a hood than it just ain’t cool. I’m so glad I have someone young enough in my life to keep me up to date with the “cool fashions” without my Eddie where would I be. I tell you where I’d be, falling into fashion less pit of pitiful outdated and very uncool clothes.

Eddie is also the captain of a basketball team where apparently several of his classmates are also teammates. “They don’t listen to me.” He complains. Well this is a problem that Eddie will probably run into much more often as he climbs the tree of success. But I won’t tell him that now, I rather him have fun imagining he is the captain of a team that no one knows that they are a part of. It makes him feel good, and it just let’s me know that he is setting high goals for himself, he’s already a leader.

For Martin Luther King’s birthday, Eddie saw a film in school and told me all about the history of Martin Luther. He got all the important points correct. “He had a dream of peace, and died because someone shot him. He wanted everyone to live together and don’t shoot anybody.” Eddie loves to learn and that is the most amazing part. He is only three and learning things that I didn’t learn about until I was in the fourth or fifth grade. Today’s youth, really are learning faster and quicker than we ever did. Of course I had him recite these well known facts to all my friends and they were amazed. I was well, simply proud.

And then for the rest of the day, we have conversations about his day at school and my day at work. And then it’s bed time. Eddie lies down to go to sleep but before he does he says. Mom will you sing “Twinkle, Twinkle little star to me.” I do.” Then I give him a kiss and say “Goodnight baby”, forgetting for a moment that he is not a baby anymore. But he is off to sleep now, so there is no rebuttal, just soft sounds of a very tired little boy, who will always be my baby.