Equinox

Walking to school this morning:
"Mom, isn't it a gorgeous spring day?" he says, swinging my hand. Yep, I say as I sidestep the worms. The worms, dear god, they're everywhere. Sam looking up, Mom looking down. Sam looking forward, Mom looking back towards the car.

I suggest we still have time to drive, but he ignores me. We are halfway there, after all. "Do you know what today is?" he asks. "It's the Spring Equinox!" It is? I thought it was tomorrow, I say, resolute. We will walk to school, okay. I am being walked to school.

"Mom! Winter left the stage at 11:59 p.m. last night," he tells me. I picture an actor dressed in white exiting a scene and laugh. It left the stage? Where did Winter go? I ask.

"To the southern hemisphere, of course," he says, as if everyone should know this. I think I know this, it sounds right. "It's Fall there and Winter is waiting for them!"

I tell him that we are lucky that we have Summer waiting in the wings for us then, and he agrees. "The birds are happy too, they will begin their migration," he says.

We arrive and I have forgotten the worms and the clouds. My boy, he is my sun.

El Gato

Dear John, as I awoke to your smiling face I could see you were in a hurry — I figured you wanted to get back to your papers full of pink words — the ones I made you leave downstairs on the kitchen table. It was time to stop sleeping with them when you began to get up in the dead of night like the old days, clutching them and demanding to start the day at 2 a.m. Oh no, no. We are not doing that again.

I guess I shouldn't be surprised that you've now taken to watching youtube videos in Spanish. You hit pause when a new word appears and demand that I write each one down. You listen to the word, repeat the word, "Nutria," then say, "Write nutria?"

What a lengthy relationship you've had with Baby Einstein. All of the DVDs, all of the puppets, all of the books and bath toys and plush characters: I'd guess the entire merchandise line, even the music.

"Time to get up, Mommy? Go downstairs? Ooh-kay!" I was about to oblige but you pulled me to you instead and gave me a hug. That was just fine with me. I wasn't ready to slide my feet on the cold floor just yet.

One quick hug and then you were ready to split but I stopped you and said, "Hey John? How do you say 'cat' in Spanish?" I waited one beat, two beat, three beats — and you whispered, you said, "Ga-to."

Seriously. I stared at you in disbelief — could you have memorized a bunch of Spanish words? I tried another: "How do you say 'dog' in Spanish? "Perro," you said a little louder this time. "How do you say 'blue' in Spanish?" "Azul," you said.

I laughed aloud at all that you keep hidden, at how very smart you are. And in the silence that followed you said to me, "How do you say 'red' in Spanish?" I waited and you answered yourself, "Ro-jo!"

And I chased you downstairs to begin our day.