My Boy

Sometimes Colin just sends me reeling...the heart on this kid...

He spent the day with my mom (again), to give me just one more day to get my stamina back before I have to face the two-kid-dynamic on my own. They had spent quite a bit of time at Target (man, I love that store) and he came in with his serious face on, and a wad of tissue in his hand. As he started to hand it to me, Mom suggested I sit down, that this was "that kind of present." Even that heads-up did not even begin to prepare me.

Nestled inside the Kleenex was a large, trendy heart necklace, hung on a cord with minimal metal (since I get massive rashes for even looking at cheap jewelry too long, let alone wearing it on my skin). It's bold, burgundy, and rather lovely, but Mom tells me turn it over. Engraved on the back is the phrase "Hold on to your dreams." Very sweet...and then I realize it's a locket. I open it up, and there's a tightly folded yellow Post-It inside--which neither Colin nor Mom will let me look at yet...clearly a slow build here! So I look at the locket, and inside is another engraved message: "Fortune favors the brave."

Mom tells me that this is what sealed the deal for Colin (the fact that it closed with a magnet helped, too), because he looked up at her--you can't even imagine the earnestness of those eyes, framed by those impossibly long eyelashes--and said, "My Mommy had surgery, that's really brave!"

Now, having been properly primed, I was allowed to open the Post-It, which I began to read out loud, and then suddenly couldn't. Oh, my boy, my boy...he dictated to Mom (the Post-It was all she could find in the car to write on), and this is what he wanted to tell me, in his own words:

You have gentle courage, Mama.
You are getting so strong.
This is my heart for you.
Love, Colin