Sixteen years - Happy Birthday Christopher!
This morning I woke up remembering how happy I was waking up sixteen years ago today. I had been in pain for months on end, because of the ruptured tubal pregnancy before, and it seemed an absolute miracle that all of that pain could have magically turned into this whole friendly little person.
Christopher was covered in dark hair when he was born – on his head, on his back, on the edges of his ears – but this crazy guy was born friendly. He was also born at the right time of the year to lead a charmed life: the end of May, when the weather turns sunny and warm and reassuring, people are shedding their winter clothes and becoming more open and relaxed, there is a whole series of public holidays providing a happy anticipation of summer holidays to come – and life is beautiful and good everywhere you look.
We took Christopher with us everywhere during the first two years of his life. Before he was a year old, he had been to London, Paris, Venice and many places in between. His teddy bear, that is still with him, joined him in Paris on his first trip there when he was only a few months old. And everywhere we took him, people welcomed him, were friendly, interested and kind – and Christopher responded the same way. That is the person he has always been.
Yesterday Jean sent a lovely column about living with teenagers, with which I completely agree: "Then, thank God, we grew up"
If we lived in the US, Christopher would be old enough to drive now. Here in Austria he is old enough to drink (legally). Sixteen seems like such an important landmark, and as quickly as these sixteen years have passed, I have the feeling now that I must treasure every moment of the next few years before he really is grown up and his life separates even more from ours. But at the same time, I feel very privileged to have shared his life so far.
Now father and son want to finish celebrating this day by drinking a glass of Guiness together, and they have generously invited me to come along.
Christopher was covered in dark hair when he was born – on his head, on his back, on the edges of his ears – but this crazy guy was born friendly. He was also born at the right time of the year to lead a charmed life: the end of May, when the weather turns sunny and warm and reassuring, people are shedding their winter clothes and becoming more open and relaxed, there is a whole series of public holidays providing a happy anticipation of summer holidays to come – and life is beautiful and good everywhere you look.
We took Christopher with us everywhere during the first two years of his life. Before he was a year old, he had been to London, Paris, Venice and many places in between. His teddy bear, that is still with him, joined him in Paris on his first trip there when he was only a few months old. And everywhere we took him, people welcomed him, were friendly, interested and kind – and Christopher responded the same way. That is the person he has always been.
Yesterday Jean sent a lovely column about living with teenagers, with which I completely agree: "Then, thank God, we grew up"
If we lived in the US, Christopher would be old enough to drive now. Here in Austria he is old enough to drink (legally). Sixteen seems like such an important landmark, and as quickly as these sixteen years have passed, I have the feeling now that I must treasure every moment of the next few years before he really is grown up and his life separates even more from ours. But at the same time, I feel very privileged to have shared his life so far.
Now father and son want to finish celebrating this day by drinking a glass of Guiness together, and they have generously invited me to come along.
posted by Aileen at Sunday, May 28, 2006
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