Dear Weston:

You are 10 years old!  I know your birthday was yesterday, but by now I think you’re used to me being a few steps behind.

You were born exactly 18 months after your big brother was - a terrifying gap for a fairly new mom.  My pregnancy with you was lovely.  My delivery of you was not.  I labored drug-free while you stubbornly refused to make your descent.  Ultimately you won the battle and had to be taken by C-section, but not before subjecting me to hours of out-of-body pain.

Your big brother had been nearly 10 pounds so they’d assured me that you’d be bigger.  I expected you to be 12 pounds, but at  full term, you were barely 7.

Your big brother had been a colicky mess.  He’d held us hostage for months.  I expected you to be the same, but in fact you were deliciously sweet.  So perfect in fact that I dubbed you “Muffin Top” (because as everyone knows, that’s the best part of the muffin).

I see now that those serene infant months were just a classic case of bait and switch.   I should have known by my labor that you’d be inherently stubborn and intense.  After lulling us into a false sense of security, you snapped us to attention with a sudden change of demeanor.  Perhaps sensing that someday you’d be part of a large family, you made sure to stake your claim to assertiveness and aggression with a strong streak of stubborn thrown in for good measure.   I assume you will go left and you go right.  I expect you to say “black” and you scream, “white.”  You try my patience and test my resolve.  You are the kid I worry about the most.

Even so,

You are for real the smartest kid I know and still the sweetest.  Under your tough shell is a soft heart.

You are nothing like what I’d expected but everything that I’d hoped for.

You are still, and will forever be the best part of the muffin.

Happy Birthday, Muffin Top.

All my love,

Mom

P

This entry was posted on Tuesday, March 9th, 2010 at 10:37 am and is filed under Motherhood. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.