Saturday Morning

I heard the quick muted patter of little feet on carpet come closer until he stood in the doorway of the master bedroom, Sleepy Sheepy clutched to his chest.  I laid the book I had been reading on my nightstand as he made his way to my side of the bed.

"Hiii honey love!"

I lifted him up noting how heavy he's getting.  My baby boy must be close to 40 pounds now.  I kissed his cheeks as he snuggled into me.  Rare were these easy, lazy kind of mornings any more.

"Did you have a good sleep?"

"Yeeaah."

His head remained on my shoulder for a moment more then he sat up.

"Sleepy Sheepy likes his back tickled."  He laid his favourite stuffed animal between us to demonstrate.  "Up at the top."

"Oh yeah...just like you do."

"And Bunny likes his back scratched.  But not hard.  Just..."  he continued to tickle Sleepy Sheepy's back and my heart felt like it couldn't take anymore of the cuteness when he mentioned his other favourite stuffed animal.  He searched for the right word to use as to how Bunny liked his back scratched and found it,  "just easy."

He scrambled down the other side of the bed, Daddy's side, announcing he "gotta go pee."  But before he made his way into the door behind him he said, "Mummy, look how big I am!"  I could see his entire 3.5 year old perfect face over top our very high king bed and recalled not so long ago when he used to struggle to climb up onto our bed.

This was a new sentence that he repeated many times throughout the day as he reached to the lowest branch of a tree, or stood close to me or stretched his arms as high as they could go onto the kitchen counter to reach a cookie. My answer was always the same too.

"Oh my goodness!  You are getting so big!"

And he was getting so big, this baby boy of mine.  So quickly.

Too quickly.

He returned and climbed easily back onto the bed beside me for another quick cuddle before the usual request, "Mummy, I want Cheerios."

I threw the covers back and sat up.

He climbed onto my back and down we descended piggy-back style to start our Saturday morning.