Eldest Turns 7!

Eldest Son turned 7 today. Happy birthday! He spent his day at camp. He ran and jumped and made crafts and ate a butt-load of lunch and swam and essentially had an overall good day. He had a happy birthday sticker when I met him after camp. All smiles.

I love his big blue-gray-green eyes. He had to grow into them. When Eldest was a baby, I thought something was wrong with him because his eyes were so big comparatively to his head sized. He always looked surprised. Always! But he wasn't. His eyes were just really big.

Eldest's eyes always tell you his story. Often they betray him. His eyes tell me before anything else if he's content, frustrated, melancholy or just plain ol' angry. Today, they looked reasonably content but there was a somber tinge around the outer edge of his pupils.

Eldest Son is a talker! Sometimes I really can't keep up with him and tell him I need a moment of silence. "It's not you Eldest, it's me. Just 5 minutes." He usually obliges.....for 47seconds before he's bounced onto his next topic. Today, he asked me his usual after-school/camp question-

"Where we goin' mom?"
"Well, since it's your birthday, I thought we'd go back to the dollar store and Target to spend some of your gift cards. What do you think about that?"
"Oooh! Allright I'm in!" There was a 10 second pause. "Mommy, I left my towel at school."
"Why did you do that?"
"Oh, I just forgot it."
"Ok. Well, make sure to get it tomorrow. I won't send you with a towel so you'll remember it tomorrow." There was another 10 second pause. "Well, Eldest, how did you dry off after swimming?"
"A friend borrowed me his towel."
"Oh." I cringed a bit on the inside. That's on my list of nasty things I'll never do- share a towel with a stranger.
"He told me I better not touch my booty with it."
After laughing hysterically, I said "That's fair."

We were 5 minutes away from our destination when Eldest asked me about Husband.
"Mommy. Is daddy at home?"
"No son, you know he's at work today."
"But why couldn't he be here for my birthday?"
"You know Eldest, we've been very fortunate. He's been home for Thanksgiving, Christmas, Easter, my birthday, and your Nonny's (Forever Mom) birthday."
Eldest then burst into tears.
"But I want him here for MY birthday. Even (he says even a lot in random places) it's not fair he's here for everyone else's birthday and all the holidays in the world.

My heart broke for him. He can be so tender at times. He was truly hurt that his daddy wasn't going to be here today to celebrate with him. I didn't know what to do with this one. I couldn't fix this. I couldn't make it better. I tried to explain it to him feel a little better.

"You remember when daddy got hired onto the department?"
"Yeah."

A special dinner with an 

even more special dessert after 

shopping goes a LONG way!  

"Remember when we had that conversation about how because the way daddy's schedule works, he might not always be home on holidays or special days for our families?"
I saw him slump a little further down in his booster seat. "Yeah."
"Remember how you had that awesome party where all of your friends came last week?"
"Yeah."
"We did that so daddy could be at your birthday party."
"But he's not here now! And today's my birthday!" More tears.

I hugged him, wiped his tears, kissed his face and painfully hoped that a cart-full of toys (most of which will accumulate in some random corner of my house never to be touched again) would distract him enough to temporarily forget his woes. It did.