double digits for sam…

Ten.
Samuel turned ten today. Double digits. He’s big.

It’s so cliche to say, it feels like yesterday that I sent him off to Kindergarten and yesterday he finished up fourth grade, ready to start fifth grade and finish his primary school career. Just yesterday he was asking for a Buzz Lightyear toy and now he wants a Les Paul and a cell phone, and preferably one without an AT&T service plan.

How could I ever have known ten years ago when I’d finally had the baby I was sure would never be born (he was two days late… heavens!), that he’d turn into this sweet, smart, adorable boy with the snarkiest, sharpest and darkest sense of humor that always makes me laugh. Or that it was possible to give birth to one of my favorite people ever? Someone who adores his little cousins and sisters (mostly), has the most creative imagination I’ve ever encountered (though I admit that his father and I worried a bit when he would play for hours with his fork and spoon), and knows how to enjoy himself completely.

And though this is really Sam’s day, I can’t help but mark this day as my first decade of parenting and I’m reminded of that conversation in the movie Lost in Translation when Bill Murray is talking about his kids:

Bob: It gets a whole lot more complicated when you have kids.
Charlotte: It’s scary.
Bob: The most terrifying day of your life is the day the first one is born.
Charlotte: Nobody ever tells you that.
Bob: Your life, as you know it… is gone. Never to return. But they learn how to walk, and they learn how to talk… and you want to be with them. And they turn out to be the most delightful people you will ever meet in your life.

Happy Birthday to my boy…  You are absolutely my delight.